Pokhran-II refers to the series of five nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range on May 1998. It was the second nuclear test since the first test, code-named Smiling Buddha, had been conducted in May 1974.
Pokhran-II consisted of five detonations, of which the first was a fusion bomb and the remaining four were fission bombs. These nuclear tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against India by a number of major states, including Japan and the United States.
On 11 May 1998, Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) was initiated with the detonation of one fusion and three fission bombs; the word "Shakti" (Hindi: शक्ति) means "power" in Sanskrit. On 13 May 1998, two additional fission devices were detonated, and the Indian government led by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee shortly convened a press conference to declared India a full-fledged nuclear state.
Many names are attributed to these tests; originally they were called Operation Shakti–98 (Power–98), and the five nuclear bombs were designated Shakti-I through Shakti-V. More recently, the operation as a whole has come to be known as Pokhran II, and the 1974 explosion as Pokhran-I.
Read more about Pokhran-II: India's Nuclear Bomb Project, Political Momentum: 1988–1998, Nuclear Yields and Prediction, Legacy