First in India & World: 50 Facts That Always Get Asked
'First in India' questions are the bread and butter of GK sections. Every single exam — RRB NTPC, SSC CGL, MTS, Police — has 2-5 questions from this topic. The beautiful part? It's pure memorization. No logic needed, no calculations. Just learn these 50 facts, and you've secured easy marks. Let's go through them systematically.
First in India: Political & Constitutional
1) First President of India — Dr. Rajendra Prasad (served 1950-1962, longest serving President). 2) First Prime Minister — Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964). 3) First Woman Prime Minister — Indira Gandhi (1966). 4) First Woman President — Pratibha Devisingh Patil (2007). 5) First Chief Justice of India — Justice Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1950). 6) First Vice President — Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (later became President). 7) First Home Minister — Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. 8) First Finance Minister — RK Shanmukham Chetty (presented first budget in 1947). 9) First Education Minister — Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. 10) First Defence Minister — Baldev Singh. 11) First Governor-General of free India — Lord Mountbatten (last Viceroy, first GG). 12) First Indian Governor-General — C. Rajagopalachari (only Indian, Mountbatten was British). 13) First woman Chief Minister — Sucheta Kriplani (UP, 1963). 14) First Lok Sabha Speaker — GV Mavalankar. 15) First woman Lok Sabha Speaker — Meira Kumar (2009).
First in India: Science, Technology & Transport
16) First Indian in space — Rakesh Sharma (1984, aboard Soviet Soyuz T-11, said India looks 'Saare jahan se achha' from space). 17) First Indian woman in space — Kalpana Chawla (1997, tragically died in Columbia disaster 2003). 18) First Indian satellite — Aryabhata (launched 1975, by Soviet rocket). 19) First Indian nuclear test — Smiling Buddha (Pokhran-I, 1974, Rajasthan). 20) First Indian supercomputer — PARAM 8000 (1991, built by C-DAC, Pune). 21) First train in India — April 16, 1853, Mumbai (Bori Bunder) to Thane, 34 km. 22) First metro — Kolkata Metro (1984). 23) First electric train — 1925, Mumbai (Bombay VT to Kurla). 24) First airplane flight in India — 1911, Henri Pequet, Allahabad to Naini (airmail). 25) First Indian airline — Tata Airlines (1932, later became Air India). 26) First IIT — IIT Kharagpur (1951). 27) First IIM — IIM Calcutta (1961). 28) First nuclear power plant — Tarapur, Maharashtra (1969).
First in India: Media, Sports & Miscellaneous
29) First newspaper in India — Bengal Gazette (1780, by James Augustus Hicky — 'Hicky's Gazette'). 30) First Hindi newspaper — Udant Martand (1826, by Jugal Kishore Shukla). 31) First Indian film — Raja Harishchandra (1913, by Dadasaheb Phalke, silent film). 32) First talkie film — Alam Ara (1931, Ardeshir Irani). 33) First university — University of Calcutta (1857, along with Bombay and Madras). Ancient: Nalanda (5th century). 34) First bank — Bank of Hindustan (1770, now defunct). First surviving bank: SBI (established as Bank of Calcutta, 1806). 35) First Indian to win Olympic individual gold — Abhinav Bindra (2008, shooting). 36) First Indian woman Olympic medalist — Karnam Malleswari (2000, weightlifting, bronze). 37) First Indian Nobel laureate — Rabindranath Tagore (1913, Literature). 38) First Indian to receive Bharat Ratna — C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan, CV Raman (all in 1954).
First in World: 12 Must-Know Facts
39) First man on the moon — Neil Armstrong (July 20, 1969, Apollo 11, famous words: 'One small step for man...'). 40) First woman in space — Valentina Tereshkova (1963, Soviet Union, Vostok 6). 41) First man in space — Yuri Gagarin (1961, Soviet Union, Vostok 1). 42) First cloned animal — Dolly the Sheep (1996, Scotland). 43) First computer — ENIAC (1945, USA, weighed 30 tons). 44) First website — info.cern.ch (1991, by Tim Berners-Lee). 45) First country to reach Mars — USA (Mariner 4, 1965). India's Mangalyaan (2014) made India the first Asian country to reach Mars orbit on first attempt. 46) First Olympics — Athens, Greece (1896, modern Olympics). 47) First heart transplant — Dr. Christiaan Barnard (1967, South Africa). 48) First test-tube baby — Louise Brown (1978, UK). India's first: Durga (Kanupriya Agarwal, 1978). 49) First woman to climb Everest — Junko Tabei (1975, Japan). First Indian woman: Bachendri Pal (1984). 50) First country to give women voting rights — New Zealand (1893).
You now have 50 exam-ready 'First in India and World' facts. These aren't random trivia — each one has appeared in actual RRB, SSC, or Police papers in the last 5 years. Use the app's quiz mode to test yourself daily on these facts. The trick is spaced repetition: revise this list on Day 1, Day 3, Day 7, and Day 15 — after that, it's permanently in your memory. Don't try to memorize all 50 in one sitting. Break them into groups of 10, master one group per day, and within a week you own this entire topic. Small, consistent effort beats one marathon session. These marks are yours for the taking — go claim them!