1979 in India

Events in the year 1979 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

 * President of India – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
 * Prime Minister of India – Morarji Desai until 28 July, Charan Singh
 * Vice President of India – B.D. Jatti until 30 August; Mohammad Hidayatullah
 * Chief Justice of India – Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud

Governors

 * Andhra Pradesh – K.C. Abraham
 * Assam – L. P. Singh
 * Bihar –
 * until 31 January: Jagannath Kaushal
 * 31 January-20 September: K.B.N. Singh
 * starting 20 September: Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai
 * Gujarat – Sharda Mukherjee
 * Haryana – Harcharan Singh Brar (until 9 December), Surjit Singh Sandhawalia (starting 10 December)
 * Himachal Pradesh – Amin ud-din Ahmad Khan
 * Jammu and Kashmir – L. K. Jha
 * Karnataka – Govind Narain
 * Kerala – Jothi Venkatachalam
 * Madhya Pradesh – C. M. Poonacha
 * Maharashtra – Sri Sadiq Ali
 * Manipur – L.P. Singh
 * Meghalaya – L.P. Singh
 * Nagaland – L.P. Singh
 * Odisha – Bhagwat Dayal Sharma
 * Punjab – Jaisukh Lal Hathi
 * Rajasthan – Raghukul Tilak
 * Sikkim – B. B. Lal
 * Tamil Nadu – Prabhudas Patwari
 * Tripura – L. P. Singh
 * Uttar Pradesh – Ganpatrao Devji Tapase
 * West Bengal – Anthony Lancelot Dias (until 6 November), Tribhuvana Narayana Singh (starting 6 November)

Events

 * National income - ₹1,235,622 million
 * 1 January – President of India makes official the decision to set up the Mandal Commission
 * 22 January – 12 Iranian students who claimed to be members of the Iranian Islamic Students Association laid siege to the Iranian consulate at Churchgate.
 * 31 January – The police under direction of Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister of Communist Party of India (Marxist) -led government of West Bengal, surrounds and opens fire on unarmed refugee settlement of Morichjhapi island in Sunderbans, West Bengal. (Marichjhapi massacre)
 * 13 May – a tropical cyclone hits Coastal Andhra and destroys 7 lakh homes and affects 40 lakh people.
 * 1 June – Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh.
 * 27 June – CISF conflict at Bokaro
 * 2 July – Athi Varadhar came out after 40 years in Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram.
 * 3 July – A cargo ship named MV Kairali owned by Kerala Shipping Corporation went missing on its journey carrying iron ore from Mormugao to Rostock.
 * 28 July – Charan Singh of Bharatiya Lok Dal, coalition partner of Janata Party became Prime Minister of India with outside support of Congress (I).
 * 11 August – Morvi dam burst, the worst flood disaster in independent India, happens in Gujarat, killing 1500-15000 people
 * 12 October – C. H. Mohammed Koya sworn in as Chief minister of Kerala. He is the first Muslim League leader to become Chief Minister of an Indian state.
 * 10 December – Mother Teresa was awarded Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo.

January to June

 * 1 January – Vidya Balan, actress.
 * 3 January – Gul Panag, actress
 * Bipasha Basu unveils Health’s latest magazine cover (3).jpg January – [[Bipasha Basu]], actress and model.
 * 16 January – Climax Lawrence, footballer
 * 2 February – Shamita Shetty, actress
 * 26 February – Premgi Amaren, playback singer, composer, songwriter, actor and comedian.
 * 28 February – Srikanth
 * 24 March – Emraan Hashmi, actor.
 * 8 April – Amit Trivedi, music director, singer, film scorer
 * 28 April – Sharman Joshi, actorEmraan Hashmi.jpg]]
 * 23 May – Divya Palat, actress.
 * 10 June – D. K. Ravi, late IAS officer. (d. 2015)
 * 12 June – Tottempudi Gopichand, actor.
 * 18 June – A. L. Vijay, film director.
 * 20 June – Renedy Singh, footballer.

July to December

 * 19 July – Malavika, actress.
 * 27 July – Vamshi Paidipally, film director.
 * 29 July – Hard Kaur, rapper
 * 2 August – Devi Sri Prasad, music composer and singer.
 * 10 August – Shabir Ahluwalia, television actor
 * 31 August – Yuvan Shankar Raja, film composer and singer.
 * 1 September – Aamir Ali, actor
 * 11 September – Tulip Joshi, model and actress.


 * 14 September – Kamya Panjabi, actress.


 * 18 September – Vinay Rai, actor.
 * 27 September – B Chandrakala, Indian Administrative Service officer.
 * 7 October – Narain, actor.
 * 23 October – Prabhas, actor.
 * 4 November – Lazarus Barla, field hockey player.
 * 7 November – Raima Sen, actress
 * 18 November – Neeti Mohan, singer
 * 20 November – Shalini, actress and child artist.
 * 3 December – Konkona Sen Sharma, actress
 * 14 December – Samit Basu, novelist.
 * 30 December – Kausalya, actress.

Deaths

 * 9 February – Banaphool, author, playwright and poet (b. 1899).
 * 19 May – Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, novelist, literary historian, essayist, critic and scholar (b. 1907).
 * 18 August – Vasantrao Phulsing Naik, Politician, Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1913)
 * 3 December – Dhyan Chand, field hockey player (b. 1905).
 * 8 October – Jayaprakash Narayan, political activist (b. 1902)
 * 20 October – D.K.Sapru, character actor. (b. 1916).