1987 in India

• President of India – Zail Singh until 25 July, R. Venkataraman
• Prime Minister of India – Rajiv Gandhi
• Chief Justice of India – Raghunandan Swarup Pathak

• January – Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction set up and became operational with effect from May reflecting concerns related to Industrial Sickness
• March – Magnetic Ink Character Recognition technology introduced for cheque clearing.
• 1987 Sino-Indian skirmish the second such conflict between China and India.
• 30 May – The Union Territory was split, and Goa was elevated as India's twenty-fifth state, with Daman and Diu remaining Union Territories
• October - ICC Cricket World Cup (Reliance Cup 1987)
• 28 December – Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research was established by RBI as an advanced studies institute to promote research on development issues from a multi-disciplinary point of view

• 1 January – Neha Sharma, actress and model.
• 3 March
  • Siddharth Bhardwaj, VJ, model and actor
  • Shraddha Kapoor, actress and singer
• 20 March – Kangana Ranaut, actress.
• 31 March - Janani Iyer, actress
• 25 April – Mallika Kapoor, actress.
• 28 April – Samantha Ruth Prabhu, actress.
• 30 April - Rohit Sharma, cricketer.
• 4 May – Charmy Kaur, actress.
• 25 June – Anil Shetty, entrepreneur, author, activist and motivational speaker
• 5 August – Genelia D'Souza, actress.
• 6 August – Aditya Narayan, actor, singer and television host.
• 19 August – Ileana D'Cruz, actress.
• 25 October - Umesh Yadav, cricketer.
• 20 November – Sukirti Kandpal, actress.
• 18 December - Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, politician, member of parliament from Srikakulam.

Full Date Unknown

Nisargadatta Maharaj (Maruti Shivrampant Kambli), Advaita Vedanta philosopher, spiritual leader

• 1 June – Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, film director, novelist, screenwriter and journalist (born 1914).
• 13 October – Kishore Kumar, playback singer, actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter (born 1929).
• 27 October – Vijay Merchant, cricketer (born 1911).
• 17 November – Akhandanand, exponent of Shrimad Bhagvata and scholar (born 1911).
• 24 December – M. G. Ramachandran, Actor, Politician, Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (born 1917).

• Bollywood films of 1987