Vandana Katariya's green card in the third quarter drew on India's reserve fuel.
The Kiwis threatened to score a couple of more times in the game but some tenacious defence from India kept them at bay.
Defending champions Australia didn't have it all their way after Japan kept them in check with a 1-1 stalemate in pool A.
The world No 10-ranked Japan drew first blood in the first quarter when Mie Nakashima found the net for a 1-0 lead.
Australia, ranked world No 3, made inroads but lacked the killer instinct to converty their dominance into goals as Japan went into the btreather with their lead intact.
It didn't help Japan's cause after the break when they lost Motomi Kawamura to a green-card, two-minute break sinbin as the Aussies applied pressure with three penalty corners and seven shots at goal but the Land of the Rising Sun were stanuch in defence.
A collective sigh from the Australians came when when Georgie Parker equalised in the final quarter despite battling with one fewer player, Mariah Williams collecting a green card.
New kids on the block Canada had no respect for the cup script when they toppled South Korea 2-1 in the opening pool A encounter.
Ranked 19th in the world, the country more renowned for its ice-hockey exploits kept frustrating the Koreans especially through goal keeper Kaitlyn Williams.
But Kiju Park prevailed from a penalty corner in the eighth minute to give the favourites a 1-0 lead which they maintained to the break.
A halftime pep talk from Canada coach Ian Rutledge got his women on the front foot against world No 9 South Korea, finding the 1-1 equaliser thjrough Briene Stairs.
It was a nail-biting final stanza as a 10-player Canada (Danielle Hennig green card) absorbed the everything the Koreans threw at them amid a flurry of penalty corners.
That relentless pressure paid off when the Canadians went 2-1 up through Holly Stewart in the dying minutes.
In the last game of the day, No 5 China gave first-year invitees Ireland, ranked No 15, a taste of Olympic-calibre turf action.
The Chinese made their intentions clear from the first spell after Mengyu Wang slammed the back board of the net with a definitive drag flick from a penalty corner before Qingling Song's slick reverse-stick statement.
Meiyu Liang made it 3-0 and the writing was on the wall once Ireland went down to 10 players after losing Chloe Watkins to a green-card offence.
Jiaqi Li's goal made it 4-0 at halftime but Ireland coach Graham Shaw will take some consolation from the way his women defended tenaciously in the second half to keep China scoreless.
Today, Japan face Canada at 11am, and Australia cross stick with South Korea from 1pm in pool A.
In pool B, the Black Sticks host Canada from 3pm before India play Ireland from 5pm.
