Masala’s official list of when to save the date this year.

By Mahmood Hossain and Aiden Jewelle Gonzales

January

• A win for love and human rights, Thailand is set to be the third country in Asia, and the first in Southeast Asia, to approve same-sex marriage. Having received Cabinet approval, the bill is pending two more readings in Parliament (the first reading passed to overwhelming approval), as well as royal assent.
• Beloved Indian restaurant Punjab Grill will officially open their doors to their rooftop bar, Holly Bolly, which will be serving craft beers and more
• InterContinental Bangkok Sukhumvit, an IHG Hotel is officially open for business, touting itself as a luxury lifestyle destination for discerning travellers
• Thailand’s first Moxy hotel will open in Ratchaprasong, the largest in the Asia Pacific region. It will bring its vision of affordable and youthful fun and will be on the upper floors of The Market shopping centre
• Merry Christmas (2024), starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupati will be releasing in theatres on 12 January
• Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the Ayodhya Ram Mandir on 22 January, and the ‘who’s who’ of India are all expected to attend
• Fighter (2024), starring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone, will also be releasing in theatres on 25 January
• The AWC’s partnership with Michelin-starred chefs begins, with the aim to enhance the new benchmark for fine dining experiences at ‘EA’, one of the world’s largest F&B rooftop destinations
• The Thai government has pledged to hold a referendum, tentatively within Q1 2024, to determine whether the Thai people want a new version of the constitution

February

• British rock band Coldplay will be playing in Rajamangala National Stadium from 3-4 February, under “A Sky Full of Stars”
• World-renowned singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, known for romantic pop hits such as “Perfect”, will be holding The Mathematics Tour at Rajamangala National Stadium on 10 February

March

• Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, whose sales has broken records worldwide, will be showing in Singapore’s National Stadium on 2-4 March and 7-9 March, the only stop in Southeast Asia
• The trial of former President Donald Trump’s on charges of election interference begin this month, while his trial on charges of obstruction of justice will commence in May
• British rock legend, Rod Stewart, will perform in Thailand on 6 March, at IMPACT Arena, for his Live in Concert One Last Time tour
• Amari Bangkok will be opening NILA, a restaurant specialising in coastal Indian cuisine. Chef Bharath, formerly of Punjab Grill, will be bringing his expertise and vast experience to the team

April

• The Indian General Elections will be held during this month and next, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s bicameral Parliament. The results will determine whether or not the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will secure another term in office

May

• China’s Chang’e-6 mission will attempt to collect up to 2 kilograms of samples from the ‘dark’ side of the moon
• Thailand’s proposed USD 14 billion digital cash handout programme, which promises THB 10,000 each to about 50 million Thai citizens, is set to begin its roll out this month

June

• The Men’s T20 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the US and the West Indies, and is scheduled from 4 June to 30 June
• The UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament, scheduled to take place from 14 June to 14 July, will be hosted by Germany

July

• The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held mostly in France from 26 July to 11 August, with Paris set to be the main host city, although 16 other French cities and one subsite in Tahiti will also host events
• The Hyatt Group is set to open its second Andaz hotel in Thailand, at One Bangkok, one of Thailand’s biggest and most comprehensive real estate development projects, which is aiming to open its doors in early 2024

August

• Singham Again (2024), starring the likes of Ajay Devgn, Deepika Padukone, Tiger Shroff, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Ranveer Singh, is expected to be released in theatres on 15 August
• KIS International School will unveil its new dedicated boarding village for students Grade 4 and up. This will be Bangkok’s only full IB day and boarding school, and will feature a world-class 60-acre campus.
• President Joko Widodo of Indonesia is planning to inaugurate a new capital city, Nusantara, on Borneo. A USD 30 billion project, this unveiling will coincide with Indonesia’s opening day, and is a result of the overcrowded Jakarta, which is also slowly sinking because of rising sea levels

October

• The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Bangkok, a brand synonymous with luxury around the world, is set to open its doors at One Bangkok in Q4 2024
• IHG is rebranding the Grand Sukhumvit Hotel Bangkok to the Crowne Plaza Bangkok Grand Sukhumvit, and the extensively refurbished hotel, with plenty of additional rooms, will open in Q4 2024
• The Women’s T20 World Cup will be held in Bangladesh, from September to October

November

• The US Presidential Elections will be held on 5 November, with incumbent President Joe Biden seeking re-election

 

December

• India is set to launch the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) the Venus Orbiter Mission this month to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus, which, if successful, will mark the second such mission in history to study Venus (after NASA and the ESA)
• History repeats itself – Billy McFarland, who was convicted of fraud for his non-existent Fyre Festival in 2017, which was greeted with outrage, documentaries and schadenfreude worldwide, is once again relaunching the infamous festival this month. Whether or not it will actually exist remains to be seen

Undated

• The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant group is set to open its third property in the Kingdom this year, this time in Hua Hin
• The University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India have developed a game-changing antimalarial vaccine, and this is expected to be distributed in 12 African nations this year

Trends to Look Forward To

• ‘Digital twins’, a digital representation of a real-world product or system, which will help address real-world problems. Digital twins of India’s top 100 cities are currently under construction
• Alongside Electronic Vehicles (EVs), bio-fuelled cars will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and 2024 will see it as a growing industry worldwide and especially in India
• Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an Indian instant payment system, will be adopted by over a dozen nations, including France and Singapore
• India is set to become one of the world’s largest market for EVs, with Tata Motors expecting record sales in 2024
• Quantum computing and mechanics will be on the rise in 2024, and India is investing heavily in the industry, including the green lighting of the National Quantum Mission, the creation of an Indo-US quantum coordination mechanism, and the Quantum Technology Lab in the Indian Institute of Science building