India conducted historic nuclear tests at Pokhran that transformed the country into a declared nuclear power and significantly strengthened its strategic, scientific, and defence capabilities globally.

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• India carried out its first successful nuclear test, codenamed Operation Smiling Buddha, on 18 May 1974 at Pokhran in Rajasthan under strict secrecy.
• The 1974 underground nuclear test used plutonium-based technology and officially established India among the world’s nuclear-capable nations during the Cold War era.
• Pokhran is located in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert and later became the central testing site for India’s advanced nuclear weapons development programme.
• India conducted Pokhran-II nuclear tests in May 1998 under Operation Shakti, involving five successful explosions led by leading Indian nuclear scientists.
• Scientists including A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, R. Chidambaram and Anil Kakodkar played major roles in strengthening India’s indigenous nuclear and missile capabilities after 1998.
• Following Pokhran-II, India officially declared itself a nuclear weapons state and significantly enhanced its strategic deterrence and national security architecture globally.
• India observes National Technology Day every year on 11 May to commemorate the scientific and technological achievements associated with Pokhran-II nuclear tests.
• India’s nuclear energy programme is expanding rapidly, with long-term goals of increasing nuclear power generation capacity to 100 GW by the year 2047