← 1980 1979 1978 1981 in India → 1982 1983 1984
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	List of years in India Timeline of Indian history

Events in the year 1981 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

• President of India – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
• Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi
• Vice President of India – Mohammad Hidayatullah
• Chief Justice of India – Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud

Governors

• Andhra Pradesh – K. C. Abraham
• Assam – L. P. Singh (until 10 August), Prakash Mehrotra (starting 10 August)
• Bihar – Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai
• Gujarat – Sharda Mukherjee
• Haryana – Ganpatrao Devji Tapase
• Himachal Pradesh – Amin ud-din Ahmad Khan (until 26 August), A. K. Banerjee (starting 26 August)
• Jammu and Kashmir – L. K. Jha (until 22 February), B. K. Nehru (starting 22 February)
• Karnataka – Govind Narain
• Kerala – Jothi Venkatachalam
• Madhya Pradesh –
  • until 25 May: B. D. Sharma
  • 25 May-9 July: G. P. Singh
  • starting 9 July: B. D. Sharma
• Maharashtra – O. P. Mehra
• Manipur – L.P. Singh (until 18 August), S. M. H. Burney (starting 18 August)
• Meghalaya – L.P. Singh (until 11 August), Prakash Mehrotra (starting 11 August)
• Nagaland – L.P. Singh (until 11 August), S. M. H. Burney (starting 11 August)
• Odisha – Cheppudira Muthana Poonacha
• Punjab – Jaisukh Lal Hathi (until 26 August), Aminuddin Ahmad Khan (starting 26 August)
• Rajasthan – Raghukul Tilak (until 8 August), K. D. Sharma (starting 8 August)
• Sikkim – B. B. Lal (until 9 January), Homi J. H. Taleyarkhan (starting 10 January)
• Tamil Nadu – Sadiq Ali
• Tripura – L. P. Singh (until 18 August), S. M. H. Burney (starting 18 August)
• Uttar Pradesh – Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh
• West Bengal – Tribhuvana Narayana Singh (until 12 September), Bhairab Dutt Pande (starting 12 August)

Events

• National income - ₹1,727,755 million
• April 30 - Nearly 48 killed in Bihar Sharif due to communal riots between Yadavs and Muslims.^[1][2]
• July – About 308 people die in Bangalore after drinking illicit liquor (see: 1981 Karnataka liquor deaths).
• Arasan Ganesan Polytechnic is founded in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. It is a Government aided co-educational technical institute.
• National Aluminium Company incorporated as a public sector enterprise of the Government of India.
• 2 July – Infosys is founded in Pune.
• 4 December - Around 45 people got killed due to a stampede at Qutb Minar resulting in closure of Minaret for tourists.^[3][4]

Law

Births

• 3 January – Sanggai Chanu, field hockey player.
• 28 January – Karunakaran (actor), actor and comedian.
• 25 February – Anuj Sawhney, actor and model.
• Saroo Brierley, writer
• 9 June – Celina Jaitley, actress.
• 17 June – Amrita Rao, model and actress.
• 19 June – Gulzar Khan, philosopher and mathematician.
• 7 July – Mahendra Singh Dhoni, cricketer.
• 3 August – Manish Paul, Indian television host, anchor and actor
• 25 August – Shiva Keshavan, luge pilot
• 30 August – Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, IAS.
• 5 September – H. Vinoth, film director.
• 27 September – Lakshmipathy Balaji, cricketer.
• 7 October – Abhijeet Sawant, singer and winner of Indian Idol (season 1).
• 12 October – Sneha, actress.
• 14 October – Gautam Gambhir, cricketer and politician
• 7 November – Anushka Shetty, actress.
• 27 November – Vikram Pillay, field hockey player.
• 9 December – Dia Mirza, actress and model.

12 December -

• Ashok, actor.
• Yuvraj Singh, cricketer.

Deaths

• 3 May – Nargis, actress (born 1929).
• 19 June – Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Physician created World's second IVF (born 1931)
• 24 September – Brahmarishi Hussain Sha, seventh head of Sri Viswa Viznana Vidya Adhyatmika Peetham and scholar (born 1905).
• 26 December – Savitri, actress (born 1936).
• 28 December – David Abraham Cheulkar, actor (born 1908).