2003 in India
Events in the year 2003 in the Republic of India.
Incumbents
- President of India – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
- Prime Minister of India – Atal Bihari Vajpayee
- Vice President of India – Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
- Chief Justice of India – V. N. Khare
Governors
- Andhra Pradesh – C. Rangarajan, Surjit Singh Barnala
- Arunachal Pradesh – Arvind Dave, V. C. Pande
- Assam –
- * until 21 April: Srinivas Kumar Sinha
- * 21 April-5 June: Arvind Dave
- * starting 5 June: Ajai Singh
- Bihar – V. C. Pande, M R Jois
- Chhattisgarh – D. N. Sahay, Krishna Mohan Seth
- Goa – Kidar Nath Sahani
- Gujarat – Sunder Singh Bhandari, Kailashpati Mishra
- Haryana – Babu Parmanand
- Himachal Pradesh – Suraj Bhan, Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje
- Jharkhand – M. Rama Jois, Ved Marwah
- Jammu and Kashmir – Girish Chandra Saxena, S. K. Sinha
- Karnataka – T. N. Chaturvedi
- Kerala – Sikander Bakht
- Madhya Pradesh – Bhai Mahavir, Ram Prakash Gupta
- Maharashtra – Mohammed Fazal
- Manipur – Ved Marwah, Arvind Dave
- Meghalaya – M.M. Jacob
- Mizoram – Amolak Rattan Kohli
- Nagaland – Shyamal Datta
- Odisha – M. M. Rajendran
- Punjab – J. F. R. Jacob, Om Prakash Verma
- Rajasthan –
- * until 14 May: Anshuman Singh
- * 14 May-22 September: Nirmal Chandra Jain
- * starting 22 September: Kailashpati Mishra
- Sikkim – V. Rama Rao
- Tamil Nadu – P. S. Ramamohan Rao
- Tripura – Krishna Mohan Seth, Dinesh Nandan Sahay
- Uttar Pradesh – Vishnu Kant Shastri
- Uttarakhand – Surjit Singh Barnala, Sudarshan Agarwal
- West Bengal – Viren J. Shah
Events
- National income - 27,925,301 million
January - June
- 26 January – The president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, is the guest at the Republic Day celebration.
- 5–9 February – Aero-India show is held in Bangalore.
- March – India put up a great show at the ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa after poor performances in the past and go on to the Finals. They were defeated by Australia in the Finals.
- 13 March - Bombing in Mumbai Suburban Railway at Mulund
- 23 March -
- *Abdul Majeed Dar, former Kashmiri Militants who initiated peace talks shot dead by assailants at Sopore.
- *2003 Nadimarg massacre
- 26 March - Haren Pandya, former home minister of Gujarat was found killed in Ahmedabad.
- 18 April – Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at his first rally in Srinagar, makes a historic announcement of a peace initiative with Pakistan.
- 31 May – Prime Minister Vajpayee has the rare honour of joining the head table at the 300th foundation day of St. Petersburg with Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush.
- 22 June – Vajpayee is in China. India concedes that Tibet is an integral part of China. China agrees to recognise Sikkim's accession to India.
July - December
- 14 July – India refuses to send troops to Iraq.
- 25 August – 52 killed in two bomb blasts in Mumbai.
- 24 September – United States President George W. Bush invites Vajpayee to lunch in New York City during Vajpayee's US trip. It is considered an important meeting for Indo-US relations. Several deals are struck on civilian nuclear technology, space, hi-tech trade and missile defence.
- 1 October - People's War Group carried out a assassination attempt on N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in Alipiri using Claymore mine.
- 6 October – Vajpayee visits Bali for the second time in 2 years.
- 22 October – India announces confidence-building measures with respect to Indo-Pakistani relations: more buses, flights, higher mission strength, etc.
- 15 November – Vajpayee visits Syria.
- 25 November –The Siachen conflict ends with India gaining control of 2500 km2 of Siachen Glacier and integrating it into the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
- 28 November – Abu Salem, one of India's most wanted fugitives for his alleged role in the 1993 Bombay bombings, is sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment by a Portuguese court on charges of fraud and resisting arrest. In response, the Central Bureau of Investigation announces it will maintain its efforts to seek Salem's deportation to India.
Births
- 22 January – Shruti Bisht, actress
- 15 April – Pranavi Urs, golfer
- 21 September – Krithi Shetty, actress
Deaths
- 8 January – Mahadeva Subramania Mani, entomologist.
- 14 July – Leela Chitnis, actress.
- 1 February Kalpana Chawla, Indian-American Astronaut and first Indian woman to go to space.
- 27 July – Henning Holck-Larsen, engineer, co-founder of Larsen & Toubro.
- 25 October – Pandurang Shastri Athavale, philosopher, spiritual leader, social reformer, who founded the Swadhyay Movement.
- 3 November – Narendra Prasad, actor, playwright, teacher and literary critic.
- 21 December – G. V. Iyer, film director.