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Cover Story

Prime movers

Fame didn’t always get them on the INDIA TODAY cover. Our past newsmakers have been chosen for how they changed the newscape in a particular year. Narendra Modi makes his fourth appearance in 20 years

A prison sojourn

In what his own party and non-BJP opposition parties describe as 'vendetta politics', the former finance minister is sent to jail.

The space craftsman

The Moon mission chief saw a couple of reverses, but the country's space journey is on course.

India's tall hope

Sheer determination and dedication have help the badminton star scale the peak of sporting achievement.

Straight bat

Sourav Ganguly, the man who many believe helped Indian cricket grow a spine, now heads the BCCI.

Firefighter No. 1

The RBI head has easily mended Centre-RBI ties. Fixing the economy is proving more difficult.

Warrior against Poverty

Banerjee and Duflo's decade-long work on poverty and development economics fetches them the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Unlikely Allies

They put their common goal over political rivalry to script a new chapter in Maharashtra politics.

The lost prince

Unable to direct the course of events in his party, Rahul Gandhi chose to withdraw from it. But can his departure ever be permanent?

Lady in red

Taking charge at a time when economic growth is at a six-year low, India's first woman finance minister is firefighting on all fronts.

Uncertain justice

A few notable exceptions aside, 2019 showed the vulnerability of the Supreme Court, and its willingness to bow to an assertive Executive.

Courage under fire

His exemplary valour and calm under enemy pressure earned the young wing commander the admiration of his entire country

The power of two

The prime minister and his home minister dominated the Indian political landscape in 2019, setting a new, radical agenda for the country.

How we covered India in 2019

Here's a look at the covers of India Today magazine for 2019.

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Editor's Note

From the Editor-in-Chief

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah seem a made-for-each-other duo. One is a charismatic personality, brilliant orator, keen strategist, full of audacious ideas, highly image-conscious, risk-taker and a star on the international stage. The other is an enforcer, organiser, micromanager, unconcerned about his image, has no international presence, freely interacts with the press unlike his mentor, who prefers to take the stage instead, and quite willing to play the bad cop of the duo.

Leisure

Q+A: The Viswanathan method

In his new book, Mind Master, Viswanathan Anand mines his life to impart lessons that can help one cope with success and failure. Excerpts from an interview

Hearing the other's voice

A draw for the likes of Ram Madhav, Prasoon Joshi and Swapan Dasgupta, this right-leaning lit fest celebrates 'Bharat Shakti', positioning itself in opposition to others that invite our "pessimistic elite"

No book left behind

With the sprouting of several niche lit fests, no theme is now too small and no interest too insignificant.

The Truck Stops Here

The genre of Indian travel writing has been made richer by a new book that follows our truckers.

The art of darkness

By making visible the suffering of Sri Lanka, this graphic novel both exhausts and enlightens.

Review: Harry Potter and a philosopher's tome

Keshava Guha's debut novel ponders Harry Potter fandom, but is light on geeky delights.

Review: The Margin Writes Back

Meena Kandasamy shows she doesn't need characters to resemble her in order to invent intimacy.

Going back for seconds

With Find Me, André Aciman, author of the widely-acclaimed Call Me By Your Name, returns to some of the key characters from that evocative love story. ciman spoke to us from the US.

Books: The page of reason

As the world darkened further in 2019, our books offered more perseverance than they did escape

Of praise and prizes

Award-winning books and the accompanying citations that explain what sets them apart

Books: Fiction should prophesy the future

With his new book hitting stores, Benyamin says novel-writing is now a purely political act.

PREVIOUS EDITIONS

From India Today magazine

Review: Our Body is a Wonderland?

To cope with the body, its pain and demands, Bill Bryson's new book can well prove to be the perfect prescription

UPFront

Glasshouse

While students have headlined the CAA-NRC protests across the country, they have been conscious of not letting political leaders hijack their agitation.

Perspective: India-US 2+2 Dialogue, a complex equation

The second India-US 2+2 joint meeting of their foreign and defence ministers in Washington, DC, on December 18, marked another milestone signalling political and strategic coordination, but parallel developments also exposed some ongoing and emerging challenges for the relationship.

CAA Unrest: Reading between the lines

The CAA makes Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Parsi immigrants who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh (and have stayed in the country for five years), eligible for Indian citizenship.

Index

Does India need NRC?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a crowd assembled at a BJP rally in Delhi that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was essentially a fiction dreamed up by that contemporary Indian bogeyman, the 'urban Naxal'.

The Big Story

The military superchief

With the Cabinet Committee on Security clearing the post of a Chief of Defence Staff, India is finally on the road to an empowered, integrated military command.

ASSEMBLY POLLS

Saffron feels the shrink

Jharkhand becomes the fifth state to slip out of the BJP's grip in the past one year, calling into question Modi-Shah's regional strategy. Can the party arrest the slide?