First in India

Nobel Prize 

• Nobel Prize in Literature- Rabindranath Tagore in 1913. (He was also the first Asian to win the prize.)
• Nobel Prize in Medicine- Har Gobind Khorana in 1968. (US citizen of Indian origin )
• Nobel Prize in Physics- C. V. Raman in 1930.
• Nobel Prize in Economics- Amartya Sen in 1998.
• Nobel Peace Prize- Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1979. (Indian citizen of Albanian origin)
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan in 2009. (UK citizen of Indian origin)

 Defence -in the Republic of India 

• President of Indian Republic- Dr Rajendra Prasad.
• Vice President of Indian Republic- Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
• Chief of Naval Staff- Vice Admiral R D Katari.
• First Christian Navy Chief- Admiral Ronald Lynsdale Pereira.
• Defence Minister of India- Baldev Singh.
• First Parsi Navy Chief- Admiral J L Cursetji.
• First Parsi Army Chief- Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw.
• First Parsi Air Force Chief- Air Marshal Aspy Engineer.
• Commander-in-Chief of Free India- General Sir Roy Bucher.
• Indian Commander-in-Chief of Free India- General Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, 1949.
• Chief of Air Staff- Air Marshal Sir Thomas Elmhirst.
• Commander-in-Chief, IAF- Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee, 1954.
• Indian Chief of Staff- General Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, 1947.
• Field Marshal- Sam Manekshaw, 1973.
• Cosmonaut- Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma, 1984.
• First Christian Air Force Chief- Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne.
• First Christian Army Chief- General Sunith Francis Rodrigues.
• First Sikh Army Chief- General Joginder Jaswant Singh.
• First Sikh Air Force Chief- Air Marshal Arjan Singh.
• First Muslim Air Force Chief- Air Marshal Idris Hasan Latif.
• First female jawan in the Army- Sapper Shanti Tigga.
• First female officer to be court martialled- Anjali Gupta.
• First Param Vir Chakra Winner- Major Som Nath Sharma.

 Economy 

• First power in India with Soviet Collaboration- Neyveli Lignite Corporation in 1962.
• First central PSU to be privatized- Modern Food Industries in January 2000.

 Awards and Titles

• Miss World- Reita Faria in 1966. (She was also the first Asian to win the title)
• Miss Asia Pacific- Zeenat Aman in 1970.
• Miss Universe- Sushmita Sen in 1994.
• Miss Earth- Nicole Faria in 2010.
• Mrs. World- Aditi Gowitrikar in 2001.
• Miss Intercontinental Pageant- Elizabeth Anita Reddi in 1978.
• World Miss University- Priyadarshini Pradhan in 1989.
• Mr. International- Aryan Vaid in 2000.
• Miss Tourism Queen Of The Year International- Urvashi Rautela in 2011.
• Miss Tourism-Priyanka Shah in 2007.
• Miss Tourism International- Candice Pinto in 2001.
• Miss Tourism Queen International- Zabina Abdul Rashid Khan in 2004.
• Manhunt International- Rajeev Singh in 2001.
• Miss Asia Pacific World- Himangini Singh Yadu in 2012.
• Dhan Gopal Mukerji, first Indian to win any literary award (the Newbery Medal) in the United States, in 1927. for Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon
• Nirad C. Chaudhuri, first Indian to win a major non-fiction award, the Duff Cooper Prize in the United Kingdom, in 1966 for The Continent of Circe.
• Bharat Ratna- Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, and C. V. Raman in 1954.
• Bhaswati Bhattacharya was the first Indian to speak as Orator at the Harvard University, in the Commencement Exercises in 1993.
• Padma Vibhushan- Satyendra Nath Bose, Nand Lal Bose, Zakir Hussain, Balasaheb Gangadhar Kher, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, V. K. Krishna Menon in 1954.
• Man Booker Prize- Arundhati Roy for her novel “The God of Small Things” in the year 1997.
• Commandeur of the Order of Arts and Letters- Mrinal Sen.
• Oscar for Lifetime Achievement - Satyajit Ray.
• Dadasaheb Phalke Award- Devika Rani in 1969.
• Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters- Sivaji Ganesan.
• Magsaysay Award- Vinoba Bhave, 1958.
• Nishan-e-Pakistan- Morarji Desai, 1990.
• Ashoka Chakra Award to a civilian- D.K. Jatar (posthumous) and M.C Dixit, captain and co-captain respectively, of the sabotaged plane Kashmir Princess, for "most conspicuous bravery, daring and self-sacrifice"
• Stalin Peace Prize (now known as Lenin Peace Prize) in 1952 Saifuddin Kitchlew.

 Sport 

• Indian to swim across the English Channel- Mihir Sen, 1958.
• Formula One racer- Narain Karthikeyan.
• Woman to swim across the English Channel- Arati Saha, 1959.
• Formula One team- Force India F1.
• Person to equal world record in Archery- Limba Ram, 1992.
• A1 GP race victory- Narain Karthikeyan, Zhuhai, China, 2007.
• Person to walk across the Mongolian Gobi Desert- Sucheta Kadethankar who achieved the feat in 51 days, 11 hours and 40 minutes in 2011.
• Ashish Kumar is the first Indian to win a medal in both Asian games(November 12 to 27 November 2010, Guangzhou(China)) and Commonwealth games(Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010). He won Bronze medal in both games.
• Shiva Keshavan is the first Indian to win to Gold Medals for India in Winter sports at the Asia Cup in Japan in 2011 and 2012. The Asian Champion is also a 4 time Olympian and has set the new Asian speed record on ice at 134.3 kmph and track record a 49.590 seconds.
• Sushil Kumar (wrestler) is the first Indian to win back to back Olympic medals (Bronze and Silver in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics respectively)

 Olympics 

• Olympic team medal- Gold in Field Hockey, Amsterdam, beating The Netherlands in the Finals.
• Individual medal- Bronze by K. D. Jadhav for Wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
• Medal in Tennis- Leander Paes at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
• Individual medal (in British India)- Two Silver medals by Norman Pritchard in 200 metres and 200 metres hurdles at the 1900 Summer Olympics, Paris. (This is disputed however. The IOCclaims he participated for India. The IAAF records him as participant for Great Britain).
• Individual Gold medal- Abhinav Bindra in the 10 m Air Rifle event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
• Individual medal by a woman- Bronze by Karnam Malleswari for weightlifting 54 kg class, at the 2000 Summer Olympics Sydney.
• Individual Silver medal (Independent India)- Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in the Men's Double Trap event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
• Medal in wrestling- Sushil Kumar, winning a Bronze in the Beijing Olympics 2008 and a Silver in the London Olympics 2012.
• Medal in Boxing- Vijender Kumar in the Beijing Olympics 2008.
• Medal in Badminton- Saina Nehwal, winning a Bronze in the London Olympics 2012.

Chess

• Chess Grandmaster- Male - Viswanathan Anand, 1988.
• Female - Koneru Humpy - 2002 - She was also the youngest woman to become a grandmaster at 15 years old. (Hou Yifan of China is the youngest woman to become a grandmaster, at 14 years and 6 months.) in chess.

Cricket

• First Cricket Club in India- Calcutta now Kolkata (1792) Calcutta cricket club.
• Captain in Tests- C. K. Nayudu for the 1932 tour of England.
• First test match played in India- India v/s England in Eden Gardens, Calcutta, result draw, 5-8 Jan 1934.
• First Indian Captain and the third in history to have led his team to victory after being enforced to follow on - against Steve Waugh's Australia in 2001-02-Sourav Ganguly.
• First Test Victory- Against England At Madras.
• First Cricket Stadium- Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
• Cricket tournament- The Bombay Triangular (1905–1911) which later became the Bombay Quadrangular (1912–1936)
• First Indian Captain to win more than 21 test matches as a captain- Ms Dhoni
• Cricketer to score a triple century in a Test match- Virender Sehwag, 309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004.
• Test match- Against England at Lord's, 25 June 1932
• First Indian to score the highest runs in a World Cup- Sourav Ganguly 183 runs V/S Sri Lanka in 1999 World Cup Cricket.
• ODI captain- Ajit Wadekar.
• Cricketer to score a century in a Test match- Lala Amarnath, 118 against England in December 1933 at Bombay Gymkhana grounds.
• Cricketer to score a double century in a Test match- Polly Umrigar, 223 against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1955-56
• Indian to score an ODI century- Kapil Dev, 175* against Zimbabwe in the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
• Indian to score an ODI double century is Sachin Tendulkar, 200
• against South Africa at Gwalior, 24 February 2010 (he was the first in the World to achieve this feat).
• World Cup- At the 1983 World Cup when India beat West Indies in the Finals Under the captaincy of Kapil Dev.
• Hat-trick in an ODI- Chetan Sharma against New Zealand in 1987.
• First World Cup Runners up captain- Sourav Ganguly (2003)
• Batsman to complete 10,000 runs in Tests- Sunil Gavaskar (he was the first in the World to achieve this feat)
• Batsman to complete 10,000 runs in ODIs- Sachin Tendulkar (he was the first in the World to achieve this feat)
• Winner of the first T20 World Cup- India (in 2007).
• First bowler to take all 10 wickets in an innings- Anil Kumble ,against Pakistan.
• Cricketer to score 100 centuries in Test and ODIs combined- Sachin Tendulkar
• First batsman to score 50 centuries in Test Cricket- Sachin Tendulkar
• Six sixes in an Over- Yuvraj Singh in a T20 match vs England.
• First woman to score a double hundred in Test cricket- Mithali Raj (214* against New Zealand at Wellington, 2004).She was first in the world to achieve this feat.
• Fastest Fifty in a T20I- 50 runs of 12 balls by Yuvraj Singh (vs England in the Inaugral World T20 Championship held in South Africa, 2007)
• First Nation to win a World Cup Finale on its home ground- India (ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup) Final held at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

 Tennis

• Grand Slam title in Tenis- Mahesh Bhupathi (partnering with Japanese Rika Hiraki) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 1997 French Open.
• Woman to win a match in a Grand Slam event- Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italian Gloria Pizzichini in the first round of the 1998 Australian Open
• Woman to reach 4th round (highest as of 2009) of a Grand Slam singles event- Sania Mirza in the Singles category of the 2005 US Open.
• Woman to win a Grand Slam title- Sania Mirza (partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 2009 Australian Open.
• Yuki Bhambri became the first Indian to win the Singles in the Junior Australian Open, when he defeated the Greek Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas in the final 6–3, 6–1 in the Finals in 2009.
• Grand Slam junior title- Ramanathan Krishnan in the Singles category of the 1954 Wimbledon Championship.
• Grand Slam junior title by a woman- Sania Mirza (partnering with Russian Alisa Kleybanova) in the Doubles category of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.

 Governance 

• President of the Indian National Congress- Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, 1885.
• President of the Indian National Congress of independent India- Acharya Kripalani, till Nov 1947.
• First President- Rajendra Prasad in 1950–1962.
• First Woman President- Pratibha Patil in 2007–2012.
• The first Chief Election Commissioner - Sukumar Sen.
• Industries and Supplies Minister- Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
• The first person to resign from the Central Cabinet- Shyama. Prasad Mukherjee.
• First Vice-President- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
• First Prime Minister- Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947–1964. India held its first constitutional elections in 1952 after which he was re-elected.
• Leader of Opposition- A. K. Gopalan.
• Deputy Prime Minister- Vallabhbhai Patel in 1947–1950.
• Law Minister of India- B. R. Ambedkar.
• Prime Minister to be voted out of office- Indira Gandhi (1977), when the Indian National Congress lost to the Janata Party.
• Non-Congress government- Janata Party, with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister in 1977–1980.
• Non-Congress State government with Majority by a single party- E. M. S. Namboodiripad of CPI, Kerala 1957.
• Prime Minister from South India- P. V. Narasimha Rao, 1991
• Prime Minister to lead a minority government for a full term (five years)- P. V. Narasimha Rao, 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996
• Person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve as Prime Minister for a full term (five years)- P. V. Narasimha Rao, 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996.
• Women Railway Minister of India- Mamata Banerjee.
• The first Viceroy of India- Lord Canning, 1858.
• Governor-General of Independent India- Lord Mountbatten, 1947.
• Governor-General of India- Warren Hastings, 1773.
• Indian Governor-General of Indian Union- C Rajagopalachari, 1948
• Chief Justice of India- H. J. Kania (1947–1951)
• First Sikh Prime Minister- Manmohan Singh (2004–present)
• First Muslim President- Zakir Hussain (1967–1969)
• First Sikh President- Giani Zail Singh
• First Chief Minister of West Bengal- Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh
• Indian ICS Officer- Satyendranath Tagore, 1863.
• Speaker of Lok Sabha- G.V. Mavlankar in 1952–1956.
• Finance Minister of Independent India- R.K. Shanmukhan Chetty in 1947–1949, for others see First Indian Cabinet.
• Presentation of First Budget after India's Independence- R. K. Shanmukhan Chetty on 26 November 1947.
• First Home Minister of India- Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.
• First Indian President to die in Office- Dr Zakir Hussain, 3 May 1969.
• First Chief Minister to die in Office- C.N.Annadurai, Tamil Nadu.
• First Indian Prime Minister to resign from office- Morarji Desai, 1979.
• First Woman Finance Minister of State Government in India- Dr Upinderjit Kaur, in Punjab Govt.
• First Woman Minister in India- Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
• First Woman Chief Minister- Sucheta Kriplani.
• First Woman Cabinet Minister in India- Rajkumari Amrit Kaur.
• First Female Home Minister- Sabitha Indra Reddy in Andhra Pradesh Govt.
• First Woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha- Meira Kumar.

Women 

• Graduates- Kadambini Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu, 1883.
• The first woman Honours Graduate- Kamini Roy, 1886.
• Head of an Undergraduate Academic Institution- Chandramukhi Basu, 1888.
• First Women's court in India- Malda, West Bengal on 24-1-2013
• The first woman Director General of Police- Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya.
• Honours Graduate- Kamini Roy in 1886.
• Women Railway Minister of India- Mamata Banerjee.
• Court martialled- Anjali Gupta in 2005.
• Doctorate of Science- Asima Chatterjee in 1944.
• Lawyer- Cornelia Sorabjee (1892) also the first female graduate from Bombay University, and the first woman in the world to read law at Oxford.
• The first woman to receive Nobel Prize- Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
• The first woman Air Vice Marshal- P. Bandopadhyaya.
• Chief Justice of a High Court (Himachal Pradesh)- Leila Seth, 1991
• Photojournalist- Homai Vyarawalla in 1913.
• Supreme Court judge- Kumari Fathima Beevi.
• High Court Judge- Anna Chandy.
• Woman President of the United Nations General Assembly- Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 1953.
• Physician- Kadambini Ganguly, 1886.
• Airline Pilot- Durba Banerjee.
• In space- Kalpana Chawla aboard Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, on 19 November 1997. She was a naturalized United States citizen, and represented the US during the event.
• Nobel Prize winner- Mother Teresa of calcutta in 1979 (Albanian born Indian citizen)
• Prime Minister- Indira Gandhi in 1966.
• The first Indian woman to sit in civil services exam, to join IFS, to be a diplomat, to become the ambassador/High commissioner (She also to sue the Indian government for gender bias)-Muthamma Chonira.
• The first woman to cross English Channel- Aarti Saha
• Monarch of Delhi Sultanate- Razia Sultan (1205–1240) of Mamluk Sultanate (Delhi)
• Minister in a government- Rajkumari Amrit Kaur in the Ministry of Health
• Chief Minister of a State- Sucheta Kripalani, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, 1963–1967
• Governor- Sarojini Naidu, Governor of Uttar Pradesh, 1947–1949
• Central Minister (in pre-independent India)- Vijayalakshmi Pandit, minister of local self-government and public health, 1937
• Speaker of the Lok Sabha- Meira Kumar
• Indian National Congress President- Annie Besant
• President- Pratibha Patil, 2007
• IPS Officer Kiran Bedi
• Asian Games gold medal winner- Kamlijit Sandhu
• The first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest- Bachendri Pal, 1984
• Chess Grandmaster- Koneru Humpy, 2002. She was also the youngest woman in the world to become a grandmaster at 15 years old.
• Grand Slam junior title- Sania Mirza (partnering with Russian Alisa Kleybanova) in the Doubles category of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.
• To win 1st round match in a Grand Slam event- Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italian Gloria Pizzichini in the first round of the 1998 Australian Open
• To reach 4th round (highest as of 2008) of a Grand Slam event- Sania Mirza in the Singles category of the 2005 US Open.
• Paris Brest Paris Cycling Event- Divya Tate , August, 2011
• The first Indian woman pilot- Harita Kaur Deol becomes the first Indian woman pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), on a solo flight in 1994.
• State Finance Minister- Dr Upinderjit Kaur, in Punjab- October, 2010
• To Cross Gobi Desert- Sucheta Kadethankar, 2011
• First and youngest Indian female Ultramarathoner (23yrs) to run a 100 Mile Race(Himalayas) Priya Darshini (October, 2007)
• First Indian Women to win Magasasay Award- Kamladevi Chattopadhyay. 
• first woman IAS officer-Anna Rajan George(b1927)kerela qualified in 1950 sub divisional officer in Tamil Nadu 1951.
• First Indian woman to reach the final of an Olympic event Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha, popularly known as P. T. Usha.

Exploration

• Person to fly in a balloon and land in a parachute- Ram Chandra Chatterjee.
• Person to have walked across Gobi desert- Sucheta Kadethankar.
• Person to reach the South Pole- Col Jatinder Kumar Bajaj.
• Woman to scale Mount Everest- Bachendri Pal on 23 May 1984. She was the 5th woman in the world to scale the peak.
• Woman to reach South Pole- Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu.
• Person to reach the North Pole- Jagannathan Srinivasaraghavan on April 23 1985.

Transport  

• First and the only Indian (Metro) rail under Indian Railways- Kolkata Metro.
• First (Metro) rail to become Zone of Indian Railways- Kolkata Metro as the  17^th  Zonal Headquarter in  2010.
• First suburban railway line- Mumbai Suburban Railway in 1857
• First rapid transit (Metro) rail- Kolkata Metro in 1984.
• First Motorcar in regular use- Francis Spring, Chennai in 1901.
• First Indians to own a motor car- Jamshedji Tata and Rustom Cama, a Parsi Lawyer in 1901.
• First Passenger Train- between Mumbai and Thane on 16 April 1853.
• First competitive event- Delhi - Bombay trials in 1905 at the behest of Lord Curzon and Motor Union of Western India to test the suitability of the Automobile for Indian roads and to facilitate interaction between the fledging Automobile Industry and prospective Indian clients.
• First woman to drive a car in India- Suzanne RD Tata 1905.
• First Motor Taxi- Mumbai, 1911.
• First Motorcar- in 1897, Mr Forster of Crompton Greaves.
• First largescale import of motor cars- Relatively large contingent of motorcars imported for the Delhi Darbar held in 1911 to mark the arrival of King George.
• First registration scheme for motor vehicles in India- 1912.
• Arrival of mass production technology makes the Automobile a practical means of transport by the 1920s and most British officers had cars.
• First Assembly of motor cars- General Motors sets up the first assembly unit to assemble cars from imported parts in 1928. The National Series AB sedan is produced.
• First act leading to liberalization of the Auto sector- Maruti 800 launched in 1983 and the automotive industry is progressively liberalized.
• First registration scheme for motor vehicles in India- 1912.
• First manufacture of motor cars- Hindustan Motors begins production of cars in 1942. Premier automobiles and Standard Motors setup. Technology stagnates as a result of economic autarky as India is isolated from the rest of the world.
• First fully indegenous passenger car developed in India- Tata Indica, launched in 1998.
• First expressway- Mumbai - Pune Expressway in 2000.
• Domestic commercial aviation is born in India in 1911 when on 18 February, Henri Piquet, flying a Humber biplane, carries mall from Allahabad to Naini Junction, some six miles away.
• First major acquisition of a foreign company by an Indian company- Tata Motors acquires Jaguar and Land Rover in 2007. Mahindra Automotive emerges as the top bidder for SsangYong Motor Company in 2010.
• Oldest surviving and running cars in India- De Dion Bouton 1904, Rover 1905.
• First aeroplane in India- Maharaja of Patiala, 1910.
• On 10 February 1929, J. R. D. Tata is awarded India's first pilot licence, Pilot Licence No.1 by Federation Aeronotique International signed by Sir Victor Sasoon on behalf of the Aero Club of India and Burma.
• In 1932- J. R. D. Tata launches India's first scheduled airline, Tata Airlines, by piloting the first flight himself from Karachi to Bombay via Ahmedabad on a single-engine Puss Moth with a load of airmail.

Medical Science 

• First Graduate in Medicine- Surjo Kumar Chakraborty.
• First Ever Rhinoplasty noted in world-India- Over Ksatji a British soldier by a Kumhar Vaidya.

 Science 

• Woman in space- Kalpana Chawla aboard Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, on 19 November 1997. She was a naturalized United States citizen, and represented the US during the event.
• The first president of the inaugural session of the Indian Science Congress- Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee in 1914.
• Nuclear Reactor- Apsara, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• First Genetically Modified Food Product in India- Bt. Egg plant Hybrid (Bt. -- Bacilius thuringiensis)
• Satellite- Aryabhata, launched on 19 April 1975.
• Satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services- EDUSAT
• Successfully indigenous launch vehicle- SLV-3.
• Prospective space tourist- Santhosh George Kulangara, proposed in 2009 aboard Virgin Galactic.
• Hydroelectric plant- Sidrapong near Darjeeling, commissioned in 1897,  followed by the Gaganachukki waterfall of the Sivasamudram Falls, Mysore Kingdom, built in 1902.
• Place to get electricity- Darjeeling in 1897, followed by Calcutta in 1898 and Kolar Gold Fields in 1902.
• Man in space- Rakesh Sharma aboard Soyuz T-11, on 3 April 1984. He was the 138th man in space worldwide.
• Test-tube baby- Durga Agarwal, born  in 1978.
• Scientific Expedition to Antarctica in 1981.
• Cloned Animal- Bhass, sampura.
• Telegraph service opened to the Public in  1854.
• First telephone exchange- On 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange", was opened at third floor of the building at 7, Council House Street, with a total of 93 subscribers. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.
• Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India, 1933.
• First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur-1907.
• First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla -1913-1914
• First experimental electric telegraph line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbor-1850. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company.
• First analog Stored Program Control exchange for trunk lines commissioned at Mumbai,1983.
• 1927-Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with Imperial Wireless Chain beam stations at Khadki and Daund. Inaugurated by Lord Irwin on 23 July by exchanging greetings withKing George V.
• 12 channel carrier system introduced in 1953.
•  First subscriber trunk dialing route commissioned between Lucknow and Kanpur, 1960.
• First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri telephone exchanges, 1975.
• First digital microwave junction introduced-1975.
• First technology park in India, Technopark, Trivandrum was launched, 1990.
• First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis on 15 August 1995 in Delhi.
• First optical fibre system for local junction commissioned at Pune, 1979.
• First satellite earth station for domestic communications established at Secunderabad, A.P, 1980.
• First Underground Metro Railways System at Calcutta-1984.
• C-DOT established for indigenous development and production of digital exchanges-1984.
• First wireless telegraph station established between Sagar Islands and Sandheads,1902.

Places 

• City/town to achieve 100% literacy rate- Kottayam, Kerala, 1989.
• City to have an e-court- Ahmedabad, 8 February 2009.
• District to achieve 100% literacy rate and lowest population growth rate- Pathanamthitta district, Kerala.
• District to achieve tobacco free- Kottayam district, Kerala, 27 September 2008.
• District to become India's 'total electrified district'- Palakkad, Kerala, 2011.
• District to be polio-free- Pathanamthitta district, Kerala.
• District to achieve 100% literacy rate- Ernakulam district, Kerala, 1990.