Published on December 29, 2015

While we are approaching towards another year ending, I tried gathering those important events – Facts of certain moments – Either we wanted to remember them as memorable benchmarks OR we thought they were so unfortunate and we wish they never happened in our lifetime! Facts of one time, which has become past today but its always important to evaluate, measure, count and learn from them… Learn for a better tomorrow.

Here are the 5 categories and 5 top highlighting points I could recollect in those categories.

a.     Science and Technology Inventions

1. Possibility of Life on Mars through NASA report of nitrogen detection through the form of nitric acid which can be used by living organisms: Life on Mars
2. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft launched in Jan 2006 with speed capacity of 16.26 kilometers/second becomes the first spacecraft in history to to visit the most distant world with a close flyby of Pluto: New Horizons on mission to Pluto
3. Concept of Internet of Things initiated in 2014 but 2015 was remarkable year in terms of real world examples around this concept. The hunger has increased so much this year that based on Gartner 2015 report, there will be 26 billion devices wirelessly connected by 2020: Internet of Things
4. Though digital wallet technology has been conceptualized before 2015, the real world usage and technology upgrade have been significant this year. There have been many explorations for smartphones with NFC capabilities with Apple 6, 6S with Apple Pay and Samsung, Google Nexus utilizing Android OS for the same. Walmart have announced to launch its own mobile payment service. Tech Mahindra recently launched NFC based digital wallet MoboMoney this 24^th.: Digital Wallet
5. 4K resolution technology which has picked-up this year is the technology having horizontal resolution on the order of 4,000 pixels and has started impacting digital cinematography, digital photography and digital television industries: 4K resolution technology

b.     Automobile

1. 2015 has seen a host of autonomous and semi-autonomous technologies making their way onto modern cars. Technologies like Pedestrian detection and laser guided version for cruise control have evolved majorly during this year: Autonomous Car
2. British manufacturer Land Rover has recently disclosed its Transparent Bonnet virtual imaging concept which is not only fancy but very useful in terms of safety reasons as well: Invisible car technology
3. Greater and deeper Innovations in the area of hydrogen cars which store electricity in form of hydrogen and convert back to electricity as a fuel cell will be a great discovery for coming generations considering availability challenges of crude oil. The 2015 Toyota Mirai is one of the first hydrogen cell vehicles to be sold commercially: Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
4. One of the most crucial facts of 2015 that has mainly impacted Indian automobile industry is supreme court’s ban on new registrations of diesel vehicle above 2000cc in Delhi NCR and the odd-even alternate driving formula. Not sure how much these actions are going to help Delhi but certainly Delhi pollution concern is a preface for every Indian city to think before its this much worse!: Bans of 2000cc + diesel cars registrations
5. Last is not the innovation and not the least in controversies – Volkswagen Sept 2015 emission scandal was one of the biggest scandal of intentionally programming their TDI (turbocharged direct injection) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls ONLY during laboratory tests. After this VW had to announce plans to spend USD 7.3 Billions to rectify this issue and they also 8.5 Million diesel cars across Europe: VW emissions scandal

c.     Unfortunate Tragedies

1. Syrian civil war, increase in 2015, allowing refugees in crossing borders in other countries, death of Alyan Kurdi, reactions worldwide was the most unfortunate event of the year: Syria: The story of the conflict
2. 7.8 magnitude massive earthquake struck in Nepal in April causing 8,000+ deaths in Nepal, 100+ in India and a few in China and Bangladesh: April 2015 Nepal earthquake
3. A stampede during annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Mecca causes death of 2,200+ pilgrims crushed or suffocated during this tragic incident:  Mina, Mecca stampede
4. Throughout 2015, France had been victim of multiple terrorists’ attacks, major attacks like November attacks in Paris killing 130 people (ISIL claimed responsibility) and Matrojet Flight 9268 crash killing 224 people (possible reason bombing by ISIL)
5. Mass shooting at Garissa University College Kenya caused death of 148 people, majority of them were students: Garrisa College mass shooting

d.     Events in India

1. The heavy rainfall of northeast monsoon effected Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punducherry with Tamilnadu and Chennai effected the most with 400+ people died and 18 lakhs displaced. This was the most destructive natural calamity of 2015 in India: South India floods 2015
2. Delhi elections held on 7^th Feb 2015 for electing Delhi Legislative Assembly was another major setback especially for BJP where Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party secured clear majority by winning 67 out of 70 seats:  DLA elections 2015
3. Swine Flu virus resurfaced in 2015 with more power. Confirmed laboratory reports amounted 33,000+ cases as deaths 2000+ in 2015 alone with Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan reported maximum cases: Swine flu outbreak 2015
4. On 27^th July, India lost The Hero, The Icon, The Mentor and The Leader for many talented, dreaming, hardworking and promising young hearts – Mr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – 11^th Indian President and the Scientist: Missile Man of India
5. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook visited India in October and Sunder Pichai, Google’s CEO visited India in December: Some important updates from Mark Zuckerberg and Sunder Pichai

Another point worth mentioning additionally is ICC world cup in February and March which was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand this time. India defeated Pakistan but lost against Australia in the knockout. Australia won the world cup defeating New Zealand. The point not in above list as India couldn’t win world cup for Indian fans but when it comes to cricket and India, they are married to each other forever so need to put it as an additional topping here J

e.     Bollywood Movies

1. Masaan
2. Bajirao Mastani
3. Talvar
4. Bajranji Bhaijaan
5. Bahubali : The beginning

Though not in top 5 list, a few have been my likes are these: Shamitabh, Piku, Baby

and Pyaar ka Punchnaama 2

A few other toppings:

• Top 100 most viewed you tube videos
• Google: The year in search
• Google Trends: This year’s biggest moments and questions they inspired

Sources mentions with Honor and Thanks: Wikipedia.org, bbc.com, techcrunch.com, jaguarlandrover.com, toyota-global.com, auto.ndtv.com, trak.in.