1980 in India

• President of India – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy^[1]

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  Prime Minister of India – Charan Singh until 14 January, then Indira Gandhi again became the prime minister of India.^[2]
• Vice President of India – Mohammad Hidayatullah
• Chief Justice of India – Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud

• Andhra Pradesh – K. C. Abraham
• Assam – L. P. Singh
• Bihar – Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai
• Gujarat – Sharda Mukherjee
• Haryana – Surjit Singh Sandhawalia (until 27 February), Ganpatrao Devji Tapase (starting 27 February)
• Himachal Pradesh – Amin ud-din Ahmad Khan
• Jammu and Kashmir – L. K. Jha
• Karnataka – Govind Narain
• Kerala – Jothi Venkatachalam
• Madhya Pradesh – C. M. Poonacha (until 30 April), B. D. Sharma (starting 30 April)
• Maharashtra – Sri Sadiq Ali (until 3 November), O. P. Mehra (starting 3 November)
• Manipur – L.P. Singh
• Meghalaya – L.P. Singh
• Nagaland – L.P. Singh
• Odisha –
  • until 30 April: Bhagwat Dayal Sharma
  • 30 April-30 September: Cheppudira Muthana Poonacha
  • 1 October-3 November: S. K. Ray
  • starting 3 November: Cheppudira Muthana Poonacha
• Punjab – Jaisukh Lal Hathi
• Rajasthan – Raghukul Tilak
• Sikkim – B. B. Lal
• Tamil Nadu –
  • until 26 October: Prabhudas Patwari
  • 26 October-3 November: M. M. Ismail
  • starting 3 November: Sadiq Ali
• Tripura – L. P. Singh
• Uttar Pradesh – Ganpatrao Devji Tapase (until 27 February), Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh (starting 27 February)
• West Bengal – Tribhuvana Narayana Singh

• National income - ₹1,470,629 million
• 1 January – India asks Soviet Union for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.^[3]

• 14 January – Indira Gandhi returned to power.^[4]
• 5 April - Bharatiya Janata Party was formed.^[5]
• 23 June – Sanjay Gandhi is killed in a plane crash near Safdarjung Airport.^[6]
• 18 July - SLV-3 successfully launched from Sriharikota.^[7]
• Rajiv Gandhi quits working as pilot for Indian Airlines.^[8]
• The Bhagalpur Blindings were widely publicized by Indian media.^[9]
• 31 December – B. P. Mandal, chairman of the Backward Classes Commission, submitted his report to the government.^[10]

• 25 October - Forest (Conservation) Act^{[citation needed]}

• 1983 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar received the Nobel Prize in Physics^{[citation needed]}

The Indian Hockey team won the Gold in the Olympics.^[11]

• 21 January – Santhanam, actor and comedian.
• 10 February – Mohd. Iqbal Khan, actor.
• 13 March – Varun Gandhi, politician
• 17 March – Nikitin Dheer, actor
• 20 April – Sunaina Sunaina, weightlifter^[12]
• 2 June – Dola Banerjee, archer^[13]
• 4 June – Prashanth Neel, film director.
• 20 June – Bobby Darling, actor.
• 5 July – Zayed Khan, actor.
• 7 July – Ramachandra Raju, actor.
• 8 July – Chetan Anand, badminton player.
• 12 August – Ghibran, music composer.
• 14 August – Prabhjot Singh, field hockey player.
• 16 August – Upen Patel, model and actor.
• 18 August – Preeti Jhangiani, actress and model.
• 30 August – Richa Pallod, model and actress.
• 10 September – Jayam Ravi, actor.
• 18 September – Akshay Kapoor, actor.

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  21 September – Kareena Kapoor, actress.
• 18 October – Reetinder Singh Sodhi, cricketer.
• 24 October – Laila Mehdin, actress.
• 12 November – Devesh Chauhan, field hockey player.
• 13 November – Harman Baweja, actor.
• 9 December – Gagan Ajit Singh, field hockey player.
• 11 December – Arya, actor.
• 17 December – Arjun Halappa, field hockey player.
• 28 December – Deepak Thakur, field hockey player.

• 23 June – Sanjay Gandhi, politician (b. 1946).
• 23 June – Varahagiri Venkata Giri, fourth president of India (b. 1894).
• 18 July – Naoomal Jeoomal, cricketer (b. 1904).
• 24 July – Uttam Kumar, actor (b. 1926).
• 31 July – Mohammed Rafi, playback singer (b. 1924).
• 2 August – Ramkinkar Baij, sculptor and painter (b. 1906)
• 17 August – Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao, writer (b. 1909).
• 25 October – Sahir Ludhianvi, Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist and songwriter (b. 1921).
• 11 November – Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Kathakali artiste (b. 1886).
• 16 November – Jayan, actor (b. 1938).