As 2018 nears its completion, let’s have a look at the significant events that shaped up the year for India-
January
India won the 2018 Blind Cricket World Cup for the second time by beating arch rivals Pakistan in a nail biting final match.
Source: Dawn
February
Veteran Indian actress and Bollywood beauty Sridevi passed away in a sudden death in Dubai where she was attending a family wedding.
Source: The Week
A Pune engineer Vikas Sathaye was a part of the team that claimed the scientific and engineering award at the Oscars 2018 Scientific and Technical Awards.
Source: The Advertiser
India also claimed the 2018 Under 19 Cricket World Cup crown by beating Australia in the finals.
March
India won the Best Exhibitor Award out of 100 participating countries at ITB–Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin) World Tourist Meet convened at Berlin, Germany.
Source: Broadway World
April
The world’s third largest consumer of energy India hosted the 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting for the second time in New Delhi, after the 5th session in 1996 at Goa.
May
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the construction of the Zojila tunnel project in Jammu and Kahmir’s Leh, touted to be India’s and Asia’s longest and strategic bi-directional road tunnel.
Source: The Financial Express
June
Indian football team captain Sunil Chettri created history as he became the third highest goal scorer in the world only behind international giants Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Source: Quora
Assam’s Karbi Anglong district came under international scrutiny as in a shocking incident,two youths were publicly lynched on suspect of being child traffickers. The two young men Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das were touring the district in Assam when they met their tragic end in Dokmoka region of the area.
Source: NewsClick
July
Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian gymnast to win a gold medal at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup held in Turkey.
Source: Women Fitness
The Ramon Magsaysay Award dubbed the Nobel Prize of Asia has been claimed by a psychiatrist from India, Bharat Vaswani who shared it with another Indian Sonam Wangchuk.
Source: Onmanorama – Malayala Manorama
2018 also saw the rise of Hima Das, nicknamed the Dhing Express as she rose from oblivion to the heights of success and glory. Hima was on a rampage at the 2018 Asian Games where she set a new national record to qualify for the 400m final.Thereafter, she also became the first Indian sprinter to win a gold medal in an international track event when she vied for the first position at the IAAF World U20 Championships.
Source: Hauterfly
August
Former Prime Minister of India and a revered politician, Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on 16th August at the age of 93 owing to old age ailments.
Source: Quartz
In the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia, India came back home with a rich haul of 69 medals to claim the 8th spot among the 45 participating nations.
Source: Tribun Jogja – Tribunnews.com
In a first forthe world, Indian state Andhra Pradesh built the first ever thermal battery plant. Manufactured by Bharat Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Private Limited,the first of its kind battery is aimed at increasing energy production by the means of renewable resources.
Indian scientist N Raghuram in 2018 was elected as Chair of International Nitrogen Initiative to become the first ever Indian and Asian to hold the prestigious position.
Source: Daily Mail Online
September
In a significant move that revolutionised same sex relationships and gave the LGBTQ community a new lease of life, the Supreme Court had in a landmark judgement over turned the controversial Section 377 ban on homosexuality.
Source: thehindu.com
In yet another landmark judgement by the Supreme Court, the apex judicial body in India passed a judgment on adultery law scrapping the Section 497 of the India Penal Code that dealt with adultery overturning three previous rulings which had stated that the adultery law was constitutional.
October
Ranjan Gogoi has been appointed the Chief Justice of India succeeding Dipak Misra. Incidentally, four senior-most judges of Supreme Court of India had expressed public displeasure over the functioning of the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and called for his impeachment.
The Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka created a world record for continuous operation when it went unhindered on its operation for a record 941 days to overtake the earlier record of 940 days by just one day.
Source: Medium
India rolled out its first indigenously designed engine less train named Train 18 that also became the country’s fastest train.
Source: Wikipedia
November
India’s star boxer Mary Kom claimed a record sixth gold at the World Boxing Championships as she continued her magnificent run in international events to yet again emerge as the best among Indian boxers.
Source: scroll.in
India’s only individual Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian ever to receive the International Shooting Sport Federation Blue Cross, the highest shooting honour in the world.
Source: myKhel
Eminent Indian academician Shyama Prasad Ganguly was awarded the Mexican Order of Aztec Eagle, Mexico’s highest civilian honour that it confers on foreign nationals.
India also claimed glory in the 2018 World Junior Badminton Championship where Lakshya Sen won the bronze medal to be the only podium finisher at this year’s championships.
Source: Khas Khabar
For the second consecutive time, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau won the Asia Environment Enforcement Awards in 2018.
Source: BioTecNika
December
Singing sensation Nahid Afrin had a spectacular 2018 as she not only continued to make waves in the musical circuit but was also appointed the first ever Youth Advocate of the North eastern region in India to fight for child rights by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the apex world organisation looking over the sphere of child rights and welfare.
Source: www.jagran.com
India’s first Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence was opened in New Delhi by the European Union at Department of European Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
Source: BankToday.in
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India Rajiv Mehrishi has been appointed the Vice- chair of the United Nations (UN) Panel of Auditors for another term till 2019.
India also hosted the 80th policy commission meeting of the World Customs Organisation in Mumbai under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
Source: CivilsDaily
