Year in Review: A digest of all key news developments in India in 2019

As the decade comes to a close and 2019 passes by, here is looking at the top events of the year in India

Here is wrap of top events that shaped India in 2019.  

Jan 1: Veteran actor-writer Kader Khan passed away due to prolonged illness at the age of 81 on December 31, his son Sarfaraz confirmed.

Jan 3: The Supreme Court expressed strong dissatisfaction over the rescue efforts to trace 15 people trapped in a mine in Meghalaya for 22 days, telling the state government to bring them out dead or alive.

Jan 4: Lok Sabha passed a bill to amend the Aadhaar Act and two related laws which will allow individuals to offer voluntarily biometric ID as a means of identity verification for obtaining services such as opening bank account and procuring mobile phone connection.

Jan 5: The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have agreed to an alliance in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, an SP leader said Saturday.

Jan 6: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hit back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi after he accused her of lying in Parliament about procurement orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore for state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Jan 8: In a jolt to the Centre, the Supreme Court reinstated Alok Verma as CBI director quashing its unprecedented "overnight" order in which he was stripped of his power and sent on leave along with his deputy after they traded corruption charges sparking a bitter feud.

Jan 9: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held talks with her Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on a range of key bilateral and regional issues, including the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan and the implementation of the Chabahar port project.

Jan 11: India and the US discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation on defence and foreign policy issues and exchanged views on regional developments as stakeholders for a free, open, inclusive and peaceful Indo-Pacific.

Jan 13: Left out of the SP-BSP pre-poll tie-up in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress announced that it would go it alone on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming general election.

Jan 14: Nearly three years after former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and 9 others were accused of raising anti-India slogans, the Delhi police charged them with sedition.

Jan 16: Three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit took charge as the president of the Delhi Congress at a ceremony which was marred by controversy over the presence of Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Jan 22: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday referred to former premier Rajiv Gandhi's remarks on corruption in the country to attack the Congress, saying the party that ruled for years did nothing to stop the "loot", while his government put an end to it and transferred about Rs 5,80,000 crore directly to the people under various schemes.

Jan 23: Ending years of fevered speculation, Gandhi family scion Priyanka Gandhi Vadra formally entered politics on Wednesday with her brother and Congress president Rahul Gandhi appointing her as general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East.

Jan 24: India successfully launched Microsat-R, a military satellite on board its Polar rocket PSLV C44, from the spaceport here on Thursday, in the first mission for the ISRO in 2019.

Jan 25: Former president Pranab Mukherjee, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh and singer Bhupen Hazarika will be conferred with the Bharat Ratna -- the country's highest civilian award, the government announced on Friday.

Jan 29: George Fernandes, a lifelong socialist despite his political adventurism that included Cabinet posts in two ideological opposite governments where he ousted Coca-Cola in 1977 and oversaw the Kargil war in 1999, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Jan 30: An independent enquiry panel Wednesday indicted former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar for violating regulations, with the bank deciding to stop all her unpaid retirement benefits and recover bonuses paid since 2009, an embarrassment for the lender which had given the once high-flying banker a clean chit in the Videocon loan case last year.

Jan 31: Amid a raging controversy, the government said it has not finalised the survey on labour force which reportedly showed that unemployment rate in the country hit a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18.

February

Feb 1: Making a big populist push in its final budget before elections, the Narendra Modi-government Friday exempted people with an earning of up to Rs 5 lakh from payment of income tax.

Feb 2: Ending speculation, the government on Saturday appointed former Madhya Pradesh Police chief Rishi Kumar Shukla as the director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), weeks after the controversial removal of Alok Kumar Verma from the post.

Feb 3: Six people died on Sunday after nine coaches of the Delhi-bound Seemanchal Express derailed in Vaishali district of Bihar, railway officials said.

Feb 4: A political firestorm raged Monday as Mamata Banerjee's sit-in protest against CBI's bid to question Kolkata police chief in chit fund scam cases entered the second day.

Feb 5: The Supreme Court Tuesday rapped the Centre over the National Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam, observing it is "hell bent" on stalling the process by seeking suspension during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls citing non-availability of security forces.

Feb 9: The death toll in the hooch tragedy that hit two adjoining districts in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh rose to at least 61 with more people dying of the spurious liquor they drank at a Haridwar village, officials said.

Feb 11: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made her debut in Uttar Pradesh's political arena as Congress general secretary with a grand road show on Monday.

Feb 12: A massive fire engulfed a hotel in central Delhi's congested Karol Bagh area in the early hours of Tuesday, killing 17 people,including two people who jumped off the building in a desperate bid to save themselves, officials said.

Feb 14: At least 40 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district, officials said.

Feb 16: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik Saturday directed the state police to take "strict action without mercy" against those indulging in violence in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF personnel died, an official said.

Feb 17: The "jobless growth" has slipped into "job-loss growth", which, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos, has made the growing number of aspirational youths restless, former prime minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday, as he hit out at the government for failing to uplift the economy to its potential.

Feb 18: BJP's association with the Shiv Sena goes beyond politics and is bound by a desire to see a strong India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday after the two parties agreed to contest the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections together.

Feb 21: India has decided to "stop" the flow of its share of water to Pakistan from rivers under the Indus Water Treaty, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said Thursday, in comments that came over a week after the ghastly Pulwama terror attack killing 40 CRPF personnel.

Feb 24: The nation will get a new eternal flame on Monday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the National War Memorial, but Amar Jawan Jyoti will continue as it is an "inseparable" part of the country's history, defence officials said Sunday.

Feb 26: In a pinpointed and swift air strike that lasted less than two minutes, India pounded Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp in Pakistan early Tuesday, killing up to 350 terrorists and trainers who were moved there for their protection after the Pulwama attack, officials said.

Feb 28: Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman downed a F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan Air Force by firing an R-73 air-to-air missile before his MiG-21 Bison was hit during a fierce dogfight on Wednesday, official sources said Thursday.

MARCH 

Mar 1: After a suspenseful wait lasting hours, Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman finally returned home.

Mar 3: Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, five security forces' personnel, including a CRPF officer, and a civilian were killed during a 56-hour encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, police said Sunday.

Mar 4: Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation have not been banned by Pakistan.

Mar 5:  India has given proof to the US about the use of F-16 fighters and AMRAAM beyond visual range air-to-air missile by Pakistan during its unsuccessful aerial raid targeting four Indian military installations.

Mar 7: In a significant development, the United Nations has rejected an appeal of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, to remove his name from its list of banned terrorists, government sources said on Thursday.

Mar 10: Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23, the Election Commission announced.

Mar 11: The mastermind of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel, has been killed in an encounter in south Kashmir's Tral area, officials said Monday.

Mar 12: India Tuesday grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft used by the country's airline companies in light of the Ethopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people.

Mar 13: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday promised 33 per cent reservation of government jobs for women and reforms in the Goods and Services Tax(GST) if the party-led UPA wins the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Mar 14: India and Pakistan Thursday agreed to work towards “expeditiously” launching the Kartarpur corridor, a decision taken at a meeting held after the recent escalation in tensions between the two countries.

Mar 15: The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the life ban imposed by the BCCI on cricketer S Sreesanth for his alleged involvement in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal and asked the apex cricket body to re-consider within three months the quantum of punishment.

Mar 16: India will show patience with China for "as long as it takes" but will not compromise its position on firmly dealing with terrorists, government sources said.

Mar 17: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a former defence minister who had been battling pancreatic cancer for over a year, died at his private residence near here on Sunday. He was 63.

Mar 18: Embattled billionaire Anil Ambani Monday warded off a possible jail term as RCom cleared dues of a Swedish service provider at the eleventh hour with money received from elder brother Mukesh and his wife Nita, whom he thanked for standing by him in trying times and extending "timely support".

Mar 19: Former Supreme Court judge Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose was on Tuesday appointed as the country's first Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman, an official communique said.

Mar 20: A special court here Wednesday acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in the Samjhauta train blast case that left 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, dead in 2007.

Mar 27: India shot down one of its satellites in space on Wednesday with an anti-satellite missile to demonstrate this complex capability, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced, making it only the fourth country to have used such a weapon.

Mar 31: CRPF convoys moving to and from the Kashmir Valley will now be commandeered by a higher SP-rank officer and a single motorcade will not have more than 40 vehicles at any point of time, the paramilitary force has ordered in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.

APRIL 

Apr 1: The Centre on Monday extended the "disturbed area" tag under AFSPA for three districts of Arunachal Pradesh for six months more while withdrawing it partly from the state's three other districts bordering Assam.

Apr 2: India on Tuesday sent a note verbale to Pakistan demanding the immediate release and repatriation of 10 Indian civilian prisoners lodged in Pakistani jails who have already completed their sentence, sources said.

Apr 4: The release of "PM Narendra Modi", a biopic on the prime minister, has been pushed indefinitely, its producer Sandip Ssingh said on Thursday, a day before the film was scheduled to be screened in theatres across the country.

Apr 5: Kanishak Kataria, a B.Tech from IIT Bombay, has topped the civil services final examination 2018, results of which were announced by the UPSC on Friday, while Srushti Jayant Deshmukh is the topper among women candidates securing an overall fifth rank.

Apr 6: Pakistan has opened one of its 11 air routes for west-bound flights from India and Air India has started using it, said a senior government official Saturday.

Apr 9: JKLF chief Yasin Malik was Tuesday shifted to Delhi's Tihar Jail after the NIA secured his production remand in connection with a case related to funding of separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

Apr 10: In a jolt to the Centre, the Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear petitions for a review of its verdict in the Rafale jet deal on the basis of 'leaked' secret documents by dismissing its preliminary objections.

Apr 15: India Monday successfully test-fired its first indigenously designed and developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile 'Nirbhay' from a test range in Odisha.

Apr 16: Crisis continued to deepen at cash-starved Jet Airways Tuesday as the airline flew just five planes and the management made desperate attempts to garner emergency funds worth Rs 400 crore to stay afloat even as the lenders remained undecided on extending the lifeline.

Apr 17: Bringing its Hindutva plank to the fore, the BJP on Wednesday fielded Malegaon blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal against Congress heavyweight and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh.

Apr 18: The Election Commission Thursday said it has sought a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on the Sabarimala shrine and is examining another report on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's 'chowkidar chor hai' jibe against the PM.

Apr 19: Ending their 24-year rivalry to take on the BJP, BSP supremo Mayawati shared the stage with Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav here on Friday and sought votes for him.

Apr 20: Allegations of sexual harassment have cropped up against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi prompting him to convene an urgent extraordinary hearing on Saturday and assert that the charges by a former apex court staffer were "unbelievable" and part of a conspiracy by some "bigger force" to "deactivate" the CJI's office.

Apr 21: Eight former top police officers Sunday strongly condemned the "despicable" remark of BJP's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Pragya Singh Thakur that her "curse" killed Hemant Karkare, and demanded those who laid down their lives for the country be respected.

Apr 22: Two lawyers' bodies of the Supreme Court on Monday disapproved of the manner in which Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dealt with the sexual harassment allegations against him, calling it "procedural impropriety" and "violation" of procedures.

Apr 23: The Supreme Court Tuesday directed the Gujarat government to give Rs 50 lakh compensation, a job and accommodation to Bilkis Bano who was gang raped during the 2002 riots in the state.

Apr 26: Under a new head after the forced exit of its promoter-chief executive Rana Kapoor, Yes Bank Friday reported a whopping Rs 1,506 crore net loss for the March quarter as against a profit of Rs 1,179 crore in the year-ago period as provisions soared over nine-times.

Apr 27: A deep depression over southeast Bay of Bengal developed into cyclonic storm 'Fani' on Saturday, which will further intensify into a "severe cyclonic storm", the IMD said.

Apr 29: Twenty-four students scored a perfect 100 in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main for admission into engineering colleges, the results of which were announced by the HRD Ministry's National Testing Agency (NTA) Monday.

MAY 

May 1: At least 16 persons, including 15 security personnel, were killed in an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. 

May 2: Girls outshone boys in the class 12 CBSE examination, the results of which where declared Thursday way ahead of schedule, with Ghaziabad's Hansika Shukla and Muzaffarnagar's Karishma Arora sharing the top rank with 499 out of 500 marks.

May 4: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was slapped allegedly by a disgruntled AAP supporter during a roadshow in Moti Nagar, prompting a strong reaction from the AAP which alleged the BJP was behind the "cowardly act".

May 6: Girls outperformed boys yet again in CBSE class 10 examination, in which the top rank was shared by 13 students with 499 out of 500 marks.

May 7: Girls outshone boys yet again in the ICSE and ISC examination, with the toppers setting a record of scoring 100 per cent marks in the class 12 examination.

May 9: A full-blown controversy broke out on Thursday over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's allegation that Rajiv Gandhi used INS Viraat as a "personal taxi" with former Navy chief Admiral (retd) L Ramdas as well as a former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier rejecting it.

May 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about his 56-inch chest but what about his heart, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked on Friday, while alleging that the PM's friends made profits of Rs 10,000 crore in the last five years while farmers suffered.

May 12: The death toll due to cyclone Fani rose to 64 with 21 fresh deaths confirmed on Sunday, nine days after the 'extremely severe' cyclonic storm devastated coastal Odisha.

May 13: Actor-politician Kamal Haasan has said independent India's first "extremist was a Hindu"-- Nathuram Godse who killed Mahatma Gandhi, stoking a controversy with the BJP on Monday asserting that an "assassin" is very different from a terrorist.

May 14: In top level exodus at grounded Jet Airways, four senior executives, including chief executive Vinay Dube and his deputy Amit Agarwal, have quit the ailing airline.

May 17: Addressing his first press conference after coming to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on the last day of campaigning Friday that the BJP will come back to power with a full majority, but refused to take any questions, citing party discipline.

May 18: Alleging that the BJP was after his life, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal Saturday claimed that he will be assassinated like former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by his personal security officer.

May 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a super-sized victory for a second term in office, as his message of nationalism, security, Hindu pride and a New India was wholeheartedly embraced by voters across large swathes of the country.

May 24: A BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired by a unit of Eastern Command of the Indian Army from Car Nicobar Islands, the Army said.

May 25: Narendra Modi was Saturday appointed prime minister by President Ram Nath Kovind after he was unanimously elected NDA parliamentary party leader at a meeting in which he asked its members to work without discrimination, stressing on the need to win over the trust of minorities.

May 28: The crisis in the Congress showed no signs of easing on Tuesday with Rahul Gandhi sticking to his decision to resign as party chief after its Lok Sabha poll debacle and staying way from meeting party leaders, except a few including his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

May 31: New Delhi: In a bad news for the new government on day one, CSO data showed that economic growth slowed to a 5-year low of 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, pushing India behind China, due to poor showing by agriculture and manufacturing sectors. 

JUNE
 

Jun 1: As Congress MPs re-elected her the leader of parliamentary party (CPP), Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said several "decisive measures" were being mulled to strengthen the organisation.

Jun 2: Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik Sunday resigned from Bijepur Assembly constituency and retained the Hinjli seat.

Jun 7: The north and central regions of India seethed under heatwave conditions Friday forcing people to stay indoors, even as a severe dust storm and lightning in various parts of Uttar Pradesh claimed at least 26 lives and left 57 injured.

Jun 9: In a strategically significant move, the government has decided to fast-track integration of Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles into over 40 Sukhoi fighter jets under a closely-guarded project.

Jun 10: A court on Monday sentenced three men including a temple caretaker to life imprisonment till last breath for the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jun 13: All 13 air-warriors on board an AN-32 transport aircraft that crashed in a heavily forested mountainous area in Arunachal Pradesh 10 days back were killed, the Indian Air Force said Thursday.

Jun 15: Agitating doctors Saturday turned down West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's offer for talks at the state secretariat saying they fear about their security and rejected her appeal to end their stir, which entered the fifth day.

Jun 17: Former Union minister J P Nadda was appointed BJP's working president during the party's parliamentary board meeting on Monday.

Jun 18: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five-time parliamentarian from West Bengal, was appointed as the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

Jun 22: The CBI has booked controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and others in connection with the alleged corruption in the Rs 2895 crore deal of 75 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force in 2009, officials said Saturday.

Jun 26: The Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the country's external snooping agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Wednesday got new chiefs as the government cleared names of IPS officers Arvind Kumar and Samanat Goel for the coveted posts for a fixed tenure of two years.

Jun 29: Two years after Haryana resident Pehlu Khan was lynched by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar district, police here have filed a chargesheet against his two sons and a truck operator for illegally transporting cattle.

Jun 30: June ended with 33 per cent of monsoon precipitation and over 78 per cent of meteorological subdivision recording "deficient" rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department. 

JULY 

Jul 1: Tension prevailed Monday in old Delhi's Chawri Bazaar area after a fight over parking a scooter took a communal turn and a temple was vandalised in the locality, police said.

Jul 2: In a possibly biggest synchronised action against alleged bank loan defaulters, the CBI Tuesday launched a massive crackdown by carrying out searches at over 61 locations in 18 cities after registering 17 cases involving swindling of funds to the tune of Rs 1,139 crore, officials said.

Jul 3: In more trouble for the crisis-hit Congress, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday publicly announced his resignation as its president.

Jul 5: The Modi 2.0 government's maiden Budget Friday hiked petrol and diesel prices, raised import duty on dozens of items and increased tax on the super-rich as it sought to spur growth through higher spending and sops for startups, housing and corporates.

Jul 6: The walled city of Jaipur, known for its iconic architectural legacy and vibrant culture, made its entry into the UNESCO World Heritage Site list on Saturday, becoming the second city of the country after Ahmedabad to get the recognition.

Jul 7: The spate of resignations within the Congress continued on Sunday with Rahul Gandhi loyalists Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora resigning their posts in the party, weeks after the Lok Sabha poll debacle.

Jul 8: As the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka teetered on the brink of collapse, all the ministers quit Monday to give a free hand to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to reshuffle his Cabinet.

Jul 9: The beleaguered JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka Tuesday got a breather with state Assembly Speaker holding that the resignations of 9 out of 14 rebel MLAs are not in order on a day when another Congress legislator quit the party.

Jul 12: Rising for the sixth month in a row, retail inflation climbed to 3.18 per cent in June though remaining well within the RBI's comfort zone, leaving scope for a rate cut by the central bank to boost industrial production which is yet to gain traction.

Jul 14: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been at loggerheads with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and was stripped off key portfolios in the cabinet reshuffle in June, has resigned from the state cabinet.

Jul 17: India Wednesday hailed the verdict of the International Court of Justice in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders across the political spectrum calling it a victory of "truth and justice".

Jul 19: The flood situation in Bihar and northeast India showed little improvement on Friday as over 1.15 crore people remained affected while the death toll due flood and rain-related incidents neared 150.

Jul 20: Three-time Delhi chief minister and Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit, who gave the national capital its modern look, passed away Saturday afternoon at a private hospital here after suffering cardiac arrest.

Jul 22: India on Monday successfully launched its second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 from its most powerful rocket with a plan to land the rover on September 7 in the unexplored lunar south pole, exactly a week after the liftoff was aborted due to a technical snag.

Jul 25: Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the bill to ban triple talaq, with the government asserting that the law was required as hundreds of cases of instant divorce have come to the fore despite Supreme Court striking down the practice.

Jul 26: Karnataka BJP stalwart B S Yediyurappa was sworn in as Chief Minister of the state for a fourth time.

Jul 29: The Uttar Pradesh police on Monday filed a murder case against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and nine others after the Unnao rape survivor's family filed a complaint, alleging "conspiracy" behind the Sunday's car crash in which the rape victim was severely injured.

Jul 30: In a big victory, the Modi Government on Tuesday secured Rajya Sabha's clearance for the landmark triple talaq bill helped by support from the BJD, walkout by BJP allies JD-U and AIADMK and some abstentions to get Parliament's approval for the contentious legislation.

Jul 31: The body of billionaire coffee tycoon V G Siddhartha was found Wednesday on the banks of the Netravathi river in Karnataka and cremated in his ancestral village from where he began the hugely successful cafe chain that helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage in India.

AUGUST

Aug 1: Patients in the national capital faced a harrowing time on Thursday as resident doctors at several government hospitals went on strike.

Aug 17: Restrictions on the movement of people were eased and landline phone services restored in some areas of the Kashmir Valley on Saturday, even as stringent security arrangements remained in place, officials said.

Aug 18: Heavy rains lashed northern parts, leaving at least 28 people dead and 22 missing in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab on Sunday, while a flood alert was sounded in parts of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh as Yamuna and other rivers were in spate.

Aug 19: Veteran composer Khayyam, best known for his music in classic films such as 'Kabhi Kabhie' and 'Umrao Jaan', passed away after prolonged illnesses at a hospital here on Monday.

Aug 20: Congress leader P Chidambaram was in deep legal trouble and faced possible arrest after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant him anticipatory bail.

Aug 21: Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI Wednesday night from his residence in connection with INX media corruption case after dramatic developments with the agency sleuths scaling walls to gain access to the bungalow in the high-end Jor Bagh locality.

Aug 22: Oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Thursday afternoon stopped the supply of fuel to Air India at six airports due to non-payment of dues, said a senior airline official.

Aug 23: The ED conducted searches at a dozen premises of Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and his firms on Friday in connection with a case of alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law, officials said.

Aug 24: Arun Jaitley, who as finance minister ushered in India's biggest tax reforms died at the AIIMS after battling multiple health issues for the last several months. 

Aug 25: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said leaders of the opposition and the press got a taste of the "draconian administration" and "brute force" unleashed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir when they tried to visit Srinagar.

Aug 26: In a first, Karnataka will have three Deputy Chief Ministers as Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday allocated portfolios to 17 newly appointed ministers who were inducted into the cabinet nearly a week ago.

Aug 27: The police here on Tuesday lodged an FIR against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand after a student went missing following her allegation in video clip that he had been harassing her.

Aug 28: The Centre's decision to change the Constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir came under the legal scrutiny on Wednesday with the Supreme Court referring a batch of pleas against the abrogation of Article 370 for hearing in first week of October by its five-judge bench.

Aug 29: The mystery surrounding the sudden disappearance of a post-graduate student, who levelled harassment charges against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, continued on the sixth day as her family awaited any concrete information about her.

Aug 30: India's economic growth on Friday slumped for the fifth straight quarter to an over six-year low of 5 per cent in the three months ended June as consumer demand and private investment slowed amid deteriorating global environment.

Aug 31: The updated final NRC, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam, was released on Saturday, with the authority conducting the exercise shutting out the citizenship claims of over 19 lakh applicants who now face an uncertain future.

SEPTEMBER

Sep 2: IFor the first time since Pakistan detained Kulbhushan Jadhav in 2016, a top Indian diplomat met him on Monday for two hours and reported that he appeared to be under "extreme pressure" to parrot a false narrative to bolster Islamabad's untenable claims in his case.

Sep 5: Former union finance minister P Chidambaram was put behind bars on Thursday hours after a CBI court sent him to two-week judicial custody.

Sep 7: India's bold bid to become only the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon ended in a huge disappointment on Saturday when contact with Chandrayaan-2's landing module was abruptly lost seconds before it was to descend the final 2.1 km and touch down on the lunar surface.

Sep 8: Eminent jurist and former Union minister Ram Jethmalani, who defended the accused in some of the most difficult and high-profile cases including the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, passed away on Sunday at the age of 95.

Sep 12: Top Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on Thursday said Kashmir is an "integral part" of the country and the welfare of the Valley's people lies in their integration with India, even as it urged the government to use all constitutional means for bringing back normalcy in the region.

Sep 14: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday unveiled over Rs 70,000 crore of measures for exporters and the real estate sector, including about Rs 30,000 crore new spending in plans such as setting up of a stressed asset fund, as part of efforts to boost economic growth from a six-year low.

Sep 16: Farooq Abdullah, a three-term chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and five-time parliamentarian, was arrested on Monday under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) and his residence was declared a jail, officials said here.

Sep 17: The united front of Left student organisations SFI, AISA, AISF and DSF on Tuesday swept the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) polls, with Aishe Ghosh being elected president.

Sep 18: The government on Wednesday banned production, import and sale of e-cigarettes and similar products, citing health risk to people, especially youth, and an ordinance will be brought in to make it an offence, entailing jail term up to three years as well as fine.

Sep 19: Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, who played a key role in negotiating the Rafale deal, will be the next Chief of Air Staff, the government announced on Thursday.

Sep 20: In the biggest reduction in 28 years, the government on Friday slashed corporate tax by almost 10 percentage points as it looked to pull the economy out of a six-year low growth and a 45-year high unemployment rate by reviving private investments with a Rs 1.45-lakh crore tax break.

Sep 21: Zoya Akhtar's "Gully Boy", featuring Ranveer Singh as an aspiring rapper, has been selected as India's official entry in the International Feature Film category at the Oscars, the Film Federation of India (FFI) announced on Saturday.

Sep 24: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, one of the most influential stars of his generation, was on Tuesday named the Dadasaheb Phalke award recipient for the year 2018 for his contribution to the Indian film industry.

Sep 26: Muslim parties made a U-turn Thursday on questioning the authorship of the summary of 2003 ASI report, which had held that a massive structure pre-existed the Babri Masjid, and apologised to the Supreme Court for wasting its time in the Ayodhya land dispute case.

Sep 28: A top Hizbul Mujahideen 'commander', wanted in connection with the assassination of a senior BJP leader and an RSS functionary, was killed along with two other terrorists in a nine-hour operation in which a jawan lost his life in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, officials said.

Sep 29: Over 120 people died in rain-related incidents across the country in the past four days, with Uttar Pradesh reporting the maximum deaths, while incessant rainfall in Bihar has badly hit normal life, with almost all areas of capital city Patna under knee-deep waters and people struggling to meet their daily needs.

Sep 30: The Indian Air Force is monitoring the developments along the western front and is prepared to carry out a Balakot-type strike, if directed by the government, Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria said after taking charge of the IAF on Monday.

OCTOBER

Oct 1: In a setback to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ahead of the Assembly polls, the Supreme Court on Tuesday revived a criminal complaint against the BJP leader alleging he failed to furnish details of two pending criminal cases.

Oct 3: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Thursday that former prime minister Manmohan Singh has agreed to join the first all-party "jatha" (delegation) to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara to join the mega event after the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor.

Oct 5: Heeding to a long-standing demand of the Army, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has given in-principle approval to enhance monetary assistance to next of kin of battle casualties from existing Rs 2 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, officials said Saturday.

Oct 6: The Congress will announce a loan waiver for the poor and farmers in the state if voted to power, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja has said.

Oct 7: India has got first tranche of swiss bank account details of its nationals under a new automatic information exchange pact, a major milestone in the government's fight against black money stashed abroad.

Oct 8: Normal life remained severely affected for the 65th consecutive day on Tuesday in the Valley in the wake of the Centre's move to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two Union Territories.

Oct 9: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted two more months to the CBI to complete probe in a bribery case allegedly involving the agency's then special director Rakesh Asthana.

Oct 10: In coordinated raids, more than 300 Income Tax sleuths swooped down on premises linked to two prominent Congress leaders in Karnataka - former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara and former MP R L Jalappa's son J Rajendra.

Oct 11: The Delhi Police on Friday arrested former Fortis Healthcare promoter Malvinder Singh for allegedly misappropriating funds of Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) and causing losses to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore, officials said.

Oct 12: Women will be exempted from the odd-even road rationing scheme which is set to return in the national capital for the third time from November 4-15, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Saturday.

Oct 13: A layer of haze lingered over the national capital on Sunday as the city's air quality plunged to the "very poor" category, days before strict measures to fight air pollution come into force under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Oct 14: Mobile phones in Kashmir buzzed back to life on Monday, breaking the silence of a 72-day communication clampdown and reconnecting 40 lakh post-paid subscribers to the country, the Valley and their neighbourhoods but without any internet facilities.

Oct 15: The BJP's Maharashtra unit on Tuesday proposed Bharat Ratna award for Hindutva idealogue V D Savarkar as part of party's election manifesto, evoking criticism from the Opposition with the Congress asserting that if such a demand is accepted then "God save this country".

Oct 23: The government on Wednesday approved a Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and giving VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.

Oct 24: The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance on Thursday retained power in Maharashtra, albeit with a reduced majority, while it was a hung Assembly in Haryana where the BJP emerged as the single largest party and JJP chief Dushyant Chautala and independents hold the key to government formation.

Oct 29: Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde was on Tuesday appointed as the 47th Chief Justice of India, the Law Ministry said. Justice Bobde, 63, will take oath as the CJI on November 18, a day after incumbent Ranjan Gogoi demits office.

Oct 31: The Army wants the acts of homosexuality and adultery to be kept punishable and has approached the Defence Ministry for it, a year after the Supreme Court decriminalised them, sources said.

NOVEMBER

Nov 2: Lawyers and police clashed at the Tis Hazari Court complex here on Saturday during which at least 20 police personnel and several lawyers were injured while many vehicles vandalised or set on fire, according to officials.

Nov 3: With the national capital and surrounding areas reeling under severe air pollution, the principal secretary to the prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on Sunday and it was decided that Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba would monitor the situation with the governments of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab on a daily basis.

Nov 4: The third edition of Odd-Even road space rationing scheme came into force in the national capital on Monday amid persistent high levels of pollution, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claiming that the exercise on the first day was "successful” as 15 lakh cars were off the roads.

Nov 5: In unprecedented protests by Delhi police, thousands of its personnel on Tuesday laid siege outside the Police Headquarters for 11 hours and staged a virtual revolt sparked by two attacks on their colleagues before calling off their stir following multiple appeals including from their chief.

Nov 7: The Centre has rushed around 4,000 paramilitary personnel to Uttar Pradesh while the Railway police cancelled leave of its force and stepped up vigil at 78 major stations and on trains as part of its security preparedness ahead of Supreme Court's Ayodhya verdict expected next week.

Nov 8: The government has withdrawn the Special Protection Group (SPG) cover of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka, and they will now be given Z-plus security by the CRPF, officials said on Friday.

Nov 9: Settling a fractious issue that goes back more than a century, the Supreme Court in a historic verdict on Saturday backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.

Nov 10: Former chief election commissioner T N Seshan, who ruthlessly enforced the model code of conduct and led the game-changing electoral reforms in the 1990s, died here on Sunday following a cardiac arrest. He was 86.

Nov 12: President's rule was imposed in Maharashtra on Tuesday evening after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in a report to the Centre stated that formation of a stable government was impossible in the current situation despite all his efforts, drawing flak from non-BJP parties.

Nov 13: Facing intense agitation for over two weeks, JNU on Wednesday rolled back the hostel fee hike partially for BPL students not availing any scholarship, a move which failed to satisfy agitating students who dubbed it as an "eyewash", and decided to continue with the strike.

Nov 14: Telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Thursday reported consolidated loss of Rs 50,921 crore - highest ever loss posted by any Indian corporate - for the second quarter ended September 30, on account of liability arising out of the Supreme Court order in the adjusted gross revenue case.

Nov 16: India on Saturday conducted successfully the first night trial of 'Agni-II', its versatile surface-to-surface medium range nuclear capable missile from Dr Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast, defence 

Nov 21: Controversial BJP MP Pragya Thakur, accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, has been appointed to a parliamentary committee on defence, triggering a political row as the Congress on Thursday attacked the government for nominating a person charged with "spreading terror" to a panel tasked with defence related issues.

Nov 22: Two Union Territories -- Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli -- will be merged into one and a bill in this effect will be tabled in Parliament next week, Union Minister Arjun Meghwal said in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Nov 24: With Jet Airways shutting down in April, the Lufthansa airline group is planning to "strengthen" its partnership with Indian airlines like Vistara and Air India in 2020, the top Indian official of the largest European carrier said. 

Nov 26: Devendra Fadnavis resigned as Maharashtra chief minister on Tuesday ahead of the floor test shortly after rebel NCP leader Ajit Pawar did a u-turn and quit as his deputy.

Nov 28: The defence ministry on Thursday approved procurement of six P 8I anti-submarine warfare jet, indigenous development of airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) aircraft and other military platforms at a cost of Rs 22,800 crore.

Nov 29: India's second quarter GDP growth slowed sharply to 4.5 per cent, the weakest pace in more than six years, as manufacturing output hit a slump and consumer demand as well as private investment weakened.

DECEMBER

Dec 1: Mobile calls and internet charges will go up by up to 50 per cent in the country, as private sector players - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio - on Sunday announced their plans to raise tariffs from December 3 onwards.

Dec 2: BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday set a 2024 deadline for implementing the hugely divisive NRC across the country, asserting "each and every" infiltrator will be identified and expelled before the next general election.

Dec 3: Nearly 92,700 employees of BSNL and MTNL have opted for voluntary retirement, which is expected to save about Rs 8,800 crore annually in salary bills for the debt-laden telecom companies.

Dec 4: The contentious citizenship bill, which has created strong resentment in the Northeastern states and is dubbed as "divisive" by opposition, was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday and is set to be tabled in Parliament.

Dec 5: A rape survivor from Unnao was battling for life with 90 per cent burns on Thursday after five men, including two of the accused, allegedly set her on fire while she was on her way to court, police said.

Dec 6: All four accused in the rape and murder of a young veterinarian were shot dead by police on Friday during a pre-dawn exchange of fire near Hyderabad, a top police official said, as the killings were largely greeted with praise but also sparked concerns over extra-judicial executions.

Dec 7: The tragic death of the Unnao gangrape victim led to nationwide outrage with protests erupting in several parts on Saturday and her family demanding that the perpetrators be "chased and killed" like in the Hyderabad incident while Opposition parties accused the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh of failing to provide security to those brutalised by sexual violence.

Dec 8: At least 43 people were killed when a massive fire ripped through a four-storey building housing illegal manufacturing units in north Delhi's congested Anaj Mandi area on Sunday morning, in the second deadliest blaze in the national capital.

Dec 9: The Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there, a little past midnight on Monday after a heated debate that lasted over seven hours.

Dec 10: Large parts of the northeast on Tuesday simmered with protests by students' unions and Left-democratic organisations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, with choked roads leaving an ailing two-month-old baby dead on way to hospital.

Dec 11: In a big success for Modi Government, Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, completing the legislative process for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Dec 12: President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday gave his assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, turning it into an Act.

Dec 13: The Jamia Millia Islamia University turned into a battlefield on Friday after police and students, who wanted to march to Parliament House to protest the amended Citizenship Act, clashed with each other prompting the local AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan to reach the spot to take stock of the situation.

Dec 14: Protesters torched about five trains, three railway stations and tracks, and at least 25 buses on Saturday amid spiralling violence in West Bengal during the agitation against the amended Citizenship Act, while an oil tanker driver was killed in Assam's Sonitpur district.

Dec 15: Protestors torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in New Friends' Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act on Sunday, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and fire fighters injured.

Dec 16: Several protests - some peaceful, some violent - erupted across India on Monday against the police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia here and the controversial citizenship law as students and political leaders took to the streets, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi called these protests "deeply distressing" and appealed for peace.

Dec 17: Veteran actor Shriram Lagoo, a stalwart in Marathi theatre and cinema and a prolific character artiste in numerous Bollywood movies, passed away on Tuesday evening. He was 92.

Dec 18: Tihar Jail administration on Wednesday issued a notice to the convicts of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case to file mercy petition within seven days, Director General (Prison) Sandeep Goel said.

Dec 19: Thousands of students, activists and opposition leaders hit the streets in the national capital on Thursday defying heavy security clampdown and prohibitory orders.

Dec 20: Six people were killed as anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters clashed with police after Friday prayers at several places in Uttar Pradesh, hurling stones and torching vehicles, officials said.