India imposed one of the world’s strictest population-wide lockdowns on March 25, 2020 for COVID-19. the estimated epidemiological parameters, evaluated the effect of control measures on the epidemic in India, and explored strategies to exit lockdown. Aggressive measures such as lockdowns may be inherently enough to suppress an outbreak; however, other measures need to be scaled up as lockdowns are relaxed. Lower levels of social distancing when coupled with a testing ramp-up could achieve similar outbreak control as an aggressive social distancing regime where testing was not increased. India responded to the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly and decisively by imposing a nation-wide lockdown on March 25, 2020 when there were 536 cases and 10 deaths. This ‘suppression strategy’, though effective, has its limitations—the social and economic cost of such population-wide social distancing is huge, which limits the long-term implementation of these measures. Additionally, containing COVID-19 in India is a unique challenge due to its high population density, underprepared healthcare system, and wide socio-economic disparity.