Landmark events of

Indian Economy
A Chronology

6 April 1948 Indias first Industrial policy is unveiled. Unveiled by

Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee it ushers the system of Mixed
Economy in the country.

1 January 1949 Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank of

India is nationalized. It was originally founded on 1 April 1935 as a
shareholders bank.

15 March 1950 The Planning Commission (of India) is formed.

1 April 1951 The First 5-Year Plan is officially implemented. This plan was based
on the Harrod-Domar Model of economic growth and focused on the primary
sector.

18 August 1951 Indias first Indian Institute of

Technology (IIT) is formally inaugurated in Kharagpur in
West Bengal.

1 August 1953 Air India is nationalized. Air India was originally

founded as Tata Airlines in 1932. IT became a public limited
company on 19 July 1946 and was named Air India. It was
nationalized through the Air Corporations Act.
1 July 1955 State Bank of India (SBI) comes into existence as the RBI
acquires a controlling interest in the Imperial Bank of India.

April 1956 - Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR 1956) is adopted by the Indian
Parliament. It was the first comprehensive statement on industrial development of
India and provided more power to the government.

1 April 1956 - Second Five-Year Plan, based on the Feldman-Mahalanobis model is

adopted. It focused on heavy industry.

1 September 1956 Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the

insurance behemoth is established as life insurance business is
nationalized through the Life Insurance of India Act.

1 April 1957 India adopts the decimal system of coinage and sheds the archaic
anna-pie-rupee system. In decimal system 1 Rupee comprises of 100 paisa while in
anna system 1 Rupee comprised of 16 annas.

1958 The first Ambassador car is produced at the Uttarpara plant of Hindustan
Motors.

3 February 1959 Rourkela Steel Plant (Odisha), the first integrated steel plant in
the public sector in India, was commissioned. It was inaugurated by President Dr.
Rajendra Prasad and was established with German collaboration.

13 November 1961 Indias first Indian Institute of Management (IIM) starts

functioning at Calcutta. Later on 11 December 1961 IIM Ahmedabad also became
operational.

1 January 1962 Indias first public sector oil refinery is established at Noonmati in
Guwahati. This refinery is owned by Indian Oil Corporation and is named Guwahati
Refinery.
22 October 1963 Bhakra Dam on Sutlej River in Himachal Pradesh became
operational. It was first huge multi-purpose project of independent India.
Construction of this dam started in 1948.

1965 - The regular daily television transmission started as a part of All India Radio
(AIR).

1965 India ushers into the era of Green Revolution through the use of high-yielding
varieties of seeds, increased fertilisers and improved irrigation facilities.

6 June 1966 India devalues the rupee by 57%, from Rs 4.76 to Rs 7.50 to a dollar.
This devaluation was done as part of the Aid India Consortium at the World Bank.

1967 Vividh Bharati service of the All India Radio (AIR) commences the
commercial advertisements on an experimental basis.

1968 The Union Government establishes the Foreign Promotion Board.

1968 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is established as a division of Tata Sons

Limited. It later emerged as Indias largest software exporting company.

19 July 1969 14 private commercial banks are nationalized through an ordinance.

1969 - Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices Act (MRTP Act, 1969) comes
into effect. It was enacted primarily to ensure that the operation of the economic
system does not result in the concentration of economic power in hands of few.

1970 The new Industrial Licensing Policy comes into effect. This policy divides the
industries in 4 well-defined sectors core sector, middle-core sector, non-core heavy
investment sector and de-licensed sector. It confines the role of large business
houses to the core, heavy and export oriented sectors.

1972 The General Insurance sector is nationalized by enacting the General

Insurance Business Act of 1972. This act nationalized about 107 general insurance
companies then and subsequently merged them into four companies.

All coal mines and non-coking coal mines are nationalized through the Coal Mines
(Nationalization) Act, 1973.
1 January 1974 - The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) comes into effect
with the aim of regulating payments and foreign exchange. This imposed through the
Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1973.

1 November 1975 - A new public-sector company Coal India Limited (CIL) was
formed to enable better organizational and operational efficiency in coal sector. CIL
emerged as the largest coal producer company in the world.

1974 Oil production starts at Bombay High as the first offshore well was struck by
Sagar Samrat, the oil exploration station of the ONGC.

19 April 1975 Indias first indigenously built satellite Aryabhatta is launched from
the Soviet Union.

1976 The practice of bonded labour is aimed to be abolished through the

enactment of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

1976 Raj Krishna, the economist at the Delhi School of Economics coins the
phrase "Hindu rate of growth" to describe India's low rate of GDP growth between
the 1950s and 1980s.

1977 - Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) launches its initial public offering (IPO).

January 1978 The Union Government demonetizes the Rs. 10000 currency note.
This was highest denomination note ever and was printed by the RBI first in 1938
and again in 1954.

1978 - Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC), the first specialized
mortgage company in India, disburses its first home loan.

1980 - Indias first credit card, Central Card, is introduced by the Central Bank of
India.

1980 - TCS establishes India's first dedicated software research and development
centre, the Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC) in Pune.

1981 - Infosys Ltd is incorporated by N.R. Narayana Murthy and six other co-
founders.
1982 Historical textile workers strike in Mumbai. This strike led by controversial
union leader Datta Samant and involving nearly 2,50,000 workers in 80 mills cripples
the textile industry for over a year.

1982 India hosts the 9th Asian Games in Delhi. This is the first major big sporting
event of modern India and results in development of various new infrastructure
landmarks in national capital.

14 December 1983 - First Maruti 800 rolls out, priced at about Rs. 35,000 apiece.
The introduction of this car revolutionizes the automotive industry in India.

2-3 December 1984 - Bhopal gas tragedy, the worlds worst industrial disaster takes
place following poisonous gas methyl iso-cyanate (MIC) leak at American
multinational Union Carbides pesticide plant. Over 10,000 people are expected to
have died while official death toll was 2,259.

1985 - Significant tax reforms are kicked off by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with V.P.
Singh as finance minister.

1 January 1986 - S&P BSE Sensex, Indias first equity index, is launched. Simply
called Sensex, this index comprises of 30 well-established and financially sound
companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

1986 - Demographer Ashish Bose coins the term BIMARU (Bihar-Madhya Pradesh-
Rajasthan-Uttar Pradesh) referring to the poor socio-economic conditions in the four
states.

1987 - Indias first debit card is introduced by Citi Bank, while first ATM is installed in
Mumbai by HSBC.

12 April 1988 - Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator for the
securities market in India, is established as a non-statutory body.

1991 Balance of payment crisis hits India as its foreign exchange reserve dries up
to just $1.2 billion in January 1991, barely enough to last for roughly 3 weeks of
essential imports. India secures $2.2 billion emergency loan from the IMF by pledging 67 tons of
India's gold reserves as collateral security.
1991 - P.V. Narasimha Rao governments budget (presented by the then Finance
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh) ushers in the era of liberalization.

1992 - National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched as the first demutualized electronic
exchange in the country. It was the first exchange in the country to provide a
modern, fully automated screen-based electronic trading system which offered easy
trading facility to the investors spread across the length and breadth of the country.

1992 - Reliance Group becomes the first Indian conglomerate to raise money in
international markets.

1992 - The Harshad Mehta scam roils markets but lays the path for tighter market
regulation.

1992 - SEBI gets statutory powers with the SEBI Act 1992 being passed by the
Indian Parliament.

February 1993 - Infosys made an initial public offer (IPO) at Rs. 95 a share and was
listed on stock exchanges in India in June 1993.

1993 - HDFC becomes the first Indian company to receive in-principal approval for
setting up a private sector bank.

1993 - Hindustan Unilever (HUL) takes over its largest competitor, Tata Oil Mills
Company (TOMCO).

1994 Indian currency Rupee is made convertible on the current account.

1994 - National Telecom Policy is formulated to open up Indian markets for foreign
direct investment as well as domestic investment in the telecom sector.

31 July 1995 Mobile phone service is officially launched in India the then West
Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu makes India's first cellphone call to Sukh Ram, the
Union Communications Minister. The call made between Writer's Building in Kolkata
and Sanchar Bhavan in Delhi was carried on the network of Mobile Net.

1999 - Satyam Infoway buys Rajesh Jains IndiaWorld for Rs. 499-crore and sets off
dotcom boom in India.
2000 Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government announces privatization of
insurance business with a 26% limit on FDI in the sector.

14 October 2003 Competition Commission of India is established by implementing

the Competition Act, 2002. Primary aim is to prevent activities that have an
appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. However, it becomes fully
functional from May 2009. This commission replaces MRTP Act.

2 February 2006 - Indias largest-ever rural jobs scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), is launched. It was initially
called NREGA and was implemented through the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act 2005.

2006 - Tata group pays $12.98 billion to acquire UK-based Corus in the largest ever
cross-border acquisition by an Indian company.

2008 - Tata Motors launches Tata Nano, the worlds cheapest car.

8 November 2016 - The government announces demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs.
1000 currency notes.

1 July 2017 - Goods and Service Tax (GST) is implemented and

it ushers in a uniform indirect tax structure throughout the

country. GST subsumes all other indirect taxes. GST is called

the biggest tax reform in the country ever.