Amidst waves of bad news 2020 had a funny side too

Stock markets in 2020 gained handsomely, public listed companies paid a whopping amount as dividend or bonuses, M&A deals and raising of equity worth billions of dollars hit the headlines.

By Shantanu Nandan Sharma , Shailesh Kadam & Shailesh Menon, ET Bureau | Dec 26, 2020, 11.11 PM IST

Inflows of foreign direct investment rose in 2020 and the nation’s forex reserves hit an all-time high.

Here are some of the good things of 2020:

The Covid-19 pandemic set off waves of bad news that we tend to forget 2020 had a sunny side too.

Days after a nationwide sit-at-home order was issued in March, city dwellers in India were delightfully surprised to see blue skies and plenty of stars at night.

Some Himalayan ranges became visible from the nearby plains, a first for an entire generation. A drop in air pollution was just one of the many upswings of the year.

It was also a period when stock markets gained handsomely, public listed companies paid a whopping amount as dividend or bonuses, M&A deals and raising of equity worth billions of dollars hit the headlines, inflows of foreign direct investment rose and the nation’s forex reserves hit an all-time high.