News > National Technology Day: 25 years of historic Pokhran-II nuclear tests

National Technology Day: 25 years of historic Pokhran-II nuclear tests

Since 1998, May 11 is observed as National Technology Day in India to celebrate and remember the historic nuclear tests in Pokhran. When Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, called a press conference on May 11, 1998, he stunned the world with this announcement. After India conducted its lone nuclear test in 1974 during the Indira Gandhi era, it took the path of 'non-weaponised deterrence’. But in the 1990s, pressure on India to test came from three specific dimensions.