K. R. Narayanan was elected to the Presidency of India in 17 July 1997 with 95% of the votes in the Electoral College, as a result of the Presidential poll on 14 July. This is the only Presidential election to have been held with a minority government holding power at the center.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta dies of heart failure in Kolkata. Teresa received a number of honours, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She was canonised on 4 September 2016.

Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984.

Diana Hayden won the Femina Miss India World crown in 1997 and then went on to win the Miss World crown in the same year. By doing so, she became the third Indian or part-Indian woman to win the Miss World pageant, after Reita Faria in 1966 and Aishwarya Rai in 1994.