“WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022”
@Manasi Agarwal
2021 was one the worst year for the country. The Corona halted every activity and we witnessed horrific scenes of dead bodies across the country. The country also lost one of its bravest soldier CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat along with few other colleagues of him in a tragic plane crash. The clash of agitating farmers and policemen on 26 January in New Delhi and farmer’s forceful entry into the Red Fort hoisting a religious flag parallel to the National Flag brought the nation to shame. The cloud burst in Chamoli, Uttarakhand claimed number of lives of helpless poor people. One of the most controversial incident of 2021 was crushing of few farmers allegedly by the son of Central State Home Minister son by his jeep. The arrest of Aryan Khan also made headlines and exposed vicious face of drug abuse in Bollywood.
But all was not bad and ugly in 2021. The achievements of our people during the year made us proud. We bring some of these events for you to showcase our hegemony in the world.
1
The Indian cricket team defeated team Australia at Gabba, Brisbane by 3 wickets in January 2021 and won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by 2-1.
- 2
The India-born Mrs. Kamala Harris took oath of the Vice-president of the United States of America on 20 January 2021 and became the first woman vice-president of the country in its history.
- 3
Flt Lt Bhawna Kanth India’s first woman fighter pilot to fly Rafale jet was part of the Republic Day parade on 26 January for the first time amongst the first three women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
- 4
The PSLV-C51 rocket launched on 28 February from Sriharikota, launch pad at Andhra Pradesh carried Bhagwat Gita and a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time in space.
- 5
1 March 2021 was the date when Prime Minister Narendra Modi got himself vaccinated with Covaxin rubbishing all myths and false claims against the COWID-19 vaccine.
- 6
Sirisha Bandla born into a Telugu-speaking Hindu family in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh flew in the VSS Unity spaceplane of Virgin Galactic on 11 July 2021 from the New Mexico space station. During her spaceflight, she reached a height of 89.9 km above the Earth’s surface and is classified by the Federal Aviation Authority as a Space Tourist. Currently, She’s the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations for Virgin Galactic.
- 7
The first batch of 5 twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter Rafale aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation of France arrived in the country on July 29, 2020. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh performed puja of the first batch of the aircraft in France before its delivery. The aircraft supplied to India are more sophisticated and highly customized to meet the specific needs that IAF has today. It features beyond visual range air to air missile that is the best today. The aircraft can take out the enemy aircraft from a range of more than 100 km. There is no escape zone of more than 60 km, the missile can easily overtake those of American origin. Rafale can easily take off from high-altitude airbases like Leh on a cold start in order to carry out quick deployment AMRAAM presently with Pak in a highly accurate manner.
- 8
The men’s hockey team defeated Germany to win the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics on 3 August 2021. This is the country’s first Olympic medal in hockey after a gap of 41 years since the last gold medal won in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
- 9
7 August 2021 Neeraj Chopra at the Tokyo Olympics ran for a few meters and threw the 7-feet javelin and turned back with his both hands up in the air, while the javelin was still in the air. The throw landed at 87.25 meters and Neeraj won the individual gold medal. It is the second gold medal after Abhinav Bindra won the first gold medal in the 10-meter air rifle event in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
- 10
Avani Lekhara is a Paralympian and rifle shooter. She won a gold medal in 10m air rifle standing and a bronze medal in 50m rifle 3 positions at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on 30 August 2021. She is also the first Indian woman to win multiple medals in a single Paralympic Games. A car accident in 2012, at the age of 11, left her with complete paraplegia.
11.
Falguni Nayar is a businesswoman and billionaire, who is the founder and CEO of the beauty and lifestyle retail company Nykaa. She is now the wealthiest female Indian billionaire with her estimated wealth to the tune of $6.5 billion and in the top 20 richest people of India. In 1993, Nayar joined Kotak Mahindra Group for 19 years. In 2005, she was appointed as a managing director and exited in 2012. At the age of 50 in April 2012, she founded Nykaa with $2 million of her own money. With the rollout of her company’s fresh Initial Public Offering, Nykaa founder rang the opening bell at the National Stock Exchange on 10 November 2021 and became India’s wealthiest self-made female billionaire.
- 12
The end of the year on 12 December brought another laurel for the country when 21-year old Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu won the Miss Universe 2021 beauty pageant crown in Eilat, Israel beating 80 contestants from different counties.
