Key events and trends to watch out for in 2024: Part 2
Tata Motors expect record sales in 2024, and big cities are racing to adopt electric buses. Despite the subsidy row, India is expected to become one the world's largest EV markets. India’s biggest and increasingly most consequential neighbour, China will complete 75 years of rule by a one-party communist regime on 1 October.
In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the formation of the People’s Republic of China at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, ending a two-decade-long bloody civil war between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang. After decades of failed experiments, the country’s economy has been on an extraordinary growth path since the 1980s, intimidating the West and gaining sway over the global south, even as concerns remain over its restrictive regime. The world’s second-biggest economy and a manufacturing powerhouse has lifted over 800 million out of poverty.
It's now an upper-middle-income country and close to high-income status. But its economy has struggled to rebound since it dropped its strict zero-covid restrictions. Worryingly, China also has a declining population.
The next 75 years may not be the same as the past 75 for the Chinese juggernaut. The new year will see the launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) ambitious Venus Orbiter Mission, tentatively scheduled for December. This endeavour follows the triumphs of ISRO's historic 2023 missions, namely Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1.
The Venus mission, unofficially known as Shukrayaan, holds immense promise in shaping India's space-exploration narrative. Its primary objective is to delve beneath the surface of Venus, the solar system's hottest planet, and investigate the mysteries hidden under its sulphuric-acid clouds. It will also scour
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