Goodbye 2022: An A-To-Z Recap Of The Year Gone By

A to Z of 2022: As the year draws to a close, here is a list of the biggest news events and developments of the year, letter by letter, which defined 2022.

A For Abortion To Z For Zelenskyy — A To Z Of 2022 ( Image Source :Getty )

Goodbye 2022: The year 2022 just flew by. After a devastating 2021 that saw the second wave of Covid wreaking havoc with the Delta strain, this year had started with the third wave of Covid driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. But by then, the population of India was largely immunised and the impact was comparatively mild. As 2002 draws to a close, the year-end pattern first seen in 2019 appears to be repeating, with Covid cases rising in parts of the world, particularly China. Hence, it is clear that Covid is not over yet, and will continue to stay in our conversations in the coming year too. 

While Covid dominated headlines across the world for another year, it did cede space to other news too. Early into 2022, the pandemic-ravaged world plunged into further crises after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The war has been continuing since, impacting the economies of countries across the globe as they reel under inflation, recession, slowdown, and job losses, among other issues.

China made headlines for reasons other than Covid too with its leader Xi Jinping securing an unprecedented third term, strengthening his power and elevating his status within the Chinese Communist Party. The Dragon country remained a cause for concern for India specifically, with Chinese troops clashing with Indian soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector on December 9 even as border talks related to the Eastern Ladakh front continued.   

Women issues remained in headlines too — whether in the US, the superpower, or the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The US Supreme Court overturned a 1973 judgment and did away with the federal standard that protected women’s right to abortion. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the Taliban banned women from universities, denying them the right to education, after doing the same to girls pursuing secondary education there. Iran, meanwhile, has been up in arms ever since the death of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested by the country’s moral police allegedly for not covering her head properly. The hijab (head cover used by Muslim women) turned into a big issue in India also, with protests erupting in Karnataka after educational institutes introduced a no-hijab rule for entry and spreading to other states.

The year told us climate change is real, as floods, unprecedented heat waves and other extreme weather issues kept troubling the world; from boom to doom, cryptocurrencies too remained in the conversations; and in a first FIFA World Cup was hosted by a country in the Arab World for the first time.

In other news that dominated the news space in 2022, Britain lost its longest reigning monarch when Queen Elizabeth II died in September, paving the way for King Charles III to be crowned. The United Kingdom also remained in news for frequently changing its prime minister. Boris Johnson first made way for Liz Truss, but the latter could not hold on to the post. The current PM is Indian-origin Rishi Sunak, and all eyes are on him to see if the former finance minister is able to bring the country out of its economic crisis.   

In the virtual world, microblogging site Twitter now has a new owner in billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been hogging headlines since the beginning of the year. 

Here is a list of 26 words that made the most buzz in 2022.  

A - Abortion

US Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, struck down the landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling which made abortion a constitutional right, thereby ending the right to abortion. The court said individual states could now permit or restrict the procedure themselves. The ruling drew criticism from the nation’s closest allies like Canada, France, and the UK and led to a global outrage for restricting the rights of women. In India, the Supreme Court in September upheld that all women are entitled to safe and legal abortion irrespective of marital status.

B - Blue Tick

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, he proposed several changes to the platform’s policy. This included monetisation of Twitter’s verification badge, which used to be free earlier and now costs $7.99 in available regions. The pay-and-ye-shall-receive formula backfired on Musk, as it led to a spate of fake ‘verified’ accounts on Twitter, including that of ‘Jesus Christ’. As a fix, Twitter has now introduced blue, yellow, and grey ticks to mark account types, such as personalities, organisations, and government bodies. Uncertainty, however, remains as everyone definitely is not on board with the pay-for-Blue-Tick arrangement. As a result, many users with legacy Blue Tick are living with the 'fear' of losing something that has come to become a 'status symbol' of sorts.      

C - Climate

Climate change-induced extreme weather events were on the rise in 2022. From extreme heat waves in India and devastating floods in Pakistan to Europe's worst drought in 500 years, nations suffered huge losses due to intensified climate change. According to the Word Meteorological Organization, national heat tolls, record-breaking rain, dramatic rises in sea levels and record-shattering melting of glaciers are some of the tell-tale signs of climate change. This year, India witnessed extreme heat waves. Since mid-March, a relentless heat wave blanketed India, resulting in dozens of deaths, fires, increased air pollution and reduced crop yields. At COP27, the 27th UN Climate Change Conference held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, an agreement on 'loss and damage' fund was secured. At COP 15, the UN Biodiversity Conference held in Montreal, about 190 nations adopted a landmark agreement which aims to protect 30 per cent of Earth's lands, coastal areas and inland waters by 2030, and intends to cut food waste in half by 2030, among other goals.

D - Digital Rupee

Jumping onto the CBDC bandwagon, RBI introduced the Digital Rupee towards the end of 2022. Divided into two use cases — e₹-W (wholesale sector) and e₹-R (retail sector) — the Digital Rupee carries the same value as its fiat counterpart. Although it exists on a blockchain, the value of e₹ doesn’t fluctuate like crypto coins. The central bank believes e₹ can cut the cost of logistics for fiat money printing and removes the intermediation of banks from online transactions.

E - Elon Musk

Although the billionaire entrepreneur is rarely out of the spotlight, 2022 has been a particularly active year for the Tesla CEO, thanks to his hostile $44-billion takeover of Twitter. To bring home the ‘hostile’ aspect, Musk fired Twitter’s board of directors, including CEO Parag Agrawal and went on to lay off over 50 per cent of the global workforce, which drew the attention of political leaders and regulatory bodies across the globe. Musk also took a hard stance against the US government and its instruments (such as the FBI) with its leak of Twitter Files, which are internal documents on how the platform controlled the dissemination of information among users.

F - FIFA

The 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup was the first footballing showpiece event for the Arab world with Qatar being the host. The quadrennial event had its share of controversies, but stood out for other reasons too — it was the most hi-tech World Cup in the history of the event, for example. The FIFA World Cup 2022 saw several jaw-dropping moments — from favourites Germany taking the flight home after the Group Stage to Morocco making it to the semifinals as the first African nation. Probably playing his last World Cup, 35-year-old Lionel Messi led Argentina to a stunning victory against reigning champions France in a final worthy of all the hype and one that broke many viewership records.

G - Gaslighting

Have you ever been convinced by someone that you are responsible for a mistake even when you are not responsible? If the answer is yes, you probably have been gaslighted. 'Gaslighting' was also chosen as the word of the year by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The dictionary defined gaslighting as the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that “causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, the uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”

H - Hijab

A controversy over hijab erupted early in 2022 after a particular educational institution in Karnataka barred Muslim girl students wearing the headcover from entering its premises. Assembly elections to five states, including Uttar Pradesh, were approaching and the matter snowballed into a national issue in no time. Violent protests started across Karnataka, and the state government had to order closure of schools and colleges. Even curfews were clamped as protests intensified. With a government order banning the wearing of hijab (and also saffron scarves) in classrooms until an expert committee decided on the issue, the matter reached the high court, which upheld the decision. In October, hearing a batch of petitions challenging the HC decision, the Supreme Court delivered a split verdict.

The hijab has been at the centre of widespread protests in Iran too. Unlike in India, the protests in Iran are taking place against Iran’s mandatory Islamic dress code. Female protesters have been seen removing their hijabs and burning them. Many people have died in the protests since September.

I - Inflation

Inflation is undoubtedly one of the most referenced words in the year 2022. Inflation has plunged several countries into long periods of instability. In India, consumer price inflation cooled to a nine-month low of 6.40 per cent in November mainly due to a moderation in food prices. Inflation has stayed above the upper end of the Reserve Bank of India's 2-6 per cent tolerance band all year and this has triggered 225 basis points of interest rate rises to the repo rate so far, taking it to 6.25 per cent. If the inflation forecast is correct, the decline would take it to where it was just before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, which sent global food and commodity prices soaring.

J - James Webb Space Telescope

The year 2022 was an important one for astronomy because NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) started revealing intriguing secrets about the cosmos. In July 2022, NASA released the first full-colour images captured by JWST, also called Webb. Launched in December 2021, Webb has captured breathtaking pictures of the various cosmic objects of the universe, including the Southern Ring Planetary Nebula, dancing galaxies in Stephan's Quintet, 'Cosmic Cliffs' in the Carina Nebula, Jupiter and its moons, Messier 74, popularly known as the Phantom Galaxy, the Cartwheel Galaxy, 'mysterious tree rings' in the Wolf-Rayet star WR140, 'never-before-seen' stars in the Tarantula Nebula, inner region of the Orion Nebula, rings of Neptune, 'bones' of a spiral galaxy called IC 5332, Pillars of Creation, a pair of merging galaxies in the constellation Delphinus, and previously unseen newborn stars in the 'Cosmic Cliffs', among others. Webb also detected water in an exoplanet atmosphere, captured its first image of an exoplanet, its first picture of Mars, Saturn and Titan, observed the effects of DART's collision with asteroid Dimorphos, detected organic molecules in galaxies swirling around supermassive black holes, discovered massive galaxies in the process of forming around an extremely red quasar, resolved faint stars in a dwarf galaxy near Milky Way, revealed the first chemical profile of an exoplanet, and found two of the universe's farthest and oldest galaxies. 

K - King Charles III

Charles, the former Prince of Wales, was officially proclaimed King on September 10 after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch of Britain. The Queen had been ruling the United Kingdom for over 70 years — since 1952. At 74, Charles III will be the oldest King in 900 years and the 40th monarch. His coronation is scheduled to be held on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey. King Charles III has become the head of the Commonwealth, a union of 56 countries.

L - Layoffs

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, coming right after a devastating pandemic, has severely impacted macroeconomic factors across the globe and resulted in firms, mostly in the tech sector, resorting to severe cost-cutting moves, including laying off employees. Several tech firms laid off employees, making headlines throughout the year. Among the big companies that downsized were IT giants such as Twitter, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Intel, Zomato, Swiggy, and Byju’s.

M - Mahsa Amini

On September 13, the Iranian morality police detained a 22-year-old Kurdish woman — Mahsa Amini — in Tehran allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly. She was allegedly beaten in custody where she died three days later, reportedly of a heart attack. Her death sparked massive protests across the country. The agitations are continuing and over 500 protesters have died so far, according to reports. Tehran has blamed “outsiders” for the protests.

N - Nomophobia

The term Nomophobia is derived from No Mobile Phone Phobia. It was coined by the UK Post Office in a 2008 study, but in 2022 the term got substantial traction. The world went into lockdown after jolts of coronavirus in 2020 and 2021. While precautionary steps were essential, the lockdown created certain lingering effects including heightened nomophobia. The term is used to describe a psychological condition when people have a fear of being detached from mobile phones. Studies published in the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and South Africa between March to August indicated that a majority portion of adults have developed nomophobia. Studies also suggest that other disorders like social phobia or social anxiety, and panic disorder may also precipitate from nomophobia.  

O - Omicron

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which emerged in late 2021, was responsible for the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, which lasted from January to March 2022. Ever since its emergence, the Omicron variant has mutated multiple times, creating several subvariants. The Omicron variant is highly transmissible and spreads faster than previous variants of SARS-CoV-2. The Omicron subvariant BF.7 is responsible for the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in China. 

P - Permacrisis

Collins Dictionary's Word Of The Year 2022 is 'permacrisis', meaning 'an extended period of instability and insecurity'. While the world was looking to recover from the Covid pandemic, it ended up witnessing more crises such as inflation and shortages of fuel, energy, and food grains, prompted by the war in Ukraine. Tensions between China-Taiwan also reached an alarming level with Beijing’s unprecedented military drills this year.

Q - Quiet Quitting

For several workers, resignation may not be an option, so many youngsters are now resorting to 'Quiet Quitting'. The trend simply speaks about doing the bare minimum expected at work. Going by a Deloitte study, “Young people are increasingly seeking flexibility and purpose in their work, and balance and satisfaction in their lives." And many are rejecting the live-to-work lifestyle. They want to continue to work but are not allowing the job to control them. This concept basically means that workers perform only the duties prescribed in their job description and shrug off any responsibilities beyond that. Employees also reject working longer hours and stick to the timing necessary for their role.

R - Rishi Sunak

The first Indian-origin prime minister of the United Kingdom, Sunak was elected unopposed as a Conservative leader and was appointed PM by King Charles III in October. A former Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Boris Johnson administration, Sunak has also been the MP for Richmond (Yorks) since 2015. Sunak assumed office at a time when the nation is enduring a longstanding cost of living and energy crisis. So, all eyes rest on Sunak to see how he fares under pressure. Sunak has also authorised weapons and foreign aid support to Ukraine during its ongoing war with Russia.

There is, however, another strong contender for 'R', and no year-end wrap in India can leave out this one. ‘RRR’ appears to be everywhere and it’s no wonder that SS Rajamouli’s blockbuster sneaked into our annual list as well. Despite being a regional language film (Telugu originally), RRR earned Rs 240 crore globally on its first day of release, going on to amass over a whopping Rs 1,200 crore across the world. Leading duo NT Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan’s ankle-breaking dance number has not only captured the imagination of TikTokers the world over but also got the song ‘Naatu Naatu’ shortlisted for Oscars. If you have been living under a rock and haven’t watched ‘RRR’ yet, we suggest you do so immediately. After all, you don’t see an Indian movie get featured on Screen Junkies’ ‘Honest Trailers’ every other day.

S - Slowdown

An economic slowdown is called a recession, which is a significant, widespread, and prolonged downturn in economic activity. A common rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth mean recession, although more complex formulas are also used. In India, the RBI has lowered its economic growth projection to 6.8 per cent from an earlier estimate of 7 per cent for the current fiscal. The central bank sees inflation at 6.7 per cent during FY23 with Q3 at 6.6 per cent and Q4 at 5.9 per cent as inflation remains high and broad-based globally in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war.

T - Tawang

Tawang grabbed the spotlight this year following a faceoff between Indian and Chinese troops on December 9, bringing back memories of the deadly clash at Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian and over 40 PLA soldiers were killed. On December 9, clashes erupted after Chinese soldiers tried to transgress the LAC near Yangtse in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The incident left 35 Indian soldiers and 40 from the Chinese side injured. The face-off was yet another incident highlighting the long-standing issue of loosely demarcated areas along the LAC. Both India and China have their own perception of the LAC and in certain areas, these perceptions overlap (like Tawang, Pangong Tso), leading to such faceoffs.

U - Ukraine

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a country just 4 per cent of its size, in February proved to be a defining event of 2022. The war, into its 10th month, has disrupted livelihoods, food supply chains, industries and economies -- a shock for emerging economies coming on the back of two years of Covid-19 pandemic setback. However, Ukraine's unexpected resistance has kept Russia at bay despite the overwhelming size of the Russian military. It is for this reason that Time Magazine has named President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as "the spirit of Ukraine" as its 2022 'Person of the year'.

V- Vaxport

An example of how travelling has changed in a post-Covid world, vaxport has helped rekindle tourism and international travel after a two-year hiatus. Vaxport is basically a combination of a passport with a vaccination certificate added to it to confirm that the passenger is not infected with the novel coronavirus. Israel became the first country to introduce this kind of certification system last year, linking it to access to public facilities such as restaurants, gyms, and hotels in the country. Besides Israel, several European countries and Chile have introduced 'vaccine passports'.

W - Web3

To put it simply, Web3 is the future of the Internet. It proposes a fully decentralised network that will not be controlled by a few Big Tech firms, but be dictated by users as a whole. Web3 brings about other developments such as blockchain, crypto, NFTs, X-to-earn platforms, and the metaverse altogether, thanks to its freeform, accounted-for nature. With governments and private companies also exploring the Web3 space, it’s largely expected that the Internet will transition from Web2 to Web3 within the next few years.

X - Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping secured a historic third term as China’s President in the year 2022. His statements on Taiwan also garnered wide attention amid concerns over a full-blown conflict in Asia while the Russia-Ukraine war raged in Europe. Recently, unprecedented protests broke out in the capital city of Shanghai against the Zero Covid Policy. The protests also witnessed calls to sack Xi as President.

Y - Ye

Kanye West, who changed his name to Ye, is the most cancelled celebrity of 2022. Kanye made anti-Semitic comments repeatedly this year that cost him a fortune. From brands like Adidas and Balenciaga to his lawyer and agent, almost everyone associated with him cut ties. According to a Forbes report, his estimated worth plunged from US$2 billion to US$400 million. The rapper also discredited Black Lives Matter as a scam. In a now-deleted Instagram story, he had said, "Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it's over. You're welcome."

Z - Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian President has been overseeing the country’s most tumultuous period as it battles Russian forces after Moscow’s invasion in February this year. Zelenskyy has been appealing to the international community for aid as well as to build pressure on Russia to end the war that has included alleged war crimes against civilians, displacing and killing millions of people with targeted strikes.