1 January – India begins its two-year tenure (2021–22) as a non-permanent member of the UNSC.[1]
2 January – India approves two coronavirus vaccines, Bharat Biotech's "Covaxin" and the Oxford/AstraZeneca "Covishield", for emergency use.[2][3] Experts raised questions over the efficacy of Covaxin and a lack of transparency in trials.[4][5]
4 January – Instant messaging app WhatsApp announced a new amendment in their privacy policies and data sharing norms. This led to massive outrage against the app and an exodus to alternative applications by users in India.[8] The announcement that WhatsApp will share data with their parent company Facebook led to a surge in the user bases of applications like Signal.[9]
14 January – Former NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan announced that she fell prey to a serious phishing attack in 2020 that came as a job offer for a teaching position at Harvard University.[12]
Five people are killed in a fire at the Serum Institute of India Building, Pune.[17]
26 January – The 72nd Republic Day Parade took place in New Delhi. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, no foreign head of state served as the chief guest. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, cancelled his appearance due to the pandemic.[18] A massive tractor rally took place in Delhi as part of the farmers' protest against new farm bills.[19][20][21] There was ensuing violence and a serious law and order situation that followed the rally, and the Delhi Police alleged that an illegal flag hoisting took place at Red Fort by Deep Sidhu.[22][23] There were massive crack down by security agencies on farmers, journalists, etc.[24] followed by internet shutdowns in Delhi.[25][26]
1 April – The Gujarat Assembly amends the Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, bringing in stringent provisions against forcible conversion through marriage or allurement, with the intention of targeting "love jihad". Gujarat became the 3rd state to do so, after Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh passed similar bills in 2020.[39][40]
8 April – A French online journal Mediapart came out with an investigative journalism piece on the Rafale deal controversy, based on an investigation by the French anti-corruption agency Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA). In the report, Mediapart alleged that the jet manufacturer had paid nearly one million Euros to an Indian middleman.[41][42][43][44]
A viral video emerged from Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha, showing a dead body falling off a running ambulance draws criticism.[47]
24 April – 25 COVID-19 patients die in Jaipur Golden Hospital, Delhi after the hospital runs out of their oxygen supply.[48]
27 April – The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the country cross 2 lakh.[49] However, this is the official figure, with gross amounts of under-reporting suspected.[50][51][52]
2 May - In a joint statement, opposition party leaders asked the Union government to focus all its attention on ensuring uninterrupted oxygen supply to hospitals across the country.[57]
Thousands of dead bodies are found floating or washing up the shore of the river Ganges.[66] The corpses also include people that died due to COVID-19.[67]
28 May – Lakshadweep administration issues an order to deploy government officials in fishing boats. The decision invited huge outcry and criticism.[83]
Student activists from Pinjra Tod Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, along with Asif Iqbal Tanha from Jamia Millia Islamia were released from Tihar Jail on Thursday, hours after a trial court ordered their immediate release. They were in custody since May 2020, in relation to a case related to the violence in 2020 Delhi riots following the Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The trial court order came because the activists who were granted bail by Delhi High Court on June 15 were not released even after 36 hours.[99][100][101]
Press Trust of India reports on the basis of data compiled from Swiss National Bank that, funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks rose to a 13 year high of 2.55 billion Swiss franc (over Rs 20,700 crore INR) in 2020. Interestingly amidst this spike, customer account deposits witnessed a dip while money deposited through bonds, securities and other financial instruments rose sharply.[102][103]
23 June – Enforcement Directorate transferred assets worth ₹8,441.50 crore to public sector banks. The banks suffered losses to the tune of ₹22,585.83 crore due to frauds committed by Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.[107] Thus the total assets transferred to the bank worth Rs 9,041.5 crore, representing 40% of the total loss to the banks. The total attachments and assets seized by Enforcement Directorate amounts to Rs 18,170.02 crore which included assets of Rs 969 crore located in foreign countries. The quantum of the attached and seized assets represents 80.45% of the total bank loss of Rs. 22,585.83 crore.[108]
27 June – European Union excludes anti-COVID-19 vaccine Covishield from 'Green Pass' list.[116]
28 June – Qatar's Special Envoy of the State of Qatar for Counterterrorism and Mediation of Conflict Resolution, Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani made a statement in a web conference that Indian officials have entered into talks with Talibans political leadership based in Doha.[117]
July
1 July - Nine European countries which includes Switzerland, Estonia and 7 European Union member states such as Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland & Spain have given recognition to the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India as EU started 'Green Pass' facility. In the meantime EU member Germany however has a travel ban in place for Indians as India has been recognized as a "virus variant country".[118][119]
11 July – An unconfirmed report in a Tamil daily about the Union government's plan to divide Tamil Nadu and create Kongu Nadu as a Union territory sparked row in Tamil Nadu. The report draw cue from a list of newly appointed ministers published by BJP, where L. Murugan, was mentioned as hailing from Kongu Nadu. All major political party except Bharatiya Janata Party denounced the idea of splitting Tamil Nadu.[134][135][136]
a 9 year old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by four men including a Hindu priest and crematorium workers on her way to fetch water. The girl's corpse was forcefully cremated at a crematorium in South West Delhi district by the miscreants.[153][154]
14 Aug – The Assam Assembly passed a bill that prohibits the slaughter or sale of beef within a 5-km radius of any temple. The legislation seeks to ensure that permission for slaughter is not granted to areas that are predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef eating communities or places that fall within a 5-km radius of a temple, satra and any other institution as may be prescribed by the authorities. Exemptions, however, might be granted for certain religious occasions.[176]
21 Aug - All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) calls for 24 hour shutdown in hill districts of Manipur for protesting against Manipur Legislative Assembly which did not bring Manipur (Hill areas) Autonomous District Council Bill, 2021 in its monsoon session.[177][178]
23 Aug - Finance minister of India announced National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) to sell assets worth Rs. 6 trillion in next four years.[179][180] This includes Indian Railways assets worth Rs. 1.52 trillion, National highways assets worth Rs. 1.6 trillion, power transmission assets worths Rs. 45,000 crores, warehousing assets worth Rs. 28,900 crores etc.[181]
An eviction drive by Government of Assam as part of Garukhuthi Project at Sipajhar, Darrang district turns violent. The videos of policemen firing on unarmed persons and a government-appointed photographer attacking an injured person surfaces and invites criticism.[197][198][199]
23 Sept – Two villagers died and 20 police men injured in violence at Dholpur and Garukhuti in Sipajhar, Darrang district following an eviction drive.[201]
October
2 Oct – Eight people including Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan khan arrested by Narcotics Control Bureau following a drug bust and raid conducted on a cruise vessel named Cordelia chartered between Mumbai and Goa.[202]
29 Oct – Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation share prices made an unprecedented fluctuation. The share prices plunged 29% in the morning after Ministry of Railways asked IRCTC to share half of its convenience fee collections. However, the stock registered recovery of all losses in the same day after Department of Investment and Public Asset Management announced roll back of this decision.[219][220]
18 Nov – Share prices of Fintech company Paytm, which done India's biggest Initial public offering worth Rs. 18,300 crores fell by 27.4% on its day of listing thereby marking one of the biggest listing day loss in the history of Indian Stock market.[225][226]
4 Dec – a special unit of the Indian Army mistakenly opens fire against civilians in Mon district of Nagaland and resultant clashes between civilian protestors and forces leaves 15 civilians and one soldier killed.[232]
7 Dec - A Catholic missionary school in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is attacked and vandalized by a mob of some 500 Hindu extremists, despite school authorities requesting police protection prior to the attack. School principal Brother Anthony Pynumkal told The Indian Express that the mob was armed with iron rods and stones, and chanted Jai Shri Ram while damaging school property.[233]
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