New Beginnings

The historically frosty relations between India and the US thawed when Bill Clinton visited India on March 19, the first presidential visit in 22 years. The diplomatic call improved relations that were strained since the Cold War. Clinton, who got a rock star welcome wherever he went, pressed India to scale down its nuclear programme, sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and resolve the Kashmir issue through dialogue with Pakistan. “We want India to be strong; to be secure; to be united; to be a force for a safer, more prosperous, more democratic world,” said Clinton while addressing a joint session of the Parliament.

STATE AFFAIRS

Parliament passed the Bihar Reorganisation Bill to carve 18 districts out of Bihar’s eastern part to form Jharkhand, the 28th state of India. It had 14 Lok Sabha and 81 assembly seats.

FIRST CUT

Mohammed Azharuddin, former captain of the Indian cricket team, became the first Indian cricketer to receive a life ban from the game for his alleged involvement in a match-fixing deal.

Chess grand master Viswanathan Anand beat Lithuanian Alexei Shirov to become the world champion at the fide World Chess Championships in Tehran.

DID YOU KNOW

The population of India officially passed the 1 billion mark on May 11, when Baby Astha was born in Delhi. The UN, however, believed that India had already crossed the mark on August 15, 1999.

Azim Premji Chairman, Wipro, on becoming the richest man in India
“I feel like a zoo animal these days. My privacy has been invaded.”

“WINNING MEDALS IS NOT EASY.”

Andhra Pradesh’s Karnam Malleswari won a bronze at the Sydney Olympics for weight lifting in the women’s 69 kg category. The 25-year-old became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. Criticised for being overweight and shadowed by charges of doping, Malleswari went on to win the coveted Padma Shri and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

LOCK KIYA JAYE?

India found its new favourite tagline when Kaun Banega Crorepati debuted with Amitabh Bachchan as the host. The show that saw contenders trying for the Rs 1-crore jackpot entered three crore TV homes in 18 months and made Rs 135 crore from ad sales.

And The Three Ruled the Galaxy

Beauty is subjective, they say. But for one golden year, India set the standard for the world, as Lara Dutta became Miss Universe, Priyanka Chopra Miss World and Diya Mirza Miss Asia-Pacific. Aditi Govitrikar got the Mrs World title. Dutta and Chopra subsequently starred in a movie together, Andaz, solidifying Bollywood as a destination for beauty queens.

ELSEWHERE...

Pope John Paul II began the first official visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel.

Hugo Chavez was re-elected as Venezuela’s president with a 59 per cent vote.

An Air France Flight 4590 crashed into a hotel in Genesse just after taking off from Paris, killing 113.

Presidential elections were held in Russia and Vladimir Putin (right) became President.

5,740 was the mark the Sensex touched in February, the highest for that year, before crashing to 3,711 in October. It ended the year with a loss of 26 per cent, caused by the technology, media and telecom sectors.

2001: INDIA AT 60

LINE OF FIRE

REWIND

Striking at the jugular of Indian democracy, five terrorists attacked Parliament House on December 13. Security Forces were able to kill all of them, but not before losing five of their own. The ruling NDA blamed Pakistan-based terrorist groups for the attack. A stand-off between the two countries followed the attack, which saw one of the largest deployments of troops since the 1971 war.

BIG DEAL

A sting operation caught several politicians including BJP’s Bangaru Laxman accepting bribes for alleged defence deals.

QUAKING DEATH

The Bhuj earthquake that struck on the morning of January 26, Republic Day, measured 7.6 on the Richter scale. One month after the tremblor, official figures placed the death toll at 19,727 and the number of injured at 166,000. Official estimates put the number of earthquake affected, directly or indirectly, at 15.9 million people out of a total population of 37.8 million.

FIRST CUT

An eight-lane expressway between Delhi and Noida opened in January, the Noida Toll Bridge was the first infrastructure facility to be funded partly with money raised from the capital market.

Apple introduced iPod, a breakthrough MP3 music player that holds 1,000 CD-quality songs in an ultra-portable, 6.5 ounce design that fits in your pocket.

DID YOU KNOW

That when Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi was shot dead by three armed men outside her home, she was about to lead a rebellion against Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Samajwadi Party.

“LO, AB HO GAYI SIKHNI”

Imagine that a line such as this—equal parts pin-up patriotism and kitschy Bollywood romance—could become a political hot potato. In an age of intolerance, it did. Gadar, a typical Partition romance, set the box office on fire as it grossed over Rs 50 crore in two weeks, becoming one of the biggest hits in Bollywood ever. But the film more than lived up to its name outside the cinema, as it sparked off protests from the Muslim and Sikh communities to some scenes.

LAW OF THE LADY
J. Jayalalithaa

She may have been down but she was never out of the running for Tamil Nadu’s top position. Despite being convicted in the TANSI land deal, J. Jayalalithaa was appointed chief minister after her victory in the assembly elections on May 14. In the process, she became only the second convicted political leader, after Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh, to become a chief minister.

Two Much Trouble

V.V.S. Laxman’s 376-run partnership with Rahul Dravid set the stage for India’s thrilling 171-run victory over Australia at the Eden Gardens. Laxman scored 281, an Indian record at the time.

ELSEWHERE...

All it took was a determined group of 19 to do what the Third Reich, Imperial Japan and the nuclear power of Soviet Union couldn’t—strike the military and financial heart of America. On September 11, two planes struck the towers of the World Trade Centre, killing 3,000 and reducing to rubble the most poignant symbol of America. Another plane hit the Pentagon military headquarters, while a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Rs 700 crore was the amount of money lost during all of the January 2 Northern Grid power black-out. The grid failure left seven states and a union territory in darkness. Even VIP areas like the Rashtrapati Bhawan were not spared.

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