• Longest total lunar eclipse in 150 years observed over many parts of the country.

• Fifty seven people including 51 on-board are killed when an Alliance Air Boeing 737 crashes near Patna airport.

• India and China sign the first ever agreement on information technology, investment and joint ventures at Beijing.

• The Union Cabinet decides to regularize unauthorised colonies on payment of land value.

• Cabinet gives its nod for amendment of the Cable TV Act, 1995 to regulate the content beamed into India by channels like Zee, Sony and Star.

• India's first missile-firing submarine, INS Sindushastra, is commissioned in St. Petersburg in Russia.

• Prime Minister rejects resignations of three Shiv Sena Ministers. These Ministers have resigned to protest against the Maharashtra government's move to arrest their leader Bal Thackeray.

• Government appoints Mr. Justice Brij Mohan Lal, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court, as Chairman of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission.

• Film actor Dilip Kumar is selected for the eighth Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award.

• Income Tax, CBI officials raids premises of national cricket icons.

• The Government announces a reduction in the prices of rice and wheat sold under the Public Distribution System.

• The Centre decides to set up a Bench of the Karnataka High Court in the Hubli-Dharwad region. It also decides to establish a permanent Bench of the Guwahati High Court in Itanagar to meet demand of Arunachal Pradesh.

• The Union Power Ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir Government sign a Memorandum of Understanding for implementation of seven hydroelectric power projects in J&K.

• The deadline for the implementation of a value-added tax in all the states is pushed to 1 April 2002 from 1 April 2001.

• Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announces the setting up of a special fund exclusively for financing projects aimed at curbing the population growth.

• President waives the fine on five pilots of Russian origin and remits with immediate effect their life sentence for involvement in the Purulia arms drop case.

• Pakistan-backed militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen announces a unilateral three-month-long cease-fire in Jammu and Kashmir and declares its readiness to hold talks with the Centre, which welcomes it as "good development."

• The Minister of State for Disinvestment Arun Jaitley declares in Parliament that the Government has so far cleared 17 disinvestment cases.

• S Vijayalakshmi becomes the first Woman Grand Master in the country.

• The Union Cabinet clears the unlinking policy and the establishment of a Broadband Telecom Multi-media Corporation of Indian Railways under the Indian Companies Act, 1956.

• The Manisana wage board for journalists and non-journalists submits its final report to the Government.

• Indian social activists Aruna Roy and Jockin Arputham win this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award.

• P.T. Usha announces her retirement from international competition.

• The Government bans the import of Vitamin A individually under the garb of prawn feed. Vitamin A is imported into the country under OGL at 40 per cent import duty.

• Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran clears 34 foreign direct investment proposals involving a total inflow of Rs.1,544 crore.

• Losses of 12 public sector undertakings worth Rs.1,616 crore is written off by Government under the administrative control of the Department of Heavy Industries.

• Asian Development Bank clears a $180 million (Rs.765 crore) loan for funding the highway stretch between Surat and Manor in Gujarat-Maharashtra.

• Government decides to de-reserve 15 items in small sector.

• India and Syria agree to cooperate in chemicals, small-industries, railways and telecom.

• Government extends a formal invitation to the militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen for a dialogue to bring peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

• Supreme Court uphold appointment of Lt. Gen. H.R.S. Kalkat as Eastern Army Commander and reverses Delhi High Court's order asking Government to appoint Lt. Gen. R.S. Kadyan in his place.

• Doordarshan enters into agreement with the CNN for supplementing DD's international coverage.

• Lok Sabha passes a bill to repeal the Iron and Steel Companies Amalgamation Act, 1952 and Indian Iron and Steel Company Act 1972.

• Government announces agriculture policy aimed at catapulting agricultural growth to over 4 per cent per annum by 2005 as compared to the current 1.5 per cent.

• Indian Army suspends all operations in Jammu and Kashmir against Hizbul Mujahideen.

• Union Cabinet clears a proposal of the railways to set up a separate corporation to utilise its telecom network for creating a nation-wide broadband telecom and multimedia network to supplement the national telecom infrastructure.

• Pakistan-based militant group Hizbul Mujahideen names three-member team to be present in the proposed negotiations between the Indian Government and the "Kashmiri leadership".

• Militants blow up a goods train near Ghoghrapar in Kamrup district of Assam.

• General Pervez Musharraf suggests signing of an agreement with India for preventing war between the two countries.

• Lok Sabha passes Bill for creation of Chhattisgarh State.

• Kannada film-star Rajkumar and three of his associates are kidnapped by smuggler-gangster Veerappan at Gajanur.

• Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland agrees to extend the ceasefire in Nagaland by one year from 1 August 2000.

• Government appoints Justice B.M. Lal as Chairman of MRTP Commission.

• Japan and the United States agreed to throw open the world's second biggest telecom market to greater competition.

• Former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif is sentenced by a special court to life imprisonment of 14 years in a case of "corruption" filed by the National Accountability Bureau.

• G-8 leaders wraps up their annual summit with a draft of promises to help developing countries reduce their debts, fight disease and harness the power of new technologies.

• Pakistan announces the procedures to be followed for commercial export of nuclear materials.

• An Air France supersonic airliner carrying German tourists crashes in Paris killing 109 people on board and four more on the ground.

• Ruling Nepali Congress Party passes sixth amendment to the Nepalese Citizenship Act of 1963.

• Sweden's 100m hurdles Olympic champion Ludmila Engqvist announces her retiremenrt.

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