List of First in India
Political and Constitutional Firsts
Title | Name | Year |
| First Governor-General of Independent India | Lord Louis Mountbatten | 1947 |
| First Indian Governor-General of Independent India | Chakravarti Rajagopalachari | 1948 |
| First President of India | Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 1950 |
| First Vice-President of India | Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1952 |
| First Prime Minister of India | Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru | 1947 |
| First Home Minister | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel | 1947 |
| First Finance Minister | R. K. Shanmukham Chetty | 1947 |
| First Speaker of Lok Sabha | G. V. Mavalankar | 1952–1956 |
| First Chairman of Lok Sabha | G. V. Mavalankar | — |
| First Chief Election Commissioner | Sukumar Sen | 1950 |
| First National Security Adviser | Brajesh Mishra | 1998 |
| First Non-Congress Prime Minister | Morarji Desai | 1977 |
| First Indian Member of British House of Commons | Dadabhai Naoroji | 1892 |
| First Indian to Contest British Parliament | Lal Mohan Ghose | — |
| First Indian Member of Viceroy’s Executive Council | Sir S. P. Sinha | — |
| First Indian Chairman at International Court of Justice | Justice Dr. Nagendra Singh | — |
Judiciary and Law
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Chief Justice of Supreme Court | Justice H. J. Kania | 1950 |
| First Woman Chief Justice of a High Court | Justice Leila Seth | Himachal Pradesh, 1991 |
| First Woman Supreme Court Judge | Fathima Beevi | 1989 |
| First Woman IPS Officer | Kiran Bedi | 1972 |
| First Director of CBI | D. P. Kohli | 1963 |
| First Director of CBI who became Governor | Ashwani Kumar | — |
| First Woman Director General of Police | Kanchan C. Bhattacharya | — |
Education and Literature
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Woman Graduate | Kamini Roy | — |
| First Women Graduates | Kadambini Ganguly, Chandramukhi Basu | 1883 |
| First Woman Doctorate of Science | Asima Chatterjee | 1944 |
| First Woman Sahitya Akademi Winner | Amrita Pritam | 1956 |
| First Hindi Literature Gyanpeeth Awardee | Sumitranandan Pant | 1968 |
| First Woman Gyanpeeth Awardee | Ashapurna Devi | 1976 |
| First Gyanpeeth Award Winner | G. Shankar Kurup (Malayalam) | 1965 |
| First Writer Awarded Vyas Samman | Ramvilas Sharma | — |
| First Writer Awarded Murti Devi Puraskar | C. K. Nagraj Rao | 1993 |
| First Editor of Time Magazine from India | Bobby Ghosh | — |
Awards and Honors
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Bharat Ratna Awardees | Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, C. V. Raman | 1954 |
| First Woman Bharat Ratna | Indira Gandhi | 1971 |
| First Posthumous Bharat Ratna | Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1966 |
| First Foreign Bharat Ratna Awardee | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 |
| First Nobel Prize Winner | Rabindranath Tagore | 1913 (Literature) |
| First Nobel in Physics | C. V. Raman | 1930 |
| First Indian Magsaysay Awardee | Vinoba Bhave | 1958 |
| First Indian Lenin Peace Prize Winner | Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew | 1952 |
| First Oscar Winner from India | Bhanu Athaiya (Costume Design for “Gandhi”) | 1982 |
| First Padma Shri Awarded Actress | Nargis Dutt | 1958 |
Science and Exploration
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Indian in Space | Rakesh Sharma | 1984 |
| First Indian to Reach North Pole | Sanjay Thapar | — |
| First Indian to Reach South Pole | Col. Jatinder Kumar Bajaj | — |
| First Indian Satellite | Aryabhata | 1975 |
| First Indian Heart Transplant Surgeon | Dr. P. Venugopal | — |
| First Successful Heart Transplant Recipient | Devi Ram | 1994 |
| First Indian Test Tube Baby | Durga Agarwal | 1978 |
Administration and Finance
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Auditor General of India | V. Narahari Rao | 1950 |
| First RBI Governor | Sir Osborne Smith | 1935 |
| First Indian Finance Commission Chairman | K. C. Neogy | — |
| First Indian Managing Director of World Bank | Gautam Kazi | — |
| First Indian President of Indian Science Congress | Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee | — |
Sports and Games
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Indian Olympic Medalist | K. D. Jadhav (Wrestling) | 1952 |
| First Individual Olympic Gold Medalist | Abhinav Bindra | 2008 |
| First Indian to Win Bronze in Boxing | Vijender Kumar | 2008 |
| First Woman Grandmaster | Koneru Humpy | — |
| First Indian Chess Grandmaster | Viswanathan Anand | — |
| First Davis Cup Players | M. Salim, S. M. Jacob | 1921 |
| First Batsman to Score 300 in Tests | Virender Sehwag | — |
| First Bowler Hat-trick in Tests | Harbhajan Singh | — |
| First Indian Captain (Test) | C. K. Nayudu | 1932 |
| First Indian ODI Captain | Ajit Wadekar | — |
| First Sportsperson Bharat Ratna | Sachin Tendulkar | 2014 |
| First Athlete Olympic Gold | Neeraj Chopra | 2021 |
| First Gold on International Track | Hima Das | — |
Women Firsts
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Woman President of Indian National Congress | Annie Besant | 1917 |
| First Woman Chief Minister | Sucheta Kripalani | — |
| First Woman Lok Sabha Speaker | Meira Kumar | 2009 |
| First Woman External Affairs Minister | Sushma Swaraj | — |
| First Woman Governor | Sarojini Naidu | — |
| First Woman Teacher | Savitribai Phule | — |
| First Woman Swimmer to Cross English Channel | Arati Saha | 1959 |
| First Woman to Receive Nobel Prize | Mother Teresa | 1979 (Peace) |
| First Woman Pilot | Durba Banerjee | — |
Arts and Entertainment
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Sound Film | Alam Ara | 1931 |
| First Color Film | Kisan Kanya | 1937 |
| First Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee | Devika Rani | 1969 |
| First Chevalier of Arts (France) | Sivaji Ganesan | — |
| First Commandeur of Arts (France) | Mrinal Sen | — |
| First Indian Grammy Winner | Pt. Ravi Shankar | — |
Beauty Pageants
Title | Name | Year |
| First Miss World | Reita Faria | 1966 |
| First Miss Universe | Sushmita Sen | 1994 |
| First Miss Asia Pacific | Zeenat Aman | 1970 |
| First Miss Earth | Nicole Faria | 2010 |
Media and Journalism
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Indian Newspaper | Hickey’s Bengal Gazette | 1780 |
Mountaineering and Adventure
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First to Climb Everest | Tenzing Norgay | 1953 |
| First Woman to Climb Everest | Bachendri Pal | 1984 |
| First to Climb Everest Without Oxygen | Phu Dorjee | 1984 |
| Mountaineer to Scale Everest 8 Times | Sherpa Augarita | — |
Miscellaneous
Title | Name | Year/Notes |
| First Electrified City | Darjeeling | 1897 |
| First Person to Speak Hindi in UN | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 1977 |
| First Fellow of Trinity College | Srinivasa Ramanujan | — |
| First Fellow of Royal Society | Ardaseer Cursetjee | — |