India is considered to have become a nuclear power after its first successful nuclear test, code-named “Smiling Buddha,” conducted on 18 May 1974 at Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Quick Scoop: Key Facts

  • Date of first nuclear test: 18 May 1974.
  • Test codename: Smiling Buddha (also called Pokhran-I).
  • Location: Pokhran Test Range, Rajasthan desert.
  • Official description: Announced as a “peaceful nuclear explosion,” but it effectively showed India’s entry into the nuclear weapons club.
  • Status: India is now recognized as a nuclear-weapon state outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Short timeline

  1. 1940s–1960s: India builds civilian nuclear research capability and reactors, gaining the technology base needed for weapons.
  1. 1974: Smiling Buddha test makes India a de facto nuclear power.
  1. 1998: Series of tests under Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) lead to India being openly declared a nuclear-weapon state by its leadership.

So in simple terms:

  • India became a nuclear power with its first test in 1974,
  • and openly declared itself a full-fledged nuclear-weapon state after the Pokhran-II tests in May 1998.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.