IN RETROSPECT A JOURNEY THR UGH TIME From a civil nuclear pact with the US to the ‘Missile Man’ becoming the President; from Vodafone 14 buying Hutchison’s India assets to the July govt bringing legislation to ‘retro tax’ 6 END OF AN ERA Mukesh and Anil Ambani 2001 carry the body of their father and Reliance the mega deal; from the country’s best SIGNALLING A THAW founder Dhirubhai Ambani. The brothers Prime Minister July split the group in 2005, three years after the annual economic growth figures to Atal Bihari Vajpayee with 2002 senior Ambani’s death. PHOTO: REUTERS Pakistan President its worst market crash; from Pervez Musharraf during the Agra Summit, the sending satellites to the moon first meeting of the leaders after the and Mars to getting ravaged by Kargil war of 1999. terror and natural calamities; PHOTO: PTI from citizens spilling on to the roads for safeguard of their rights to enactment of landmark laws like RTI, RTE and NREGA — India has seen it all in the first 15 years of this PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT century. Business Standard ‘Missile Man of India’ looks at the most important 25 A P J Abdul Kalam (right) waits to be sworn in as the events since the year 2001 11th President of India. Sitting July next to him is his predecessor 2002 K R Narayanan. BS PHOTO

THE UPA DECADE KICKS IN President A $12-BN PROJECT Posco President BLOCKBUSTER JOB SCHEME The National Rural A P J Abdul Kalam hands over to Manmohan Chang O Kang with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Employment Guarantee Act is implemented, in 200 18 Singh a letter appointing him the new Prime 15 Patnaik in New . Posco signed a memorandum 2 districts to begin with. The scheme, hailed as the Minister of India. Kalam later said in his of understanding with Odisha to construct a “world’s largest and most ambitious social security May memoirs that the letter initially bore the name February $12-billion steel plant in June that year. The project, February and public works programme”, would cover all however, now faces a dead-end. BS PHOTO Indian districts by April 1, 2008. PHOTO: PTI 2004 of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. PHOTO REUTERS 2005 2006

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March January May 2006 2007 2007 NUKE DEAL BIGGEST DEAL TAXING DEAL Vodafone US President Tata group chief Group CEO Arun Sarin George Bush Ratan Tata (centre) with Hutchison- (left) with Indian announces Tata Essar CEO Asim Ghosh Prime Minister Steel’s acquisition (right). Vodafone bought Manmohan of Anglo-Dutch firm Hutchison’s mobile Singh. The Corus Group for a business for $5.46 billion. leaders signed cumulative $12.04 The deal later landed in a the '123 billion, the biggest $2.5-billion tax dispute, Agreement', a deal in value by an with the I-T dept claiming it bilateral civil Indian company, to was liable to be taxed in nuclear deal. create the world's India and the government PHOTO: REUTERS fifth-largest allowing this through a steelmaker. retrospective amendment PHOTO: REUTERS of the law. PHOTO: REUTERS

TERROR 3 1) Dec 13, 2001 Suicide attack on Parliament, by LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed, 6 kills 11 people

2) Feb 27, 2002 Sabarmati Express fire near the Godhra railway station killed 59 and sparked the Gujarat riots

1 3) Jul 11, 2006 7 bomb blasts in Mumbai trains kill 209, injure 700 7

5 4) Sep 8, 2006 Malegaon serial blasts kill 37; chargesheet filed against Hindu radi- cals

5) Oct 29, 2005 3 blasts rock Delhi, 4 killing 62, injuring 210. LeT prime suspect

6) Aug 25, 2007 Two simultaneous blasts kill 42 and injure 54 in Hyderabad

7) Nov 26, 2008 10 LeT militants who infiltrated into Mumbai a day earlier take hundreds hostage in the iconic Taj 2 Mahal hotel. Terror strikes across Mumbai kill 166, injure 600 IN RETROSPECT

11 June 2008 BITTER PILL Ranbaxy CEO Malvinder Mohan Singh (left) with CLOSURE The A CRICKET FESTIVAL IPL 1 Daiichi-Sakyo Commissioner Lalit Modi (left) much-delayed verdict CEO Takashi 18 with RIL CMD Mukesh Ambani in one of India's first Shoda. Daiichi- during a match of the Indian April major stock market Sankyo acquires April Premier League, the T20 cricket 2008 scams sentences Ranbaxy in a extravaganza that is considered Ketan Parekh, the $4.6-billion deal. main accused, to a 2008 Modi’s branchild. PHOTO: PTI BS PHOTO year in prison. BS PHOTO

SOARING HIGH Finance Minister 28 P Chidambaram before announcing the Budget for 2007-08. Two months later, the government announced the Indian February economy had in 2006-07 grown 9.4%, the 2007 strongest numbers in 20 years. BS PHOTO

ACCOUNTING FRAUD AT SATYAM Satyam Computer Services founder 9 B Ramalinga Raju is arrested after revealing he fudged the account books of January the IT firm for years, inflating the numbers 2009 to the tune of $1.47 billion. BS PHOTO

BIG HURDLES FOR SMALL CAR OFF TO THE MOON India's Then Opposition leader in West first Lunar probe Chandrayan-I, 26 Bengal Assembly, Mamata Banerjee, 22 launched by Isro, blasts off into leads a protest against Tata Motors’ the orbit with several proposed Tata Nano plant in Singur. instruments from India and 4 September Tata pulled out of the state in October other countries. The estimated 2008 October that year. PHOTO: REUTERS 2008 cost was $58 million. PHOTO: PTI June 2011 FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION BLOODBATH ON D-STREET Activist As the world markets wallowed leads an anti-graft 17 in recession, the BSE Sensex movement at fell below 10,000. Just ten Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, months earlier, in December seeking a strong October 2007, it had closed above the legislation to 2008 20,000 mark. BS PHOTO fight corruption. BS PHOTO

TOWARDS LITERACY ‘UNIQUE’ INITIATIVE India enacts the Right of Children to Ranjana Sonawane, a 4 Free and Compulsory Education Act 29 30-year-old housewife from (Right to Education) and becomes the Maharashtra village of one of the 135 countries where Tembhli, becomes the first August education is a fundamental right of September Indian to receive an 2009 every child. BS PHOTO 2010 Aadhaar Number. PHOTO: PTI

COLLECTIVE OUTRAGE 16 The brutal rape and subsequent death of a December Delhi girl sparks one of the greatest student 2012 protests against gender discrimination and demand for more stringent anti-rape laws. PHOTO: REUTERS

2G TANGLE A GRINDING HALT Telecom Minister A year-long industrial conflict at the 2 A Raja arrested for 18 Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki turns his alleged role in the violent. A human resource manager is February 2G telecom spectrum July killed and more than 40 employees are 2011 scam. PHOTO: PTI 2012 injured by protesting strikers. PHOTO: REUTERS

CALAMITIES

1) Jan 26, 2001: A 7.7-magnitude quake in Bhuj kills more than 20,000, injures 1 166,800, and damages property worth $5.5 bn 3 4 2) Dec 26, 2004 A woman mourns a rela- tive's death in the Asian tsunami that claimed more than 280,000 lives across 14 countries

3) Jul 26, 2006 The Mumbai rains, and 2 the subsequent floods, killed 1,094 people and disrupted life for days

4) Jun 16, 2013 Floods caused by 6 multi-day cloud bursts centred on Uttarakhand washed away nearly 4,000 villages and killed 5,748 people

5) Sep 2, 2014 Torrential rainfall causes floods across Pakistan and India, claiming the lives of 557 people and affecting nearly 2,250 villages

6) Nov 16, 2015 Heavy rainfall strikes South of India, affecting Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, killing nearly 400 people and damaging property worth $15 bn 5 1 > IN RETROSPECT

TO THE RED PLANET Isro scientists TYCOON IN TIHAR celebrate as India's Mars Orbiter Mission, Sahara India chief Subrata Roy, faces an ink 24 launched on November 5, 2013, successfully 4 attack in the Supreme Court premises. Roy, enters into the Mars orbit. This was India's accused of a multi-billion-dollar optionally September first interplanetary mission; Isro became the March fully convertible debenture fraud, has been 2014 fourth space agency to reach Mars. PHOTO: PTI 2014 in Delhi’s Tihar jail since. PHOTO: PTI

BIRTH OF TELANGANA K Chandrashekhar Rao 2 attends a ceremony to mark the formation of Telangana, India’s 29th state. Rao became June the first chief minister of 2014 Telangana. PHOTO: PTI

COMMODITY KING IN TROUBLE HISTORIC ELECTORAL WIN Jignesh Shah, founder and group Narendra Modi (right) greets President 7 CEO, Financial Technologies India 26 Pranab Mukherjee before being sworn in as Ltd, is arrested by the Mumbai Police prime minister. The Modi-led National May for his alleged role in a ~5,600-crore May Democratic Alliance recorded a historic win 2014 payment default case at group firm 2014 in the 2014 general elections. BS PHOTO National Spot Exchange Ltd. BS PHOTO HOSPITALITY AND INVESTMENT Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) with Chinese 17 President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan during their visit to the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad. September During Xi’s visit, China committed itself to investing 2014 $20 billion in India over five years. PHOTO: PTI LAURELS FOR PEACE Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai (left) 10 and India’s Kailash Satyarthi receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December Oslo. PHOTO: PTI 2014 25 December 2015

BIRTHDAY DIPLOMACY Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif (left) with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, 14 who dropped in for a surprise visit on Sharif’s February birthday. PHOTO: PTI 2015

BACK WITH A BANG Exactly a year after resigned as Delhi’s chief minister, his Aam Aadmi Party won a thumping majority in the Assembly polls, bagging 67 seats in the 70-member House. BS PHOTO

SPORTS

1) Aug 17, 2004 Rajyavardhan 4 Singh Rathore wins a silver medal in Athens Olympics in men’s double-trap shooting 6 2) Sep 14, 2007 India win the inaugural ICC World T20 championship

3) Aug 11, 2008 Abhinav Bindra 1 wins a gold medal in Beijing Olympics, becomes first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold 2 4) Oct 3, 2010 India hosts 29th Commonwealth games, in

5) Aug 12, 2012 Sushil Kumar becomes the first Indian to win back- to-back individual Olympic medals 5 6) Apr 2, 2011 India win their first ICC Cricket World Cup title since 1983 3 7) Aug 4, 2012 Saina Nehwal 7 becomes the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in badminton