Independence Day 2025: Buildings across India light up in colours of tricolour
The official programme will begin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisting the national flag at the Red Fort in New Delhi. The ceremony, which will begin at 7:30am, will also see the prime minister deliver his speech from the Red Fort's ramparts, outlining the government's key priorities, accomplishments, and aspirations for the years ahead.
India lights up in colours of the national flag
On the evening of 14th August, buildings across the country lit up in colours of the national flag.
India Post offices — from Delhi to Bengaluru — lit up to mark Independence Day 2025.
The University of Hyderabad shared photographs that show its administration building lit up in colours of the Indian flag. 'The tricolour lights symbolize our pride, unity, and freedom. Let's celebrate the spirit of independence together!' it posted.
Aerial footage from Bengaluru showed the Vidhan Soudha glowing
In Bhubaneswar too, government buildings lit up on the eve of India's Independence Day.
Google Doodle on Independence Day
Search giant Google on Friday came up with a striking doodle that draws inspiration from the country's traditional tile designs, marking India's 79th Independence Day.
The digital artwork ingeniously embeds themes emphasising India's achievements in space, cricket, chess, and cinema.
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Deccan Herald
39 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Dog whistling mars PM's I-Day speech
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his 12th Independence Day address from the Red Fort, dwelt on a wide range of topics relating to national security. He also spoke about the economy, law and justice, and the needs of the youth, explaining his government's policies and actions. .It is the prime minister's prerogative to speak to the nation about his concerns, hopes and expectations on one of the most important days in the national calendar. He looked back with pride and conviction on the achievements of his government and not so convincingly about the failures of others, and cast a long look on the country's bright and viksit future. .He also flagged some imagined concerns, couching them in political and communal terms, and giving them an urgency and importance they did not deserve. Prime ministers sometimes fail to rise above their politics even when they speak from the national rostrum. .Modi rightly lauded the armed forces for Operation Sindoor and their commitment to the defence of the country, and warned its adversaries against hostile and unfriendly actions. He spoke of the need to make the country self-reliant, and underlined the importance of his Make in India, Vocal for Local and 'aatmanirbharta' policies, particularly in the economy and defence sectors. .The idea has a special resonance in the wake of the May hostilities with Pakistan and the tariff war unleashed by US President Donald Trump. Modi announced a plan to develop an indigenous defence system, called Sudarshan Chakra, expected to be deployed by 2035. He also promised a Rs 1 lakh crore Rozgar Yojana for the young, invoked the symbolism of naari shakti, and cited the achievements of the country in various fields. The promises included next generation GST reforms, to be rolled out by Diwali, to reduce the tax burden and make goods and services cheaper. .The prime minister announced the launch of a high-powered Demography Mission to address what he called a deliberate conspiracy to change the demography of the country. No proof of such a conspiracy was given and the announcement is in line with the politics of communal dog whistling that the Hindutva groups have been pursuing. .It is no surprise that Modi also praised the RSS and its activities. The theme of infiltration has been used in the past electorally and politically and his announcement indicates that it will be pushed to the front in the coming days. The move goes beyond justified concerns over illegal immigration and aims to create a polarising narrative against some sections of society.
Hindustan Times
39 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
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The Yiddish phrase 'farshlepteh krenk', untranslatable into English, describes an illness that just won't go away. That is how some rich countries' experience of inflation has felt. The rate of price increases has fallen sharply since the acute phase in 2022, when inflation across the OECD rose to nearly 11%, its highest since the 1970s. In June average inflation across the club was around 2.5%, only a smidge above most central banks' targets. But many Anglophone countries still have lingering symptoms. To diagnose the malaise more accurately, we have updated our measure of 'inflation entrenchment' for ten rich countries. We construct this from five indicators: core inflation, unit labour costs, inflation dispersion, inflation expectations and Google-search behaviour. We rank each country on each indicator, then combine the rankings to form an overall score. Chart The results reveal a linguistic divide. Countries in the EU and Asia perform well. France, which also did well the last time we conducted this exercise, in 2024, now has the least entrenched inflation of all the countries we looked at. Chapeau bas to them. Japanese inflation, true to form, has a feeble grip. In the English-speaking world, however, inflation looks chronic. Britain is the worst performer overall. In the year to the second quarter of 2025 the country's core prices (which exclude food and energy) rose by 4.3%. Three-quarters of the items in a Briton's consumer basket have risen in price by more than 2% over the past year—unusually high 'inflation dispersion'. Australia is not far behind, with unit labour costs (what is paid to workers to produce a unit of output) nearly 5% higher in the first quarter than they were a year before. Despite a weaker economy than its southern neighbour, Canada's inflation problem is almost as bad. A few factors may explain the persistence of inflation in these places. From 2022 to 2024 the governments of Anglophone countries, on average, increased their budget deficits by two percentage points of GDP, versus a one-percentage-point contraction elsewhere. This boosted demand—the equivalent of licking doorhandles in an attempt to fight off an illness. English-speaking countries have also welcomed lots of immigrants in recent years. At least in the short run, the new arrivals may push up the prices of certain things, especially housing. Amid this bad news, there is still cause for hope that inflation will soon look less entrenched. The absolute level of inflation entrenchment seems to be ebbing: the country with the least entrenched inflation last time we did the exercise, Japan, would have ranked sixth-worst this time. The Bank of England can point to Britons' weak inflation expectations as evidence that price pressures will soon fade. The Bank of Canada can highlight low inflation dispersion. In addition, most Anglophone governments are simultaneously tightening fiscal policy and slashing immigration. America is the exception. Although immigration is declining, the government still has its foot on the fiscal pedal. And President Donald Trump's tariffs have stoked fears of another round of price rises, as American firms pass their higher costs on to consumers. Americans are more likely than others to Google inflation-related terms. Over the coming year, the public expects prices to rise by 5.5%, higher than people in any other country. A lingering illness is annoying; one that gets worse is harder to bear.
The Hindu
39 minutes ago
- The Hindu
The journey to Singapore is just a start
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's visit to Singapore from July 26 to 30 was a strategic exercise in economic diplomacy — an effort to reaffirm his government's commitment to building a globally competitive investment climate while quietly distancing the State from the shadow of policy volatility that marked the previous YSRCP regime. Mr. Naidu's foreign between 2014 and 2019 and now in 2025 are stories of contrasts. Between 2014 and 2019, in his first term as Chief Minister of a State that had been newly bifurcated, Mr. Naidu wanted to create a capital, attract foreign investment, and market Andhra Pradesh as an innovation-led region. Amaravati was the centrepiece of this vision, and Singapore played a starring role through consultancy company Surbana Jurong's master plan. His first-round global engagements were aspirational. They focused on building brand Andhra, learning best practices in governance, agriculture, and infrastructure, and positioning the State as the 'Sunrise Andhra Pradesh'. The results were mixed: he secured significant goodwill and several MoUs, but political headwinds and fiscal constraints meant that not all plans matured into reality. In 2025, the circumstances could not be more different. Returning to power after defeating the YSRCP, Mr. Naidu has inherited a State grappling with damaged investor confidence, policy reversals, and economic slowdown. This time, his travels have the urgency of a rescue mission. The rhetoric has shifted from building something entirely new to repairing and restoring what was lost. The narrative now is 'Reset and Rebuild Andhra Pradesh'. One of the most notable shifts inMr. Naidu's 2025 pitch is its geographic spotlight has moved from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam, now framed as the State's economic nucleus. Amaravati — once his crowning vision — was derailed, mocked, and abandoned under the previous regime. By contrast, Visakhapatnam offers a compelling narrative: a coastal city with thriving port infrastructure, tech parks, and emerging data clusters, well-positioned as the 'Gateway to Southeast Asia'. Singapore investors were told of opportunities in green hydrogen, quantum computing, and digital infrastructure. Mr. Naidu's meetings highlighted Google's interest in establishing a data centre, alongside new housing projects with Surbana Jurong and an Eversendai facility. These signals were meant to show that Andhra Pradesh is back on the map for cutting-edge sectors. Yet the conversations in Singapore were inevitably shaped by the past. The YSRCP government's abrupt withdrawal from key Singapore-linked projects remains fresh in institutional memory. From 2019 to 2024, several high-profile MoUs and joint ventures with Singaporean entities were unilaterally cancelled or left to wither. This had a chilling effect, not just in Singapore but in global business circles that had been watching Andhra Pradesh's trajectory. While no official in Singapore publicly criticised the previous administration during Mr. Naidu's visit, the message during private conversations was reportedly that they would 'revert after making an internal assessment'. The Telugu diaspora's embrace of Naidu was unambiguous. Over 2,500 NRIs gathered to greet him. But in boardrooms, investors wanted to see sustained stability and early wins before making major commitments. Mr. Naidu knows the criticism from his first term — that too many MoUs failed to materialise — still hangs over him. This time, he cannot afford a repeat. For Naidu 2.0 to succeed, agreements must translate into jobs, infrastructure, and visible economic growth. If the Singapore trip yields tangible results within the next year and a half, Mr. Naidu will not only consolidate his position at home but also set a precedent for how Indian chief ministers can leverage foreign engagements to drive State-level economic diplomacy. If not, critics will portray it as an expensive exercise in public relations, echoing the opposition YSRCP's current claims that the visit was more show than substance. The stakes in 2025 are higher than in 2014. Back then, Mr. Naidu had the luxury of time and the novelty of leading a new State. Today, he faces a compressed political calendar and the burden of repairing both the state's economic narrative and his own political legacy. Ultimately, the Singapore visit is less a victory lap than the opening move in a long, complex game.
