Highlights:
• Celebrating the anniversary of India’s first nuclear test
• Operation was given codename “Smiling Buddha”
• India was the sixth country in the world to conduct a nuclear test
India is observing the 48th anniversary of its first nuclear test in Rajasthan’s Pokhran, the operation is also called Smiling Buddha, on May 18, 2022.
Smiling Buddha made India, sixth country in the world to conduct a nuclear test
There are a lot of people who don’t know What Smiling Buddha is. So let’s acknowledge you that “Smiling Buddha” was a code name given to the operation of India’s first successful nuclear bomb test on 18 May 1974. This name was chosen because the test was conducted on Buddha Purnima that year.“The Buddha has finally smiled” was the message conveyed by Raja Ramanna, the director of India’s premier nuclear research institute Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This helped India to became the sixth country in the world to conduct a nuclear test.
First non UNSC member to conduct the test
India became the first country to conduct the test that was not a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The bomb was detonated on the army base Pokhran Test Range (PTR), in Rajasthan, by the Indian Army under the supervision of several key Indian generals.it is believed that the actual yield was around 8-12 Kilotons of TNT. The highlight of the test was that India had managed to avoid detection by the United States and other intelligence agencies.
The country also faced a series of sanctions from national like the United States which said that such tests can lead to nuclear proliferation. It took a nearly two-year preparation for India to conduct this test.
Indira Gandhi had authorized scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to detonate an indigenously designed nuclear device in September, 1972.
Again test held in 1998 “ Operation Shakti”
After 1974, India did nuclear test again at same location (called Pokhran-II tests) in 1998 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister. The tests saw a series of five nuclear explosions, in May 1998 at Pokhran. The code name for tests were “Operation Shakti”.
