Google celebrates 20 years, walks down memory lane
New Delhi, Sep 27: Google on Thursday turned 20 and celebrated it with a nostalgic video feature of interesting searches through the years -- from holidays, events, achievements and people to the best dance moves, food to eat, planets and languages.
Google has answered all our queries since it came into being in 1998 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Ph.D. students at the Stanford University, US.
The new search engine had a bold mission to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Over the years it changed drastically -- going from being a simple search engine to a global tech titan and offering searches in more than 150 languages in over 190 countries -- though there has been one thing that that has remained constant from the very first day: the homepage Doodle.
Thursday's video Doodle took a stroll down the memory lane exploring popular searches all over the world throughout the last two decades -- whether it be the status of your favourite object orbiting the sun, the latest on the world's biggest events, or the meaning of love.
Although more than 2,000 Doodles have adorned its homepage, Google has kept its site looking fresh by creating different variations of its logo, inspired by cultural icons, events and phenomena such as Pac-Man, the birth of hip-hop and more, Google said in a statement.
Its first Doodle was created before the company was even incorporated. A few days before its official launch, the Burning Man-inspired logo was put on the homepage as an away message -- that's how Page and Brin let people know they were heading to the festival.
It had taken two years for Google Doodles to get animated. On October 31, 2000, the first Doodle with motion graphics arrived to celebrate Halloween. The O's in the logo were replaced by tiny jack-o'-lanterns, and a spider dangled between the "L" and "E".
On November 13, 2009, it celebrated the discovery of water on Moon, on August 11, 2017, it celebrated 44 years of the birth of Hip-Hop. Going coutry specific it has over the years celebrated national and cultural icons.
In 2018, Google made its first VR Doodle celebrating the life of Georges Melies, an early film pioneer. It was a 360-degree experience that did not need a VR headset to enjoy. It was nominated for an Emmy in 2018.
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RBI keeps policy rate unchanged amid inflationary pressure
Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged amid hopes of a global recovery on the back of ceasefire in the six-week-long US/Israel-Iran conflict.
The policy decision comes as a month and a-half-long West Asia conflict has disrupted energy supplies, shot up crude oil prices and created fiscal and inflationary pressures for import-dependent nations like India.
This is the first monetary policy review after the government announced a fresh inflation target for the RBI last month. The government has asked the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five years ending March 2031.
Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
The rate cut pause comes on the back of the consumer price index (CPI) based headline retail inflation that moved closer to the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent at 3.21 per cent in February.
Additionally, the rupee has depreciated by over 4 per cent since the war, which has consequences for pushing up import inflation.
However, the rupee has appreciated by 50 paise to 92.56 against US dollar following announcement of the ceasefire by the US and Iran.
Based on the recommendation of the MPC, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 25 bps each in February, April, and December 2025 and 50 basis points in June amidst easing retail inflation.
India's retail inflation dropped to a historic low of 0.25 per cent in October 2025, marking the lowest level since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series was introduced.
However, the rupee declined to historic low and crossed 95 against a dollar last month making imports costlier, raising fears of rise in inflation. Rupee touched a record low of 95.21 on March 30, 2026.
