| Sl. No. | First in India (Male) | Name |
| 1 | First Governor of Bengal | Lord Clive |
| 2 | Last Governor of Bengal | Warren Hastings |
| 3 | First Governor-General of Bengal | Warren Hastings |
| 4 | First Governor-General of India | Lord William Bentinck |
| 5 | Last Governor-General & First Viceroy of India | Lord Canning |
| 6 | First President of the Indian National Congress | W.C. Bonnerjee |
| 7 | First Indian Governor-General of Independent India | C. Rajagopalachari |
| 8 | First Indian to pass the ICS | Surendranath Banerjee |
| 9 | First Indian ICS Officer | Satyendranath Tagore |
| 10 | First Governor-General of India (after Independence) | Lord Louis Mountbatten |
| 11 | First Indian in Space | Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma |
| 12 | First Temporary President of the Constituent Assembly | Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha |
| 13 | First Commander-in-Chief of Free India | General K.M. Cariappa |
| 14 | First Indian Nobel Laureate | Rabindranath Tagore |
| 15 | First Indian Judge of the International Court of Justice | Dr. Nagendra Singh |
| 16 | First Indian to receive the Bharat Ratna | Dr. S. Radhakrishnan |
| 17 | First Field Marshal of India | Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw |
| 18 | President of the Constituent Assembly | Dr. Rajendra Prasad |
| 19 | First Indian to swim across the English Channel | Mihir Sen |
| 20 | First Indian to receive the Jnanpith Award | G. Sankara Kurup |
| 21 | First Muslim President of India | Dr. Zakir Husain |
| 22 | First Indian to win the Palk Strait Swimming Contest | Baidyanath Nath |
| 23 | First Speaker of the Lok Sabha | G.V. Mavalankar |
| 24 | First person to popularise the Printing Press in India | James Hicky |
| 25 | First Education Minister of Independent India | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad |
| 26 | First President of the Republic of India | Dr. Rajendra Prasad |
| 27 | First Prime Minister of Independent India | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| 28 | First Home Minister of Independent India | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
| 29 | First Vice-President of India | Dr. S. Radhakrishnan |
| 30 | First Chief of the Air Staff | Air Marshal Sir Thomas Elmhirst |
| 31 | First Indian Chief of Air Staff | Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee |
| 32 | First Chief of the Army Staff | General Maharaj Rajendrasinhji |
| 33 | First Chief of the Naval Staff | Vice Admiral R.D. Katari |
| 34 | First Nuclear Reactor of India | Apsara (1956) |
| 35 | First Recipient of the Param Vir Chakra | Major Somnath Sharma |
| 36 | First Atomic Submarine of India | INS Chakra |
| 37 | First Indian Scientist to receive the Nobel Prize | C.V. Raman |
| 38 | First Indian Submarine | INS Kalvari |
| 39 | First Scientist of Indian Origin to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine | Dr. Hargobind Khorana |
| 40 | First Aircraft Carrier of India | INS Vikrant |
| 41 | First Chinese Pilgrim to Visit India | Fa-Hien |
| 42 | First Medium-Range Missile of India | Agni |
| 43 | First Business Newspaper of India | Financial Express |
| 44 | First Scientist of Indian Origin to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar |
| 45 | First Indian Missile | Prithvi |
| 46 | First Indian to receive the Stalin Peace Prize | Saifuddin Kitchlew |
| 47 | India’s First Nuclear Centre | Tarapur |
| 48 | First Indian to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award | Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
| 49 | India’s First Open University | Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University (formerly Andhra Pradesh Open University) |
| 50 | First Lok Sabha Member elected with the highest margin | P.V. Narasimha Rao |
| 51 | First Union Minister to resign from the Cabinet | Syama Prasad Mukherjee |
| 52 | First British Visitor to India | Hawkins |
| 53 | First Asian Games hosted by India | Delhi (1951) |
| 54 | First Muslim President of the Indian National Congress | Badruddin Tyabji |
| 55 | First Chief Justice of India | Justice H.J. Kania |
| 56 | First Person to propose Indian Independence in an INC Session | Hasrat Mohani |
| 57 | India’s First University | Nalanda University |
| 58 | First Indian to climb Mt. Everest without Oxygen | Sherpa Phu Dorjee |
| 59 | First Foreign Recipient of the Bharat Ratna | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan |
| 60 | First Indian Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics | Abhijit Banerjee |
| 61 | First Indian Institute of Information Technology | IIIT Hyderabad |
| 62 | First Test-Tube Baby of India | Durga (Kanupriya Agarwal) |
| 63 | First Indian Pilot | J.R.D. Tata |
| 64 | First Indian to Reach Antarctica | J.R.D. Tata Expedition Member (commonly Lt. Ram Charan in older GK books; modern references vary) |
| 65 | First Post Office in India | Kolkata (1774) |
| 66 | First Deputy Prime Minister of India | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
| 67 | First Prime Minister to resign from Office | Morarji Desai |
| 68 | First Prime Minister to lose a General Election | Indira Gandhi |
| 69 | First President of India to die in Office | Dr. Zakir Husain |
| 70 | First Man to climb Mt. Everest twice | Nawang Gombu |
| 71 | First Indian to reach the South Pole | Col. J.K. Bajaj |
| 72 | First Indian Recipient of the Oscar Award | Bhanu Athaiya |
| 73 | First American President to visit India | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| 74 | First British Prime Minister to visit India | Harold Macmillan |
| 75 | First Indian Author to win the Anderson Award | Ruskin Bond |
| 76 | First Indian to win the World Billiards Championship | Wilson Jones |
| 77 | First Indian Space Tourist (Proposed) | Santosh George Kulangara (planned, but no Indian has yet flown as a private space tourist) |
| 78 | First Defence Minister of Independent India | Sardar Baldev Singh |
| 79 | First Finance Minister of Independent India | R. K. Shanmukham Chetty |
| 80 | First Law Minister of Independent India | Dr. B. R. Ambedkar |
| 81 | First Railway Minister of Independent India | John Mathai |
| 82 | First Chief Election Commissioner of India | Sukumar Sen |
| 83 | First Attorney General of India | M. C. Setalvad |
| 84 | First Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India | V. Narahari Rao |
| 85 | First Chairman of the Planning Commission | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| 86 | First Chairman of the Finance Commission | K. C. Neogy |
| 87 | First Chairman of UPSC | Sir Ross Barker |
| 88 | First Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) | General Bipin Rawat |
| 89 | First National Security Adviser (NSA) | Brajesh Mishra |
| 90 | First Director of CBI | D. P. Kohli |
| 91 | First Chief Information Commissioner | Wajahat Habibullah |
| 92 | First Lokpal of India | Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose |
| 93 | First Chief Vigilance Commissioner | Nittoor Srinivasa Rau |
| 94 | First Cabinet Secretary of India | N. R. Pillai |
| 95 | First Election Commissioner of India | Sukumar Sen |
| 96 | First Governor of the Reserve Bank of India | Sir Osborne Smith |
| 97 | First Indian Governor of RBI | C. D. Deshmukh |
| 98 | First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India | Justice H. J. Kania |
| 99 | First Solicitor General of India | C. K. Daphtary |
| 100 | First Chairman of ISRO | Dr. Vikram Sarabhai |
| 101 | First Chairman of DRDO | Dr. Daulat Singh Kothari |
| 102 | First Indian to receive the Bharat Ratna (among men) | Dr. S. Radhakrishnan |
| 103 | First Indian to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award | Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
| 104 | First Indian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature | Rabindranath Tagore |
| 105 | First Indian to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics | C. V. Raman |
| 106 | First Indian-born Nobel Laureate in Economics | Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee |
| 107 | First Indian to receive the Gyanpith Award | G. Sankara Kurup |
| 108 | First Indian to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award | Devika Rani (overall first recipient) |
| 109 | First Indian to win an Individual Olympic Gold Medal | Abhinav Bindra |
| 110 | First Indian Grandmaster in Chess | Viswanathan Anand |
| 111 | First Indian to win the All England Badminton Championship | Prakash Padukone |
| 112 | First Indian to score a Triple Century in Test Cricket | Virender Sehwag |
| 113 | First Indian to score a Double Century in ODI Cricket | Sachin Tendulkar |
| 114 | First Indian to climb Mount Everest | Avtar Singh Cheema |
| 115 | First Indian to complete a Solo Non-stop World Circumnavigation under Sail | Commander Abhilash Tomy |
| 116 | First Indian to become Secretary-General of the Commonwealth | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 117 | First Indian to become President of the UN General Assembly | Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (overall first Indian) |
| 118 | First Indian to become a Judge of the International Court of Justice | Dr. Nagendra Singh |
| 119 | First Indian to become Chief Economist of the World Bank | Kaushik Basu |
