FIRSTS IN GOVERNANCE:
First President of India:
Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1950-1962)
First Prime Minister of India: 
Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964). The first term lasted till 1952 after which he was re-elected
First Vice President of India : 
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
First Deputy Prime Minister of India:
Vallabhbhai Patel
First Prime Minister to be voted out of office:
Indira Gandhi (1977) when the Indian National Congress lost to the Janata Party
First Non-Congress government: 
by Janata Party with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister (1977-1980)
First Prime Minister to lead a minority government for a full term (five years): 
P. V. Narasimha Rao, June 21, 1991 – May 16, 1996
First Person outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to serve as Prime Minister for a full term (five years): 
P. V. Narasimha Rao, June 21, 1991 – May 16, 1996
First Prime Minister from South India: P. V. Narasimha Rao, June 21, 1991 – May 16, 1996
First Governor-General: 
Warren Hastings
First British Governor-General: 
Lord William Bentinck
First British Viceroy of India: 
Lord Canning
First Governor General of Independent India: 
Lord Mountbatten, 1947

First and Last Indian Governor-General of Indian Union: 
C Rajagopalachari, 1948

First Chief Justice of India: 
Justice Hiralal J Kania

First Indian ICS Officer: 
Satyendranath Tagore, 1863

First Speaker of Lok Sabha:
Shri G.V. Mavlankar

First Finance Minister of Independent India:
Shri R.K.Shanmukhan Chettys

Presentation of First Budget after India's Independence :
Shri R.K.Shanmukhan Chettys on Nov 26, 1947

First Sikh Prime Minister : 
Manmohan Singh

First Muslim President : 
Zakir Hussain (1967-1969)

First Sikh President : 
Giani Zail Singh

First President to die in Office : 
Dr. Zakir Hussain
First Prime Minister of India of resigned without completing his full term: 
Morarji Desai

First Prime Minister who did not face the Parliament: 
Charan Singh
First Chief Justice of Supreme Court to become President of India: 
Justice M. Hidaytullah
First Sikh President : 
Giani Zail Singh

First Education Minister : 
Abul Kalam Azad
First Home Minister : 
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
First Chief Election Commissioner: Sukumar Sen



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FIRSTS IN DEFENCE:
First Commander-in-Chief of Free India: 
General Sir Roy Bucher
First Indian Commander-in-Chief of Free India: 
General Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, 1949
First Chief of Air Staff: 
Air Marshal Sir Thomas Elmhirst
First Indian Chief of Staff: General Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, 1947
First Indian Commander-in-Chief, IAF: 
Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee1954
First Chief of Naval Staff: Vice Admiral R D Katari
First Field Marshal of India: 
S. H. F. Manekshaw
First Person to receive Paramvir Chakra:: Major Somnath Sharma
First Cosmonaut:
Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma, 1984
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FIRSTS IN NOBEL PRIZES:
First Nobel Prize winner: 
Rabindranath Tagore for the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1913. He was also the firstAsian to get the prize.
First Nobel Prize in Physics: 
C. V. Raman in 1930.
First Nobel Prize in Medicine: 
Har Gobind Khorana in 1968. (India born US citizen)
First Nobel Peace Prize: 
Mother Teresa in 1979. (Albanian nun, Indian citizen)
First Nobel Prize in Economics: Amartya Sen in 1998
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FIRSTS IN AWARDS AND TITLES:First Miss World: 
Reita Faria in 1966
First Miss Universe: 
Sushmita Sen in 1994
First Booker Prize: 
Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things in 1997
First Bharat Ratna: 
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, and Dr C.V. Raman in 1954

First Foreigner to receive Bharat Ratna: 
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
First Person to receive Stalin Prize: 
Saifuddin Kitchlu

First Chevalier: 
Sivaji Ganesan
First Person to receive Jnanpith Award: 
Sri Shankar Kurup
First Dadasaheb Phalke Award: 
Devika Rani 
in 1969
First Ashoka Chakra Award to a civilian (posthumous) :
D.K. Jatar, captain of the sabotaged plane Kashmir Princess, for "most conspicuous bravery, daring and self-sacrifice"
First Magsaysay Award: 
Vinoba Bhave
First Winner of a major literary award in the United States: 
Dhan Gopal Mukerji
First Ford Supermodel of the World (contest): 
Bipasha Basu, 1996
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FIRSTS IN EXPLORATION:
First Person to reach the South Pole: 
Col Jatinder Kumar Bajaj
First Woman to scale Mount Everest: 
Bachendri Pal on May 23, 1984. She was the 5th woman in the world to scale the peak. 
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FIRSTS IN FILM AND TV:
First Sound film: 
Alam Ara, 1931
First Oscar winner:
Bhanu Athaiya for Best Costume Design for Gandhi (film) in 1982

First Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film: 
Mother India in 1957
First National Film Award for cinema: 
Shyamchi Aai in 1954
First Colorized film: 
Mughal-e-Azam in 2004 (the original black-and-white version was released in 1960)
First Sponsored TV serial: 
Hum Log, started in 1984, was also the first soap opera of India
First Actor to enact 10 roles: 
Kamal Haasan
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FIRSTS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
First Hydroelectric plant: 
On the Gaganachukki waterfall of the Sivasamudram Falls, Karnataka. Built in 1902.
First City to have electricity: 
Bangalore, in 1906 (it was in fact the first city in Asia to have electricity)
First Man in space: 
Rakesh Sharma aboard Salyut 7, on April 03, 1984. He was the 138th man in space world-wide.
First Woman in space: 
Kalpana Chawla aboard Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, on November 19,1997. She was a naturalized United States citizen, and represented the US during the event.
First Test-tube baby:
Durga Agarwal, born 1978
First Scientific Expedition to Antarctica: 
1981
First Nuclear Reactor:
Tarapur, Maharashtra
First Genetically Modified Food Product in India : 
Bt. Egg plant Hybrid (Bt. -- Bacilius Thuringiensis)
First Satellite : 
Aryabhatta, launched on April 19, 1975
First Satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services :
EDUSET
First Successfully indigenous Launch Vehicle :SLV-3
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FIRSTS IN SPORTS:
First Olympic team medal:
Gold for Hockey at the 1928 Summer Olympics Amsterdam, beating theNetherlands.

First Olympic individual medal (in British India): Norman Pritchard, 1900
First Olympic individual medal:
Bronze by 
K. D. Jadhav for wrestling at the 1952 Summer OlympicsHelsinki.

First Person to swim across the English Channel: 
Mihir Sen, 1958

First Woman to swim across the English Channel: 
Arati Saha, 1959

First Formula 1 race driver: Narain Karthikeyan
First Formula 1 team: Force India F1
First A1 GP race victory: 
Narain Karthikeyan, Zhuhai,China,2007

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FIRSTS IN CHESS:
First Chess Grandmaster: 
Viswanathan Anand in 1988, at the age of 18.

First FIDE World Chess Champion: Viswanathan Anand in December 2000.
First Undisputed World Chess Champion: Viswanathan Anand in September 2007.
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FIRSTS IN TENNIS:
First Tennis Grand Slam title: Mahesh Bhupathi (partnering with Japanese Rika Hiraki) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 1997 French Open.
First Tennis Grand Slam win by a woman: 
Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italian Gloria Pizzichini in the first round of the 1998 Australian Open

First Woman in the 4th round (highest as of 2008) of a tennis Grand Slam event: 
Sania Mirza in the Singles category of the 2005 US Open.

First Tennis Grand Slam junior title: Leander Paes in the Singles category of the 1990 Wimbledon Championship. He is also the only medal fetcher for India in the Atlanta Olympics. He won the a bronze medal the only medal that put India in the medal tally.
First Tennis Grand Slam junior title by a woman: Sania Mirza (partnering with Russian Alisa Kleybanova) in the Doubles category of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.
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FIRSTS IN CRICKET:
First Cricket tournament:
The Bombay Triangular which later became the Bombay Quadrangular (1912-1936)

First Cricket test match:Against England at Lord's, June 25, 1932
First Cricket captain: 
CK Nayudu for the 1932 tour of England

First Cricketer to score a century: 
Lala Amarnath in 1933 against England in South Bombay

First Cricketer to score a triple century: Vijay Hazare
First ODI cricket hat-trick: 
Chetan Sharma in Reliance World Cup against New Zealand in 1987.

First Test cricket hat-trick: 
Harbhajan Singh against Australia in March 2001
First Cricket World Cup championship win:At the 1983 Cricket World Cup, England beating West Indies.
First Batsman to complete 10,000 runs in Test cricket: 
Sunil Gavaskar (he was first in the world to achieve this feat)

First Batsman to complete 10,000 runs in ODI cricket: 
Sachin Tendulkar (he was first in the world to achieve this feat)

First Cricket Twenty20 world cup winner :2007
First Cricketer to score 75 Test and ODI centuries :Sachin Tendulkar
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FIRSTS IN WOMEN:
First Woman Prime Minister: Indira Gandhi
First Woman Minister in a government: Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
First Woman Chief Minister of a State: Sucheta Kripalani, 1963
First Woman Governor: Sarojini Naidu
First Woman Central Minister: Vijayalakshmi Pandit
First Woman Speaker of a State Assembly: Shanno Devi
First Woman Indian National Congress President: Annie Besant
First Woman President: Pratibha Patil
First Woman Graduates: 
Kadambini Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu, 1883

First Woman Head of an Undergraduate Academic Institution: 
Chandramukhi Basu, 1888

First Woman Honours Graduate: 
Kamini Roy (1886)

First Woman Lawyer: Cornelia Sorabjee
First Woman Judge: Anna Chandy (She became judge in a district court in 1937)
First Woman Chief Justice of a High CourtMrs. Leela Seth (Himachal Pradesh High Court)
 

First Woman Judge in Supreme Court of India: Kumari Justice M. Fathima Beevi
 
First Woman Physician: 
Kadambini Ganguly, 1886


First Woman Airline Pilot: Durga Banerjee
First Woman Olympic medal winner: Karnam Malleswari, 2000
First Woman Asian Games gold medal winner:Kamlijit Sandhu
First Woman IPS Officer: Kiran Bedi
First Woman Nobel Prize winner: 
Mother Teresa in 1979 (Albanian born Indian citizen)

First Woman AmbassadorMiss C. B. Muthamma
First Woman to climb Mt. Everest TwiceSantosh Yadav
First Woman President of Indian National CongressAnnie BesantFirst Woman Pilot in Indian Air ForceHarita Kaur DayalFirst Woman President of the UN General AssemblyVijay Laxmi PanditFirst Woman Chairman of UPSCRoze Millian BethewFirst Woman Director General of PoliceKanchan Chaudhary BhattacharyaFirst Woman Lieutenant GeneralPuneeta AroraFirst Woman Air Vice MarshalP. BandopadhyayaFirst Woman to receive Bharat RatnaIndira GandhiFirst Woman to receive Jnanpith AwardAshapurna Devi___________________________________________________

 

FIRSTS IN OTHERS:
First Wax statue of a living Indian: 
Mahatma Gandhi at Madame Tussaud's in 1939

First Exclusive internet magazine: Bharat Samachar
First Miss India to participate in Miss Universe: Indrani Rehman
First President of the Indian National Congress: 
W C Bonnerjee, 1885
First Muslim President of the Indian National Congress: Badruddin Tayyabji
First Judge of International Court of Justice: Dr. Nagender Singh
First Graduate in Medicine: Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty

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