1 Aadhaar
The Indian government's identity program, introduced in 2009, combined the latest technology with eye scans and fingerprints to create a unique, verifiable identification number for 99 percent of India's adults. The result? A biometric database with 1.2 billion participants—the world's largest.
2 Delhi Metro
Construction on the country's largest and busiest metro kicked off in 1998—and it's still going. While phase 1 and 2 of the project were completed in 2006 and 2011, respectively, phase 3 is expected to wrap up in 2020. It's the world's first rail system to be certified by the United Nations to receive carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
3 Operation Flood
How did India go from the 50th largest milk producer in the world to the first? Through Operation Flood, a 26-year push that began in 1970 and connected India's dairy farmers directly to consumers via one of the world's largest rural development projects.
4 Project Tiger
With its national animal nearing extinction, India established ranger-protected havens within its national parks in 1973. A rebound in India's tiger population—currently the world's largest—followed, and adjacent dwindling habitats and ecosystems saw a rebirth as well.
5 Aryabhata
The launch of India's first satellite into space in 1975 not only gave the Indian Space Research Organization a boost in credibility but improved the country's defense and technological capabilities.
6 Cochin International Airport
Developed under a public-private partnership model, India's eighth busiest airport is also the world's first to be fully solar-powered. Commercial service began in 2000, and eight years later the airport received the Champion of the Earth award from the United Nations.
7 Chandrayaan-1
After it was launched in October 2008, this ISRO mission confirmed the existence of water on the moon. Back on Earth, it proved to be a major boost to India's space program, showcasing ISRO's abilities to develop its own technology.
8 Indica
This hatchback by Tata Motors was the first indigenously developed car in India. Three years after being released in 1998, the now-discontinued Indica became the top-selling car in its segment in India, helping to establish the company—which up until that point had been known for its utility vehicles—as a mass-market car manufacturer.
9 Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park
This solar park was commissioned in 2017 with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts—enough electricity on a sunny day to power nearly the entire district of Kurnool in southern India.
10 The Lotus Temple
Made of pure white marble, this temple has become a major modern tourist attraction for the country, drawing in more than 100 million visitors since opening in 1986.
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