January 2008
Nagaland is brought under President’s rule and the Assembly kept under suspended animation.
The 95th Indian Science Congress gets under way in Visakhapatnam.
The Government sets up a Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of People of Indian Origin. An India Development Foundation to canalise overseas Indians’ donations is proposed at the sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2008 inaugural in New Delhi.
Kerala may have had maritime links with far-off lands as early as 500 B.C., reveals studies conducted by Kerala Council for Historical Research in February-April 2007.
Sensex touches 21000 mark.
The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is presented with the NDTV’s ‘Leader of the Year’ Award at a function in New Delhi.
The PSLV-C10 puts into orbit the 300 kg Israeli satellite Tecsar after liftoff from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The Union Cabinet gives nod for getting up an All India Institute of Ayurveda in New Delhi on the lines of the AIIMS.
At present there are two post-graduate institutes on Ayurveda under the control of the Union government – the National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, and the Institute of Post Graduate Training and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar.
The Government clears a $1 billion (Rs.4,000 crore) arms deal with the U.S. for the purchase of six large transport planes.
The Hercules C-130 J aircraft, which has all-weather and night flying capabilities, will improve the Indian armed forces’ capability to quickly transport troops to areas of conflict.
It recently refurbished and sold USS Trenton (now INS Jalashva) for about $ 500 million. The ship can accommodate several tanks and helicopters besides hundreds of troops. Before this, the U.S. had sold seven weapon locating radars for a deal estimated at about $ 200 millionUSS Trenton became INS Jalashva, the latest acquisition of the Indian Navy and first American ship to join the Indian fleet.
The Union Cabinet further relaxes foreign direct investment norms and opens up commodity exchanges credit information to overseas investors
The Union Cabinet gives nod for setting up a Central Institute of Classical Tamil in Chennai at a cost of Rs.76.32 crore.
The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, announces a Rs.10,000 crore package for Arunachal Pradesh and lays stone for the 3,000 MW Dibang power project, the biggest hydel project in the country
E.U. newcomers Cyprus, Malta adopt the euro scrapping the pound and lira
The University of Cambridge announces the launch of the “Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise.”
Sir Edmund Hillary (88) conqueror of Mt. Everest on May 29, 1953 dies in an Auckland hospital of heart attack
The world’s first commercial service from Hobart, Australia to Antarctica, an Airbus A-319, touches down smoothly at the Wilkins glacial blue ice runway
A 17-member Chinese expedition team reaches Dome A, the highest Antarctic ice cap summit after a gruelling 21-day journey
NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft makes historic Mercury flyby
Bhutan’s poll panel announces the nation’s first general elections will be held on March 24
Dr. Craig Venter of the U.S. creates the world’s first man-made micro-organism.
February 2008
The Centre declares 14 river projects estimated at Rs. 53,200 crore, national assets.
The Union Cabinet approves implementation of the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission on re-defining Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies. The Cabinet also approved a proposal to supersede the Delimitation Order of 1976 and to amend the Representation of the People Act 1950 to reflect the changes in reservation of seats for the SCs and the STs as per the delimited constituencies. This would bring the new orders into force and pave the way for elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies on the basis of new constituencies. The notification, coming into effect immediately, will apply to all States and Union Territories except Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Jharkhand.
India’s indigenously developed pilotless target aircraft ‘Lakshya’ was successfully flight-tested from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur
India joins a select club in underwater missile capability by successfully test firing Sagarika, a tactical, submarine-to-surface missile, from a pontoon off the coast of Visakhapatnam
Iran launches a rocket designed to carry its first research satellite Omid (Hope) next year.
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, delivers an apology in Parliament for past injustices to aborigines.
Mark Beaumont (25), a Scotsman sets a record by cycling around the world in 194 days and 17 hours.
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia after a vote in ethnic Albanian dominated Parliament
The U.S. Navy launches an interceptor missile to shoot down a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office Satellite over the Pacific Ocean
Cuba’s National Assembly unanimously elects Mr. Raul Castro Ruz (76) President in place of brother Fidel Castro. Jose Ramon Machado named Vice-President.
A vault carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the most important seeds to serve as a Noah’s Ark of food crops in the event of a global catastrophe is inaugurated in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, some 1,000 km from the North Pole
A Chinese vessel with e-tagged containers sails out from Shanghai to Savannah in the U.S. marking the opening of the world’s first international e-tagged container route.
Conservatives win a majority in Iranian parliamentary polls
Druk Phuensum Tshogpa or the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party of former Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley wins Bhutan’s first ever parliamentary polls by a landslide
March 2008
The Centre launches ‘Dhan Laxmi’, a conditional cash transfer scheme for the girl child. The scheme is to be launched on a pilot basis in 11 educationally most backward blocks of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. It will cover both those living below and above the poverty line. An outlay of Rs.10 crore has been proposed for 2008-09 benefiting 1,01,970 girl children.
A joint Army and Air Force military exercise code-named ‘Brazen Chariots’ gets underway in Pokhran ranges in Rajasthan Thar desert.
Nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missile Agni-I is successfully test-fired from the Wheeler Island, off Damra island on the Orissa coast
The government decides to set up a Farmers’ Debt Relief Fund with an initial corpus of Rs.10,000 crore.
India’s first Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research is inaugurated at Anna University in Chennai
April 2008
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been extended to all 604 districts of the country from Tuesday. The scheme, which came into existence in 2005, was aimed at enhancing the livelihood security in the rural areas by providing 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work
India and Myanmar sign an agreement on developing an alternative access route to the Northeast
“Maitree Express” is flagged off from the Kolkata station on its inaugural journey to Dhaka. The train services have been resumed after 43 years
Dr. Singh inaugurated the country’s longest cantilever bridge over the Chenab which connects Rajouri and Poonch districts with the rest of the country. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announces a Rs. 1,600-crore economic package for refugees in Jammu and Kashmi
The PSLV-C9 puts 10 satellites in orbit in a precisely timed sequence after lift-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Eight of them are foreign nano satellites
Two satellites belonged to India and the remaining were very small ones built by universities in different countries. The Indian satellites were Cartosat-2A, used for preparing maps, and the Indian Mini Satellite — IMS-1, for remote-sensing.
India’s Kamalesh Sharma takes over as the Commonwealth Secretary General.
Russia scuttles bid to induct Ukraine and Georgia into the NATO at a summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest
Ledra Street, the barricaded boulevard in the heart of Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe is thrown open for traffic
India and Venezuela sign a historic agreement to invest $400 million to develop the San Cristobal oil field
Nepali voters cast ballots in a historic Constituent Assembly election
India and Saudi Arabia reach agreement on establishing a Saudi –India investment fund. Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement is ratified
India and Chile sign four agreements covering air services, S and T, Antarctica expeditions and sports cooperation
A draft framework agreement on starting work on the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline, project in 2010 is signed in Islamabad
May 2008
The government on Thursday granted the coveted ‘Navratna’ status to the PowerGrid Corporation of India Ltd, giving the transmission major financial autonomy to take independent decision on investments up to Rs. 1,000 crore
G. K. Chadha, is appointed CEO of the SAARC University
India successfully test fires Agni-III ballistic missile, capable of striking targets 3,500 km away, from the Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast
The ONGC launches the country’s first helium extraction pilot plant in Kuthalam, Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu
Surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi II is successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range, in Chandipur, Orissa.
The IAF reopens the Daulatbeg Oldi airbase in the Ladakh region after 43 years
The world’s longest sea bridge is inaugurated in the Yangtze River delta in China. The 36 km long Hangzhou Bay Bridge in Ningbo, Zhejiang province links Shanghai with Ningbo
The Labour Party in Britain suffers its worst defeat in local body elections in 40 years.
Cyclone Nargis leaves 78,000 people dead in Myanma
The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, pledges to extend the Indian rail network to Bhutan during talks with his counterpart Jigmi Y. Thinley in Thimphu
Russia, India, China and Brazil institutionalise their four-way group BRIC after Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia
The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, addresses the first-ever joint sitting of the Bhutan Parliament in Thimphu. Announces decision to begin work on the ‘Golden Jubilee Rail Line’, the first-ever rain link into the Himalayan kingdom from Hashimara, northern Bengal
Two Sydney women Cheryl Bart and her daughter Nikki create history as the first mother-daughter team to climb Mt. Everest
Min Bahadur Sherchan (75) becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest
NASA’s Phoenix probe sends back never-seen pictures of Mars’ North Pole after a near perfect landing, topping a 10 month journey.
Nepal is declared a Federal Democratic Republic by the Constituent Assembly ending the 240-year-rule of the Shah Dynasty.
June 2008
Tata Motors announces completion of the $2.3 billion acquisition of British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover in an all cash
Transaction
Soumitra Chatterjee bags the Best Actor award for his role in the Bengali film Podokkhep and Priyamani the Best Actress award for her role in Tamil film Paruthi Veeran at the 54th National Film Awards for 2006. Malayalam film Pulijanmam is adjudged Best Feature Film and Lage Raho Munnabhai the best popular film
Japanese drug firm Daiichi Sankyo announces the acquisition of a majority stake in domestic major Ranbaxy for over Rs. 15,000 crore
‘Nishant’, India’s unmanned Aerial Vehicle developed by the DRDA is successfully test-fired near Kolar
The Construction of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu crosses a “mega milestone” following installation of the 160 tonne safety vessel inside the reactor vault
Phoenix Mars Lander starts digging for life
The 18th Global Summit of Women informally called the “Davos for Women” opens in the Vietnam capital Hanoi
Turkish constitutional court overturns a law allowing women to wear headscarves at university
The External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee confers the Padma Bhushan award on Chinese Indologist Ji Xianlin (97) in BeijingBorlaug, who has been honoured with a Padma Bhushan, four foreigners - Czech scholar Dusan Zbaveitel, Russian educationist Gregory Maximovich Bongard-Levin (Padma Bhusan) and Qatari minister Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Abdullah bin al-Mahmood and German educationist Lothar Lutze -- were chosen for Padma Shris.
Luisa Dias Diago, first woman Prime Minster of Mozambique receives the Global Women’s Leadership Award in Hanoi
Ireland rejects Lisbon reforms treaty in a tense referendum plunging the European Union into a crisis
Jason 2, a French-U.S. satellite designed to provide precise monitoring of rising sea level is launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
July 2008
Himadri’ the Indian research station at the Arctic is inaugurated at Ny-Alyund in Norway by the Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal
Veteran Bengali film director Tapan Sinha is selected for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2006
The Union Cabinet approves merger of the State Bank of Saurashtra with the State Bank of India
Three private players HSBC, ICCI Prudential and Reliance Capital to manage EPFO funds along with SBI
Usha Chammar of Gujarat is crowned ‘Princess of Sanitation Workers’ at the U.N
The G8 summit in Toyako, Japan affirms to stick to the goal of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2050
Nepali Congress leader Ram Baran Yadav is elected Nepal’s first President
In the biggest such occurrence in three years, a chunk of Arctic ice cracks after separating from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic archipelago
Indian-origin ICC judge Navanetham Pillay is appointed the United Nations’ new Human Rights Commissioner
A group of Russian scientists reaches the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest fresh water lake in Russia’s far east, for the first time ever
Doctor couple Prakash Amte and Mandakini Amte of India, Grace Padaca, a woman Philippines provincial Governor among the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay awardees
August 2008
The Nation’s first poly-silicon solar project is launched in Kolkata
The National Stock Exchange kicks off exchange-traded currency futures for the first time in the country
Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signs and adopts a Constitution that allows multi-party elections
Russia sends more troops to Abkhazia another breakaway region of Georgia
Pushpa Kamal Dahal popularly known as Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), is elected the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal by a four-fifths majority
Russia recognises Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states
India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations clinch a trade pact that will create a new free trade area of 1.7 billion people and cover 11 countries, in Singapore
Fuel assurances contained in 123 Agreement with India not binding, declares the U.S. President George W. Bush in a message to the Congress
September 2008
Tapan Sinha is presented the Dada Saheb Phalke award for 2006 in absentia. Soumitra Chatterjee bags best actor award and Priyamani gets best actress award
India signs a ‘historic’ agreement with Colombia for cooperation in the entire spectrum of hydrocarbon sector
Singer Bhupen Hazarika is conferred the ‘Asom Ratna
The Union Cabinet approves the signing and ratification of an extradition treaty with Iran
‘Astra,’ the indigenous air-to-air anti-aircraft missile is successfully test fired at the Chandipur-on-sea after the Orissa coast.
Reliance Industries begins crude oil production from the nation’s first deep sea oil field in the Krishna Godavari basin
Taikonaut Zhai Zhigang starts China’s first spacewalk
The ninth India-Euruopean Union summit in Marseille, France welcomes India’s emergence out of the nuclear denial regime
October 2008
Bombay Stock Exchange launches the currency derivatives segment in Mumbai
The Tata Group’s Rs. 2000 crore Nano car project moves to Sanand in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad district
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announces a $20 million grant in budgetary support to the Palestinian National Authority.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flags off the first ever train in the Kashmir valley at the Nowgam station on the outskirts of Srinagar
The Gurta Gaddi tercentenary celebrations get underway at the historic Takhat Sachkhand Shri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib Gurdwara in Maharashtra’s Nanded town
The centre grants classical language status to Telugu, Kannada
Sarvodaya couple Krishnammal Jagannathan and Sankaralingam Jagannathan share the Right Livelihood Award or “alternative Nobel.” An American Journalist, a Swiss-born doctor and an activist from Somalia are the other winners
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration celebrates 50 years of operationGermany’s Harald Zur Hausen and French researchers Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier share the 2008 Nobel Prize for medicineOsamu Shimomura of Japan and Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien win the Nobel Chemistry Prize for a fluorescent protein derived from a jellyfish
French writer Marie Gustave Le Clezio is awarded the Nobel Literature Prize
Finland’s former President Martti Ahtisaari is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a long career of peacemaking around the world from Namibia to Kosovo
U.S. Economist Paul Krugman is awarded the Nobel Economics Prize for his trade analysis theory
Arvind Adiga, the Chennai-born author wins the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tiger
Mohamed “Anni” Nasheed wins the Maldivian presidential run-off unseating the incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom at the helm for the past 30 years
Ilustrado, a novel by Filipino author Miguel Syjuco wins the $10,000 Man Asian Literary Prize
November 2008
Eminent Hindustani vocalist of the Khirana Gharana Pandit Bhimsen Joshi is chosen for the Bharat Ratna Award
The Government decides to declare Ganga a national river and set up a high-power Ganga River Basin Authority to stop its pollution
Kashmiri poet Abdul Rahman Rahi is presented the 40th Jnanpith Award by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi
A rare cardiac surgery to repair an aneurysm is done for the first time in the nation at a Kochi-based hospital
Shourya, a new surface-to-surface missile is successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Orissa.
The second summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation BIMSTEC in New Delhi agrees on a pact on combating terrorism
The Moon Impact Probe on board Chandrayaan-1 successfully ejects and lands on the lunar surface near the Shackleton crater on the South pole
India and Egypt sign an extradition treaty at a bilateral summit being held after 11 years in New Delhi.
The Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 1995
The International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei is chosen for the Indira Gandhi prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2008
Ravindra Rajaram Kelekar eminent Goan writer in Konkani is declared the joint winner of the 42nd Jnanpith award for 2006.
SBI to enter general insurance business. Forms joint venture with Insurance Australia Group of Australia.
“Hand in Hand 2008”, the Sino-Indian joint military exercise gets under way in Belgaum, Karnataka
Rajya Sabha nod for Gram Nyayalaya Bill, 2008
BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is test-fired in a vertical launch configuration for the first time by the Navy.
The indigenous cryogenic engine passes a “flight acceptance hot test” at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu
The Insurance Laws (Amendments) Bill, 2008 seeking to hike FDI cap on private insurance firms from 26 per cent to 49 per cent is tabled in the Raj Sabha
Parliament passes Information Technology (Amendment) Bill that provides for stringent punishment for cyber crimes. Cyber Appellate Tribunal planned
The Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed offers help in “Observing” the Indian Ocean. India extends a $ 100-million standby credit
The Indian Maritime University is inaugurated in Chennai.
Norway becomes the first signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions finalised in Dublin in May
Lord Swraj Paul becomes the first Asian Deputy Speaker of the British House of Lords
Japan unveils Auriga Leader, the world’s first large ship partially using solar power at a shipyard in Kobe
