Pokhran I: The event that ushered the nuclear era for Indian defence

Codenamed "Smiling Buddha", India became world's sixth nuclear power outside the five permanent members of the United Nations

It was on May 18, 1974, that India tested its first nuclear bomb successfully in Rajasthan's Pokhran.

After the test, codenamed "Smiling Buddha", India became the world's sixth nuclear power outside the  five permanent members of the United Nations, which are US, Soviet Union, Britain, France and China, to successfully test a nuclear bomb.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) characterised the test as a "peaceful nuclear explosion".

Here's a timeline of events leading to Pokhran-I

The nuclear programme was started in 1944 when Homi Jehangir Bhabha founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. 

Post-Independence, the then Prime Minister Jawaharhal