On June 2, Special Protection Group was formed in 1988 by an act of the Parliament of India for providing proximate security to the Prime Minister of India and former Prime Minister of India and members of their immediate families wherever they are. After the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984, it was decided to entrust security of the Prime Minister to a Special Group. The SPG functioned as a security group purely on the strength of an Executive Order for three years without a legislation, from April 1985 to June 1988.

On August 21, an earthquake occurred in Nepal near the Indian border and affected much of northern Bihar. The magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the region , killing at least 709 persons and injuring thousands. The earthquake struck in two installments of 10 seconds and 15 seconds each and left cracks in 50,000 buildings, including Raj Bhavan and the old Secretariat Building in Patna, Bihar.

On October 19, Indian Airlines Flight 113 ( Boeing 737) operating from Mumbai to Ahmedabad  crashed on its final approach to Ahmedabad airport . 133 of the 135 people on board had been killed. The flight crew did not seek any permission or clearance for landing, nor did they give standard call-outs after 1000 feet.

Raj Kapoor suffered from asthma in his later years and  died of complications related to asthma at the age of 63. He collapsed at the event where he was to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, and was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for treatment. He was hospitalised for about a month before he succumbed to complications arising from his asthma. 

The 'Sixty-first Amendment' of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1989, lowered the voting age of elections to the Lok Sabha and to the Legislative Assemblies of States from 21 years to 18 years. This was done by amending Article 326 of the Constitution, which concerns to elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies.

On March 17, Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite(IRS-1A) was launched through a Russian rocket. from the Soviet Cosmodrome at Baikonur. IRS-1A carried two cameras, LISS-I and LISS-II with resolutions of 73 metres and 36.25 metres respectively with a swath width of about 140 km during each pass over the country. Mission was completed during July 1996 after serving for 8 years and 4 months.