1985 in India

← 1984 1983 1982 1985 in India → 1986 1987 1988
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See also:	List of years in India Timeline of Indian history

Events in the year 1985 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

• President of India – Zail Singh
• Prime Minister of India – Rajiv Gandhi
• Vice President of India – R. Venkataraman
• Chief Justice of India – Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud (until 11 July), Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati

Governors

• Andhra Pradesh – Shankar Dayal Sharma (until 26 November), Kumud Ben Joshi (starting 26 November)
• Assam – Bhishma Narain Singh
• Bihar – Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai (until 15 March), P. Venkatasubbaiah (starting 15 March)
• Gujarat – Braj Kumar Nehru
• Haryana – Saiyid Muzaffar Husain Burney
• Himachal Pradesh – Hokishe Sema
• Jammu and Kashmir – Jagmohan Malhotra
• Karnataka – Ashoknath Banerji
• Kerala – P. Ramachandran
• Madhya Pradesh – K.M Chandy
• Maharashtra –
  • until 16 April: Idris Hasan Latif
  • 19 April-30 May: Pir Muhammad
  • starting 31 May: Kona Prabhakara Rao
• Manipur – K. V. Krishna Rao
• Meghalaya – Bhishma Narain Singh
• Nagaland – K. V. Krishna Rao
• Odisha – Bishambhar Nath Pande
• Punjab –
  • until 14 March: Kershasp Tehmurasp Satarawala
  • 14 March-14 November: Arjun Singh
  • 14 November-26 November: Hokishe Sema
  • starting 26 November: Shankar Dayal Sharma
• Rajasthan – Om Prakash Mehra (until 4 January), Vasantdada Patil (starting 20 November)
• Sikkim –
  • until 30 May: Kona Prabhakar Rao
  • 30 May-20 November: Bhishma Narain Singh
  • starting 20 November: T.V. Rajeswar
• Tamil Nadu – Sundar Lal Khurana
• Tripura – K. V. Krishna Rao
• Uttar Pradesh – Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh (until 31 March), Mohammed Usman Arif (starting 31 March)
• West Bengal – Uma Shankar Dikshit

Events

• National income - ₹2,845,341 million
• 16 January - Coomar Narain an employee of SLM Maneklal Industries and certain personal staff of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India were arrested in connection with leaking of classified documents to foreign agents under Official Secrets Act (India). ^[1] The person who caught coomair Narainan was Mr Ved Parkash Sharma, a CBI officer by chance. This is explained in a recently published book by Kalol Bhattacharjee in 2024.
• 18 February - Anti reservation protest in Gujarat turns into six month long 1985 Gujarat riots. ^[2]
• 10 March - India won the first World Championship of Cricket held at Australia by defeating Pakistan in the final. ^[3]
• 30 March - The Special Protection Group is created
• 10 April – Chakravarty Committee was set up by the RBI to review the working of monetary system. Its recommendations had far reaching consequences eventually removing India from the 500-year-old silver standard
• 5 June - R. Balakrishna Pillai, a minister from Kerala resigns following controversial speech (Punjab Model needed for Kerala) from him that encourage terrorism. ^[4]
• 23 June – Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, blows up 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
• 17 July - Karamchedu massacre of Dalits in Andhra Pradesh.
• 26 September – 1985 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. ^[5]
• By mid-1985, the statutory preemption on banks' resources in the form of the Statutory Liquidity Ratio and the Cash Reserve Ratio exceeded 45%.
• KS Oils company is founded. ^[6]
• Texas Instruments, a multinational corporation, starts its India operations in Bangalore and helps create infrastructure to export software via satellite communications from India for the first time.
• Narmada Bachao Andolan started by Medha Patkar

Law

• 24 May - Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act is came into effect after presidential assent.
• 2 September - Indira Gandhi National Open University is established by an Act of Indian Parliament.
• 14 November - The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act is passed by Parliament came into force.
• The Administrative tribunals in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Allahabad were established by Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

Births

Durga Shakti Nagpal

• 16 January - Sidharth Malhotra, actor and former model
• 17 February – Sivakarthikeyan, actor, producer, lyricist, TV anchor.
• 22 February – Bombayla Devi Laishram, archer. ^[7]
• 5 March – Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, actress

• 

  Parthiv Patel

  9 March - Parthiv Patel, cricketer ^[8]
• 26 March – Kedar Jadhav, Cricketer.
• 27 March – Ram Charan, actor and producer.
• 6 April – Jai, actor.
• 23 April – Annies Kanmani Joy, IAS.
• 9 May – Neha Bamb, actress.
• 15 May – Tathagata Mukherjee, actor.

• 

  Dinesh Karthik

  1 June – Dinesh Karthik, cricketer.

• 

  Kajal Aggarwal

  19 June – Kajal Aggarwal, actress.
• 20 June – RJ Balaji, radio jockey, actor, television presenter, comedian and film director.
• 25 June – Durga Shakti Nagpal, Indian bureaucrat.
• 22 July – Yogi Babu, actor and comedian.
• 7 September – Radhika Apte, actress.
• 18 September – Vignesh Shivan, film director, lyricist and producer.
• 23 September – Ambati Rayudu, cricketer.

• 

  Shubhanshu Shukla

  10 October - Shubhanshu Shukla, ISRO astronaut and Indian Air Force test pilot.
• 18 October - Sourabhee Debbarma, singer.
• 26 October – Asin Thottumkal, actress.
• 1 November – Anand Ambani, Business Magnet.

• 

  Diana Penty

  2 November – Diana Penty, actress.
• 11 November – Robin Uthappa, cricketer.

• 

  Shikhar Dhawan

  5 December – Shikhar Dhawan, cricketer.
• 21 December – Andrea Jeremiah, actress and singer.

Deaths

• 31 October – Hardit Malik, diplomat, civil servant and cricketer (born 1894)
• 6 November – Sanjeev Kumar, actor (born 1938).
• 3 December - Satya Bhakta, founders of Communist Party of India (b.1897)

See also

• Bollywood films of 1985

References

1. Bobb, Dilip (15 February 1985). "Spy scandal: India's security breach appears to have reached frightening levels". India Today. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
2. Shani, Ornit, ed. (2007), "The 1985 Ahmedabad riots: the historical conjunction between caste conflicts and communalism", Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 77–88, ISBN   978-0-521-86513-5 , retrieved 1 April 2025
3. "Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket, Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket 1984/85 score, Match schedules, fixtures, points table, results, news". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
4. "Writ at Kerala High Court". Indian Kanoon.
5. Tempest, Rone. "Sikh Party Wins Punjab Election : Will Rule Troubled State; Gandhi Slate Defeated". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 27 December 2023.
6. "Mustard oil, Rapeseed oil, healthy cooking oils manufacturer in India". www.ksoils.com.
7. "Bombayla Devi LAISHRAM - Olympic Archery | India". International Olympic Committee. 20 November 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
8. "Parthiv Patel". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 October 2020.