The first detection of gravitational waves from a black hole binary in 2015 was a breakthrough, taking a century to realize, and made possible by the coming together of a remarkable experiment and an exquisite theory complemented by the best in sophisticated data analysis, state of the art computing and the transition to "big science". For this discovery, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2017. A week after the announcement of the discovery in Feb 2016, the LIGO-India Mega-Project received its in-principle approval from the Indian government. The discovery of gravitational waves from a neutron star binary in 2017 and the intense associated electromagnetic follow up heralds the launch of a new multi-messenger astronomy with its potential to impact astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics.
