“Who was the first woman Chief Minister of India?” “Which was India’s first satellite?” Firsts are a reliable source of easy marks in General Awareness. This page groups them so you can revise them quickly.
First in India: constitutional posts
First
Name
President
Dr Rajendra Prasad
Vice-President
Dr S. Radhakrishnan
Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru
Deputy Prime Minister
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Governor-General of free India
Lord Mountbatten
Indian (and last) Governor-General
C. Rajagopalachari
Chief Justice of India
H.J. Kania
Speaker of Lok Sabha
G.V. Mavalankar
Chief Election Commissioner
Sukumar Sen
Chief of Defence Staff
Gen Bipin Rawat (2020)
Field Marshal
Sam Manekshaw (1973)
Indian Governor of RBI
C.D. Deshmukh
Indian President of the UN General Assembly
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1953)
First women of India
First woman
Name
Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi (1966)
President
Pratibha Patil (2007)
Governor (of a state)
Sarojini Naidu (Uttar Pradesh, 1947)
Chief Minister
Sucheta Kripalani (Uttar Pradesh, 1963)
Speaker of Lok Sabha
Meira Kumar (2009)
Supreme Court judge
Justice M. Fathima Beevi (1989)
IAS officer
Anna Rajam Malhotra (1951)
IPS officer
Kiran Bedi (1972)
Full-time Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman (2019)
Full-time Defence Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman (2017)
Bharat Ratna awardee
Indira Gandhi (1971)
President of the Indian National Congress
Annie Besant (1917); first Indian woman: Sarojini Naidu (1925)
To climb Mount Everest
Bachendri Pal (1984)
Olympic medallist
Karnam Malleswari (weightlifting bronze, Sydney 2000)
Chess Grandmaster
Koneru Humpy (2002)
Miss World
Reita Faria (1966)
Miss Universe
Sushmita Sen (1994)
In space (Indian-born)
Kalpana Chawla (1997)
First Indians: awards and achievements
First
Name
Nobel Prize
Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913)
Nobel in Science
C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930)
Bharat Ratna (1954)
C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman
Jnanpith Award
G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam, 1965)
Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Devika Rani (1969)
Oscar
Bhanu Athaiya (costume design, *Gandhi*, 1983)
Booker Prize
Arundhati Roy (*The God of Small Things*, 1997)
Pritzker Prize (architecture)
B.V. Doshi (2018)
Ramon Magsaysay Award
Vinoba Bhave (1958)
Param Vir Chakra
Major Somnath Sharma (1947, posthumous)
First Indians: space, sports and adventure
First
Name / event
Indian in space
Rakesh Sharma (Soyuz T-11, 1984)
Indian astronaut on the ISS
Shubhanshu Shukla (Axiom-4, 2025)
To climb Everest
Tenzing Norgay (1953, with Edmund Hillary)
Individual Olympic gold
Abhinav Bindra (10 m air rifle, Beijing 2008)
Olympic gold in athletics
Neeraj Chopra (javelin, Tokyo 2020)
Chess Grandmaster
Viswanathan Anand (1988)
Captain of a Cricket World Cup–winning team
Kapil Dev (1983)
First events and things in India
First
Detail
Railway
Bombay (Bori Bunder) to Thane, 16 April 1853
Metro
Kolkata, 24 October 1984
Newspaper
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette (1780)
Feature film (silent)
Raja Harishchandra (1913, Dadasaheb Phalke)
Talkie film
Alam Ara (1931)
Satellite
Aryabhata (19 April 1975)
Nuclear test
Pokhran, 18 May 1974 (“Smiling Buddha”)
General election
1951–52
Five-Year Plan
1951–56
IIT
IIT Kharagpur (1951)
Universities (modern)
Calcutta, Bombay and Madras (1857)
Bank with fully Indian capital and management
Punjab National Bank (1894)
ATM
HSBC, Mumbai (1987)
Mobile phone call
31 July 1995, Jyoti Basu (Kolkata) to Sukh Ram (Delhi)
National park
Hailey National Park (now Jim Corbett), 1936
Mission to Mars
Mangalyaan (2013–14); India was the first country to reach Mars orbit in its first attempt
Exam-ready one-liners
First woman CM: Sucheta Kripalani (UP); first woman Governor: Sarojini Naidu (UP).
First woman Supreme Court judge: Justice Fathima Beevi (1989).
First Indian in space: Rakesh Sharma (1984); first Indian on the ISS: Shubhanshu Shukla (2025).
First Bharat Ratna awardees (1954): Rajagopalachari, Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman.
First Jnanpith: G. Sankara Kurup; first Dadasaheb Phalke Award: Devika Rani.
First railway: Bombay–Thane (1853); first metro: Kolkata (1984).
First satellite: Aryabhata (1975); first talkie: Alam Ara (1931).
First individual Olympic gold: Abhinav Bindra (2008).
