Today, we revisit the biggest data stories featured in Mint’s Plain Facts section through the year. Our coverage spanned socio-economic trends, US tariffs, data quality, politics, cinema and climate, with our trademark charts telling important stories about the India of 2025. Each link in this piece leads to the corresponding story, which offers more charts and in-depth analysis.
The ‘marriage penalty’ on women
The second edition of the government’s time-use survey gave an insight into the daily lives and routines of India. Mint close look at the data revealed striking insights into how Indian society functions, especially for married women.
Using granular data, our team unpacked the unequal structure of work, leisure, and even sleep. Our reporting showed how unequal Indian marriages remain for married women. They spend more than 25% of their day on unpaid domestic work, compared to just 6% for unmarried women. The burden rises for men, too, but from 1% to 3%.
The story quantified what Indian society has experienced for ages. Through a first-of-its-kind analysis of sleep patterns from the same survey, we found that women, burdened by household responsibilities, sleep significantly less than men. Women’s sleep deficit when compared to men expands to nearly 30 minutes in their 30s, when family duties peak. There is no gender gap in childhood and adolescence, and it starts appearing only later as men and women take on different gender roles.
Trump's tariff tremors
‘Tariff’, derived from the Arabic word ta’rīfa (to inform), is a serious contender for word of the year, especially for Indians. Tariffs were US President Donald Trump's preferred economic weapon to force trading partners into renegotiating terms. When the so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs were imposed on most countries in April, we highlighted how these numbers were calculated—and why they did not pass the smell test.
As trade talks with the US hit a wall, India was hit with additional 25% tariffs as a penalty for importing dicounted Russian crude. Using official data, we quantified the hard knock Indian exporters suffered and identified the sectors that bore the heaviest burden.
Our analysis also made it clear that mitigating the impact of tariffs would require a two-pronged strategy: negotiating a favourable trade deal with the US, while simultaneously diversifying export markets beyond US, India’s largest trading partner. By the end of the year, data showed efforts to tap markets such as China, Spain, Vietnam and Hong Kong to mitigate the losses. The US, however, remained India's biggest export market.
The nuances of data quality
India’s complex statistical system has repeatedly come under scrutiny. This year, questions were raised about unemployment and GDP numbers. As a data team, we cut through the noise to explain what the data says and, just as importantly, what it misses.
While it is indeed tempting to make sweeping remarks about shortfalls in data quality, our analysis of India’s official employment data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) showed that the real story lies beyond the headline unemployment rate. Joblessness varies sharply across education levels, and the data captured this to a large extent.
On the growth front, when the International Monetary Fund assigned a ‘C’ rating to India’s GDP data, we unpacked the methodological weaknesses that have long plagued the measurement of economic output. Together, these stories argued for a more nuanced reading of official statistics and made note of upcoming changes that would make India’s data system more credible.
Romance makes a comeback
The year marked a comeback for romantic movies, signalling a shift from grand action spectacles to emotionally resonant love stories such as Saiyaara, Tere Ishk Mein, Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, and Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri. The comeback was long overdue as the romance genre has been shrinking with the advent of streaming platforms over the past few years. Two of our off-beat stories explored this theme.
The first story examined shifts in the genre of movies being produced in India from the data available on Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Romance as a genre was still below its 1990s and 2000s peak, while thrillers, horror, and mystery accounted for larger share of Indian movies. The success of romantic movies this year may lead to another shift.
The second piece told the story of the evolution of India’s economy through three popular Bollywood films released over the past three decades. It showed how dominant themes in cinema often echo the economic realities of their times—from post-liberalisation in the 2000s to the rise of the creator economy over the past decade.
Competitive populism
Cash transfers to women have become a staple election promise in recent years, expanding from just one state in 2020 to at least 15 major states by 2025. We at Plain Facts have kept you up to speed on how these promises resulted in “competitive populism” even as experts warned of the risks of strain on state finances.
Just before the Delhi elections earlier this year, we explored how rising women turnout in elections shifted the focus of political parties towards women. These cash transfers also offered financial safety net to women: the offered amount made up to 10-30% of the average income earned by women who are casual labourers and self-employed.
Later, during the Bihar elections, we covered the issue again, pointing out how the state's finances were in tatters and how little it spent on capital expenditure. We also pointed out how other states under financial strain such as Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra were looking for ways to cut their promised commitments.
Delhi's ‘airpocalypse’
Every winter, India’s national capital region gasps for breath as air quality deteriorates sharply. Air pollution, particularly in Delhi, continued to dominate the headlines this year.
Plain Facts looked into how much worse air quality becomes around Diwali, analyzing the data at 15-minute intervals. Delhi, despite a change in government, is yet to see a sustainable solution or even a quick fix.
Against this backdrop, we looked at studies on how China tackled its air pollution. By implementing strict measures as part of its ‘war on pollution’, China significantly improved its air. As a result, data showed the residents of Beijing spent only 20% of their time in 2024 with high PM2.5 levels (10 times the limit by World Health Organization). In Delhi, the exposure was significantly higher at 60%. The story also pointed out that only 52% of the funds allocated under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) had been used by December 2024.