Newsmakers of 2025

The formed and characters that dominated our quality pages successful the twelvemonth gone by person been much of the accustomed suspects — Donald Trump, Carlos Alcaraz, Nitish Kumar — and past immoderate caller ones roseate to prominence, for bully oregon for bad. We spoke not conscionable of people, but entities and outfits that defined the year.

Here, we look astatine 10 of them that burst onto the country and shaped narratives crossed assorted spheres of life.

Shubhanshu Shukla

Forty 1 years aft India’s archetypal foray into space, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the look of the nation’s modern celestial ambitions. In June, arsenic the ngo aviator for Axiom-4, Shukla became the first ISRO astronaut to committee the International Space Station. His 18-day ngo included 7 technological experiments connected musculus repair, algae maturation and neurological responses to spaceflight, laying the groundwork for India’s ambitious Gaganyaan quality spaceflight programme.

Read much | The Hindu editorial connected Shubhanshu Shukla, NASA-Axiom-ISRO tie-up

Zohran Mamdani

On November 4, New York City elected its youngest and astir progressive politician successful generations: Zohran Mamdani. The 39-year-old defied accepted governmental contented to triumph the largest mayoralty of the U.S. arsenic an unapologetic antiauthoritarian socialist. Mamdani, a Uganda-born lad of Indian-origin parents, built a grassroots question successful New York focused connected rent reduction, nationalist transit enlargement and transforming the city’s attack to nationalist safety. His emergence and triumph shook American authorities and caught the attraction of urbanites astir the satellite longing for alteration successful their large cities.

Read much | America’s Mamdani moment

The Resistance Front

No radical formed a darker shadiness implicit South Asia successful 2025 than The Resistance Front. The militant organisation, a proxy for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, burst from comparative obscurity into infamy connected April 22 erstwhile gunmen attacked tourists adjacent Pahalgam successful Jammu and Kashmir, sidesplitting 26 radical successful the deadliest battle connected civilians successful India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The radical initially claimed work for the ghastly onslaught connected a scenic tourer spot, but aboriginal denied it. The onslaught led to India’s Operation Sindoor and a little subject struggle betwixt India and Pakistan successful May, the defining infinitesimal of this twelvemonth for the nation’s brave equipped forces.

Read much | The Resistance Front: The banned organisation down Pahalgam panic attack

Gyanesh Kumar

Taking the helm of the Election Commission of India successful February 2025, Gyanesh Kumar walked consecutive into a storm. As the archetypal Chief Election Commissioner appointed nether the 2023 Act, each determination helium made was scrutinised for independence. Overseeing the creaseless transition of the Bihar Assembly elections was the item of his year, arsenic good arsenic the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls archetypal successful Bihar and past successful different poll-bound States. The Opposition’s allegations of the ECI colluding with the ruling BJP was a recurring taxable successful an action-packed twelvemonth for the caller CEC.

Read much | Gyanesh Kumar: Chief of polls

Rekha Gupta

The Aam Aadmi Party mislaid its clasp implicit Delhi aft 10 years astatine the helm successful the National Capital, but the bigger communicative was the BJP returning to powerfulness successful the metropolis aft 27 years. Rekha Gupta, 50, a three-term municipal councillor from Shalimar Bagh, became the capital’s 4th pistillate Chief Minister—and the lone pistillate CM successful the BJP’s roster of 13 State leaders. Her archetypal twelvemonth has been a whirlwind of a record-breaking ₹1-lakh-crore fund and yearly aerial contamination woes that plague the city.

Read much | Rekha Gupta: From the wings to the centre

Vaibhav Suryavanshi

History usually takes decades to write. Vaibhav Suryavanshi is penning it successful 38-ball centuries. At conscionable 14, the Bihar-born batsman became the youngest subordinate to debut successful the IPL, playing for Rajasthan Royals. He past became the youngest subordinate to people an IPL century, slamming 101 disconnected 38 balls against Gujarat Titans. With astonishing centuries for India A successful November and astatine the U-19 Asia Cup successful December, Suryavanshi is forcing the nationalist squad selectors to instrumentality enactment of his rising stock.

Read present astir Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s meteoric rise

Pope Leo XIV

Weeks aft the decease of Pope Francis, the customary achromatic fume roseate from the Sistine Chapel connected May 8, revealing a astonishing prime from the Catholic Church. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago-born Augustinian friar who spent decades successful Peru, became Pope Leo XIV, the archetypal American pope successful the Church’s 2,000-year history. That helium chose Turkey and Lebanon for his archetypal overseas trip brought contiguous absorption connected his pastoral imaginativeness of “peace implicit rivalry” that could specify his papacy successful an progressively polarising world.

Also work | Pope Leo XIV: The bridge-building pontiff

Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk was already a dependable of the American right, but his death connected September 10, 2025, turned him into a martyr for a movement. Assassinated portion speaking astatine a assemblage statement successful Utah, the 31-year-old Trump state became the tragic centrepiece of a speech connected governmental violence. His decease instantly resulted successful his assemblage of enactment — peculiarly field debates and provocative commentary — being splashed crossed societal media arsenic the civilization warfare deepened and grabbed the imaginativeness of adjacent Indians fractional mode astir the globe.

Also work | Charlie Kirk: Death of a civilization crusader

Grok

“@Grok, is this true?” has go the caller automated fact-checker connected Elon Musk’s X. Amid the contention to make Artificial Intelligence, the release of Grok 3 successful February triggered a 436% surge successful idiosyncratic traffic, stepping retired of the shadiness of ChatGPT. With Musk positioning it arsenic “maximally truth-seeking” and escaped from the “woke” constraints helium attributed to competitors, Grok has go the go-to instrumentality for galore successful the integer procreation who person moved connected from hunt engines and distrust “traditional” quality sources.

Also work | Grok: Troubling ascent

Ahaan Panday

Bollywood recovered its 2025 heartthrob successful Ahaan Panday. The caller nepo kid connected the artifact made a dreamy debut successful the blockbuster musical romanticist play Saiyaara, alongside chap debutant Aneet Padda. Pandey had worked his mode up arsenic an adjunct manager earlier stepping successful beforehand of the camera, wherever his entreaty laic successful understatement. His performance—restrained, susceptible and escaped of swagger—connected with Gen Z audiences that person grown cynical of Bollywood’s formulaic stardom. He ended the twelvemonth astatine the apical of IMDb’s Most Popular Indian Stars of 2025.