GoI


Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

“Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.”

1902: To enforce standardization and co-ordination between various railway systems in British India, the Indian Railway Conference Association (IRCA) was set up in 1902. It was followed by the establishment of the Central Standards Office (CSO) in 1930, for preparation of designs, standards and specifications. However, till India's independence in 1947, most of the designs and manufacture of railway equipment was entrusted to foreign consultants. After independence, a new organisation called Railway Testing and Research Centre (RTRC) was set up in 1952 at Lucknow, for undertaking the intensive investigation of railway problems, providing basic criteria and new concepts for design purposes, for testing prototypes and generally assisting in finding solutions for specific problems. In 1957, the Central Standards Office (CSO) and the Railway Testing and Research Centre (RTRC) were integrated into a single unit named Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) under the Ministry of Railways with its headquarters at Manak Nagar, Lucknow. The status of RDSO was changed from an "Attached Office" to a "Zonal Railway" on 1 January 2003, to give it greater flexibility and a boost to the research and development activities.

1919: the name Allahabad High Court was given by the King of England. Earlier from 1866 to 1919 it was known as the High Court of North-Western Provinces.

1930s: The Civil Aviation came to India around 1930s coinciding more or less with the well publicized flight of late Sh. J.R.D. Tata from Karachi to Bombay, as Mumbai was earlier known. The airlines were initially primarily used for carrying mail. The Tata Airlines was one of the earliest private airlines. The aviation scenario, however, remained largely subdued till the conclusion of the Second World War. After the war Tata Airline went public and named itself Air India in July 1946. It, however, continued to operate largely to the neighbouring countries of Ceylon and Pakistan.

1930: The first airport of Delhi, the Safdarjung Airport, was built around 1930. During Second World War, Palam Airport was developed as an Air Force Station.

1948 (Jan): In pursuance of an appeal by the then Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in January, 1948, the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was established with public contributions to assist displaced persons from Pakistan.

1948 (Sep): It was only after independence that Govt. of India set up Air India International Limited and the first flight to London began in September, 1948. On August, 1, 1953 all the airlines were nationalised and Air India was merged with six other domestic operators.

1950s:[US] As far back as the 1950s, people have reported seeing Unidentified Flying Objects (U.F.O.’s) at the southern Nevada military base.

1953: Natwar Singh: He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1953 and worked as an IFS officer for 31 years. He was posted in important embassies such as China and the US. In 1984, he left the IFS and joined the Congress. He was elected in the eighth Lok Sabha from Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The same year, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He also served as the minister of external affairs in Manmohan Singh’s UPA government.

1953: E. Sreedharan joined the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), after clearing the Indian Engineering Services Exam in 1953 conducted by the UPSC. His first assignment was in the Southern Railway as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in December 1954.

1955:[US] Area 51, officially named the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake, is a high-security open training range for the U.S. Air Force in southern Nevada — though the site is still very secretive.

1955:[US] According to the CIA, secretive flight testing has been happening in the area since the military began testing U-2 CIA spy planes in 1955, around the time reports of U.F.O. sightings started to come out

1955: Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan, (TN Seshan) was a no-nonsense 1955 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, best remembered as the man who cleaned up elections in India. He ws a bureaucrat who served with the Indian Administrative Service and as a politician. After serving in various positions in Madras and in various ministries of the Central Government, he served as the 18th Cabinet Secretary of India in 1989 and as India's 10th Chief Election Commissioner during 1990-96.

1957 (Apr): The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino: Gawad Ramon Magsaysay) is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government. It is often called the "Nobel Prize of Asia".

1957: ECGC (Formerly Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd.), wholly owned by Ministry of Commerce and Industry,  Government of India, was set up in 1957 with the objective of promoting exports from the country by providing Credit Risk Insurance and related services for exports.

1959: The US carried out its first ASAT test in 1959.


1960s: Rise of third sector - NGOs' relationship with the government has been redefined over the years with changing social and political scenario. The non-government sector came into prominence in the late 1960s when a new generation was maturing in post-Independence India. This was a generation that measured legitimacy of a political party according to its skills in meeting popular aspirations.

1960: A popular name and the first Finance Minister in Chandra Shekhar’s union cabinet, Yashwant Sinha was the first IAS officer who joined the Government in 1960. He remained an officer till 1984 and joined the Janata Dal before switching to BJP.   In 2018, he quit the BJP as a result of differences with the current party leadership. His son Jayant Sinha is the minister of state for civil aviation. Sinha joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960 and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure. He served as Sub-Divisional Magistrate and District Magistrate for 4 years. He was Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the Finance Department of the Bihar Government for 2 years after which he worked in the Ministry of Commerce as Deputy Secretary to the Government of India.

1962: National Defence Fund was setup in the year 1962 to take charge of voluntary donations in cash and kind received for promotion of the national defence effort, and to decide on their utilisation. The Fund is used for the welfare of the members of the Armed Forces (including Para Military Forces) and their dependents.

1962: With the increase in passenger traffic operations from Safdarjung were shifted to Palam in 1962. The passenger traffic until the late 70s was about 12 lakh per year which included about 7 lakh domestic passengers. Air passenger traffic after the 70s witnessed a world-wide growth and reached nearly six million, including 17 lakh international passengers.

1962:[agri] Parag - Pradeshik Cooperative Dairy Federation (PCDF), Uttar Pradesh was established in the year 1962 with the aim to develop cooperative based organized dairying in the state. PCDF is an organization that has helped to free the milk producers from the exploitation of middle man for years in the milk business and a direct contact was established between the milk producers and the consumers. This state-level apex cooperative institution derives its power from the participation of the milk producers and provides them with professional skills and dynamic professionalism in the traditional form. Over the years, PCDF has diversified itself into new areas over new dimensions onto new challenges. Today PCDF has an important place in the National Milk Grid in providing milk to Mother Dairy for milk sale in Delhi.


1963: The Mutual Fund industry in India started in 1963 with formation of UTI in 1963 by an Act of Parliament and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Unit Trust of India (UTI) was the first mutual fund established in India in 1963. Its first scheme, Unit Scheme 1964 (US-64), gained immense popularity, offering investors the opportunity to participate in the country's expanding economy.

1963: Mani Shankar Aiyar was born in Lahore. He joined the Indian Foreign Services in 1963. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mayiladuturai, Tamil Nadu, in 1991. Since then he served in many portfolios. 

1967:[Space][US] The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had three stages, and was powered by liquid fuel. Flown from 1967 to 1973, it was used for nine crewed flights to the Moon, and to launch Skylab, the first American space station.

1968: IPS Ajit Kumar Doval (79YO, Aug'24) joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1968 in the Kerala cadre as the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Kottayam district. Ajit Kumar Doval KC PPM PM (born 20 January 1945) is a bureaucrat and spymaster and the current National Security Advisor (NSA) of India. Ajit Doval has been longest serving NSA of India. The present tenure is notably the Doval's third consecutive extension since 2014. He was Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief and a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Kerala cadre.

1969 (Mar 1): The Rajdhani Express (lit. 'Capital Express') is a series of passenger train services in India operated by Indian Railways connecting the national capital New Delhi with the capitals or the largest cities of various states. Rajdhani, derived from the Sanskrit means "capital". Introduced in 1969, the trains are amongst the premium services operated by Indian Railways and regularly get a higher priority on the railway network. On 19 February 1969, the Government of India introduced a new express train capable of reaching speeds of up to 120 km/h (75 mph) as announced in the railway budget.[3] On 1 March 1969, the first Rajdhani Express with nine coaches was flagged off from New Delhi to Howrah with the return journey commencing on 3 March.[4] The train completed the 1,450 km (900 mi) trip in 17 hours 20 minutes and was the only such train in operation till 1972, when the second Rajdhani was introduced from Mumbai.

1969: Buffer stock refers to a reserve of a commodity that is used to offset price fluctuations and unforeseen emergencies. The concept of buffer stock was first introduced during the 4th Five Year Plan (1969-74).

1970: Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) came into existence in 1970 in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It was initially established as Pre Medical Test Board (PMT) to conduct medical entrance exams in the state. Professional Examination Board (PEB) formerly known as VYAPAM, Madhya Pradesh conducted an entrance exam to take the admission in MCA till 2013-14.

1970 (Jun 4):[Pvt] Metal Extrusions (india) Private Ltd founded by Ajay Kumar Saboo, Amar Saboo and Sunita Saboo, a leading Aluminium supplier in Bangalore (aerospace hub of India) & across India. With over 1500 tons of stock in 4 warehouses located at various locations in Bangalore and Chennai.

1971: Neera Yadav, a 1971 batch IAS officer, became Uttar Pradesh's first woman chief secretary during the Samajwadi Party's regime in 2005. She opted for voluntary retirement in 2008. SC awards two-year jail to Neera Yadav in corruption case (Dasna district jail) on Nov 20, 2012. The CBI investigated nearly 36 cases of irregular allotment or conversion of plots in Noida, and chargesheeted Yadav as well as the then serving IAS officer Rajiv Kumar in 2002. The CBI undertook a probe following a 1998 Supreme Court order on a writ petition filed by the Noida Entrepreneur Association against the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) the previous year. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was the prosecuting agency against Neera Yadav, who was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment on November 20, 2012, in connection with the irregular allotment of plots in Noida while serving as the area's chairperson-cum-chief executive officer from 1994 to 1995.

1972: Hall of Nations was an exhibition hall that was inaugurated in 1972 as part of the Pragati Maidan complex in New Delhi, India. It was built to celebrate 25 years of Indian independence. It was designed by the Indian architect Raj Rewal, and structurally engineered by Mahendra Raj. It was used for trade fair exhibitions. The construction took 22 months, and subsequently it became the venue for the 1972 International Trade Fair.

1972: IAS Pramod Kumar Mishra (born 11 August 1948), often abbreviated P. K. Mishra, is the 13th and current principal secretary to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He is a 1972-batch Indian Administrative Service officer belonging to Gujarat cadre. Between 2001 to 2004, Mishra has also served as the principal secretary of Modi, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

1972: IPS Kiran Bedi PPMG PNBB (born 9 June 1949) is a former tennis player who became the first woman in India to join the officer ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972 and was the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 28 May 2016 to 16 February 2021.

1972: IAS Vinod Rai is a 1972 batch Kerala cadre officer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS).[11] He started his career as the sub-collector of Thrissur District. Later, he became the Collector and spent his eight years of career in Thrissur City. He was called the second Sakthan Thampuran for his role in the development of the Thrissur City. He was the MD of Kerala State Co-operative Marketing Federation from 1977 to 1980. Later he was appointed as Principal Secretary (Finance) in the State Government of Kerala. He had served senior positions in the Ministries of Commerce and Defence, Government of India. Prior to his appointment as CAG, he served as Secretary, Financial Services and Additional Secretary in the Banking Division including banks and insurance companies under Ministry of Finance.

1973:[Space][US] last flight of Saturn-V.

1973:[War] The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. - Soviet's Surface-to-Air (RADAR-guided) SA-9 missile supplied to Egyptian and Syrian army turned fighter jets from predator to prey, by hitting down 109 American attack planes flown by Israeli pilots in just 18 days. These missiles could reach 40km in the space

1973: IFS Meira Kumar was the first Lok Sabha Speaker from 2009 to 2014. She was the daughter of Jagjivan Ram. He served as the fourth Deputy Prime Minister of India. Meira Kumar joined Civil Services in 1973 and served as an IFS officer for more than a decade. She arrived in politics with a bang in 1985 by defeating Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati in the Bijnor by-election.

1973: NASA submitted congressional testimony reporting the total cost of Project Apollo (1968-1972) as $25.4 billion (about $182 billion in 2023 dollars).

1974: first test flight of Rockwell B-1 Lancer, supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It has been nicknamed the "Bone" (from "B-One"). The B-1 was first envisioned in the 1960s as a bomber that would combine the Mach 2 speed of the B-58 Hustler with the range and payload of the B-52, ultimately replacing both. It could fly lo-speed lo-alt missions or hi-speed hi-alt missions.

1974: Hardeep Singh Puri: Hardeep Singh Puri is currently minister of state for housing and urban affairs. Puri joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1974 and he served as an ambassador to the UK and Brazil. He was also India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva as well as in New York. He also served as chairman of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee in 2011-2012.

1975 (Apr 19):[Space][India] Aryabhata was India's first satellite, named after the astronomer. It was launched on 19 April 1975 from Kapustin Yar, a Soviet rocket launch and development site in Astrakhan Oblast using a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. This was India's first indigenously designed and built satellite.

1975 (Dec): CMC was incorporated on 26 December 1975, as the 'Computer Management Corporation Private Limited'. The Government of India (GoI) held 100 percent of the equity share capital. On 19 August 1977, it was converted into a public limited company, again wholly owned by the GoI.

1975: Meet minister RK Singh, the DM who ordered Advani's arrest and halted Rath Yatra. Raj Kumar Singh: He was a former Bihar-cadre IAS officer of the 1975 batch who served as union home secretary. He was the district magistrate of Samastipur in 1990. He joined BJP in 2013 and was the minister of state for power and new & renewable energy till Jun'24. 

1976 (Jun22):[Pvt] Bharati Defence and Infrastructure Limited (formerly known as Bharati Shipyard Limited) was incorporated on June 22, 1976. It began as a partnership firm in 1968 which was converted into a Limited company in 1976 and later to a public limited company in 1996. It has state of the art shipbuilding and fabrication facilities in, Dabhol, Ratnagiri, Goa, Mangalore, Chennai and Kolkata. Company’s IPO in 2004 was oversubscribed 78 times.

1977: In 1977, the Janata Party government took office in India. US-based MNCs which were operating in India were told to shut shop and ship out. IBM was one of the companies told to leave. In 1978, CMC took over the maintenance of IBM installations at over 800 locations around India. Subsequently, it also took over the maintenance of computers supplied by other (non-IBM) foreign players.

1977: IFS Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (born 9 January 1955) is an Indian diplomat and politician, who is the thirtieth Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India since 31 May 2019. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and has been a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha since 5 July 2019. He previously served as the Foreign Secretary from January 2015 to January 2018. He is the second diplomat to be appointed India's External Affairs minister, after Natwar Singh. He joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1977, and during a diplomatic career spanning over 38 years, served in different capacities in India and abroad, including as a High Commissioner to Singapore (2007–2009) and as Ambassador to the Czech Republic (2001–2004), China (2009–2013) and the US (2014–2015). Jaishankar was one of the officials in the MEA, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Prime Minister’s Office who played a role in negotiating the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement

1978:[Space][India] Studies by the PSLV Planning group under S Srinivasan to develop a vehicle capable of delivering a 600 kg payload to a 550 km sun-synchronous orbit from SHAR began in 1978.

1979 (May): The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) program for an indigenous 5-ton multirole helicopter was initiated in May 1979 by the Indian Air Force and Indian Naval Air Arm.

1979: Alphons Kannanthanam: Alphons Kannanthanam hails from the Kottayam district of Kerala, is a retired IAS officer of the 1979 batch. He was elected as an Independent MLA from Kanjirappally in Kottayam that year, with the backing of the Left Democratic Front. He joined the BJP in 2011 and six years later, became a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. 

1980s:As early as 1980, CMC anticipated the way the world was moving and noted the market requirement for IT system improvements. It directed its efforts to respond to the government's activities and needs for such services. 'Project Interact' (International Education and Research for Applications of Computer Technology), a United Nations project involving design, development, and systems-engineering of computer-based systems applications in the areas of power distribution, railway freight operations management and meteorology transitioned the company from a hardware maintenance company to a broad IT solutions provider.[citation needed] CMC later expanded its services to systems integration, interfacing, installation, commissioning, software development, as well as education and training. CMC's R&D facility was set up in 1982 at Hyderabad.

1980 (Jul 18):[Space][India] It was the first satellite successfully launched by the indigenous launch vehicle SLV. It provided data on the fourth stage of SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) - Experimental with 35kg of payload.

1980: IPS Satyapal Singh: He is a former Indian Police Service, IPS Officer of the 1980 batch of Maharashtra cadre. He also served as the police commissioner of Mumbai and played role in eliminating crime in Mumbai in the 1990s. In 2014, he resigned as the Mumbai Police chief and joined the BJP. He contested and won the Baghpat seat in the 2014 general elections, and was a minister of state for human resource development.

1980: He is an Indian bureaucrat and the former chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, a public policy think tank of the Government of India. He is a retired member of the 1980 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) batch, the central civil service of the Government of India.

1981:[Space][US] The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development, as nuclear shuttle in the plan was cancelled.

1981:[Space][India] ​When Indian space scientists were unable to find a metal-free, portable platform for the first communication satellite, APPLE, (Ariane Passenger PayLoad Experiment), India's first geostationary satellite (GSAT) they chose a cost-effective solution and transported their satellite on a creaky, old bullock cart. It was launched into GTO (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) by the third development flight of ESA'a Ariane vehicle from Kourou on June 19, 1981.

1981: Think Tank | Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) established in 1981 with the motto of "linking India with the world," it has grown to become one of India's most well-known policy research think tanks in in the areas of Agriculture, Climate Change, Digital Economy, Economic Growth, Jobs and Gender, and Trade, Industry and Investment. 

1981: Ganesh Gareeb was born to Chandan Singh Negi and Kanthi Devi on 1st March.1937 in a small village called Soola Patti.,Pauri Garhwal in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. He studied at DAV Inter College, Dehradun. He got married to Saraswati Devi in 1960. He went to Delhi in 1961 where he started the repairing work of radio from 1961 to 1981. But all along he kept thinking about the development of his native place in the hills. This brought him back to his village in 1981. He toured extensively. In 1992 he went to the districts of Shimla and Mandi in the neighbouring hill state of Himachal Pradesh to study the Land Consolidation Project.  He published some journals like Pustika Ujjwal Bhavishya and Hamara Daiytwa (1978), Gagar Mein Sagar Smarika (1987), Parvatiya Vikas aur Chakbandi (1990). | Chakbandi Campaign in Uttarakhand

1981: IPS Rakesh Maria belongs to the 1981 batch of the Indian Police Service. His first posting was as an assistant superintendent of police in Akola and then in Buldhana districts of Maharashtra. Maria was transferred to Mumbai in 1986, and became the Deputy Commissioner Police (Traffic) in 1993. He was appointed the Commissioner of Mumbai Police on 15 February 2014. In 2015, he was promoted as the Director General of Home Guards. Maria retired on 31 January 2017, after 36 years of service.

1982:[US] The contract to build Pennsylvania was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, on 29 November 1982 and her keel was laid down there on 10 January 1984. She was launched on 23 April 1988, sponsored by Mrs. Marilyn Garrett, and commissioned on 9 September 1989. USS Pennsylvania (SSBN-735) - Carries 48 torpedoes and 24 trident nuclear missiles.

1982:[Space][India] INSAT-1A (Indian National SATellite) was an Indian communications satellite which formed part of the Indian National Satellite System. Launched in 1982, it was operated in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 74° east. Following a series of failures, the satellite was abandoned in September 1982, less than six months into a seven-year mission.

1982: IAS Rajiv Gauba is a retired Indian civil servant who served as the Cabinet Secretary of India from 30 August 2019 till 30 August 2024. He is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer belonging to the 1982 batch of Jharkhand cadre. Prior to his appointment as Cabinet Secretary, he was Home Secretary of India.

1982: IAS Aruna Sundararajan is a former India's Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission. A retired 1982 batch IAS officer from Kerala Cadre, Ms Sundararajan, is one of the most senior civil servants of the Indian Administrative Service in the country.

1982: IAS M Sathiyavathy, officer of AGMUT cadre; gold medalist from IITM, served in ministries of commerce, textiles, civil aviation and department of space. [Ethics, E-Governance, Rural Planning] 

1983 (Apr 17): Satellite Launch Vehicle. SLV D2 flight for LEO Earth Observation satellite with 40kg of payload.

1984 (Apr 3):[Space][India] Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian born citizen to enter space through a joint Interkosmos mission between ISRO and Soviet space program, when he flew aboard the Soviet rocket Soyuz T-11 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on 3 April 1984.

1984: HAL were given a contract by the Indian government in 1984 to develop the helicopter; Germany's Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) were contracted in July 1984 as a design consultant and collaborative partner on the programme. Although originally scheduled to fly in 1989, the first prototype ALH (Z-3182) made its maiden flight on 20 August 1992 at Bangalore with the then-Indian Vice President K R Narayanan in attendance.

1984: Ram Janmbhoomi Movement commences – Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) constitutes a group to start the Ram Janmbhoomi Movement. BJP leader LK Advani is made the leader of the campaign.

IAS Smita Nagaraj, officer of TN cadre, served as executive director of Central Social Welfare Board, is now a UPSC board member (2022)

1985: The Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) between India and Kenya that was initially signed in 1985 was renegotiated and revised by both countries. The revised DTAA was later signed on 11th July 2016 between India and Kenya.

1985: CMC was renamed CMC Limited (Computer Maintenance Corporation) in August 1984. CMC Limited has the credit of introducing computer applications at a mass scale in the late 80s with its design and deployment of Indian Railways Reservation System IMPRESS (Integrated Multi-train Passenger Reservation System) in New Delhi on 15 October 1985. It went on to become a huge success, eventually deployed all over India, serving over half a million transactions every single day and cutting wait times for passengers drastically. CMC also followed it up with the design of ARTS (Advanced Railway Ticketing System) for unreserved ticketing.

1985:[PSU] Pawan Hans was incorporated in 1985 with the objective of providing helicopter support services to the oil sector for its off-shore operations, services in the remote and hill areas and chartered tourist services for the promotion of tourism.

1986: In order to decongest the Palam Airport, the present International Airport, known as Indira Gandhi International Airport, Terminal-II was completed in April 1986 at a cost of Rs. 95 crores. The new airport was commissioned on May 1, 1986. When the terminal was opened it had 60000 sq. meters. of space, nearly 4 times that of the old airport. The building had a peak hour handling capacity of 3300 passengers as against 1600 in the old airport.

1986:[Defence][Pvt] HBL Power Systems Limited HQ'd at Hyderabad, Telangana (Dubai Air Show). It manufactures and services different types of batteries, e-mobility, and other products. Flagship products: TCAS (Train Collison Avoidance System) for safety and TMS (Train Management System) for efficient track utilization. In 2021, Indian government adopted TCAS as India’s national Automatic Train Protection and named it KAVACH.

1986:[RBI] Established on October 15, 1986, UTI Mastershare was a closed-ended vehicle at inception, and it was the first equity-diversified fund in the Indian mutual fund sector. Later, in 2003, it was changed into an open-ended fund. The fund has a strong history of paying out rights issues, bonuses, and dividends. For now, it falls within the large-cap fund category. Rs. 10,000 invested then would have been grown to 10.6 lakhs by Sep 2023 (CAGR @ 13.4%)

Defence: Company manufactures batteries for fighter aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, submarine propulsion systems, torpedoes, battle tanks, missiles, artillery fuses and supplies Type 1 batteries for kilo class submarines and Varunasthra torpedo and Type 4 batteries for Scorpene class submarines for the Indian Navy. Company has also developed Submarine Type 2 (HDW) batteries, receiving production orders for Li-ion batteries for defense application from NSTL (Naval Science and Technological Laboratory). It is securing approval for artillery fuses and supplying thermal batteries to overseas contracts.
Battery: Indian Army awarded a defense order in FY22 for 2V VRLA batteries for its Data Center application. Additionally, it received orders from OEs and EPCs for NCPP and VRLA batteries for a number of Metro Rail projects. Company gained traction in Africa with export of 12V UPS batteries and concentrated on commercial exports and provided batteries for other international projects. Moreover, HBL powered 20K+ installations in FY22 as Preferred Partner for the Bharat Net Wi-Fi Project and also enhanced the 12V UPS battery capacity to meet surging demand.

1987: IAS Dr. T. V. Somanathan is a 1987 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. At, present he is serving as the Cabinet Secretary of India since 30 August 2024 .Before this he served as the Finance Secretary of India.

1988 (Mar 1): National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) is an Indian non-governmental trade association and advocacy group that primarily serves the Indian technology industry. Founded in 1988, NASSCOM operates as a nonprofit organization and serves as a key entity within the Indian technology sector.

1988: Ex-IAS A K Sharma made UP BJP's vice president in Jan'21.


1988: Shri Giridhar Aramane, a 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, assumed the office of Defence Secretary on November 01, 2022.
In his 32 years of experience in IAS, Shri Aramane has held various important portfolios in the Central Government as well as Andhra Pradesh government. Prior to his current assignment, Shri Aramane was Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.
Shri Aramane did B Tech in Civil Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and M Tech from IIT, Madras. He is MA (Economics) from Kakatiya University, Warangal.

1988: Rajesh Kumar Singh took over as Defence Secretary at South Block on Fri, Nov 1 2024. He took over from the incumbent Giridhar Aramane, a 1988-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre retired from service on Thursday (October 31, 2024) after a two year stint.
Before taking charge, Mr. Singh laid a wreath and paid homage to the fallen heroes at the National War Memorial, New Delhi. He is a 1989-batch IAS officer from Kerala cadre, and had assumed the charge of the Officer on Special Duty (Defence Secretary-designate) on August 20.

1990s:[Space][India] The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) project was initiated in 1990 with the objective of acquiring an Indian launch capability for geosynchronous satellites.

1990s: China fired 100 million employees from PSEs as a part of its economic reform.

1990:[Pvt] HimalayanHeli started Heli Skiing operations in Himachal Pradesh by wet-leasing SA 315B Lamas from Switzerland and Canada. Eventually, Himalayan Heli Services was established in 1998 to cater the rising demand in pilgrimage shuttle services. They then set new standards in conducting cost effective and passenger-friendly services at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Shri Amarnath ji and Shri Kedarnath ji shrines. Promoters, Mr. Harsh Vardhan Sharma and Mr. Wangchuk Shamshu, and their nuanced understanding of the Indian non-scheduled civil aviation market, and related policies and regulations. Leading the team from the front, they specialize in aviation consulting and work with a range of corporate and foreign clientele. They create partnerships for projects in India through joint ventures, where they provide AOP support, give policy guidance and devise logistical support solutions.

1990 (Dec 18): Agreement for avoidance of double taxation of income with USA 

Whereas the annexed Convention between the Government of the United States of America 
and the Government of the Republic of India for the avoidance of double taxation and the 
prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income has entered into force on the 18th 
December, 1990 after the notification by both the Contracting States to each other of the 
completion of the procedures required under their laws for bringing into force of the said 
Convention in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 30 of the said Convention ; 
Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 
(43 of 1961) and section 24A of the Companies (Profits) Surtax Act, 1964 (7 of 1964), the 
Central Government hereby directs that all the provisions of the said Convention shall be 
given effect to in the Union of India. 
Further in exercise of the powers conferred by section 44A(b) of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (27 
of 1957) and section 44(b) of the Gift-tax Act, 1958 (18 of 1958), the Central Government 
also directs that the provisions of Article 28 of the said Convention shall be given effect to in 
the Union of India. 

1991: Following a spurt in the global demand for IT services in the early 1990s, particularly in the United States, CMC decided to expand its operations and market its product and service offerings in these markets. Towards this end, in 1991, CMC acquired Baton Rouge International Inc, USA (it was subsequently renamed CMC Americas, Inc, in 2003), one of the first cross-border acquisitions by an Indian IT firm.

1991: Khemka belongs to the 1991 batch IAS of the Haryana Cadre. He has been repeatedly transferred by various state governments in his home cadre of Haryana after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted to.
1991: Raju Narayana Swamy is an Indian Administrative Service officer, anticorruption crusader and whistleblower. He is the all India first rank holder of the 1991 batch of the IAS and a Kerala Sahitya Academy Award winning writer. On Dec 2, 2023 He seek the chief secretary's grade with the plea to SC that he has completed 30 years of service.

1991: This MF was established on January 1, 1991. The equity-oriented fund, first introduced as Magnum Multiplier Scheme '90, was renamed Magnum Equity Fund upon its conversion to an open-ended fund in 1997. The fund house renamed it SBI Magnum Equity ESG Fund and altered its attributes during the 2018 re-categorization procedure.
Since its founding on January 1, 1991, the LIC MF Aggressive Hybrid Fund—formerly known as the LIC Balanced Fund—has been managed with a balanced mix of debt and equity. As of right now, it falls into the aggressive hybrid funds category.

1992: In 1992, the Indian government divested 16.69 per cent of CMC's equity to the General Insurance Corporation of India and its subsidiaries who, in turn, sold part of their stake to the public in 1996. In 1993, CMC's shares were listed on the Hyderabad Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

1992: The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) is a non-profit organization with a mission to foster entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, education, funding and incubation. With a focus of giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing the next generation of Entrepreneurs.

1992: Search & Rescue Course has been introduced as a regular course at NIM, Uttarkashi to be conducted once in a year since December 1992.

1993: Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) is a non-profit organization that serves as a prominent apex industry body dedicated to promoting the alternate capital industry and nurturing a thriving investment environment in India. IVCA is resolutely committed to bolstering the ecosystem by advocating regulatory interventions, facilitating constructive dialogues with the Government of India, policymakers, and regulators. This collaborative approach fosters increased entrepreneurial activity, innovation, job creation, and contributes to positioning India as a pre eminent fund management hub. With 347 members and a combined AUM of over $280 billion, IVCA's esteemed membership comprises the most active domestic and global entities, including VCs, PEs, Infrastructure Funds, Real Estate Funds, Credit Funds, Limited Partners, Investment Companies, Family Offices, Corporate VCs, CATIII Funds, Hedge Funds, and Knowledge Partners. Vistra ITCL (India) Limited is the custodian of IVCA’s trust held shares.

1993:[Defence][Pvt] Zetatek Technologies Private Limited, HYD.

1994 (May 5):[Space][India] The ASLV (Advanced Satellite Launch Vehicle) made four launches, of which one was successful, two failed to achieve orbit, and a third achieved a lower than planned orbit which decayed quickly. The type made its maiden flight on 24 March 1987, and its final flight on 4 May 1994. The Augmented / Advanced Satellite Launch Vehicle was a small-lift launch vehicle five-stage solid-fuel rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to place 150 kg satellites into LEO.

1994 (Oct):[Space][India] The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was launched in October 1994 and is India's third-generation launch vehicle. It has successfully launched a multitude of Indian and international satellites. The PSLV played a key role in launching two significant spacecraft: Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft.

1994: DTAA between India and China came into force on the 21st of November 1994 in New Delhi. The agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of India to avoid double taxes and prevent fiscal evasion of income taxes was signed on July 18, 1994. However, the treaty was amended between the two nations through a protocol signed on November 26, 2018. The amendment changed the existing provision related to information exchange and adhered to all international standards.

1994: IAS Ashwini Vaishnaw (born 18 July 1970) is an Indian politician, former IAS officer and a businessman who serving as 39th Minister of Railways, 35th Minister of Information and Broadcasting and 2nd Minister of Electronics and Information Technology since 2024. Vaishnaw joined the Indian Administrative Service in the Odisha cadre. He worked extensively in different parts of Odisha including serving as the District Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts. At the time of super cyclone 1999, he managed to collect data related to real timing and place of cyclone, by collecting that data Government of Odisha took safety measurements for people of Odisha. [9] He worked in Odisha till 2003 when he was appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After his brief stint in the PMO where he contributed to creating the public-private-partnership framework in infrastructure projects, Vaishnaw was appointed as Vajpayee's private secretary after the BJP-led NDA lost the election in 2004.

1995 (Apr 1):[PSU] Airports Authority of India (AAI) was constituted by an Act of Parliament and came into being on 1st April 1995 by merging erstwhile National Airports Authority and International Airports Authority of India.

1995: IRS Arvind Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax in 1995, after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination. In February 2006, he resigned from his position as Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal: He was an IITian, a mechanical engineer. He joined the Indian Revenue Services. Years later he became a campaigner for Indians for Right to Information and also won Ramon Magsaysay award for Emergent Leadership in 2006.  He became the face of the Jan Lokpal movement in 2011. He launched Aam Aadmi Party in 2012. The party emerged as the second-largest party in the Delhi Assembly elections in 2013. He is the Chief Minister of Delhi ever since 2013. 

1996: In August 1996, the Disinvestment Commission, chaired by G V Ramakrishna was set up to advice, supervise, monitor and publicize gradual disinvestment of Indian PSUs.

1996: Vikas Divyakirti cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination on his first attempt and got All India Rank (AIR) of 384 in 1996. After getting trained at Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, he was inducted into Central Secretariat Service by Government of India.

1997 (Feb 19):[Defence][Pvt] Ramco Enterprise Software | Aviation Software founded at Kamaraja Distt, Tamil Nadu by P.R. Venketrama Raja. (4 Jun 2017: 00331406/PUSAPADI RAMASUBRAMANIA RAJA VENKETRAMA RAJA; 4 Aug 2017: 07273249/ POOSAPADI VENKETRAMA RAJA ABINAVRAMASUBRAMANIAMRAJA)

1997:[Pvt] Global Vectra Helicorp was founded in 1997 as Azal and started off-shore operations in 1998 with 3 helicopters. The UK based businessman Ravi Rishi of the Vectra Group acquired it in 2004 and the company went public in 2006. India's largest private helicopter company. It has a fleet of 29 aircraft ranging from small light helicopters to medium-sized twin engined helicopters seating 4 to 15 passengers. 

1998:[Defence] BrahMos JV between India and Russia.

1998:[Defence][Space][India] Avatar (Sanskrit: अवतार, ISO: Avatāra; from "Aerobic Vehicle for Transatmospheric Hypersonic Aerospace TrAnspoRtation") is a concept study for a robotic single-stage reusable spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation. The mission concept is for low cost military and commercial satellite space launches. The idea is to develop a spaceplane vehicle that can take off from conventional airfields. Its liquid air cycle engine would collect air in the atmosphere on the way up, liquefy it, separate oxygen and store it on board for subsequent flight beyond the atmosphere. The Avatar, a reusable launch vehicle, was first announced in May 1998 at the Aero India 98 exhibition held at Bangalore.

1998:[Defence][Pvt] Frost & Sullivan (founded in 1961) opens-up offices in Mumbai, India and Beijing, China after 37 years of founding.

1998:[agri] The scheme was introduced in 1998 for providing adequate and timely credit support from the banking system, under a single window with flexible and simplified procedure to the farmers for their cultivation and other needs like purchase of agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. and draw cash for their production needs.

2001 (Apr 18):[Space][India] first flight of GSLV. (GSLV Mk.1). The GSLV can place approximately 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) into an easterly low Earth orbit (LEO) or 2,500 kg (5,500 lb) (for the Mk II version) into an 18° geostationary transfer orbit. GSLV has been used in fifteen launches since 2001. The launcher was declared operational after the second development flight successfully launched the GSAT-2 satellite. During the initial years from the initial launch to 2014 the launcher had a checkered history with only 2 successful launches out of 7, resulting in the rocket gaining the nickname "naughty boy".

2001:[Defence][Pvt] Frost & Sullivan opens-up office in Chennai, India (Global Innovation Center) and Sydney, Australia after 40 years of founding.

2001:[Defence][Pvt] M K U Limited, Kanpur (GKG Group Co. founded by GK Gupta (1946-2012)) founded by Dheeraj Thawani, Sumit Khandelwal, Manoj Gupta, Neeraj Gupta, Manish Khandelwal, Neelam Gupta, Vaibhav Gupta and Manoj Mukund Naravane. Investor of UPDIC. General Manoj Mukund Naravane is a Director since 20-Feb-2024.

2001: IAS Smita Sabharwal is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 2001 batch belonging to Telangana cadre. She is popularly known as The People’s Officer for addressing citizen issues by involving people. She is the first lady IAS Officer to be appointed to the Chief Minister's Office. 

2002: CIIE.CO is an Indian startup accelerator and incubator that supports early-stage startups located at IIM Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded in 2002 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India. (Bharat Innovation Fund for IP-driven deep-tech solutions; Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund for Digitization-led inclusive solutions) Have 14 cos in portfolio as of 2024.

2002:[Defence][Pvt] Frost & Sullivan in Banglore to serve the growing tech market in India and connect it more strategically with Silicon Valley, next year they venture into Seoul market.

2002:[Pvt] Hon Hai (Foxconn) entered India.

2002 (Jan 18):[Pvt] HimalayanHeli got Non Scheduled Air Transport operator’s Permit NSOP No. 01/2002. As of Aug 2024, they operate a fleet of 3 AS 350 B3 and 3 AS350 B3e helicopters which are flown by a team of 15 highly experienced pilots. Their permit is endorsed for mountain flying, heli-skiing and aerial work operations.

2002: Sanjiv Chaturvedi graduated as an electrical engineer in 1995 from the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, situated at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. He became an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer 2002 with Haryana cadre and later got transferred to Uttarakhand Cadre. Sanjeev's tussle with the GoH started with the start of his first posting in 2006, with the CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda's dream project Hansi-Butana canal. Kurukshetra, Saraswati Sanctuary., and transferred within 7-days. SC Central Empowerment Commiitee penalized with 1 crore of fine to GoH. In 2007 he was handed a chargesheet by GoH. Adv Kuldeep Tiwari. 2nd posting in Fatehabad during violation of herbal park on a private land and he got suspended this time for a year. He then applied for a review with Prez Patil and got the suspension order revoked, but the state gov didn't posted him for an year. 3rd posting in Mewat as LIne Posting (~ ranger), then after CAT's intervention he was transferred as DFO in Jhajjar. In 2009, he uncovered more than 5 crore scam in Hisar. He then became AIIMS CVO and uncovered the scam for poor construction quality material in AIIMS, Jhajjar construction. He uncovered more than 150 corruption cases. YT dated Aug 21, 2014. Center approved the inter-cadre transfer (req minimum 9 YOS) on Aug 12, 2015 

2003:Pursuant to the enactment of the Electricity Act 2003, the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) are required to fix a minimum percentage of the total consumption of electricity in the area of a distribution licensee for purchase of energy from renewable energy sources. (RECs)

2003: Nestled within the Eastern Himalayas, Gangkhar Puensum stands as the highest mountain in Bhutan and is the world's highest unclimbed peak. Bhutan, deeply committed to environmental conservation and respect for its sacred mountains, banned climbing above 6,000 m in 2003.

2003:[Offence] Sep 2003 - Oct 2005

2003: Ritu Maheshwari is a 2003 batch IAS officer. She started his career as a Joint Magistrate and Collector of Lucknow in 2005. In 2007, she held the post of District Magistrate and Collector of Ghazipur. Ritu has also served as a chief executive officer of Noida and Greater Noida.Presently (Aug'24), she is serving as Divisional Commissioner of Agra. She married Mayur Maheshwari, an IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre.

2004:  Bastar DM Amit Kataria famous for sporting Ray-Ban sunglasses and wearing two different shirts (bright blue and white and blue pin-stripes) at the time of receiving and seeing off PM Modi while Dantewada DM K C Devsenapati wore a white shirt. Born and raised in Delhi, Amit Kataria achieved AIR 18 in UPSC IAS exam in 2004 and joined Chattisgarh cadre. Amit Kataria's wife Asmita Handa is a professional pilot. This is the reason that the household expenses are met quite well from his wife's salary and the income from the family business. When IAS Amit Kataria was asked why he takes a salary of ₹1, he said that he became an IAS officer to bring about a change in the system and not to earn money. Let us tell you that Amit Kataria owns property worth around 9 crores i.e. 8.80 crores. His annual income is 24 lakh rupees which comes from the family business. This business is run by his family members. Currently, Amit is holding the post of Joint Secretary Rural Development in Chhattisgarh. Actually, his family has a construction business in Gurgaon. First got famous in 2013 when he became collector of Raigad and he said 'get out' to BJP politician Roshan Lal in his office. He never compromised with the development. In 2009, as Raipur's commissioner worked actively to remove encroachment. In 2010, he becmae CEO of Raipur Dev Authority and est New Raipur and launched the biggest housing project, Kamla Vihar in Raipur. While in Raigad, 4 crore free medical treatment to poor people, improved RDA employees. He is IIT-D graduate in ECE.

2005:[Defence][Pvt] Amitec Electronics Limited, Delhi founded by Geetanjali Sharma, Amit Sharma, Vijay Kumar Sharma and Kartik Seth. Investor of UPDIC.

2005: Manoj Kumar Sharma (born 3 July 1975) is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the 2005 batch, assigned to the Maharashtra cadre. He currently serves as an Inspector General of Police in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). He hails from an impoverished village in Chambal, a region historically notorious for dacoity. His journey from poverty to becoming an IPS officer was chronicled in Anurag Pathak's book Twelfth Fail, which was later adapted into the film 12th Fail (2023).

Between 2005 and 2012, IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi was posted as divisional forest officer in various districts of Haryana. 

2006 (Jan): The Velaro E is a version of the Velaro family used by RENFE for operations in Spain. In 2001, RENFE ordered sixteen Velaros[4] designated AVE Class 103. The order was later increased to a total of 26 trains. The first units were delivered in July 2005 and completed their first test runs in January 2006. The trains serve the 621 km (386 mi) Barcelona–Madrid line at speeds up to 310 km/h (195 mph) for a travel time of 2 hours 30 minutes.

2006 (May 18): The Government approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects and 8 components, on May 18, 2006.
2006 (Sep 9):[Defence][Pvt] Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL), HYD set up in 2007, is Tata Group's strategic entity in the Aerospace & Defence industry. Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is a significant player for aerospace and defence solutions in India.

2006 (Jul): Designated in Spain, Siemens Velaro is one of the fastest speed trains in the world. It achieved a speed of about 400kmph during its test speed in Spain. However, the operation speed is limited to 350 kmph. The rain operates on the Barcelona - Madrid line. In July 2006, a Siemens Velaro train-set (AVE S-103) reached 403.7 km/h (250.8 mph), which was the world record for railed and unmodified commercial service trainsets.

2006: IPS Sachin Atulkar hails from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. At the young age of 23, he cleared the UPSC Civil Services examination in 2006 (AIR 258; SC Cat), securing a place in the IPS. In 2007, he became the youngest IPS officer in his batch.

2006: IPS (Dr.) Sanjukta Parashar, famous as Iron Lady of Assam who gunned down militancy, she is an encounter specialist. Securing the 85th rank in the All India Civil Services Examination, Sanjukta Parashar joined the prestigious Indian Police Service in 2006. Choosing the Meghalaya-Assam cadre. During her initial posting as an Assistant Commandant in Makum, Assam, Parashar swiftly gained recognition for her fearlessness. She was later tasked with controlling the violence between Bodos and Bangladeshis in Udalgiri. On Dec 26, 2023 the IPS officer promoted to IGP Rank. "Beauty with Bravery"

FY07 - Modified Interest Subvention Scheme was launched in the year 2006-07 with a view to provide short term Agri-loans availed by farmers through Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for their working capital requirements at concessional rate of interest (upto 4% pa) thru RBI/NABARD.

2007 (Jan 10):[Space][India] The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SCRE or more commonly SRE or SRE-1) is an Indian experimental spacecraft which was launched at 03:53 UTC on January 10, 2007, from Sriharikota by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The launch was conducted using the C7 launch of the PSLV rocket, along with three other satellites. It remained in orbit for 12 days before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and splashing down into the Bay of Bengal at 04:16 UTC on January 22.

2007 (Jan 11):[Space][China] On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1C (COSPAR 1999-025A) polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of 865 kilometres (537 mi), with a mass of 750 kilograms (1,650 lb)[1]—was destroyed by a kinetic kill vehicle traveling with a speed of 8 km/s (18,000 mph) in the opposite direction[2] (see Head-on engagement). It was launched with a multistage solid-fuel missile from Xichang Satellite Launch Center or nearby.


2007: OECD coal generation halved since its peak in 2007 OECD coal generation peaked in 2007, and last year reached half that level for the first time (-52%). Rapid growth in solar and wind was responsible for 87% of the fall in coal during this period. Consequently, coal generation fell to just 17% of the OECD total electricity generation in 2023, down from 36% at its peak in 2007.

2007: Deepak Rawat is an IAS officer from the 2007 batch. He has served in various positions as District magistrate and is recognized for conducting multiple raids during his tenure. He was posted as district magistrate of Bageshwar (2011) and was transferred as Managing Director of Kumaon Vikas Mandal (2012). Later transferred as district magistrate of Nainital (2014-2017) and Haridwar (2017-2019) respectively. He was further appointed as Haridwar Kumbh Mela officer. And is currently serving as Commissioner of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand.

2007: The story begins in 2007 when the railways took some land to build the Ludhiana-Chandigarh railway line. Unfortunately, this land included a piece owned by Sampooran Singh from the village of Katana. Going to the story, you will find that in a unique legal ruling, a Punjab farmer has become the owner of an express train following a court order issued in Ludhiana. Singh initially received only Rs 42 lakh for his land, while he claimed he should have been paid Rs 1.05 crore. After filing a case in 2012, the court ordered the Railways to pay him the remaining amount and increased the compensation to Rs 50 lakh per acre. However, the Railways did not comply. Additionally, Singh has been granted ownership of the Ludhiana railway station master’s office.

2007: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex was separately deployed on active duty to Afghanistan on two occasions; the first was in 2007–2008 for ten weeks in Helmand Province. 

2008:[Space][India] Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. It made a major scientific breakthrough by detecting water molecules on the lunar surface. This mission elevated India to the ranks of nations advancing lunar exploration.

2008:[Pvt] Heli-pilgrim - Kestrel Aviation Pvt. Ltd provides a variety of services,specially helicopter for Chardham Yatra, making it a trusted brand in the area of helicopter services, connecting inaccessible areas, charter services, search and rescue work, VIP transportation, and Heli-pilgrims are some of the major services. Since 2008, we have been dedicated to providing Helicopter Air Transport and have grown to become the highly experienced Air Transport service provider in the aviation industry. As of Aug 2024, 3 helicopters, 60k charter trips, and 95k pax served.
AgustaWestland AW119 Koala - Used for joyrides

2008: Bhukhya Chandarakala Niru, also known as B. Chandrakala and famous for her fiery working style and as UP's Lady Singham and for her controversial statements in public (2016, B'shahar) when she sent an 18 YP boy to jail for clicking her pic without her permission. She is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 2008 batch in Uttar Pradesh. Born in Telangana, she is a graduate in geography and a post-graduation in economics. In her first /fourth attempt, she was able to clear the IAS exam and secure an all India rank of 409 in the year 2007. Her optional subjects were Geography and Public Administration. She worked as an SDM and CDO in Allahabad from the year 2009 to 2012. She has been the DM of 5 districts of UP (Hamirpur, Mathura, Bulandshahar, Bijnor and Meerut) from Apr 2012 to Mar 2017. Between 2012 to 2014 she was a DM of Hamirpur, this is when the illegal mining case happened. She was accused of corruption and was subject to a CBI raid on 5 Jan 2019 in connx with illegal sand mining case, of 11 accused in the case she is one of them that she she gave out mining leases allegedly in violation of the rules laid down by the UP govt and  allowed mining even in the period when it was prohibited by the BGT. 'Crorepati in a year'. She had 8.5M page likes she is probably the only IAS officer with huge online popularity. Work: sanitation, child rights education, women empowerment and other dev work. She was accused of leaning towards Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party. After BJP won 2017 UP election, she demanded a transfer to Delhi and the NDA gov made her the Director of Swachh Bharat Mission and an under-secy in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for nearly a year. In Mar 2018, she was sent back to the GoUP to take the charge as special secy in the secondary education deptt. Just before 9 days of the CBI raids on her property, she had bought a residential plot in Telangana (registered on 27 Dec 2018) for Rs. 22.50 lakh without a bank loan i.e. in cash. On 1 Jan 2019, she had filed an IPR (Immovable Property Return) for the year 2018 and declared her total salary as Rs. 91,400/month. In 2010-11 (filed on 30-Apr-2011) she was posted as SDM (Sadar) Allahabad, she had pay of 16,880/month and no immovable property. In 2013, for FY12 she sowed first ever property, a plot in AP worth Rs. 30 lakh, in her FY13 filed 3 more prop. in her return (flat gifted by her parents worth 55L, a plot owned by her husband bought from his savings worth 10L and an agri land bought by her husband worth 4.39L; her declared salary as Rs. 44,998/month). FY14 No IPR submitted. filed on 1-Jan-2016. Since March 2021 she is posted as Special Secretary in Lucknow.  

2008: Game King India Private Limited hired Satish Chand Pandey as Panel Lawyer starting Apr 2008 - to Oct 2018 i.e. for 10 years 7 months

2009: India Stack is the largest open API in the world. Since its deployment, India has been organizing hackathons to develop applications for the APIs. India Stack is being implemented in stages, starting with the introduction in 2009 of the Aadhaar "Universal ID" numbers. The India Stack is a set of digital public infrastructure components that comprise three pillars: digital identification; payments; and data management. The four major layers of India Stack include the Consent Layer, Cashless Layer, Paperless Layer and Presence-less Layer. 

2009 (Jan 28): Aadhaar UIDAI a biometrics identification system, is a 12-digit number, implemented in India since 2009 by the Indian Government as a unique identification system for Indians.

2009:[Defence][Pvt] Frost & Sullivan founds Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) thru Frost & Sullivan Institute (also at Chennai)

2009: Invest India was formed in 2009 under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956 for promotion of foreign investment with 49% equity of the then Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP, now DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry and 51% shareholding by FICCI.

2009: Armstrong Pame is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service of 2009 batch belonging to Manipur cadre. He belongs to Zeme Naga tribe of the Zeliangrong community from Manipur. He is also popularly known as the "Miracle Man" for building a 100 km road in one of the most remote parts of the country through crowd funding.

2009: HimalayanHeli started conducting low altitude heliborne geophysical surveys for Atomic Mineral Directorate-AMD, and National Geophysical Research Institute-NGRI. Today they have covered more than 350,000+ line kms in surveys.

2010 (Jun 17):[Defence][Pvt] Tonbo Imaging Private Limited, BLR founded by Kondangi Lakshmikumar Arvind, Ankit Kumar and Cecilia Dsouza.

2010: Durga Shakti Nagpal (born 25 June 1985) is an Indian bureaucrat and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and 2010 batch. IAS Durga Nagpal was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh on 25 June 1985. Her father is a retired government officer who was awarded the President's Medal for distinguished service at the Delhi Cantonment Board. Her grandfather was a police officer who was murdered in 1954 while on duty in Sadar Bazaar, Delhi. In August 2012, Durga Shakti Nagpal IAS married Abhishek Singh also an IAS officer of 2010 batch and posted in Uttar Pradesh. As a result through a notification dated 3 August 2012, the cadre of Durga Shakti Nagpal was changed from punjab to Uttar Pradesh.

2010: Shah Faesal is an 2010-batch IAS of J&K cadre and an Indian bureaucrat currently posted as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Culture. In 2009, he became the first Kashmiri to top the Indian Civil Services Examination. He resigned from his post in 2019 and floated the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) party. He was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act immediately after the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Faesal later withdrew his resignation and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) reinstated the IAS officer to the post of Deputy Secretary in the Tourism Ministry on Mon, 19 Sep 2022 (set to expire on Fri, 18 Sep 2026) . He and former student leader Shehla Rashid were amongst the many petitioners against the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. They withdrew their pleas from the Supreme Court in July 2023. He was detained for over a year after Article 370 of the Constitution ceased to operate in Jammu & Kashmir. “Article 370 was no Noah's Ark. It was an old, broken ship, that would have sunk us in the future. Let's welcome the crossover. Supreme Court has affirmed once again that India is united and true empowerment is in being together. Post-370 future belongs to all. Wishing great success to the people of J&K in their pursuit for peace and prosperity,” Faesal said on X.

2011 (Sep 12):[Pvt] It was announced that Pipavav Shipyard (Reliance Defence) entered a joint venture with Mazagon Dock Limited to collaborately build warships and submarines using Pipavav's facilities.

2011:[Space][US] Space Shuttle got decommisioned.

2011: IAS Abhishek Singh was a 2011-batch IAS officer of the UP cadre. He was removed from active duty in February 2023 after the government got to know that he was missing from duty for 82 days without informing them. His work in Netflix's acclaimed series 'Delhi Crime' earned him recognition. He was also seen in the short film, 'Chaar Pandrah', and B Praak’s song 'Dil Tod Ke'. He also appeared in the son 'Third Party' with Sunny Leone which grabbed headlines. In Nov'23, Abhishek Singh and Sunny Leone were in Varanasi to attend the Ganga Aarti at night.

2011: ex-IPS K Annamalai, a mech engg graduate from PSGCT, Coimbatore (and MBA from IIML) cleared UPSC exam in 1st attempt, securing AIR 244. He quit as DCP Bengaluru South and joined BJP in 2019 and contested in the Lok Sabha election from Coimbatore in 2024. Score 1167/2300 marks.

2012 (Jan):[Space][India] ISRO announced that a scaled prototype, called Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), was approved to be built and tested. The aerodynamics characterization on the RLV-TD prototype was done by National Aerospace Laboratories in India.

2012 (Jul 30):[Defence][Pvt] Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd. incorporated in Maharashtra.

2012:[Pvt] Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd. started Birdie airport shuttle service in Bangalore. No longer suffer stressful traffic jams lasting 2-3 hours getting to and from Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), which is 40 km from the city centre. Just hop on Birdie at the HAL airport and hop off at BIAL. You can take Birdie from BIAL to four main locations: HAL airport, Whitefield, Electronic City, and Mysore.

2012: Prof. David R. Syiemlieh UPSC joined as Member, the Union Public Service Commission on 25 June. 2012. (whose board interviewed Dr. Tanu Jain)

2012: In the 2012 UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE), Hailing from Haryana's Panchkula, IDES Gaurav Kaushal secured the 38th All India Rank (AIR). Subsequently, he joined the Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES), taking charge of administrative responsibilities within the Cantonment Board and overseeing military land. However, after 12 years of service, he chose to leave his government job to become a mentor for UPSC aspirants.

2012: From 2012 to 2016, IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi was on a central deputation at AIIMS, where he served as the institute’s deputy director. At AIIMS, IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi was also given an additional charge of chief vigilance officer (CVO) from 2012 to 2014.

2012 (Sep): Parliamentary standing committee: In September 2012, the then chairman of parliamentary standing committee for health and family welfare, Brajesh Pathak, in a letter to the then union health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, wrote this about IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi being shifted from CVO office at AIIMS: “…this newly posted officer had a very credible track record of fight against the corruption, in his earlier stint in Haryana, during which Prime Minister Office had also intervened, in favour of the officer. Needless to say, this move of the ministry would only discourage the honest officers.”

2012 (Nov): Prime minister’s office: In November 2012, the prime minister’s office wrote to the then cabinet secretary, “The undersigned is directed to request that Cabinet Secretary may satisfy himself thoroughly before taking any decision in the CSB (Civil Services Board) and keep this office information.” (IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi)

2012: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the second was for twenty weeks in 2012–2013 with the Army Air Corps.

2013 (Feb 4): iSPIRT (Indian Software Products Industry Round Table), is a think tank for the Indian software products industry, incl. India Stack.

2013 (Jul 1):[Space][India] The constellations' first satellite (IRNSS-1A) was launched on 1st July 2013 and the eighth satellite IRNSS-1I was launched in April 2018. With the seventh launch of the constellation's satellite (IRNSS-1G), IRNSS was renamed NavIC by India's Prime Minister in 2016.


2013 (Aug):[US] The public found out that Area 51 officially existed in August 2013 after Dr. Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the George Washington University National Security Archive, submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request in 2005 for information on the CIA’s Lockheed U-2 plane reconnaissance program, the secret construction and testing of spy planes used to gather intelligence. The request forced the CIA to declassify documents on the history of the U-2 and A-12 OXCART program and the military base where the planes were constructed and tested — Area 51.


2013 (Nov 5):[Space][India] The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), unofficially known as Mangalyaan (Sanskrit: Maṅgala 'Mars', Yāna 'Craft, Vehicle'), was a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by ISRO. 

2013 (Jul 6): Currently there only 115 completely LHB trains in India, All of the Shatabdi, most of the 

2013:[Pvt] HimalayanHeli did the first heliborne powerline stringing project in India for Sterlite Power. Today, they are technically able to take on any kind of aerial work project.

2013: IAS Roman Saini: A former AIIMS topper, Roman Saini cleared the UPSC exam in 2013 with an all-India rank of 18. Despite being a successful doctor, he chose to resign from his prestigious position and pursued his passion for civil services to become an IAS officer.

2013: Pradeep Gawande is 39 years old and was born in Maharashtra. He is from the 2013 IAS officer batch. He is going to spend his entire life with the famous Rajasthan IAS officer Tina Dabi. Dr. Pradeep has also passed MBBS and chosen medico as a career.

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2014:
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Mar:[Defence][Pvt]  Mahindra Defence Naval Systems (MDNS) has posted revenue of Rs 20 crore in the current financial year and planning to double the revenue by end of next financial year.

May: Two Vigilance departmental chargesheets on charges of corruption were approved against Chawdhry by Nadda’s predecessors— Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad (Health Minister from 22 May 2009 to 26 May 2014) in May 2014 had recommended a minor penalty against Chawdhry while Harsh Vardhan (Health Minister from 26 May 2014 to 7 Jul 2021) in August 2014 had recommended major penalty against Vineet Chawdhry. Both the chargesheets (running into over 2,500 pages) were approved by CVO, AIIMS; Deputy Director, Director AIIMS and President of the Institute – who is the health minister.
The first chargesheet relates to charges of financial irregularities in purchase of livery items, resulting in the sanction of minor penalty by Azad. The second has seven charges including illegal extension in service of a Superintending Engineer, illegal appointment and payment to consultants, treatment of pet dog at cancer centre, allegedly deliberately misplacing a file on creation of post of CVO and misuse of official vehicles through forged entries. This set of charges resulted in a major penalty being recommended.
As per procedure, once the chargesheets are approved by the health minister, these are sent to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) which after giving its opinion sends it back to AIIMS for taking up the issue with the cadre controlling authority, which is DoPT in case of IAS officers.

May: Union health secretary: In May 2014, the then union health secretary, Vishwas Mehta, in a note, said that the “performance of Shri (IFS) Sanjiv Chaturvedi has been exemplary and he is known for absolute integrity. He has been instrumental in exposing corruption and based on his finding inquiries have been initiated against some officers by investigating agencies like CBI”.

Aug: As the CVO at AIIMS, IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi initiated action in over 200 corruption cases in the institute, including an inquiry against the then director of AIIMS Dr MC Mishra. This may have led to his removal from the post of CVO in August 2014.

Aug 23: PMJDY: Banks organised 77,892 camps around the country, and opened about 1.8 crore accounts. Guinness World Records recognised the achievement: “The most bank accounts opened in 1 week as part of a financial inclusion campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by Department of Financial Services, Government of India from 23 to 29 August 2014.”.

Make in India initiative was launched on September 25, 2014 with the objective of facilitating investment, fostering innovation, building best in class manufacturing infrastructure, making it easy to do business and enhancing skill development. The initiative is further aimed at creating a conducive environment for investment, modern and efficient infrastructure, opening up new sectors for foreign investment and forging a partnership between government and industry through positive mindset.

Sep 24:[Space][India] India made history with the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, becoming the first country to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt. It was launched on November 5, 2013, by the PSLV-C25 rocket from Sriharikota. Although its intended mission duration was six months, MOM continues to orbit Mars, celebrating seven years in space as of September 24, 2021.

[Offence]  Ramesh and Achal Chaurasia, the masterminds behind the illegal online gambling racket under the Game King India Pvt. Ltd. revealed in year 2016, started operation in Mumbai in 2014.

Ira Singhal is an Indian Administrative Service officer and computer science engineer. She was the highest-scoring individual in the UPSC's Civil Services Examination for the year 2014. 

Tanu Jain's journey with UPSC was not without its challenges. In her first attempt, she cleared the prelims exam in just two months but fell short in the mains. It was only in her third attempt in 2014 that she secured the 648th rank.

Saloni Khanna is a full-time teacher of Economics at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.

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2015:
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Digital India Foundation (DIF) founded by Arvind Gupta in Noida. It is a not-for-profit think-tank aiming to foster digital inclusion and adoption, and the use of the Internet and related technologies for the developmental process.

Feb 18-22: Bangalore Aero India Show 2015. HimalayanHeli were awarded the 'Operator of the year' award. They were later awarded the 'Captain Willian J. Kossler' Award by the American Helicopter Society-AHS International, for their efforts in conducting disaster management (search and rescue) operation during the catastrophic Uttarakhand floods of 2013.

Mar 5:[Defence][Pvt] Reliance Naval and Engineering Limited (R-Naval), formerly known as Reliance Defence & Engineering Limited and prior to that as Pipavav Shipyard Limited and Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Company Limited is an Indian shipbuilding and heavy industry company headquartered in Mumbai.

Mar 25:[Defence][Pvt] Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited (ADSTL), later Adani Defence and Aerospace (ADA) is a Non-govt company, incorporated at Ahmedabad. It's a public unlisted company and is classified as'company limited by shares'. Rs. 6,000 crore of auth capital.

Apr 1: Advance Reservation Period (ARP) for booking in trains is increased from 60 days (~2 months) to 120 days (~ 4 months) w.e.f 1st April, 2015. Gov expected to benefit out of cancellation charges.

Apr 8: Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) is a scheme launched by the Hon'ble Prime Minister on April 8, 2015 for providing loans up to 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises. These loans are classified as MUDRA loans under PMMY. Mudra - Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd.

This initiative aims to provide micro-finance, low-interest rate loans to entrepreneurs from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Shishu <  ₹50,000
Kishor  above ₹50,000 and up to ₹5 lakh
Tarun    above  ₹5 lakh and up to ₹10 lakh (extendable upto ₹20 lakh, considering good credit history)

Jun:[Space][China] LandSpace Technology Corporation (doing business as LandSpace) is a Chinese commercial space launch provider based in Beijing. It was founded in 2015 by Zhang Changwu.

Jul 1: Digital India is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The programme was launched on July 1, 2015 by Hon' Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Jul 1: Users need to possess an Aadhaar number to use DigiLocker. During registration, user identity is verified using a one-time password (OTP) sent to the linked mobile number. The beta version of the service was rolled out in February 2015, and was launched to the public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015.

Jul 4: The Ministry of Health (MoH) has asked the director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to carry out a "preliminary determination" as to whether charges against Himachal cadre IAS officer Vineet Chawdhry "merit disciplinary proceedings or not", seemingly overturning an earlier decision by Health Minister JP Nadda that Chawdhry’s case would be handled by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

Jul 15: MoSDE's Skill India campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 July 2015 to train over 30 crore people in India in different skills by 2022.

Jul 30: IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi is the youngest and fourth Indian civil servant to receive the Magsaysay award. Before Chaturvedi, Kiran Bedi, TN Seshan, and James Michael Lyngdoh were the only civil servants to bag the award. While Kiran Bedi received the award after 22 years of her service, TN Seshan and Lyngdoh got it post retirement. Chaturvedi received it within just 13 years of his service. 

Aug:[Defence][US] The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is a United States Department of Defense organization founded to help the U.S. military make faster use of emerging commercial technologies. Launched in 2015, the organization has been called "the Pentagon's Innovation Experiment". Parent department: Secretary of Defense; The organization is headquartered in Mountain View, California — Silicon Valley — with offices in Austin, Boston, Chicago, and the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C.

Sep 28:[Space][India] AstroSat, India's inaugural dedicated multi-wavelength space telescope, was launched on September 28, 2015, using a PSLV-XL rocket.

Oct 6: Uchhattar Avishkar Yojana, a joint MHRD-DST scheme has earmarked Rs. 250 crore annually to foster “very high quality” research amongst IIT students.

Nov 5: ‘IMPRINT India’, a pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative to develop a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technology challenges in ten technology domains relevant to India was launched on November 5, 2015. Adopting engineering and technology as a vehicle to address the social needs, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now renamed as Ministry of Education) has formulated a catalytic scheme for Impacting Research, Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) as a pan-India initiative.

Dec 27: Jio was soft launched on 27 December 2015 with a beta for partners and employees, and became publicly available on 5 September 2016.

Sagarmala Project: It was approved in 2015, aims to develop port infrastructure along India's 7,516-km coastline through modernisation, mechanisation and computerisation.

the NALSAR Public Policy Forum was envisioned by a few students of the college in 2015 to kindle the interest of students in the field of Public Policy. The area of public policy has seen a revival in the last few years with the Government entities increasingly taking inputs from various policy think tanks and research institutes. 

IAS Tina Dabi is an Indian Administrative Service officer working as the Commissioner of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in Jaipur, Rajasthan. She is the former chief executive officer of the District Council of Sri Ganganagar. The IAS officer cracked the examination in her first attempt and also emerged as the UPSC Topper with AIR 1 in 2015. IAS Tina Dabi Time Table went viral on social media which includes the Study Plan followed by her to clear the tough examination. Her father, Jaswant Dabi, is retired general manager of BSNL, while her mother, Himani Dabi, is an employee of the Indian Engineering Service.

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2016:
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Jan 2: David R Syiemlieh appointed new UPSC chairman. Syiemlieh, a UPSC member, has been asked to take over charge on January 4 and will remain the head of the organisation till his retirement on January 21, 2018 or till further orders.

Jan 16: Since the launch of the initiative on 16th January, 2016, Startup India has rolled out several programs with the objective of supporting entrepreneurs, and transforming India into a country of job creators instead of job seekers. Rs. 10,000 crore startup funding pool. In order to provide funding support to Startups, Government will set up a fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 2,500 crore and a total corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore over a period 4 years (i.e. Rs. 2,500 crore per year till 2020). Credit guarantee mechanism through National Credit Guarantee Trust Company (NCGTC)/ SIDBI is being envisaged with a budgetary Corpus of INR 500 crore per year for the next four years. (total 2,000 crore till 2024)

Jan: With the amendment of the Tariff Policy in January 2016, the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) are required to reserve a minimum percentage for the purchase of solar energy which shall be such that it reaches 8% of the total consumption of energy, excluding hydropower, by March 2022 or as notified by the Central Government from time to time. (RECs)

Mar 10: Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. The Act establishes a Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in each state for regulation of the real estate sector and also acts as an adjudicating body for speedy dispute resolution. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 10 March 2016 and by the Lok Sabha on 15 March 2016.  It is mandatory for each State and Union Territory to establish their Real Estate Regulation Authorities (RERAs) following the notification of RERA regulations within one year of its enactment.

FY16: Ironically, as the deputy director at AIIMS, IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi was given grade ‘zero’ by the health ministry for his appraisal for 2015-2016 – the same year in which he was conferred with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award for his crusade against corruption. Interestingly, the same reviewing and reporting authorities gave him an ‘outstanding’ grade for previous two years.
A look at the grades given to Chaturvedi since he took charge in 2005.
2016 – 2017: Outstanding
2015 – 2016: 1 (Zero)
2014 – 2015: 9.5 (Outstanding)
2013 – 2014: 9.5 (Outstanding)
2011 – 2012: 3.5 (Zero) – Later restored to ‘outstanding’ by the president
2010 – 2011: 3.5 (Zero) – Later restored to ‘outstanding’ by the president
2009 – 2010: Outstanding
2008 – 2009: Outstanding
2007 – 2008: Outstanding
2006 – 2007: Outstanding
2005 – 2006: Outstanding
According to the department of personnel and training, any grade between 0-4 is considered ‘zero’ and between 8-10 as ‘outstanding’ for the purpose of promotion and other service matters. 
Between 2008 and 2014, the president of India passed four orders in Chaturvedi’s support, revoking the then Bhupinder Singh Hooda government’s charge sheets against him in Haryana.


Apr 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Stand-Up India scheme on 5 April 2016 as part of the government's efforts to support entrepreneurship among women and SC & ST communities.
Facilitate bank loans between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.100 lakh to at least one SC/ST borrower and at least one-woman borrower per bank branch of Scheduled Commercial Banks.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, besides Startup India, the Modi Government also launched the StandUp India scheme on 5th April, 2016 to facilitate bank loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) between Rs.10 lakh to Rs.1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one woman per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise in trading, services or manufacturing sector. The scheme is expected to benefit at least 2.5 lakh borrowers. (Standup)

May: Judiciary: In a work allocation case, a judicial bench in May 2016, said this about Chaturvedi: “It seems that the applicant has chosen a path of integrity and righteousness… this is a difficult path. We, therefore, close this matter…”

Jul 19: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is an executive agency of the Union Government of the Republic of India. It was carved out of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on 19 July 2016 as a standalone ministerial agency responsible for IT policy, strategy and development of electronics industry. The work for developing and mandating standards for electronics goods is in advanced stage and the "Electronics & IT Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012" Phase - V has been notified. As on date 63 electronics and IT product categories have been notified. In order to facilitate the same for the following technical resources are to be deployed.

Aug (Aug 28):[Space][India] ISRO successfully tested its scramjet engine on second developmental flight of its Advanced Technology Vehicle ATV-D02 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The scramjet engine will be integrated to the RLV at a later stage of development. SRO aims to bring down the cost of payload delivery to low Earth orbit by 80% from existing $20,000/kg to $4,000/kg. mini space shuttle. The RLV-TD was developed with an objective to test various aspects such as hypersonic flight, autoland, powered cruise flight, hypersonic flight using the air-breathing engine propulsion and Hypersonic Experiment. Total cost of the project was ₹95 crore (equivalent to ₹137 crore or US$16.4 million in 2023).
the rollout of payment solutions such as UPI — launched two years after the PMJDY — has eased and increased banking transactions. the JAM trinity. Jan-dhan account, Aadhaar and mobile.

Sep 2: National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) has 8 components that support each stage of a nascent startup from its idea stage to the market stage. The first component PRAYAS was inaugurated on September 2nd 2016 and its goal is to back innovators to create prototypes of their start-up ideas. A Grand Challenge program called NIDHI (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations) shall be instituted through Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centres (IEDCs) to support and award INR 10 lakhs to 20 student innovations.

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog in 2016 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country.
The Atal Innovation Mission has following two core functions:
1. Entrepreneurship promotion through Self-Employment and Talent Utilization, wherein innovators would be supported and mentored to become successful entrepreneurs.
2. Innovation promotion: to provide a platform where innovative ideas are generated.

To promote creative, innovative mind set in schools. At the school level, AIM is setting up state of the art Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) across all districts across the country. These ATLs are dedicated innovation workspaces of 1000-1500 square feet where do-it-yourself (DIY) kits on latest technologies like 3D Printers, Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), Miniaturized electronics are installed using a grant of Rs 20 Lakhs from the government so that students from Grade VI to Grade XII can tinker with these technologies and learn to create innovative solutions using these technologies. This will enable create a problem solving, innovative mind set within millions of students across the country.

Promoting entrepreneurship in universities and industry. At the university, NGO, SME and Corporate industry levels, AIM is setting up world-class Atal Incubators (AICs) that would trigger and enable successful growth of sustainable startups in every sector /state of the country, thereby promoting entrepreneurs and job creators in the country addressing both commercial and social entrepreneurship opportunities in India and applicable globally.

To promote the benefits of technology led innovation to the unserved/underserved regions of India including Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, aspirational districts, tribal, hilly and coastal areas, AIM is setting up Atal Community Innovation Centres (ACIC) with a unique partnership driven model wherein AIM would grant upto Rs 2.5 crores to an ACIC subject to a partner proving equal or greater matching funding. 

Atal New India Challenges
Atal Grand Challenges
Mentor of Change - Industry, Academia, Government, Global Collaborations

Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE-ANIC: The Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE-ANIC program is a national initiative to promote research & innovation and increase competitiveness of Indian startups and MSMEs. 

The intended targets that will be achieved by AIM are:

  1. Establishing 10000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs),
  2. Establishing 101 Atal Incubation Centers (AICs),
  3. Establishing 50 Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACICs) and
  4. Supporting 200 startups via the Atal New India Challenges.
The total budgeted expenditure of  Rs.2000+ crore shall be incurred in the process of the establishment and supporting the beneficiaries.

Sep 5: Reliance Jio launched. Jio was first seeded by Isha Ambani in 2011, reveals dad Mukesh. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's telecom venture Jio, which catapulted India as the world's largest mobile broadband data consuming nation in less than two years, was first seeded by his daughter, Isha, in 2011. 

Sep 12: New Revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between India and Republic of Korea comes into force with effect from 12th September, 2016; Will have effect in India in respect of income derived in fiscal years beginning on or after 1st April, 2017.

Oct 27: Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL), a Tata Group company, has signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) to acquire a 100% equity stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Limited (WMMI), Narsapura (Karnataka) for $125 million. The agreement was signed with SMS InfoComm (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. and Wistron Hong Kong Limited. The new agreement will make Tata Group the first Indian company to make Apple iPhones. The Wistron plant is located in Narsapura, near Bengaluru. (Tata Electronics acquires Wistron India)
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed that that Tata Electronics, in collaboration with Foxconn and Pegatron, will commence the preliminary manufacturing process for the iPhone 17, slated for a 2025 launch, as early as the latter half of 2024. Winstron was originally the manufacturing department of Acer Inc., the company was spun off from Acer in 2000. (PLI)

Oct 27: The UP RERA Act of 2016 has provisions in place to ensure efficiency and transparency in the real estate sector of Uttar Pradesh. The official date for UP RERA notification was October 27, 2016 and this Act has been in effect ever since. Along with UP, Chandigarh, DNH, DND, and A&N formalized and notified the RERA rules for the first time in the country within 1 year of RERA enactment. Delhi notified in Nov.

In 2016, the prime minister’s office (PMO) introduced a “360-degree feedback mechanism” for the empanelment of secretaries from the 1982 batch of civil servants. This was in tune with the idea of introducing best practices of the corporate sector to improve government functioning and maximise efficiency.

FY17: HimalayanHeli were hired by Sterlite Power and Erickson Inc. USA to help import and operate the S-64 E Sky crane helicopter for the first time in India. The helicopter was deployed in Jammu & Kashmir for construction of powerline transmission towers by Sterlite Power.

IAS athar aamir khan, from the 2016 batch, has been serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Kulgam since January 4, 2024.

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2017:
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Feb 21: With ~25 YOE, Indian economist and historian Sanjay Sanyal, ex-Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank hired as Principal Economic Advisor, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and worked in the role for next 5 years and later promoted as Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). (probably screened-in by UPSC)

FY17: IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi’s current reporting authority BP Gupta [chief conservator of forests (research and biodiversity conservation), Haldwani] and reviewing authority Rajendra Kumar [Uttarakhand’s principal chief conservator of forests] also consider his work as outstanding. Even Uttarakhand’s forest minister, Harak Singh Rawat, is all praises for him.

Apr 10:[Defence] Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), a Section 8 company (NPO) formed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)

Apr: Hall of Nations, ITP demolished. Legal interventions were still ongoing in the Delhi High Court when the structure was demolished in April 2017. The demolition of the building, which was considered iconic for its architecture, led to widespread national and global disapproval. It was described in The New York Times as a "Brutalist masterpiece" and one of the world's largest-span space frame concrete structures, when built.

Jun 5:[Space][India] The GSLV-Mk III is designed to launch satellites weighing up to 4 tons into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The GSLV Mk III-D1 successfully launched the GSAT-19 on June 5, 2017.
The Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or LVM3 (previously referred as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III or GSLV Mk III) is a three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Primarily designed to launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit,it is also due to launch crewed missions under the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. LVM3 has a higher payload capacity than its predecessor, GSLV.

Jun: RERA established in UP and TN.

Jul 9: SWAYAM launched by Pranab Mukherjee, Honorable President of India. SWAYAM has been developed cooperatively by the Ministry of Education and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), with the help of Microsoft. The current SWAYAM platform can facilitate 2,000 courses. SWAYAM (meaning 'Self' in Sanskrit) is an acronym that stands for "Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds".

Aug 1: Bootstrap Incubation & Advisory Foundation is a Private incorporated on 01 August 2017. It is classified as Non-government company and is registered at Defence Colony, Delhi. Directors of Bootstrap Incubation & Advisory Foundation are Archana Jahagirdar and Deepak Bansal.

Sep 29: Zetatek Technologies Private Limited, Hyderabad got new director Ravi Kumar Rachakonda.

Sep 7: HC orders early hearings on Sanjeev Chaturvedi submitting before the court the case has been listed on 11 occasions but “no effective hearing” has taken place.

Sep: IFS Sanjeev files an RTI application before CPIO, CBI regarding zero grading in FY16 APAR in AIIMS, Delhi corruption cases.

Nov 23: Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance (UMANG) has been developed as a single mobile platform to deliver major Government services. Hon'ble Prime Minister has dedicated UMANG to nation on 23rd November, 2017.

The first phase of Bharatmala, announced in 2017 and initially set to be completed by 2022, has now had its deadline extended to 2027-28. 4.23 lakh crore has been spent under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I up to Decmeber 2023.

Aggressive hybrid fund category was created in 2017 after the re-categorisation of mutual funds by Sebi. Earlier, these schemes used to be known as equity hybrid schemes and balanced schemes. They used to invest in a mixed portfolio of equity and debt, mostly above 65% in equity to qualify for equity mutual fund taxation. However, there was no official investment mandate before the recategorisation norms were introduced.

UPSC Cadre Allocation Policy-2017 shall be applicable w.e.f. Civil Services Examination(CSE)-2019 onwards.

Anudeep Durishetty, IAS officer of 2018 batch and All India Rank 1 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2017. I secured this rank in my 5th attempt. 

IPS Navjot Simi secured AIR 735 in UPSC CSE 2017. * She belongs to SC category. * In 2016, she cleared Punjab Civil Services (PCS). * Currently, she is posted as the DSP of Patna.

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2018:
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Jan 19: The last ICF Coach was flagged off on 19 January 2018, making way for LHB Coaches to be used for all new coaches to be introduced by Indian Railways in the future. 

Jan: The One District One Product (ODOP) mission was launched by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in January 2018, to promote state's handicrafts and to help handicrafts workers financially for the all 75 districts across the state, enabling development of 167 specific products under 62 unique ODOP products from UP. "Vocal for Local" and "Atmanirbhar Bharat"

Jan: UP, the first state to establish REAT (Real Estate Appellate Tribunal)

Feb 26:[Defence] Recently, the Prime Minister visited the exhibition models of the Aligarh node of the upcoming Defence Industrial Corridor in Uttar Pradesh. It was announced by the Prime Minister while inaugurating the UP Investors Summit in Lucknow in 2018. It will have 6 nodes – Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi and Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh is the fourth largest state in India and the third largest economy within the country.
With a population of more than 200 million, UP has the highest number of available labour force and is one of the top five manufacturing states in India. (other are GJ, MH, TN, and KA)

Mar 19:[Offence] “We are awaiting a report by the Indian CERT (computer emergency response team). But we will meanwhile enact a law to regulate online betting,” Mr Patil said while addressing the Legislative Council on Monday (Mar 19), on a debate related to alleged betting racket run by Game King India Private Limited, owned by  Ramesh Chaurasia who was apprehended by the Indore Police from Mumbai. However, the opposition raised up allegations that Mr. Chaurasia had established 500 illegal gambling parlours in Mumbai alone. The leader of the opposition, Mr.Dhananjay Munde accused that it was with the support of Mumbai police that the brainbox of the 5,000-crore racket, expanded his business in seven States and 15 countries.   Mr. Munde also questioned: “What is stopping the Mumbai Police from shutting down this site? and What is stopping them from arresting Mr. Chaurasia?” The government said, Mr. Chaurasia was operating the parlours under the garb of video game parlours, for which he had obtained permissions from the local body. The Indore Police had announced a bounty of 20,000 on him. “Seven cases have been registered against him by our police. Once the CERT report is in, we will shut this website and arrest him at the earliest,” Mr. Patil said. “The Indore Police took a one-and-a-half year to arrest him, but we will not take that long.”

Mar: Smartphone Manufacturing: In FY 2017-18, mobile phone imports were USD 3.6 billion, while exports were a mere USD 334 million, resulting in a -USD 3.3 billion trade deficit.

Apr:[Space] The constellations' first satellite (IRNSS-1A) was launched on 1st July 2013 and the eighth satellite IRNSS-1I was launched in April 2018. With the seventh launch of the constellation's satellite (IRNSS-1G), IRNSS was renamed NavIC by India's Prime Minister in 2016.

Apr:[Defence] Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), a flagship initiative of Department of Defence Production (Ministry of Defence) to modernize and indigenize Indian defence industry is launched by PM. iDEX will be funded and managed by Defence Innovation Organization (DIO), and will function as the executive arm of DIO.

2018 (Jun 15):[GoI] DOPT publishes "Lateral Recruitment of (10) Joint Secretaries - Last Date and Time for submission of online application through https://lateral.nic.in portal is today, 30.07.2018 till 05:00PM IST"  In 2018, the government approved lateral entry for certain civil services positions, such as Joint Secretary-level posts, to experienced private sector candidates. They were to be screened-in by UPSC on a three-year contract, extendable by two years with the same pay and perks as their peers in the permanent bureaucracy. But they can't be retained beyond five years, even if they are outstanding.

  1. Revenue
  2. Financial Services


Aug 11:[Defence] Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) took off to an encouraging start with the announcement of investments worth over Rs. 3700 crores in Defence production at the Meet organized at Aligarh. The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is the nodal agency to execute this project in conjunction with various other state agencies. Ordnance Factories, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and BrahMos Aerospace are the major giants which have planned investments in the state to further strengthen Defence manufacturing.

UPDIC took off to a great start with an announcement of investment over Rs. 3700 crore in defence production at Industry Meet organized  at Aligarh, today. The event was graced by Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath, Rajya Raksha Mantri, Dr. Subhash Bhamre, Minister of Industrial Development UP, Shri Satish Mahana, Member of Parliament Shri Satish Kumar Gautam and several other Ministers and MLAs.
HAL -Rs. 1200 crore, OFB - Rs. 1077 crore, MKU - Rs. 900 crore, BEL- Rs. 240 crore,Bharat Forge - Rs. 200 crore and PTC - Rs. 115 crore. The total amount of investment announced was of the order of Rs. 3732 crore. Boeing India announced setting up of a skill centre in cooperation with HAL.


Aug: The Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) is a Ministry of Human Resource Development initiative that aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s Higher Educational Institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions and the best institutions in the world. The Government in August 2018 had sanctioned the scheme at a total cost of Rs.418 Cr for implementation up to 31.3.2020. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is the National Coordinating Institute to implement the SPARC programme.

Oct 23: The Indian School of Public Policy was formally launched on 23 October, 2018 at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi by dignitaries including Shri N.K. Singh, Shri Rajiv Mehrishi and Shri Gurcharan Das. Notable experts from TISS, Twitter Inc. India, Brookings Institution, Uber India and GMR established the urgent need for a new generation of policy professionals through a panel discussion.

:[Defence] N Chadrasekharan Task Force was set up in 2018 to study implications of AI in national security.

Dec 24/27:[Pvt] Foxconn, which already makes phones for Xiaomi Corp, will invest $356 million to expand the plant, including investment in iPhone production (for the first iPhone production in India) at Foxconn’s plant in Sriperumbudur town in Tamil Nadu. Foxconn will be assembling the most expensive models, such as devices in the flagship iPhone X family, the source said, potentially taking Apple’s business in India to a new level. 25k jobs.
Until now, Cupertino, California-based Apple has only assembled the lower-cost SE and 6S models in India through Wistron Corp’s local unit in the Bengaluru technology hub.

IRCTC has been printing and publishing Trains At A Glance (TAG) for Indian Railways since 2018 with the 41st, 42nd and 43rd edition launched in 2018, 2019 and 2022 respectively. 

Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers cadre strength: 9,775 members 4,192 (Income Tax - 43%) and 5,583 (Customs and Indirect Taxes - 57%). Sanctioned strength for IRS(IT) = 4914

The single judge bench was hearing Chaturvedi’s application requesting an early hearing of a contempt petition filed by him in 2018, stating that the CBI officials – Vineet Vinayak, joint director and Gagandeep Gambhir, DIG – failed to comply with an HC order dated September 7, 2017. Chaturvedi submitted before the court the case has been listed on 11 occasions but “no effective hearing” has taken place.

IAS Srushti Deshmukh Originating from Bhopal, she secured the fifth rank in the 2018 UPSC Civil Services Examination, earning herself a prestigious position in the IAS and joins the services in 2019 in MP cadre. As of Mar'24 she is a Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Gadarwara in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district. Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, Distt. Burhanpur. Her husband is also an IAS, Dr. Nagarjuna B Gowda, Addl. Collector, Distt Harda (MP). He became an IAS officer from the 2018 batch. He got a good 418 rank in All around India. For his initial posting Arjun Gowda was placed in Manipur Cadre and later was placed as an IAS officer in the batch of 2019.

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2019:
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Jan 14: Dr. TCA Anant joined the UPSC as Member on Jan 14, 2019, prior to which he was Professor and Head, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics (DSE), University of Delhi. He has earlier served as the Chief Statistician of India (CSI) and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation from 2010 to 2018, and as Member Secretary, Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) from 2006 to 2009.

Jan 19: Sony-Zee Subhash's letter to SEBI

Jan 20:[Defence] The government has established another Defence Industrial Corridor in Tamil Nadu (TANDIC) inaugurated by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. It comprises Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Salem and Hosur. 

Feb 15: The first Vande Bharat Express was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 15, 2019. Varanasi – New Delhi (22435) / New Delhi – Varanasi (22436) On February 18, 2019, the first Vande Bharat Express train was inaugurated, and its very first route connecting the capital city of Delhi to the holy city of Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh). It makes stops at Prayagraj and Kanpur. This is the longest route, stretching over 759 kilometers and taking approximately 8 hours to complete. It connects the capital city, New Delhi, with the holy city of Varanasi, known for its cultural and spiritual significance.

Feb 28: Scheme for Transformational and Advanced Research in Sciences (STARS) for promoting translational, India-centric research in sciences, to be implemented and managed by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Scheme for Translational and Advanced Research in Science (STARS) scheme was launched on the National Science Day, 28th February 2019 by MHRD (now renamed as Ministry of Education) worth Rs. 250 crore for funding 500 science projects. With the key objective of supporting socially relevant research, the following six basic thrust areas have been identified:

  1. Physical Sciences
  2. Chemical Sciences
  3. Biological Sciences
  4. Nanosciences
  5. Data Sciences and Mathematics
  6. Earth Sciences

Mar 27:[Defence] the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha, successfully neutralised a satellite in space with its anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test ‘Mission Shakti’, a part of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme.
ASATs can use various methods to attack satellites, including kinetic impact, lasers, and directed energy weapons. In March 2019, India successfully conducted Mission Shakti, an anti-satellite missile test, making India the fourth country in the world to have demonstrated the ability to destroy a satellite in orbit. It made India the fourth country with ASAT capabilities after the USA, Russia, and China.

Mar 23: With the appointment of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh as India's first Lokpal and as a body,  the institution of Lokpal formally came into being in March 2019 after an untiring and relentless struggle of masses, in past one year institution of the Lokpal has not been able to punish a single corrupt official, mainly because of  large number of vacancies. (IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi)

Apr 4: Naman Shrivastava and Shatakshi Sharma co-founded lobal Governance Initiative (GGI). 

Apr 23: Modi govt has reduced recruitment of IRS officers by over 70% since 2014
In 2013, 409 IRS officers were recruited through the UPSC exam. By 2017, this number had dropped to just 208. By 2018, the number of posts released by the Modi govt stood at 106.

Apr:[Pvt] Jet Airways, founded by Naresh Goyal, went bankrupt in April 2019 and suspended flight operations due to financial troubles. JKC comprises Murari Lal Jalan, a UAE-based non-resident Indian, and Florian Fritsch, who holds shares in Jet Airways through his Cayman Islands-based investment holding company Kalrock Capital Partners Ltd. The National Companies Law Tribunal approved the consortium's resolution plan for Jet Airways on June 22, 2021.

May 10: MeitY Startup Hub (MSH)- an integrating platform to support Incubators and Startups launched on 10th May 2019.

Jun 25: Ramesh Chaurasia and Achal Chaurasia have been discharged from the case as they have resigned from the company Game King India Private Limited. The Court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate 37th Court, Mumbai, issued the order on June 25, 2019.

Oct: The Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme: DHRUV has been started by Ministry of Education (earlier Human Resource Development), Government of India to identify and encourage talented children to enrich their skills and knowledge. In centres of excellence across the country, gifted children will be mentored and nurtured by renowned experts in different areas, so that they can reach their full potential.

Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India's Developing Economy' (STRIDE): The University Grants Commission (UGC) had approved this scheme in 2019.

Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India's Developing Economy (STRIDE) plans to add new disciplines for research support with a thrust on research capacity building, trans-disciplinary research facilitating India’s developing economy. The specific focus of the scheme is to support high-impact research in thrust areas of humanities and human sciences including arts, Indian languages, culture and knowledge systems through networking of experts from institutions and organisations across India. An advisory committee has been set up by the UGC to oversee the entire scheme.

STRIDE will support the following innovative research projects:
  1. Socially relevant
  2. Locally need-based
  3. Nationally important
  4. Globally significant
STRIDE shall support basic, applied and transformational action research for India’s developing economy to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will facilitate overall human development. To access the Stride Operational Guidelines click here.

The main objectives of STRIDE are:

  1. To identify young talent, strengthen research culture, build capacity, promote innovation and support trans-disciplinary research for India’s developing economy and national development.
  2. To fund multi-institutional network high-impact research projects in humanities and human sciences.
Nov 5:[Pvt] Skye Air: India's Modern-Day New Age Drone Delivery Service.
Skye Air Mobility Private Limited, Hyderabad founded by Chandra Prakash, Srikanth Sarda, Ankit Kumar Kumar and Mohammed Ali Shariff.

Nov: In November 2019, the whistle blower officer IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi who has garnered reputation of no nonsense corruption crusader write to the center requesting to allow him to serve in investigation wing of the Lokpal.  Notably, state government of Uttarakhand where he is posted as chief conservator of forests, a rank akin to joint secretary in the center has already granted NOC in December 2019. 

:[Space][China] Space Pioneer was founded in 2019 by Kang Yonglai. Kang was the former CTO of LandSpace until 2019, when he left to establish Space Pioneer. Not-so-static fire: Private Chinese rocket accidentally launches during test. Space Pioneer's new Tianlong-3 rocket was supposed to stay on the ground during the June 30 (2024) test.

:[Pvt] Foxconn began production of iPhone in India starting in 2019 with iPhone XR. That expanded into iPhone 11 in 2020, then each flagship iPhone has had some model built in India since. The Sunguvarchatram plant still assembled fewer than 10% of all iPhone 15 models. Foxconn makes the larger Plus and more advanced Pro models exclusively in China.

IAS Akshat Jain is a 2019 batch officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He cracked UPSC in 2018 at the age of 23. The IAS officer secured AIR 2 in his second attempt.

Ms Sanjita Mohapatra secures rank 10 in UPSC 2019.

Ms Amritpal Kaur IAS Uttar Pradesh confirmed as the Indian Administrative Service of 2019 batch in the Indian Administrative Service, with effect from 26/08/2021 . Amritpal Kaur, IAS Rank 44: Ethics, Essay and Option.

Deepak Kumar, Hindi Medium, Rank 769 (UPSC-2019)

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2020:
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Feb 5:[Defence]  DefExpo2020 (11th edition) was held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh from Wed, Feb 5th to Sat, Feb 8th. This is for the first time the defence exhibition is being held in the northern state to explore potential available for defence productions. MoD has already announced Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor to attract investments in defence manufacturing.

Feb: IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi filed a petition in CAT in February 2020 requesting the tribunal to direct the center not to reject the case of his deputation of which has been on any ulterior/subjective/oblique consideration, and decide the same objectively, on merit, facts and in accordance with law only. In 7 months, in Sep 2020, on the request of the officer, the CAT had passed an order that until the matter is disposed, the NOC provided to the IFS officer cannot be 'disturbed'. CAT is the body which decides on services matter of all India services such as IAS, IPS, IFS and others. The petition also stated that the IFS has a proven track record in the field of vigilance/anti-corruption which had been substantiated as well as appreciated in the orders passed by various constitutional authorities including President, Prime Minister, Supreme Court and various other Tribunals/ Courts as well as being invited by all the prestigious national academies as resource person on the subject of anti-corruption. 

Mar: The Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) scheme was conceived to scale up domestic manufacturing capability, accompanied by higher import substitution and employment generation. Launched in March 2020, the scheme initially targeted three industries:

  1. Mobile and allied Component Manufacturing
  2. Electrical Component Manufacturing
  3. Medical Devices

Later, it was extended to 11 more sectors. The sectors are 

  1. automobiles and auto components
  2. pharmaceuticals and drugs 
  3. specialty steel
  4. telecom & networking products
  5. electronic products
  6. white goods (ACs and LEDs)
  7. food products
  8. textile products
  9. solar PV modules
  10. advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery
  11. drones and drone components.
Apr 1: Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Large Scale Electronics: To boost domestic manufacturing and attract investment in mobile phones value chain including electronic components and semiconductor packaging, Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing was notified on 01.04.2020. The scheme extends an incentive of 3% to 6% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under target segments viz. Mobile Phones and Specified Electronic Components, to eligible companies, for a period of 5 years. Till 30th June, 2024, incremental investment of Rs 8,390 Crores had been made under the PLI scheme. This has led to production of Rs 5,14,960 Crores till 30th June, 2024.

Apr 1: Amalgamation of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank. Syndicate Bank was headquartered in the university town of Manipal, India. On 1 April 2020, the bank was merged into Canara Bank.

Sep 24:  India has been considering mandating a common charging port (Type C USB port) for electronics devices in 2025. The universal charging point was first proposed by the European Union and will be implemented by the end of 2024 leading Apple to switch to the USB-C port from its iPhone 15 series. With the EU executive touting environmental benefits and ₹250 million in annual savings for users. Under the Commission's proposal, a USB-C connector will become the standard port for all smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld videogame consoles. Chargers will also be sold separately from electronic devices.

Sep:  In 7 months, in Sep 2020, on the request of the officer, the CAT had passed an order that until the matter is disposed, the NOC provided to the IFS officer cannot be 'disturbed'. CAT is the body which decides on services matter of all India services such as IAS, IPS, IFS and others. The petition also stated that the IFS has a proven track record in the field of vigilance/anti-corruption which had been substantiated as well as appreciated in the orders passed by various constitutional authorities including President, Prime Minister, Supreme Court and various other Tribunals/ Courts as well as being invited by all the prestigious national academies as resource person on the subject of anti-corruption. 
Further, describing his credentials, the petition stated that the IFS officer, having successfully completed 17 years of service, timely availing all the promotions by dint of hard work and being promoted to rank equivalent to joint secretary in central government, having vigilance clearance, outstanding service record which includes appreciation / validation of his performance by all the constitutional authorities including President of India, Prime Minister of India, various High Court / Tribunals, even IB report and the Applicant being conferred prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for his tireless effort against corruption of high & mighty, having completed cooling off period and having already worked in central government during which he not only received outstanding appraisal reports but was also appreciated by the highest functionaries of the concerned ministry, the applicant has a legitimate expectation of being considered for the said deputation, in a fair and impartial manner, without any previous burden of animosity.
The petition further stating that to deprive the official without any valid reason, in view of huge number of vacancies into investigation wing, ignoring the previous experience of applicant, in the area of anticorruption/vigilance, would be completely arbitrary and hence violative of fundamental right of equality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India, mentioned thata record number of four orders were issued in favour of applicant favour of by/on behalf of the President of India, from year 2008 to 2014 which is a record for any All India Service officer, in the history of independent India. 
The grading of APAR (Annual Performance Appraisal Report) for financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12, was declared as 'OUTSTANDING' vide Presidential order dated January 31, 2014, the petition added. 


IPS Sweety Sahrawat is a Bihar cadre officer who cleared UPSC 2019 with All India Rank (AIR) 187. On Mon, 4 Sep 2023 morning, an ex-DGP-turned-ex-MP-turned-ex-governor, Nikhil Kumar landed at then ASP IPS Sahrawat's residence doorstep protesting over rising theft cases in his city (Aurangabad Sadar) and how calmly she managed that while stressing the importance of personal space while maintaining her composure. Five cases in one area. Dani Bigha to Ramesh Chowk. His father was a constable in Delhi Police, who passed away in an accident in 2013. After graduation from IIT-D in ECE, she quit her design engineering job to prep for UPSC. His brother is a sub-inspector (SI) in CISF. SHe was born in Ramjanpur, Delhi and later shifted to Sonipat, Haryana.

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2021:
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Jan 16: Ministry of Commerce and Industry's the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme was announced on 16 January 2021 during the Prarambh Summit. DPIIT created the fund with an outlay of 945 crore rupees. It provides financial assistance to startups for purposes like- proof of concept. market entry. Development of prototypes, product trials, and commercialization. The govt’s focus has been on 3 C’s – capital, courage and connections – which Prime Minister Modi describes as the main pre-requisites for setting up a business.

[A startup defined as an entity that is headquartered in India, which was opened less than 10 years ago, and has an annual turnover less than ₹100 crore.]

Jan: In January 2021, Chaturvedi had filed a writ petition before the High Court of Uttarakhand, seeking, a "criminal investigation by CBI into the criminal offence of forgery, fabrication of Government records and criminal conspiracy by a Committee consisting of four officers including Mr Srinivas R Katikithala, who then happened to be Establishment Officer (EO), in the department of Personnel and Training (DoP&T), Government of India". High Court issued notices to Central Government, Postal Department, and Uttarakhand Government in February 2021. The next hearing of the case is due on January 10th, 2023.

Feb: UP disposed over 25,000 RERA cases

Feb:[Offence] The police had started cracking down on the owners of Game King India Pvt. Ltd. in February this year after complaints poured in against two of its websites: gamekingindia.com and planetgoonline.com. Over the past two years, 19 FIRs have been filed against the accused at several police stations in the city and nine people have been arrested in connection with the racket. The Cyber police have arrested Ramesh and Achal Chaurasia, the masterminds behind the illegal online gambling racket in operation in the city since 2014.

Mar 12: Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 12th March 2021 from Sabarmati Ashram. "Har Ghar Tiranga"

Jun 19: Ex-IAS officer and MLC A K Sharma (1988 batch) made UP BJP's vice president.

Jun 20: Early arrival of the monsoons in northern India has triggered heavy rains in the hills and plains and Ganges was in spate after the release of 3.75 lakh cusec water from Haridwar on Saturday morning. Besides, 1.30 lakh cusec water was released from the Bijnore Ganga barrage which was likely to increase the water level of Ganga further by evening and was likely to maroon villages located in the river valley in western UP. Widespread rains were reported from across the state in the past 24 hours and the weathermen predicted more rains in the next 48 hours in Purvanchal and western UP.

Jun 29:[Offence] Akbar Pathan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber), said, “The father-son duo was arrested in Gurugram on Tue, Jun 29 based on a tip-off. They were brought to Mumbai on Wednesday, produced in court and remanded in police custody till Thursday. With the Central government’s help we have blocked both the websites in the country.” The police said the accused hired lottery operators, who opened gaming stalls in the city and coaxed people into placing large sums of money on high-stakes online games. An officer said, “The games were similar to the ones played in casinos. Players had to purchase credits, login IDs and passwords to access the websites. They could play till they ran out of credits. The software was rigged to let players win small amounts in the beginning and suffer massive losses later.” The officer said the accused appointed area managers to collect profits from lottery operators and route it to them through hawala channels. The police are estimating the money the accused have swindled in the past four years. An officer said, “The accused would roam in expensive cars and stay in high-end hotels. To evade arrest, they moved to different cities every few weeks. The Madhya Pradesh police had arrested them last year for a similar offence.”

Jul: In July 2021, the CRRC 600 maglev, planned to travel at up to 600 km/h (370 mph), was unveiled in Qingdao. It was reported to be the world's fastest ground vehicle.

Jul: In July 2021, Indian railways started upgrading the coaches of Rajdhani express to new Tejas coaches with enhanced features.

Oct: UPSC had again recommended 31 lateral candidates for the appointment as joint secretaries (3), directors (19), and deputy secretaries (9) in different central government departments, the officials quoted above said. As of 1 Mar 2024, a total of 38 private sector specialists — including 10 joint secretaries and 28 directors/deputy secretaries — have joined the government so far, they said.

Nov: Scheme for Promotion of Culture of Science (SPCS) Considering the gradual decline in the interest level of young students to pursue careers in the field of S & T in the country, there is a pressing need to strengthen STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) education by creating additional infrastructure for hands-on and engaging activities, especially in non-formal mode of education. There is also a need to have an adequate level of awareness of science and technology in society.

:[Defence] iDEX, which has also been awarded the prestigious Prime Minister Award for Public Policy in Innovation Category for the year 2021, has emerged as a game changer in the defence eco-system through its flagship programmes like DISC, Prime and Open Challenges (OC). iDEX has been able to build the required momentum and generate a critical mass of start-ups in the defence sector.

Dec 15: GoI cleared a INR 760 billion (>US$10 billion) package to boost semiconductor and display manufacturing. The program aims to provide attractive incentive support to companies / consortia that are engaged in Silicon semiconductor fabs, display fabs, compound semiconductors / silicon photonics / sensors (including MEMS) fabs, semiconductor packaging (ATMP / OSAT), semiconductor design. Incentives worth INR 2.3 trillion (approx. US$30.16 billion)will be available to position India as global hub for electronics manufacturing. Currently, about 70% of the world's semiconductor manufacturing is concentrated in South Korea, Taiwan, China, the United States, and Japan.

Dec 21: The Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem in India was notified on 21 December 2021 with a total outlay of Rs 76,000 crore.

As per the World Bank’s Findex database, 78 per cent of Indian adults (population with 15 years or more of age) had a bank account in 2021 as compared to 53 per cent in 2014. (PMJDY)

Ravi Kumar Sihag secured an impressive 18th rank (4th attempt) in the UPSC exam in 2021.

Ashutosh Kumar's ascent to becoming the 77th All India Rank (AIR) holder in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021 is a testament to his dedication, perseverance, and strategic approach to one of the most challenging exams in India.

Ria Dabi younger sister of Tina Dabi (2016 batch), is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 2021 batch.

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2022:
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Jan 1:[Pvt] India announced on December 30, 2021 that the government will start receiving proposals from companies for semiconductor and display manufacturing from January 1, 2022. Guidelines for the schemes have been notified. See here for information on the application process and fiscal support available: Semiconductor Companies Can Submit Proposals to Indian Govt. from January 1, 2022.
https://www.india-briefing.com/news/setting-up-a-semiconductor-fabrication-plant-in-india-what-foreign-investors-should-know-22009.html/


Feb 22: After 5 years of initial tenure with MoF, Sanjeev Sanyal promoted to Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

Mar: Apple has been assembling smartphones in India through contract manufacturers since 2017. However, until 2022, the Cupertino-based firm had used manufacturing facilities in India primarily for assembling entry-level or legacy handsets. This changed in 2021-22 when Apple started assembling the iPhone 14 models in India.

Mar 25: Minister of State for PMO; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh told Lok Sabha on Wednesday that as on January 1, 2021, there were 5,231 IAS officers in the country — 1,515 (22.45%) fewer than the sanctioned strength of 6,746. A total 3,787 officers (73%) were direct recruits to the IAS, while 1,444 (27%) were promotees (State Civil Services/ non-SCS).
On Thursday, the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by Sushil Kumar Modi in its 112th report tabled in both Houses of Parliament said: “…There is a huge shortage. The gap between the sanctioned strength and the in-position strength of IAS officers is as large as 104 in UP cadre, 94 in Bihar cadre and 87 in AGMUT cadre.”

Jul 1: The windfall tax, which is revised every 15 days based on international crude oil prices, was first introduced on 1 July 2022 to tax the supernormal profits of energy companies. The tax formula is managed by the Department of Revenue and adjusts according to fluctuations in global oil prices. Queries about removing the windfall tax if crude prices stay below $71 are considered hypothetical

Jul 18: Lt. Gen. Raj Shukla (Retd.) apptd as UPSC member, till 26-Mar-2027. Senior-most member of UPSC (62YO as of Apr'24)

Aug: To develop a roadmap for "India as a Semiconductor Talent Nation", a committee was constituted in August 2022 with the representatives from semiconductor industry, academia and Government.

Aug 10:[Pvt] CubeSat Aerospace LLP founded by Bansi Attara and Ena Krutish Ruparelia in Ahmedabad, Gujrat. (exhibited at Dubai Airshow)

Sep 13:[Pvt] Vedanta and Foxconn moved the project to Gujarat, signing a pact to invest $19.5 billion to set up the semiconductor and display production plant. Modi called the MoU “an important step accelerating India's semiconductor manufacturing ambitions”.

Sep 23: In a letter dated 23.09.2022 addressed by Srinivas R Katikithala to participants, he underlined one of the main objectives of this training programme is 'De-siloization' so as to create partnership and collaboration with multiple departments. Uttarakhand Government had issued permission on September 21st to IFS Sanjiv Chaturvedi to participate in the Common Mid-Career Training programme (CMCT) under the Mission Karmayogi project of the Central Government. This training was for officers who had completed 20 years of service and was scheduled from October 27th to 31st.

Oct 7: In his 105-page letter dated October 7th, annexed with various affidavits and notifications, IFS Sanjiv Chaturvedi has alleged regarding Srinivas that, "Government documents mentioned in para 3 above clearly show that statutory notifications of prestigious organizations and departments like University Grant Commission (UGC), Forest Research Institute (FRI) and Postal Department as well as Government of Uttarakhand were simply negated and rubbished, without any sort of reasoning at all, just for certain ulterior considerations, under his own signature and which has led to a very unfortunate and completely avoidable situation wherein two such important departments of the central government are openly at loggerheads in a court of law". He has also expressed his inability to join the CMCT training programme mentioning these, 'very serious legal as well as ethical grounds, involving conflict of interest.

Oct 18:[Defence] The 5-day DefExpo (DefExpo2022, 12th editionwas held in Gandhinagar,. Gujarat between Tue, Oct 18 - Sat, Oct 22 in a first ever four-venue format. An investor outreach event 'Invest for Defence' was organised bringing together businesses and investors, with a focus on indigenisation and self reliance in the Indian defence industry, for the first time in the history of the expo.

Oct 18: Seven dead in helicopter crash in Kedarnath. A helicopter carrying pilgrims crashed near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand on October 18, 2022. Seven people, including the pilot, died after a helicopter ferrying pilgrims back from Kedarnath shrine crashed midway, before reaching the base station, near Garud Chatti on October 18.

Oct 30: IFS Sanjiv Chaturvedi has sought a CBI investigation against Mr Srinivas R Katikithala, Director at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, (LBSNAA) Mussourie, into his allegations of 'forgery/ fabrication into the date of birth, educational qualification, postal receipt' regarding one of his central deputation case. The officer addressed the letter to Forest Secretary, in Uttarakhand Government, Mr Vijay Yadav.
Sanjiv Chaturvedi is presently posted as Chief Conservator of Forest (Working Plan) under the Government of Uttarakhand and received Ramon Magsaysay Award in the year 2015 for his fight against corruption. Before coming to Uttarakhand cadre, he had worked in Haryana Government and as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS, Delhi. (ANI)

Nov 16:[Space][US] The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis Moon landing program, SLS is designed to launch the crewed Orion spacecraft on a trans-lunar trajectory. The first SLS launch was the uncrewed Artemis 1, which took place on 16 November 2022. Project cost: US$23.8 billion nominal. Cost per launch: Over US$2 billion excluding development (estimate). 130 tonne to LEO.

Hong Kong is back in the game to attract talent from top universities. A Top Talent Pass program, introduced in late 2022, is luring graduates of prestigious universities globally by offering a 24-month visa even if they don’t have job offers in hand. In the first nine months, the city gave out 100,000 work permits, nearly 2 1/2 times as many as it did last year.

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2023:
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Jan 30:Philips to lay off 6,000 employees in drive to improve profitability. The new reorganisation comes on top of a plan announced last October to layoff 4,000 employees

Feb 13:[Defence] Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the 14th edition of Asia's biggest aero show - Aero India 2023 – at Air Force Station, Yelahanka in Bengaluru on February 13, 2023. A commemorative stamp was also released by the Prime Minister on the occasion. It is anticipated that more than 700 companies will be represented at the exhibition. The theme of 2023 is Fixed Wing Platform, which is to showcase India's growth in the aircraft industry. The upcoming Aero India Show Bengaluru is scheduled for 2025, as this prestigious event occurs biennially.

Feb 18: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has launched the following model curriculum for UG, Diploma, Minor Degree in Semiconductor domain on 18.02.2023 as a step towards creation of Talent pool in Semiconductor domain: B. Tech in Electronics Engineering (VLSI Design and Technology), Diploma in IC manufacturing, Minor Degree in Electronics Engineering (VLSI Design and Technology), Under the Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme being implemented at 113 academic institutions/ R&D organizations/ Start-ups/ MSMEs, 85,000 number of high-quality and qualified engineers are being trained in several areas. These include Very large-scale integration (VLSI) and Embedded System Design as well as development of 175 ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), working prototypes of 20 System on Chips (SoC), 30 FPGA based designs and 30 IP Cores over a period of 5 years.

Mar 21: According to the latest data from layoff.fyi, a website that is tracking tech sector job cuts, close to 1 lakh tech employees lost jobs globally in January, dominated by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others. (layoff)

Mar: Success in Smartphone Manufacturing: By FY 2022-23, imports reduced to USD 1.6 billion, while exports surged to nearly USD 11 billion, yielding a positive net exports of USD 9.8 billion.
Apple experienced a remarkable surge in iPhone exports from India, soaring from US$6.27 billion in the fiscal year 2022-23 to US$12.1 billion in 2023-24, marking nearly a 100 percent increase.

Apr 3: Of ₹24,000 crore promised, UP & TN defence corridors get ₹6,000 crore from 163 MoUs.

Apr 15: NITI Aayog and Department of Expenditure sets an upper cap limit for number of individual consultant to 450 (incl. Senior Consultat to Young Professional)

Apr 24:[Pvt] Amalisha Management And Consultancy Services LLP founded by Veena Naravane and Manoj Mukund Naravane.

May 23: 1st Edition of India Defence Conclave'23 at The Lalit, Delhi by ETGovernment - Propelling self-reliance in Aerospace and Defence sector, co-hosted by BrahMos and MIDHANI, powered by Dell Technologies, Intel and Microsoft. 8+ sessions, 30+ speakers, 150+ delegates

May 25: Ms. Suman Sharma apptd. as UPSC member till 24-May-2029. Second youngest amongst all incumbent members. (Feb'24)

Jun 1: Sh. Bidyut Behari Swain apptd. as UPSC member till 4-Sep-2028

Jun 2: three trains collided in Balasore district in the east Indian state of Odisha. The accident occurred around 19:00 IST when Coromandel Express, a passenger train, collided with a stationary goods train near Bahanaga Bazar railway station on the Howrah–Chennai main line. 300 died, 1200+ injured.

Jun 5: यूपी में सैनिक स्कूल खोले जाने की योजना बनाई जा रही है. इसके तहत कुल 16 सैनिक स्कूल खोले जाएंगे. यह सभी स्कूल पीपीपी मॉडल (Public-Private Partnership, incl. NGOs) के आधार पर खोले जा रहे हैं. जिन जिलों में सैनिक स्कूल खोले जा रहे हैं, उनके नाम हैं- आगरा, अलीगढ़, प्रयागराज, आजमगढ़, बस्ती, बरेली, मुरादाबाद, बांदा, झांसी, देवीपाटन, अयोध्या, कानपुर, मेरठ, सहारनपुर, मिर्जापुर और वाराणसी है.उत्तर प्रदेश में तीन सैनिक स्कूल है रक्षा मंत्रालय द्वारा संचालित किए जा रहे हैं. यह स्कूल अमेठी, झांसी और मैनपूरी में है. इसके अलावा गोरखपुर में एक सैनिक स्कूल बनाने के लिए राज्य सरकार की ओर से 90 करोड़ रुपए बजट दिए गए हैं. राज्य सरकार लखनउ के एक सरकारी स्कूल को संचालित भी कर रही है. 

Jun: the Union Cabinet approved the first proposal for setting up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat. American chipmaker Micron Technology will set up India's first high-end semiconductor fabrication plant in Sanand, Gujarat, which is anticipated to become operational by late 2024, and first production out by Jun 2025. Phased construction of the new assembly and test facility in Gujarat is expected to begin in 2023. Phase 1, which will include 500,000 square feet of planned cleanroom space, will start to become operational in late 2024, and Micron will ramp capacity gradually over time in line with global demand trends.

Jul 5:The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday refused to grant relief to whistleblower Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi who sought a probe by the CBI into allegations of discrimination and irregularities in the selection process for a post on the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), for which his application was allegedly overlooked without reasonable

Jul 10:[Pvt] Foxconn is ending its $19.5 billion JV with Vedanta Ltd to make semiconductors in India and will remove its name from the fully-owned entity. Meanwhile, after Foxconn's withdrawal from chip JV, Vedanta says it has lined up other potential partners to set up India's first foundry.
"Vedanta reiterates that it is fully committed to its semiconductor fab project and we have lined up other partners to set up India’s first foundry. We will continue to grow our Semiconductor team, and we have the license for production-grade technology for 40 nm from a prominent Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM)," Vedanta said in a statement.
Earlier the Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group said  that it will acquire 100 per cent stake in semiconductor and display units from sister concern Twin Star Technologies, the conglomerate. Twin Star Technologies is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volcan Investments Limited which is the ultimate holding company of Vedanta Limited. The new structure will make Vedanta India's first company in Integrated Semiconductor and Display Fab Business.
Vedanta and Foxconn had earlier finalised Dholera Industrial City, Gujarat as the location. Chips manufacturing projects: 700 acres of land prepared at Dholera for Vedanta-Foxconn's semiconductor plant.

Jul 14:[Space][India] India Becomes First Country to Reach the Moon's South Pole. India on the moon! Chandrayaan-3 becomes 1st probe to land near lunar south pole. Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The mission consists of a Vikram ('valor') lunar lander and a Pragyan ('wisdom') lunar rover was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July 2023 demonstrating a challenging soft-landing on moon's south pole on Aug 23 18:03 IST. Chandrayaan-3 was India's second try at landing near the moon's south pole, a largely uncharted region of immense interest to scientists and exploration advocates alike. The south polar region is thought to harbor large amounts of water ice, which, if accessible, could be mined for rocket fuel and life support for future crewed missions. The country's first attempt at a lunar touchdown, in September 2019, failed when the Chandrayaan-2 lander crashed into the moon due to a software glitch.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which costs a modest 6 billion rupees ($73 million US at current exchange rates), is unfolding at a time when multiple nations — notably, the U.S. and China — are eyeing the moon for future crewed missions. NASA, for example, aims to land astronauts near the lunar south pole in late 2025 or 2026 on its Artemis 3 mission, and to build one or more bases in the region shortly thereafter.

Aug 15: The Ganga in many parts of western Uttar Pradesh flowed above the danger level set at 220m on Monday even as Haridwar barrage, among a large number of places in Uttarakhand to receive massive rains, released over 3 lakh cusec water downstream. Officials feared the situation could worsen in the plains too.District magistrate (Bijnor) Umesh Mishra said, "About 3.13 lakh cusec water will reach Bijnor on Monday evening and a high alert has been sounded. Ganga is flowing at a level of 220m and there is 2.3 lakh cusec water in the river. Over a dozen rivers including Ganga, Malan, Kho, Ramganga, Banaili, Dhara, Pili, Gagan and Nakta pass through Bijnor and have caused floods of varying intensity in 326 villages. 
In Shamli district, the water level in the Yamuna river currently stands at 228.8m, near the danger mark set at 231.5m. Meanwhile, in Hathnikund barrage, the water level increased by 2.1 m in eight hours to 381.8m on Monday, following heavy rainfall.

Aug 16:[Pvt] Apple Supplier Foxconn Begins iPhone 15 Production in India, marking the first instance of an iPhone assembled in India being available for sale right from the launch stage.

Sep 2:[Space][India] Aditya-L1 India's First Solar Mission, is a coronagraphy spacecraft for studying the solar atmosphere, designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation and various other Indian Space Research Institutes. In 2008, ISRO announced it by the name Aditya-1. It is India’s first solar mission aimed to study Sun’s Corona. 

Sep 9: The 18th G20 Summit was successfully conducted at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi during 9-10 September, 2023.

Sep 12:[Pvt] Apple debuts iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. The Foxconn's Sunguvarchatram plant still assembled fewer than 10% of all iPhone 15 models. Foxconn makes the larger Plus and more advanced Pro models exclusively in China.

Sep 13: In a single stroke, the state government has ordered the transfer of 2 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers and 33 Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) officers. IPS Sweety Sehrawat transferred as SDPO Aurangabad to ASP, Patna and appointed as SDPO (Sub-Divisional Police Officer) in Patna Sadar. ASP Kamya Mishra (IPS 2019 batch), currently posted in Patna, has been transferred to the role of Assistant Police Superintendent in the Crime Investigation Department in Patna.

Sep 23: US based chipmaker Micron Technology, Inc. carried out the groundbreaking of its $2.75 billion assembly, testing and packaging plant (ATMP) in Sanand, Gujarat, on Saturday. The event took place at Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation’s (GIDC) industrial estate in Sanand where the company has been allotted 93 acres of land for the project. The groundbreaking event is a direct outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the United States in June 2023, which took place upon the invitation of US President Joe Biden. Meity minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “In January 2022, PM Modi laid out his vision for India in the global semiconductor ecosystem. He wanted India to rapidly catch up after decades of our country having missed opportunities and failed to make a mark in semiconductors.” Tata Projects on Saturday announced its collaboration with Micron Technology to construct an advanced semiconductor assembly and test plant in Sanand and said it will roll out semiconductor chips next year. The contract awarded to Tata Projects solidifies the company’s proficiency in large-scale, sustainable infrastructure development in the Indian mfg landscape.

Sep 29: Dr. Dinesh Dasa apptd. as UPSC member till 28-Sep-2029. Youngest amongst all incumbent members. (Feb'24)

Sep 29: The Delhi High Court has issued contempt notices to two senior CBI officers in response to a request for an early contempt hearing by Sanjiv Chaturvedi, a Magsaysay awardee and former chief vigilance officer of AIIMS. Chaturvedi had filed a contempt petition in 2018, alleging that the CBI officials failed to comply with a previous court order. He argued that the delay in the hearing could negatively impact his career. The court has set a date for the hearing, cancelling the previously scheduled date.

Oct 12: The Union Cabinet has approved the cadre review and restructuring proposal of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) to address the need for specialized manpower and meet the increasing demand for Indian missions abroad. Approximately 215 officers will be added over the next five years. This decision comes after 19 years since the last restructuring and aims to strengthen the cadre.

Oct 16:[IT] LinkedIn lays off 668 employees in second round of job cuts this year. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn laid off more than 500 employees, including engineers, on Monday in its second round of job cuts this year as the social media network grapples with a slowdown in hiring, a person familiar with the matter said.

Oct 20: Speaking at the Vijayabheri public meeting in Peddapally in Telangana, Congress MP and AICC former chief Rahul Gandhi said, "I want to tell you something important. The country is not run by MPs. Ninety IAS officers decide where India's massive budget of 44 lakh crore should go, how much should be spent on each scheme... But these two (Modi and Telangana chief minister  K Chandrasekhar Rao) never talk about the fact that only three of these 90 are OBC officers and they have been given unimportant departments. They decide only 5% of the budget. Is the OBC population so small in the country?" 

Oct 29: two passenger trains collided in southern India's Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh state killing at least 14 people and leaving about 60 others injured. Three carriages of a stationary passenger train were derailed after it was hit by another train. 14 died, 60+ injured.
Oct 29: a series of improvised explosive device blasts took place during a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kalamassery, a suburb of Kochi, India. 8 died, 50+ injured.

Nov: In November 2023, India granted incentives to companies like Dell, HP and Foxconn to make IT hardware locally as part of its bid to become a powerhouse in the global electronics supply chain.

Nov 21: Whistle-blower officer IFS Sanjeev Chaturvedi praised for his legal knowledge by HC CJ

Dec 1: There are currently 25 operational pairs of Rajdhani express including seven with Tejas coaches and rest with LHB coaches.

Dec 24:[IT] These companies - Facebook (Meta Platforms), Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Google (Alphabet) -registered a 90% drop in active job postings in India in 2023 compared with the previous year, according to data put together for ET by specialist staffing firm Xpheno.

Dec 25:[IT] Indian Fintech giant Paytm has laidoff over 1,000 employees, cutting costs and optimizing operations, saving 15% in staff costs. This marks one of the largest job cuts in the Indian FinTech sector this year.Fintech giant Paytm lays off over 1000 employees as cost-cutting measure.

Dec 31:[IT] As tech layoffs are set to continue unabated in 2024, the cybersecurity industry was not immune from job losses and more than 110 cybersecurity companies fired thousands of employees in 2023. (layoff)

Indian Police Service (IPS) officers cadre strength: 5,047 members (2023) (4,344 officers in position; 703 position vacant)

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2024:
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Jan 12:[IT] Roughly 170 jobs will be affected by the layoffs, according to an internal memo sent by Jason Citron, Discord's founder and CEO.

Jan 15: Shri Sheel Vardhan Singh apptd. as UPSC member till 25-Aug-2028. Second-most senior member amongst all incumbent members. (Feb'24)

Jan 18:[IT] Google will cut 100 employees at YouTube, continuing layoffs after shedding over 1,000 jobs. YouTube's chief business officer, Mary Ellen Coe, notified workers, saying roles are eliminated. Layoffs primarily affect employees supporting content creators. Google has been looking to cut costs for over a year. YouTube has struggled with advertising slowdown and competition from TikTok.

Jan 19: Tata Steel plans to close its blast furnaces in Britain, resulting in up to 2,800 workers losing their jobs at its steelworks plant in Wales. The move comes as part of a plan to switch to lower carbon electric arc furnaces, which is supported by £500 million of government funding. Tata Steel will begin a consultation process and aims to maximize voluntary redundancies. The company employs over 8,000 people in the UK. (layoff)

Jan 22: Sony-Zee merger deal hits a dead end. The merger didn't happen by the End Date because certain conditions needed for the merger to be completed were not met by then, Sony said.

Jan 24:[IT] eBay to slash 1,000 jobs, scale back contracts. The job cuts follow a wave of US tech layoffs after the industry hired heavily during the pandemic, including among behemoths such as Amazon and Google.

Jan 31: Wistron Corp to set up laptop making unit in India's Karnataka for $181 million to create est 3k jobs and also produce electric vehicle-related parts. Wistron plans to start manufacturing laptops at the plant from January 2026 and export more than half of the laptops made at the unit.

Jan: After 45 years of envisioning, more than 400 Dhruvs had been produced for domestic and export markets logging more than 340,000 flying hours.


Feb 1: Shri Sanjay Verma apptd. as UPSC member till 27-Jan-2030.

Feb 1:[IT] The reductions are not companywide and Zoom will continue to add people in 2024 in areas such as artificial intelligence, sales and engineering, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing internal company strategy.

Feb 1:[IT] Job cut announcements in January surged to the highest level in 10 months, driven by the financial industry and technology sectors. Announced layoffs reached 82,307, a 136% increase from December. Employers in the financial industry announced 23,238 job cuts, more than double the previous year. Companies cited cost-cutting, automation, and AI adoption as the main drivers for layoffs. Major companies like United Parcel Service, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and PayPal also announced job reductions. This trend is likely influenced by potential policy changes and the strategic shift towards automation. (layoff)

Feb 3:[IT] Tech companies, including startups, around the world fired more than 425,000 employees in 2022 and 2023, with more than 36,000 employees being sacked in India in the same time frame. More than 30,000 tech employees lose jobs globally in first month of 2024. (layoff)

Feb 4:[IT] Close to 1 lakh tech employees lost jobs in January alone globally. It means that more than 3,300 tech employees lost jobs daily on an average by more than 288 companies worldwide. (layoff)

Feb 14:[IT] India's demographic dividend and large talent pool are attracting global capability centres (GCCs) to the country, leading to an increased demand for leadership roles. India is projected to have 1,900 GCCs by 2025, with the market size expected to reach $110 billion (from $45 billion now). The dominance is only set to intensify, as the next five years will see a bull run for the GCC economy. The number of GCCs is all set to increase to 1,900 by 2025 from 1,580 now. In 2023 alone, 8% of GCCs were expected to double their workforce, creating approximately 364,000 new jobs.

Feb 19: A senior judge of the Uttarakhand high court, Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari, has stepped down from the case involving IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi.

Feb 26: NPCIL currently operates 23 reactors with a combined capacity of 7480 MW, and nine additional units (including KAPP-4) with a capacity of 7500 MW are currently under construction. The government of India is actively expanding renewable energy capacity to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, aiming to meet 50% of electricity needs from renewable sources by 2030. Plans include increasing nuclear power capacity to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. Currently, the country holds the 4th position globally for installed renewable energy capacity, including large hydro. It ranks fourth in both wind power capacity and solar power capacity.

Feb 28:[IT] Bumble, led by CEO Lidiane Jones, 350 job cuts and expects disappointing Q1 revenue due to a slowdown in user spending. The company plans to relaunch apps, target younger users, drive revenue growth, expand globally, and revamp the eponymous app to meet analysts' expectations.

Feb 29:[IT] Citigroup said in January it would cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years, while acknowledging a "clearly disappointing" quarter marred by one-off charges that resulted in a $1.8 billion loss. The lender is aiming to reduce its global workforce by roughly 8% through 2026, including layoffs from the reorganization, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason told reporters at the time. (layoff)

Feb: three more semiconductor units were approved. Tata Electronics is setting up a semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat and one semiconductor unit in Morigaon, Assam. CG Power is setting up one semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat.

Mar: The length of National Highways has increased from 0.91 lakh km in 2013-14 to 1.46 lakh km in 2024. The average annual construction of National Highways has increased by about 2.4 times from about 4,000 km in 2004-14 to about 9,600 km in 2014-24. The total capital investment in National Highways including private investment has increased by 6 times from Rs. 50,000 Crore in 2013-14 to about Rs. 3.1 Lakh Crore in 2023-24.

Mar 1: At present, there are 33 lateral specialists, including 8 joint secretaries, 16 directors and 9 deputy secretaries, are working in key government departments, UPSC said, adding 2 joint secretaries completed their full three-year tenure.

Mar 7: Sikkim gets a MI-172 chopper service, huge lift for tourism. The 26-seater MI-172 helicopter service for Sikkim under Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation (STDC) was launched at Burtuk helipad here by Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder and Chief Minister PS Golay. The one way flight from Burtuk helipad to Bagdogra airport will cost Rs. 4500 per passenger. It was informed that 75% of the operation costs will be borne by the Union government as subsidy while the remaining 25% expenses have to be met by the State government and the Sky One Airways, the agency hired to operate the MI-172 helicopter service in Sikkim. Air Commander Pankaj Vishnoi, Head of Operations, Sky One Airways, Delhi along with director Minton Nagpaul informed the media the MI-172 is a Russian-built medium lift, versatile and multi-tasking aircraft. It was informed that Sky One Airways has been operating similar helicopter services in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Mar 8: India Semiconductor Mission (ISM). Recently, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister of India approved the establishment of three semiconductor units under Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystems in India. The Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem in India was notified with a total outlay of Rs. 76,000 crore. The Union Cabinet had approved the proposal of Micron for setting up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat.

Mar 13:[Defence] MoD signs contracts worth Rs 8073 Cr with HAL for 34 ALH Dhruv Mk III Helicopters. In July 2022, the Indian Coast Guard commissioned a squadron (its third) of made-in-India Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv Mark III at Porbandar in Gujarat. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has put its stamp of approval for the procurement of 34 Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) Dhruv Mk III along with Operational Role Equipment. The Ministry of Defence has inked two contracts with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) worth Rs 8073 crore for ALH Dhruv MkIII. Out of the 36 helicopters, the Indian army will get 25 and the Indian Coast Guard will get nine. Marking a significant move towards self- reliance these will come under the Buy (Indian-IDDM – Indigenously Designed, Developed & Manufactured) category.


Mar 14:[IT] Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after it let go 11,000 employees, the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs.Meta to lay off 10,000 employees in second round of job cuts.

Mar 15:[Defence] the 13th edition of Defexpo 2024, on 15 March 2024, in Ahmedabad, Gujrat.

Mar 18:The UK government has revealed deregulatory measures to simplify financial reporting for small to medium enterprises, including raising the company size thresholds. The effect of the changes is expected to see:
5,000 large companies being reclassified as medium-sized to access more proportionate reporting;
13,000 medium-sized companies falling into the small companies’ regime enabling them to benefit from potential audit exemption and filing* simpler accounts; and
113,000 small companies falling into the micro-entities’ regime to allow them to prepare simpler accounts.
The government intends that companies will be able to benefit from these changes for financial years commencing on or after 1 October 2024.

Mar 18: The three-day Startup Mahakumbh event featured thousands of startups and investors, including more than 40 unicorns, including Zomato, Zerodha, Razorpay, Nykaa, Lenskart, Boat, Zetwerk, Dream11, Games 24x7 and Groww. Witnessed participation from 2000+ startups, 48,000+ visitors, 392+ speakers, 165+ sessions at Bharat Mandapam and ITPO, Pragati Maidan, Delhi.

Mar 21: After weeks of back and forth between the Supreme Court (SC) and the State Bank of India (SBI), the public lender released the full details of the electoral bonds scheme on March 21. The disclosed information contained the redemption particulars of political parties. It included the serial numbers, encashment dates, party names, the last four digits of account numbers, prefixes, bond numbers, denominations, and pay branch codes.

Mar 31: The Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) was notified on 004.2020 and was open to receive applications upto 31.03.2024. The scheme provides a financial incentive of 25% on capital expenditure for electronic components, e-waste recycling, mechanics, micro/nano-electronic components, solar photovoltaic (SPV) polysilicon, SPV wafers and solar cells, specialized sub-assemblies and capital goods for manufacture of aforesaid goods. As of, 30.06.2024, incremental investment of      Rs. 8,803.14 crores had been made under the SPECS scheme. This has led to production of Rs. 18,083.55 crores till 30thJune,2024

Apr 2:[IT] Troubled edtech Byju’s has fired nearly 500 staffers amid a severe cash crunch.

Apr 4: Governance Initiative (GGI), 5500+ GGI Scholars & Fellows and 95+ Employment Partners, 88% have successfully transitioned into Consulting, Policy, and Product Management roles.

Apr 7:[Space][India] Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons that specializes in aerospace and defense solutions, in collaboration with Satellogic, a leading provider of high-resolution satellite imagery in the world, announced on Monday the successful launch and deployment in low-earth orbit of India’s first private sector-built sub-metre resolution earth observation or surveillance satellite, TSAT-1A. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying TSAT-1A satellite launched from Kennedy Space Centre at 19:16 EDT. LEO, weighs less than 50kh, developed at Vamagal (KA) facility.
We have launched the satellite in an inclined orbit compared to the Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO). Given India’s areas of interest, an inclined orbit allows for more frequent time-dispersed revisits to areas of interest than the SSPO of a certain kind.

Apr 8:[Pvt] Pegatron is in talks to transfer control of its iPhone manufacturing facility in India to the Tata Group, aiming to establish a joint venture with Tata Electronics holding at least a 65% stake. This move aligns with Apple's diversification strategy amid geopolitical tensions, strengthening Tata's position in iPhone manufacturing in India.
The Pegatron India factory has around 10,000 employees and makes 5 million iPhones annually. It is the last such facility operated by the firm after it forfeited control of an iPhone plant in China last year to rival Luxshare in a $290 million deal.

Apr 8:[IT] Over the previous few years, India's IT job market has seen a gradual fall in entry-level positions; this year, a further decline is projected, along with fewer hirings from colleges. Although there have been modest increases in hiring activity, the true momentum could not show up until the second half of the year.

Apr 16:[Space][India] India has made a declaration to achieve debris-free space missions by 2030. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S. Somanath made the declaration on April 16, at the 42nd Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) annual meet. 'Swachh Space Abhiyaan': ISRO sets goal for debris-free space missions by 2030.
"Working together can help develop strategies, guidelines, and technologies to mitigate risks and ensure the sustainable use of space" he said addressing the 42nd Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) Annual Meeting here.Somanath pointed out the increasing congestion in space, especially in Earth-moon systems and other regions of solar planetary exploration. "This congestion is primarily due to the accumulation of space debris and the rising number of satellites, spacecraft, and missions," he said.
India - a Space Superpower (US, Russia, China and India)

Apr 17: Apple suppliers manufactured iPhones worth US$14 billion in India during FY’24, comprising 14 percent of the global total – that is, around one in seven iPhones worldwide. Apple’s production in India includes iPhone models 12, 13, 14, and 15. Foxconn accounts for the lion’s share of iPhones made in India.

Apr 19:[Space][India] In a significant stride towards mitigating space debris and ensuring the safety of future space missions, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has introduced the innovative POEM (PSLV Orbital Experimental Module) mission. With its latest achievement in the PSLV-C58/XPoSat mission, ISRO has demonstrated its commitment to sustainability in space exploration.

Apr 20:[IT] Tech jobs dwindle with India's top IT firms cutting workforce by 64,000.

Apr 22: “Didn’t even ask for…” ex-IPS and TN president of BJP Annamalai recalls how Cong didn’t support Tharoor’s UN Secy-Gen candidature. The BJP could not win a single seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu, while the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led alliance won all 39 seats in the state. However, the BJP was able to increase its vote share by 7.5 per cent points and securing a vote share in double-digit percentage. Annamalai lost the election from Coimbatore.

Apr 29:[IT] Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai-led company fires entire Python team for ‘cheaper labour’. Google Fires Python Team Ahead Of Its Big Developer Conference: Report. Google lays off entire Python team, moves roles to Munich. Google confirms layoffs across key teams in order to focus on 'biggest priorities'.

May 5:[IT] Cognizant to lay off around 3,500 employees as part of rejig programme. Layoffs at Cognizant follow that of Accenture, which in April announced that 19,000 employees would be let go globally.

May 2:[IT] Jobs cuts at Flutter, Dart and Python teams at Google: Company makes this clarification. Google lays off 200 'core' team employees, to shift jobs to India, Mexico

May 13: IFS officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi is on a mission to save and foster Uttarakhand's miracle plants like Patwa, Himalayan Lily and Gentiana, to name a few.

May 15:[IT] Demand for software engineers trained in emerging technologies is rising, creating 9-10 lakh additional jobs in the next 18 months. The surge is fueled by advancing technology and digital adoption, leading to fresh opportunities in AI and related fields like AI specialists and data scientists. GenAI is enabling non-technical employees to become citizen developers.

May 24: Miraculous escape for tourists in Kedarnath as helicopter spins out of control before hitting ground. It was a blue nose-white tail VT-CLR (probably operated by Kestrel Aviation Pvt. Ltd) carrying 6 pilgrims and a pilot. The chopper developed a snag in its rear motor and starts spinning out of control. The pilot kept his cool and took a quick decision, averting a major mishap. 

Jun 3:[IT] Ola Electric, eyeing an IPO, is reportedly trimming its workforce by 400-500 employees to streamline operations. This number may change as the senior leadership is still concluding the scale of the layoffs. They are expected to hit multiple verticals, sources told ET. (layoff)

Jun 4:[IT] Microsoft is cutting hundreds of jobs at its Azure cloud unit, impacting teams like Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering, as reported by Business Insider. (layoff)

Jun 12: The Railway Board has reduced the speed of semi-high speed trains Gatimaan Express and Vande Bharat from 160 kmph to 130 kmph till the automatic train protection system gets operational. As of 12 June 2024, 51 Vande Bharat trains are in service. Vande Bharat runs at 130 kmph across all rail networks except this New-Delhi Agra route as it gets a suitable track to go up to 160,a railway source said.

Jun 13: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is assessing an internal report, which has recommended an increase in the recruitment of IAS officers from 180 a year to 210-220 a year. “There have been widespread vacancies in government departments at the district, state and central level,” the official said. “Since 2014 itself, about a hundred more districts have been added in India, and there is no manpower. So, the government is considering adding about 30 new IAS officers to the mix for ten years until the vacancies are filled.” According to the latest government data, there are 1,365 vacancies in the IAS across the country. But, the number of IAS officers recruited by the UPSC has been frozen at 180 since 2012. In addition, the government is also set to start a fresh round of recruitment at the level of deputy secretary, director and joint secretary at the centre through lateral entry, sources in the government said. A total of 51 such positions could soon be advertised. Over the last few years, there has been a concerted effort to tackle the problem of vacancies across the All India Services (AIS). Between 2018 and 2023, for instance, the number of vacancies against which recruitment is done by the UPSC through the Civil Services Examination increased from 812 to 1143 — an increase of over 40 per cent. While recruitment fell once in 2021 to 749 officers, the overall trend has been a gradual increase in the intake every year. In 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, the government advertised 927, 836, 1022 and 1,143 civil service posts, respectively.
The number of IPS officers recruited each year has gone up from 150 in 2019 to 200 officers every year since 2020. 
The number of officers recruited in the Indian Forest Service (IFoS) too has gone up marginally from a low of 24 officers in 2019 to 37 in 2023. 
The other services recruited through the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE), include Group A (like Indian Revenue Service, Indian Postal Service and Indian Statistical Service) and Group B (Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service and Pondicherry Civil Service) services. Here too, there has been a broad upswing in intake from 384 advertised posts in Group A services in 2018 to 613 in 2023. Similarly, the advertised posts went up in Group B services from 68 in 2018 to 113 in 2023. 
Around 35 to 37 successful candidates are selected to become the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) office every year.

Jun 14:[IT] Trouble for techies: Wipro, Infosys and other IT cos delay onboarding of 10,000 freshers, refuse to provide joining date.

Jul 2:[IT] Hexaware Technologies intends to expand its workforce globally by hiring between 6,000 and 8,000 employees in 2024 across various countries including India, the US, Canada, Mexico, Poland, and the UK. The company's hiring plans are contingent upon favorable global market conditions, as stated in a news release. Rajesh Balasubramanian, EVP and Global Head of Talent Supply Chain at Hexaware, emphasized the company's active recruitment drive to attract talented individuals worldwide.

Jul 8:[Defence] UP defence corridor attracts Rs 25,000 crore in deals through 154 MoUs, propels industrial growth. Uttar Pradesh has signed more than 150 defence manufacturing deals worth ₹25,000 crore, focusing on boosting India's defence production and exports. The projects, part of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor, will create 40,000 jobs across six districts. With notable companies like Adani Defence and BrahMos Aerospace involved, the initiative aims to propel the state's industrial value chain and support India's self-reliance in defence. Significant milestones include the delivery of AK-203 rifles and the development of a BrahMos missile plant.

Jul 11:[IT] India’s $250 billion tech sector plays an important role in the economy, employing about 5.4 million people. Tech services make up about 7.5% of the country’s $3 trillion-plus gross domestic product.

Jul 15:[IT] TCS's robust growth in Q2 includes hiring 5,452 employees, with plans to recruit 40,000 more this year. CHRO Milind Lakkad affirmed India's talent appeal amid AI concerns, emphasizing reskilling and a revamped variable pay policy linked to office attendance for 70% of returning employees.

Jul 23:[IT] Specialist staffing firm Xpheno data shows the IT sector collectively had a sub-70,000 intake of entry level talent over the last fiscal ending March 2024, its lowest fresher intake year over two decades. TCS reiterated its ambitious target of hiring 40,000 freshers this year. While Infosys did not share fresher additions, its net headcount declined by 1,908 employees.

Jul 25: 57 officers have joined the government through lateral entry at the joint secretary, director, and deputy secretary levels, minister of state for personnel, public grievances, and pensions Jitender Singh told Parliament. A joint secretary is the highest position an entrant can be appointed to under the lateral entry policy, which was introduced for specialists who are not career civil servants. A lateral entrant’s three-year tenure is extendable at the government’s discretion.
Singh said that 63 appointments have been made to date through lateral entry and 35 of them were from the private sector. Eligible candidates from reserved categories are considered along with other eligible candidates. However, reservation is not applicable to such single post appointment,” Singh said in response to a question from Lok Sabha member Ramprit Mandal on the appointments and reservation policy related to the lateral entry.

Jul 28: The Supreme Court recently agreed to expeditiously hear the petition filed by whistleblower Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi seeking information from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) about the corruption complaints against Union Ministers from June 1, 2014, to August 5, 2017, and the quantum of black money claimed to have been brought back from abroad by the government. [Justice Vikram Nath, Justice PB Varale]

Aug 1: Mrs. Preeti Sudan (64 YO as of May'24) apptd. as UPSC Chairman, to be retd. on 29-Apr-2025.

Aug 3: Not possible to locate people under (Wayanad landslide) debris using space tech: ISRO chief. He also said that he is excited about the very first National Space Day to be celebrated on August 23, to honour the historic landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the southern side of the moon on Aug 23, 2023. 

Aug 5:[IT] Intel revealed plans to cut around 15,000 jobs, which amounts to 15% of its workforce, as a strategic move to save $10 billion by 2025. The decision comes in response to disappointing quarterly results and aims to realign costs and revitalize its position against competitors like Nvidia and AMD. (layoff)

Aug 7: Tarang Shakti, India's first-ever multinational air combat exercise, started at Sulur, Tamil Nadu. Featuring advanced aircraft such as India's Rafale and Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon, it includes participation from Germany, the UK, and Spain. Phase II will be held in Jodhpur from August 29 to September 12. A total of 67 fighters and military aircraft from 10 countries will take part, with observers from 18 more nations. The exercise aims to enhance military interoperability and strategic partnerships. India will deploy around 75 to 80 fighters, aircraft, and helicopters for the event.

Aug 8: Chandigarh, The Haryana Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to bring an ordinance for ensuring job security for contractual employees until the age of superannuation, a move which will benefit 1.20 lakh such employees. The decision will apply to contractual employees working under the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam including those engaged under outsourcing policy. The state cabinet gave approval to bring the Haryana Contractual Employees Ordinance, 2024. The ordinance will enhance facilities for contractual employees and guarantee their job security until the age of superannuation, it said.
Such workers will receive a basic salary equivalent to the pay scale of posts. Additionally, their consolidated monthly remuneration will be increased with effect from the first day of January and first day of July every year corresponding to the increase in dearness allowance, it said.
The ordinance also includes provisions for an annual increment on the consolidated monthly remuneration for contractual employees after one year of service.
"These employees will be entitled to death-cum-retirement gratuity benefits. In addition, contractual employees will also be eligible for all the benefits under the Maternity Act. Under the PM-Jan Arogya Yojana-Chirayu Extension Scheme, the families of contractual employees will also be provided the benefit of health facilities," it said.
However, employees earning more than ₹50,000 per month will not be covered under it. Those working under centrally sponsored schemes will also be excluded, it added.
Those who have worked for 5 / 10 / 15 years or more will get 5% / 10% / 15% more pay than the minimum pay level of the same post in addition to the consolidated remuneration.

Aug 10:[IT] The number of people affected could be similar to or slightly higher than the 4,000 employees Cisco laid off in February, and will likely be announced as early as Wednesday with the company's fourth-quarter results, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Aug 12: 7-day Army Expo Moscow will be held 12 to 18 Aug 2024 in Moscow, Russia. Army Expo Moscow is organized and fully supported by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and combines the exhibition and dynamic demonstration of military equipment capabilities with extensive congress program and strong participation of international audience represented by foreign exhibitors, delegations and visitors. 

Aug 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (August 17, 2024) announced that it would launch the first phase of its membership drive on September 1, a move that usually precedes the election of the national president of the party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first in the BJP to renew his membership under this exercise, sources said. After the membership drive, mandal, district and State presidents are elected. Only when 50% of the States complete this exercise, the election for the party’s national president is conducted.

Aug 19: Around a dozen lifestyle, grocery retailers, and quick-service restaurants cut about 26,000 jobs in FY24. This decline followed a slowdown in store expansions amid weakening consumer demand. Leading this staff reduction were Reliance Industries' retail arm and other major retailers. Still, some retailers, such as Shoppers Stop, continued to expand. (layoff)

Aug 20: the DDA launched three housing schemes on August 20 — Sasta Ghar Scheme (7,124 EWS and LIG flats), Madhyam Vargiya Housing Scheme (1,843 EWS, MIG and HIG flats), and Dwarka Housing Scheme (173 flats) — across seven locations in the capital. The apartments in the first two schemes were allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis. Meanwhile, the e-auction is for penthouses (173), super HIG, HIG, and MIG categories in various sectors of Dwarka. The deadline for submitting the earnest money deposit (EMD) and the final submission of applications for the Dwarka flats scheme ended on Sept 17 and 19, respectively.


Aug 28: 10Y of PMJDY. The largest share of PMJDY accounts is with public sector banks (41.42 crore accounts until August 14), followed by Regional Rural Banks (9.89 crore accounts), private sector banks (1.64 crore), and Rural Cooperative Banks (0.19 crore). A statewise analysis of PMJDY accounts shows the most accounts have been opened in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state (9.45 crore), and the fewest in Lakshadweep (only 9,256 accounts). There are 15 states apart from UP with more than 1 crore PMJDY bank accounts: Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Haryana. The scheme, which is one of the components of the JAM trinity of PMJDY, Aadhaar, and mobile, has had a transformative impact on the financial and banking sectors of the economy.
The number of ATMs has increased by 30 per cent from 1,66,894 at the end of June 2014 to 2,16,914 in 2024. The number of Points of Sale (POS) has increased from 10.88 lakh to 89.67 lakh during the last 10 years. The number of branches of scheduled commercial banks in the country has increased by 46 per cent to 1,54,983 in 2023 from 1,05,992 in 2013. Of the total 1.54 lakh branches, 35 per cent are in rural areas, 28 per cent in semi-urban areas, 18 per cent in urban areas, and 19 per cent in metropolitan areas.
Financial inclusion plan to have 30mn more accounts in FY25: Nirmala Sitharaman
 2.31 lakh crore deposited, over 53 crore accounts opened out of which more than 66% are in rural areas: OpIndia

Aug 28: RBI focuses on making UPI, RuPay 'global': RBI Guv S. Das. at Global FinTech Fest 2024. Digital Public Infra (DPI). Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, S'pore, the UAE, Mauritius, Namibia, Peru, France and a few others.

Aug 28: Coal production rises by 7.12% YOY to reach 370 MT in FY25: Satish Chandra Dubey MoS Coal & Mines.

Aug 28-30: The Global Fintech Fest (GFF) is one of the largest fintech conferences, organized annually by the Payments Council of India (PCI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC). Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024 from 28-30 August 2024 in Mumbai India.

Aug 29: DRDO scientists complete end-to-end testing of 6-qubit quantum processor. Scientists from DRDO Young Scientists Laboratory for Quantum Technologies (DYSL-QT), Pune and TIFR, Mumbai have completed end-to-end testing of 6 qubit Quantum processor based on superconducting circuit technology.

Aug 29: for contravention of certain provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, and non-compliance with certain directions on ‘Interest Rate on Deposits’, ‘Know Your Customer (KYC)’ and ‘Credit Flow to Agriculture-Collateral free agricultural loans’.

Sep 2: The Union Cabinet, on Monday, approved a 309 km long new rail line project, pegged at an estimated cost of over ₹18,000 crore, connecting Indore and Manmad. The approved project will not only connect the commercial hubs of Mumbai and Indore but will also provide the shortest rail route between them. The new line will be passing through two districts in Maharashtra -- Nashik and Dhule -- and four districts in Madhya Pradesh – Barwani, Khargone, Dhar and Indore. The project is expected to be completed in seven to eight years.


Sep 3: Cabinet Approves Kaynes Semicon's Rs 3,300 Crore Chip Facility In Sanand, Gujarat. Fifth semicon plant, Kaynes Semicon approved in Gujarat. Kaynes Tech shares soar 8% on Cabinet nod to ₹3,300 cr semiconductor plant. Cabinet approves fifth semiconductor unit in India: Ministry of IT. The capacity of this unit will be 60 Lakh chips per day.

Sep 3: Essel (Zee) Group Chairman Blasts Madhabi Puri Buch: Corruption Claims & Sony Deal Collapse!

Sep 4:[Defence][Space] India, Brunei agree to enhance defence, space cooperation; announce Bandar Seri Begawan-Chennai direct flight. PM Modi takes aim at China in Brunei, says India not for ‘expansionism’. First Indian PM visit. Strengthening India's Act East Policy.

Sep 3: DAC Approves 10 Capital Acquisition Proposals. HAL, Mazagon Dock, Garden Reach, BEL rally as DAC approves Rs 1.44 Lakh crore procurement for military modernization.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), a key authority for approving major capital purchases for the Armed Forces, granted Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for 10 acquisition proposals in its recent meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. 
Among the approved projects, the long-awaited procurement of Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCVs) is set to modernize the Indian Army’s tank fleet. These advanced Main Battle Tanks will provide superior mobility, all-terrain capability, multi-layered protection, precision targeting, lethal firepower, and real-time situational awareness.
Additionally, the Air Defence Fire Control Radars will enhance the detection and tracking of aerial targets, providing accurate firing solutions. The DAC also approved a proposal for the Forward Repair Team (Tracked), which will enable in situ repairs during mechanised operations.
For the Indian Coast Guard, the DAC approved the acquisition of three major capabilities: additional Dornier 228 aircraft, Next Generation Fast Patrol Vessels capable of operating in rough weather conditions, and Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels with advanced technology and enhanced long-range operations.

Sep 3: Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor at the Financing 3.0 Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) highlighted that Indian households are rebuilding financial savings post-pandemic, with significant implications for the broader economy and financial system. Financial assets have increased from 10.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (2011-17) to 11.5% (2017-23, excluding the pandemic year). Physical savings have increased to over 12% of GDP in the post-pandemic years and could continue to rise. However, this is still lower than the 16% of GDP recorded in 2010-11.


Sep 3: The Bharatiya Janata Party aims to enrol 2 crore primary members in Gujarat, as part of a nationwide membership drive. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and state BJP president CR Paatil renewed their memberships at an event in Ahmedabad. Paatil emphasised the importance of enrolling women and renewing memberships to strengthen the party's organisation for future elections.

Sep 4: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set a target of enrolling at least 10 crore new members as part of its membership drive that is set to begin from Sep 1 to Nov 10 across all states except in the poll-bound states and Union territory. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) kickstarted its annual membership drive in Karnataka on September 4 by setting an ambitious target of enrolling 1.50 crore members. The party had enrolled 1.04 crore members during the drive in 2023. 
Patra said about 11 crore people signed up as members of the party in 2014 and about 7 crore in 2019 when the membership drive was opened for a limited period. “Between 2014 and 2019, about 18 crore members signed up as members. The membership drive was due, but because of the pandemic we could not go ahead,” he said. The BJP, which claims to be the largest political entity globally with 18 crore members. There are more than 1500 political parties in the country.

Sep 5:[IT] Tech companies cut over 27,000 jobs in August 2024, with major firms like Intel, IBM, and Cisco among those announcing layoffs. Intel plans to reduce its workforce by 15%, while Cisco is shifting focus to AI and cybersecurity. IBM is discontinuing R&D in China. Other companies like Infineon, GoPro, Apple, Dell Technologies, ReshaMandi, Brave, and ShareChat also announced significant job cuts. (layoff)

Sep 5: Himachal Pradesh passes Bill denying pensions to disqualified MLAs under anti-defection law. The bill specifically affects six former Congress MLAs - Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Rajinder Rana, Devinder Kumar Bhutto, Chetanya Sharma, and Ravi Thakur - who were disqualified in February for defying the party whip during critical budget discussions.
Himachal Pradesh becomes the first state to pass such a bill, which stipulates that individuals disqualified under the Tenth Schedule are ineligible for pensions. The bill, which was passed by voice vote, aims to address the lack of provisions in the 1971 Act to discourage defections and preserve democratic values. The bill will become law once it receives the governor's consent.

Sep 11:At SemiCon India 2024 meet, PM Modi sets target of $500 billion for electronics production in next 6 years (FY2030).

Sep 13:[Defence] 2nd Edition of India Defence Conclave'24 at Hyatt Regency, Delhi by ETGovernment - Atmanirbharta in the age of emerging tech & transforming geopolitics.

Maharashtra is required to meet 32 per cent of its power demand from solar sources by 2028 under the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO). Currently, only 12 per cent of the state's power demand is met by solar, and the procurement of 5,000 MW of solar power will help in filling that requirement. RECs are 'green tradeable certificates' that represent the environmental attributes of power generated from RE but not the actual power itself.

Sep 20: Defence equipment supplier Bharat Electronics (BEL) has signed an agreement with Canada's Reliasat Inc to collaborate on space products, the company informed on September 19. This marks BEL's foray into the space products domain. A Teaming Agreement was signed by BEL’s KV Suresh Kumar, Director (Marketing), and Gurvinder Chohan, CEO, Reliasat Inc. Reliasat is in the business of developing next generation telecommunications satellites and evolve cost-effective satellite solutions. The company designs smart satellites equipped with AI/ML capabilities which facilitate high-capacity internet connectivity from space.

Constellation Energy plans to invest $1.6 billion (for 20Y deal with Microsoft) to restart the plant's undamaged Unit 1 reactor by early 2028, pending regulatory approvals. The 837-megawatt reactor, which closed in 2019 due to economic pressures, will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center. Three Mile Island, infamous for a 1979 partial meltdown in its Unit 2 reactor, has been a symbol of nuclear power's risks. This restart attempt focuses on the separate, undamaged Unit 1. The revival requires approvals from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and state and local agencies. Constellation will also seek to extend the plant's operating licence through 2054.

Sep 21: India will establish a national security semiconductor fabrication plant in collaboration with the US, aimed at producing chips for military and next-generation telecommunications. The project was announced after discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden at the President’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. (hometown of Joe Biden) on Saturday. PM Modi meets President Biden at Wilmington ahead of Quad summit. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Vinay Mohan Kwatra were present at the meeting from the Indian side; NSA Ajit Doval has not accompanied the Prime Minister to the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. National Security Adviser (NSA) Jake Sullivan and U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti were present from the U.S. side.


Sep 23: DDA E-Auction for 173 Penthouses, Super HIG and MIG Flats in Dwarka Begins Tomorrow | Check Details. As per a circular issued by the DDA, the biding for the flats will be conducted on September 24, 25 and 26 from 11am to noon and then from 3 to 4 pm. Initially, the e-auction process will be set for an hour but the bidding process will automatically be extended by 5 minutes if any higher bid is placed in the last 5 minutes. This process will be continued for a maximum of 20 times. So, any auction can go for a maximum period of 2 hours and 40 minutes," read the circular. There are 2,000 applicants for 173 flats in Dwarka so it is likely that the flats will be sold out easily. There is anticipation of rise in sales during Navaratri for flats in the Sasta and Madhyama schemes. So far, approximately 1,700 out of the 8,967 DDA flats offered under last two schemes and categories have been sold so far. The DDA successfully sold all its falts in Jasola and Rohni on the first-come, first-serve basis. The 41 flats in Jasola were sold out on the first day while more than 700 flats in Rohini sold out within 10 days.

Sep 27: Nasrallah became Hezbollah’s leader in 1992 after his predecessor Abbas Musawi was killed by an Israeli helicopter strike. He oversaw the party’s transformation into a powerful political force in Lebanon during his tenure. He was killed by an Israeli airstrike on the group’s underground headquarters in southern Beirut, where 20 Hezbollah members were also present.


Sep 30: The long overdue elections to the Jammu and Kashmir legislature are scheduled to be held before September 30 this year.

Oct 1: Rafale fighter jets for Indian Navy: India and France are nearing a deal for the acquisition of Rafale Marine fighter jets for Indian aircraft carriers. The Indian Navy requires 26 fighter jets capable of operating from its aircraft carriers. After several rounds of negotiations, the price offer has been significantly reduced, and the deal will be benchmarked on the 2016 deal for 36 Rafale jets acquired for the Indian Air Force.

Oct 1: According to officials, the state cabinet has approved the establishment of private Vidya University, Meerut and KD University, Meerut.

Oct 1: बीएसए मोनिका सिंह, सहायक अध्यापक राघवेंद्र सिंह और सरिता सिंह v/s अनुज कुमार सिंह s/o Late प्रधानाध्यापक संजीव कुमार, सहायक अध्यापक प्रदीप सिरोही; परिमा शर्मा को विद्यालय का इंचार्ज बनाना है। यही सबसे वरिष्ठ अध्यापक हैं। पुलिस व प्रधान चंद्रपाल सिंह की मौजूदगी में ही खिड़की काटी गई। डीएम निधि गुप्ता ने एडीएम न्यायिक मायाशंकर की अध्यक्षता में चार सदस्य कमेटी गठित की है। - डीआईओएस विष्णु प्रताप सिंह, सीडीओ अश्वनी कुमार मिश्रा और एएसपी राजीव कुमार सिंह; स्कूल में पंजीकृत हैं 437 बच्चे। सुल्तानठेर, गजरौला के परिषदीय विद्यालय में बारिश के पानी के साथ कीचड़ जमा हो गया था। इससे बच्चों को परेशानी का सामना करना पड़ रहा था। 23 सितंबर की सुबह विद्यालय के शिक्षक-शिक्षिकाओं और छात्र-छात्राओं ने स्कूल में सफाई अभियान चलाया। विज्ञापन फावड़े और खुरपे से कीचड़ को साफ किया। स्कूल में सफाई का प्रदर्शन करते हुए सोशल मीडिया पर वीडियो वायरल किया। सामने आया था कि यह वीडियो राघवेंद्र सिंह ने वायरल किया था। मामला चर्चाओं में आने के बाद प्रधानाध्यापक भी जांच के घेरे में आ गए थे। इस मामले में बाल कल्याण समिति के अध्यक्ष अतुलेश भारद्वाज और खंड शिक्षा अधिकारी आरती गुप्ता ने विद्यालय को नोटिस जारी कर जवाब देने को कहा था। परिजनों के मुताबिक वह इस बात से भी तनाव में चल रहे थे।

Oct 1: New Delhi: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar remains non-committal about the implementation of the draft Master Plan for Delhi-2041 (MPD-2041), which was sent to the ministry for notification almost a year and a half ago. The draft plan, which was put up for public scrutiny in June 2020, proposes to make New Delhi a 24×7 city, and promote transit-oriented and greenfield development to provide affordable housing in the national capital, among other potential benefits.

Oct 2: India is trying to get specific industries to its industrial smart cities to develop clusters of manufacturing like Detroit is for motor industry in the US and Manchester was for cotton in the UK, Moneycontrol has learnt. UP's industrial smart city Agra is being targeted as Electric Vehicle and Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) hubs, while Palakkad in Kerala will develop into a medicinal and botanical cluster.

Oct 21: In a major decision, the Narendra Modi-led Central government has sanctioned three pilot projects for using hydrogen in steel production to SAIL and two consortiums. According to the statement released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, a financial support of Rs 347 crore will be made available from the government for the pilot projects, which are likely to be commissioned in the next 3 years as a part of National Green Hydrogen Mission under MoNRE. Matrix Gas and Renewables Ltd, a consortium of Gensol Engineering Ltd, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, and Metsol AB, Sweden, has been selected for a pilot plant of 50 tonnes-per-day (TPD) capacity. The green hydrogen-powered steel facility will require Rs 321 crore investment. To encourage such sustainable initiatives, the government will provide incentives covering 50 per cent of the project’s capex.

Oct 22: The Uttar Pradesh government has given final approval to two significant development master plans, covering projects to be executed by the Noida Authority and the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) over the next 15 years. These plans focus on expanding key areas in Noida and creating infrastructure in the Yamuna Expressway region to boost economic growth.
The plan introduces two new land-use categories: multiple-use hospitality and multiple-use industrial, both to be developed near the airport. These areas will offer a combination of residential and industrial spaces, providing housing for workers and infrastructure for industries.
To prevent unauthorized constructions near the airport, land will be acquired for industrial sectors 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, and 8E, as well as for multi-use sectors 7, 8, and 31B. Hospitality sectors, such as 23G, 23I, and 23E, have already been allocated land. The master plan extends up to the Delhi-Howrah railway route and includes a proposal for direct railway connectivity. A logistics hub spanning 1,500 hectares will be established near Chola station, located close to the airport railway line.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority’s master plan focuses on expanding development across 55 villages in the Bulandshahr district, increasing the total area under its jurisdiction to 226 villages, with 131 from Gautam Budh Nagar. The total area covered by phase 1 of the project has expanded from 583 square kilometers to 769 square kilometers, with an expected population of 37 lakh by 2041.
A key feature of YEIDA’s plan is the expansion of the aviation hub around Noida International Airport in Jewar. The total land for the airport will be increased from 5,000 hectares to 6,286.7 hectares. In addition to the airport, industrial units related to aviation, such as aircraft engine manufacturing, will be developed.
The plan introduces two new land-use categories: multiple-use hospitality and multiple-use industrial, both to be developed near the airport. These areas will offer a combination of residential and industrial spaces, providing housing for workers and infrastructure for industries.
To prevent unauthorized constructions near the airport, land will be acquired for industrial sectors 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, and 8E, as well as for multi-use sectors 7, 8, and 31B. Hospitality sectors, such as 23G, 23I, and 23E, have already been allocated land. The master plan extends up to the Delhi-Howrah railway route and includes a proposal for direct railway connectivity. A logistics hub spanning 1,500 hectares will be established near Chola station, located close to the airport railway line.
Additionally, the master plan includes the development of an Olympic Park in sectors 22F and 23B, which will house Olympic-level sports infrastructure. Two new sectors — Sector 4A (365 hectares) and Sector 5A (395 hectares) — will be designated for multiple land-use industries. Proposals for developing a Korean City in Sector 4A and a Japanese City in Sector 5A are also part of the long-term plan.

Nov 18: For the first time since 2009, India has claimed the top spot as the leading sender of international students to the United States. In the academic year 2023-2024, a remarkable 3,31,602 Indian students pursued higher education across American campuses, a 23% surge from the previous year. The momentum is most pronounced at the graduate level, where enrollments climbed to 1,96,567 - marking a 19% increase. Equally striking is the growth in Optional Practical Training (OPT) participation, which soared by 41% to reach 97,556.

Nov:[Pvt] Tata Electronics' iPhone plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu (250 acre), will start production in November, employing 50,000 workers, mostly women. The facility is Apple's fourth in India and Tata's second for iPhones. The facility, in full, would hire 50,000 blue-collared employees to manage 20 assembly lines, majority women. In terms of staff strength it would be second only to Foxconn's Apple iPhone facility in Tamil Nadu

Dec: Army to start phasing out Cheetah, Chetak helicopters from 2027. The Army is expected to receive six LUH between December 2024 and June 2025

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2025:
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Feb xx: 15th edition of Asia's biggest aero show - Aero India 2025 – at Air Force Station, Yelahanka in Bengaluru. 2500/pp. (biannual event)

Mar 19: 32nd Convergence India and 10th Smart Cities India 2025 expo Pragati Maidan.

Mar 30: Apple's Indian workforce will comprise 200,000 direct jobs being created by March-end with women making up a dominant 70%, according to estimates and data submitted by the company as well as its suppliers to the government.

Sep 9: 4-day Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi), London (biannual event) is a pivotal event for the global defence industry. The world's leading defence organisations and most influential stakeholders rely on DSEI's unique. 

Oct 29: 5-day Seoul International Aerospace &. Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2025, Seoul (biannual event)

Nov 17: 5-day 18th edition of Dubai Airshow, DWC, Dubai. The 18th edition of the Dubai Airshow showcased a remarkable gathering of over 1,400 exhibitors from 98 countries, with 350+ distinguished international speakers, 90+ innovative start-ups, and 20 impressive country pavilions. Together, they reshaped the future landscape of the industry, complemented by a stunning display of 190+ aircraft in both static and flying exhibitions. Anticipate an even bigger showcase in the 2025 edition, promising to surpass all expectations. Don't miss the opportunity to be a part of this extraordinary event – secure your space now and be part of the aerospace evolution. 

Jun : American chip maker Micron's high-end semiconductor fabrication plant at Gujarat's Sanand, which is India's first, is coming up at a rapid pace. It is expected to be operational in late 2024. and first chip out by Jun 2025.

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2026
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Mar/Oct 15: the 14th edition of Defexpo 2026, somewhere in Gujrat? (biannual event)

Tata Group hopes that the commercial production of semiconductors chips at the two plants - in Gujarat and Assam, would start in 2026. Chip shortages during Covid highlighted the importance of indigenous manufacturing to fill the deficiency for national security and also to galvanise indigenous innovation.

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Future
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2027:[Japan]  The line is expected to connect Tokyo and Nagoya in 40 minutes, and eventually Tokyo and Osaka in 67 minutes, running at a maximum speed of 505 km/h (314 mph). About 90% of the 286-kilometer (178 mi) line to Nagoya will be tunnels.

2028: India’s ambitious Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM) is tentatively slated to take off on March 28, 2028, and will carry 19 payloads onboard. These will include two Indian and international collaborative scientific instruments, and one international payload that has been recommended by the Experts Review Committee. The mission will be for a period of five years. Being developed at a cost of Rs 1,236 crore by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the VOM will explore the planet's atmosphere, surface, and its interaction with the Sun. Key scientific objectives include examining dust in the Venusian atmosphere, mapping its surface topography in high resolution, studying the solar X-ray spectrum near Venus, analyzing Venusian airglow, and investigating sub-surface characteristics, said the space agency on Tuesday. Additionally, along similar lines to Chandrayaan-3, the mission will aid in technology demonstration for ISRO, testing aerobraking and thermal management techniques in the harsh Venusian environment. The spacecraft is expected to reach Earth’s twin in over 112 days, and the tentative date of arrival, according to the space agency, will be July 19, 2028. The space agency revealed that its trusted Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket will be used to place the spacecraft around Venus. “LVM-3 has been identified as the candidate launch vehicle, which will place the spacecraft in an Elliptical Parking Orbit (EPO) of 170 km x 36,000 km, with a 21.5° inclination and an Argument of Perigee (AOP) of 178°,” said ISRO in a statement.


2028: BrahMos completes 30 supersonic years of success.
2028: By FY29, the total txn volume on UPI volume may rise to 440 billion (or 480 billions), from about 130 billion (or 160 billion) in FY24 and will account for 90% of overall retail digital payments (now it's 80%), said 'The Indian Payments Handbook - 2024-29' a PwC India report. In terms of value of payments txn, from Rs. 265L crore to 600L crore by FY29. Credit Cards are expected to reach 200 million by FY29, In FY24 alone, the industry added 16 million new credit cards (29 Aug'24)

FY29: ETC for Manmad-Indore 309 km railway line project worth 18k crore approved on 2 Sep 2024. Employment of 102 lakh labor days. 30 new stations; connecting 1000 villages and 30 lakh population. Boosting tourism by connecting central India with West and South-west India, esp Shri Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling temple in Ujjain-Indore area (PM Gatishakti Master Plan)

2030:[space] The ISS will complete 32 years in orbit and its decommissioning plan kicks-in. 

2035: Progress is being made to phase out coal power across the OECD, and that will continue throughout this decade. Many are now targeting a fully decarbonised power system by 2035, which means not only phasing out coal power, but also phasing out the majority of unabated gas power.

2035:[Space][India] S.Somanath, speaking to NDTV on 29 June 2024, unveiled a proposal to officially rename the NGLV as "Soorya". It will be used to help complete the Indian Space Station by 2035 and send an Indian to the moon by 2040.

2035:[Space][India] The Next Generation Launch Vehicle or NGLV or "Soorya" (previously referred to as Unified Launch Vehicle or ULV) is a three-stage partially reusable rocket, currently under development by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This vehicle is designed to replace currently operational systems like PSLV, GSLV and LVM3. As per a presentation done by S. Somanath at a conference in October 2022, the NGLV might offer launch costs of approximately $1900 per kg of payload in the reusable form and nearly $3000 per kg in the expendable format. The vehicle will also help in meeting India's need of setting up its space station by 2035. Other potential use cases will be in the areas of launching communication satellites, deep space missions, future human spaceflight, and cargo missions.


2040:[Space][India] an Indian on the moon.

2054: The revival requires approvals from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and state and local agencies. Constellation will also seek to extend the plant's operating licence through 2054. (30Y licence)

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Helicopter Operators in India
Himalayan Heli Services Pvt Ltd (since 1998; HQ near Saket, Delhi)

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democracy - स्वराज्य, जनतंत्र, जम्हूरियत, लोक-तंत्र, प्रजातंत्र, जनतंत्र, प्रजासत्तात्मक राज्य
republic - गणतंत्र, गणराज्य, जम्हूरियत (order - गण; अतिथि-गण)
government - शासन, सरकार, हुकूमत
freedom - स्वतंत्रता, आज़ादी (dependence - पराधीनता,     निर्भरता, अधीनता; reliance - भरोसा)
justice - अपक्षपात, न्याय, इंसाफ, सत्यरक्षा
liberty - स्वाधीनता, आज़ादी (pushiness / off-handedness - बेतकल्लुफ़ी)
equality - समानता, बराबरी
fraternity - बिरादरी, बिरादराना, बंधुता / बन्धुत्व (companionship), (brotherhood - भाईचारा)
honor - इज़्ज़त-ओ-आबरू, आदर-सम्मान, मान-प्रतिष्ठा, सत्कार (shame / hesitation - शर्म)
duty - फ़र्ज़, धर्म, पावंदी, कर्तव्य (obligation - दायित्व; tax - महसूल, देयधन; the white man's burden; onus of proof / burden of accomplishment - सिद्धिभार)
hope - उम्मीद, आशा, भरोसा
purpose - उद्देश्य, मक़सद, इरादा करना,
determined - दृढ़ निश्चय वाला, निर्धारित, तयशुदा, मज़बूत इरादे  
willing - इच्छुक, तैयार, तत्पर, आमादा / आमदा 
control - नियंत्रण (restraint - संयम), इफ्तियार, काबू 
impediment - बाधा, रूकावट (obstruction - अवरोध; hindrance - अड़चन)
accommodating - अनुकूल (agreeable / suitable / fit - Muafiq; appropriate - मुनासिब)
hostile - प्रतिकूल (traitor - पक्षद्रोही; opponent - मुख़ालिफ़ / मुख़ालिफ़त)
gesture - इशारा, हरकत (hint - संकेत)
reveal - मुख़्तसर (also brief/abstract), खुलासा 

pre-dawn meal / meal of the dawn - सहूर, सुहुर, सेहरी
prayer of the dawn (sunrise) - फज्र की नमाज़ 
meal at the dusk (sunset) - रोज़ा इफ्तारी 

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28 states and 8 UTs
Top 10 : MH, TN, GJ, UP, KA, WB, RJ, MP, AP and TA
Bottom 10 : A&NI, MZ, NL, AR, MN, SK, MG, PY, CH, TR, and GA
Oldest High Courts: MH (Bombay), 

Zone-I - AGMUT, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana
Zone-II - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha
Zone-III - Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh
Zone-IV - West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura
Zone-V - Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala

President = 85 officers incl. 30 officers (admin wing), 6 (military), 6 (personal), 8 (press), 5 (others), 24-30 (section officers); Vice-President = 14 officers [Total = 99 officers for president office]

PM Office ≈ 50 officers (incl Principal Secy, Advisors, Secy, OSDs and Reference Officers)

List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India = 1+32 (at least 1 from each HC, 2 from Bar Council; more than 1 Judge are from HC of Bombay (+3), Allahabad (+2), Madras (+1), Karnataka (+1), Madhya Pradesh (+1), Gauhati (+1), Gujarat (+1), Punjab & Haryana (+2))
Chief Justice ≈ 75 officers (from Registrar and OSDs to Branch Officers and Dealing Officials)
Total High Courts in India = 25 
Chief Justice of High Courts = 25 judges
Total (HC) Judges in India = 1114 (840 Permanent, 274 Additional)
Union and State Law Officers (i.e. AGI, SGI & Addl. SGIs) ≈ 40 officers


Election Commission of India ≈ 100 officers incl. 21-25 senior-most officers and 75 secretaries (12 Principal, 23 secy, 35 u-secy, 2 other consultants and 1 tech managers)
Total States = 28 states and hence 28 state election commissioner and 1 EC for 4 UTs (apptd. by the state guv). Sudhanshu Pandey, EC (UTs) for 4 UTs (ANI, LD, DNH, and DND). CH, PU, DL, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh are considered as states.

Comptroller and Auditor General of India ≈ 25 officers (incl. 9 DAI (Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of India), 12 ADAI (Additional Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of India), 2 Director General (DG); excl. Principal Accountant General (PAG), PDA(C) (Principal Director of Audit - Central), Government Accounts (GA), Government Accountings Standards Advisory Board (GASAB), Assessing Officer (AO), AG(A) - Accountant General (Audit); Overseas offices of PDA at London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur)

[12] Census of India, Ministry of Home Affairs ≈ 12 officers (1 Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, 2 Addl. Registrar General, 2 Dy. Director General (incl. 1 from IT), 6 Dy. Registrar General, 1 Sr. Technical Director (IT))

[20+] Anthropological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture (1 Director)

[21] Archaeological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture (1 Director General, 4 ADGs, 6 Jt. DGs, 10 Directors)


Union Council of Ministers
Total Ministries in India = 53  ministries
Cabinet Ministers (sanctioned) = 53 (30 employed)

Total IAS officers in India (sanctioned) ≈ 7000 IAS officers (5200 currently serving)
Total Secretaries to the Cabinet ≈ 100 IAS officers
Total Secretaries to the GoI ≈ 1500 IAS officers
Total States in India = 28 states and Total UTs in India = 8  (36 entities)
        Total Chief Secretaries = 36 IAS officers
        Total State Secretaries ≈ 100-200 IAS officers
Total Divisions in India ≈ 102 divisions
        Total Divisional Commissioners ≈ 100 IAS officers 
        Total Asst. Divisional Commissioners ≈ 50 IAS officers 
Total Districts in India ≈ 800 districts
        Total DMs ≈ 800 IAS officers
        Total ADMs ≈ 400 IAS officers
        Total SDMs ≈ 2000 IAS officers

        Total SPs ≈ 800 IPS officers

Total Income Tax Offices in India ≈ 550 locations
Total IRS officers in India (sanctioned) ≈ 5000 officers (4200 currently serving)

Total IPS officers in India ≈ 5000 officers (66% direct recruit, 33% promotional; 4350 currently serving)
Total IFS officers in India (sanctioned) ≈ 1000 officers (815 cadre officers, 50 on deputation; total 800 currently serving) 
Total IFoS officers in India (sanctioned) ≈ 3200 officers (70% DR and 30% promotion posts; 1250 officers (30%) are on reserve; and only 1960 (60%) are actively deployed)

Total Parliamentary Constituencies in India = 543
Lok Sabha MPs = 550 members (530 representing states and 20 representing UTs)
Rajya Sabha MPs = 250 members (238 rep'g. states and 12 rep'g. UTs)


As per January 2019, In India, there are currently more than 3 million elected representatives (of which more than 1 million are women) for panchayats at all levels.
Zilla Panchayats = 630
Block Panchayats = 6614 and 
Gram Panchayats = 2,53,163 

[SBI (domestic) branches = 16 circles in country; 23k branches; 64k ATMs; 83k kiosk / Business Correspondents outlets; 50 crore customers; 241 offices in 29 foreign countries]

BJP Party: 1 Party President; 36 State/UT presidents; 800 District Presidents; 150-200 Institutes/Universities with active student politics. (i.e. 1200-1500 BJP important leaders; rest ~5000 at levels below district)

District Committee is an important grassroots level organisation of BJP with one President, Six Vice President and Four General Secretary and Six Secretaries. The District Committee has Other members also.

The Mandal Committee of BJP has one president with two general secretary and four secretaries

The National Executive of Bharatiya Janata Party is the presidium and chief executive body of the Bharatiya Janata Party setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. It is composed of members appointed by the BJP president and can have as many as 120 members.
An identical structure, with a State Executive Committee led by a State President, exists at the state level. The National Executive sets up a Parliamentary Board consisting of Party President and ten other members.
The Central Election Committee, is also set up by the National Executive, and consist of the 11 members of the Parliamentary Board and 8 other members elected by the National Executive. The role of the CEC is to select candidates for all Legislative and Parliamentary elections throughout India.
The National Council along with the State Council also elects the President every three year.
The National Council consists of members that are elected by the State Councils, 10% of the parliamentary party, former national Presidents, leaders of state legislative assemblies and state legislative councils, members nominated by the national president, all members of the National Executive, presidents of Morchas and Cells.
Ramlila management committee elections (usually a few months before Dusshera)


India Inc.
Auto Inc.

Shoppers Stop Ltd. is the nation's leading premier retailer of fashion and beauty brands established in 1991. It has 271 Stores spread across 50 cities in India as of 31st Dec 2022.

Burger King India Ltd is an international QSR chain in India. It started operations in 2014 and has established ~260 restaurants across major cities. 
BK Restaurants (India): 456 in Q1 FY25 vs 315 in FY22
BK Cafe (India): 352 in Q1 FY25 vs 35 in FY22


Sapphire Foods is one of the largest franchisees of Yum! Brands Inc. in the subcontinent, and operates more than 400 KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants across India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. As of Nov. 2023, the company owned and operated 383 KFC restaurants in India and Maldives, 422 Pizza Hut restaurants in India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, and 9 Taco Bell restaurants in Sri Lanka. It is Sri Lanka’s Largest International QSR chain with 122 outlets in 52 cities.

The Bajaj Finserv Insta EMI Card is a financing solution that allows you to shop for 1 million+ products on No Cost EMIs. With the Insta EMI Card, you get a pre-approved loan limit of up to Rs. 3 lakh that you can use at 1.5 lakh partner stores across 4,000+ cities. You also get to choose a flexible repayment tenure of up to 60 months for your purchase.

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