AMAZING FACTS

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT INDIA AND INDIANS

1. India is one of only three countries that makes supercomputers (the US and Japan are the other two).
2. India is one of six countries that launches satellites.
3. The Bombay stock exchange lists more than 6,600 companies. Only the NYSE has more.
4. Eight Indian companies are listed on the NYSE; three on the NASDAQ.
5. By volume of pills produced, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world’s second largest after China.
6. India has the second largest community of software developers, after the U.S.
7. India has the second largest network of paved highways, after the U.S.
8. India is the world’s largest producer of milk, and among the top five producers of sugar, cotton, tea, coffee, spices, rubber, silk, and fish.
9. 100 of the Fortune 500 companies have R&D facilities in India.
10. Two million people of Indian origin live in the U.S.
11. Indian-born Americans are among the most affluent and best educated of the recent immigrant groups in the U.S.
12. Thirty percent of the R&D researchers in American pharmaceutical companies are Indian Americans.
13. Nearly 49% of the high-tech startups in silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. are owned by Indians or Indian-Americans.
14. India sends more students to U.S. colleges than any country in the world. In 2004-2005, over 80,000 Indian students entered the U.S. China sent only 65,000 students during the same time.
15. In a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, an Indian-American woman scientist, Dr. Ananda Chakrabaty, won the argument that persons may be granted patents for useful manufacture of living organisms. She defeated the U.S. Patent Office, that argued that living things may not be patented, thus establishing the legal foundation for the biotech industry, (Diamond vs. Chakrabaty, 1980). Dr. Chakrabaty invented a microbe that eats oil spills.

20 FACTS ABOUT LONDON'S UNDERGROUND

There is only one tube station name which does not have any letters of the word "mackerel" in it - St John's Wood.

There are only two tube stations which have all five vowels in them - Mansion House and South Ealing.

Considering there are 287 tube stations, things 1 and 2 are quite surprising.

Chancery Lane has the shortest escalator on the system - 50 steps.

Travelling on the tube for 40 minutes is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes - so save yourself a packet, all you smokers and get on the tube more often.

The shortest distance between tube stations is Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line - 0.16 miles.

The most popular route for tourists is Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line. It is quicker to walk this distance than travel on the tube.

The only tube station which shares the name of a well known pop group is All Saints (yeah I know it's on the Docklands Light Railway - but it's still on the tube map).

The phrase "Mind the Gap" originated on the Northern line.

The Jubilee line was originally going to be called the Fleet line.

Northfields station on the Piccadilly line was the first to use kestrels and hawks to kill pigeons and stop them setting up homes in stations.

The Central line covers the longest route - from West Ruislip to Epping you will travel 34 miles without changing.

The Waterloo and City line covers the shortest route - 2 kilometres, but considering it only covers two stations - Waterloo and Bank, it doesn't take Stephen Hawkins to work that one out.

The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan line. It opened on the 10th January 1863.

Tube carriages originally had no windows and buttoned upholstery and were nicknamed "padded cells". No change there then.

Men have to sit with their legs apart when travelling on the tube. This is due to special magnetic fibres on the upholstery of the seats which interacts with testosterone to provide an antimagnetic outward force.

Julian Lloyd Webber was London Underground's first official busker - I didn't know he needed the money that badly.

More of the London Underground is open than in a tunnel. Tell yourself this fact if you suffer from claustrophobia.

Bank has more escalators than any other station on the tube - 15 plus two moving walkways - count em!

Out of the 287 stations, only 29 are south of the river Thames.

One of the female automated voice announcers is called Sonia - because her voice "gets on yer nerves".

Fish and Parcels is the slang name for the District Line. It should be Pony and Trap.

Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916.

The peak hour for tube suicides is 11am.

The Jubilee Line Extension was the most expensive railway line ever built. It cost USD 330 million per kilometre. Shame they didn't make the platforms and the trains bigger though.

FACTS ABOUT LONDON

There are over a million children in London’s schools.

Over 100,000 children were born in London last year.

Greater London covers an area of 656 square miles, with some areas 45 miles from the centre.

Greater London has over 600 square miles of roads, with over 50 High Streets! But traffic in Central London moves at the same average speed as it did in 1911.

London has over 11,000 restaurants, cafes and takeaways.

Over 25 million people visited London last year.

If London was a country, it would be the 8th largest country in Europe.

There are more languages spoken in London than in any other city in the world.

Leaning Tower of Pisa is a bell tower at Pisa, Italy. It is famous for leaning 4.4 meters out of line when measured from the seventh story. It was built to stand vertically but began leaning soon after construction started in August 1173. It tilts because its foundation was built on unstable soil. The ground beneath the tower first started to sink after the first three stories were built. The height of the tower is 55 meters from the ground. The construction of the building began in 1173 and lasted two centuries.



The leaning tower of Pisa was commenced in 1152, and was not finished till the fourteenth century. Tho cathedral to which this belongs was erected to celebrate a triumph of the Pisans in the harbor of Palermo in 1063, when allied with the Normans to drive the Saracens out of Sicily. It is a circular building, one hundred feet in diameter and 179 feet in extreme height, and has fine mosaic pavements, elaborately carved columns, and numerous bas-reliefs. The building is of white marble. The tower is divided into eight stories, each having an outside gallery of seven feet projection, and the topmost story overhangs the base about sixteen feet, though, as the center of gravity is still ten feet within the base, the building is perfectly safe.




It has been supposed that this inclination was intentional, but the opinion that the foundation has sunk is no doubt correct. It is most likely that the defective foundation became perceptible before the tower had reached one-half its height, as at that elevation the unequal length of the columns exhibits an endeavor to restore the perpendicular, and at about the same place the walls are strengthened with iron bars.

Alaska
	More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.
Amazon
	The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
Antarctica
	Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.
Brazil
	Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
Canada
	Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village."
Chicago
	Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
Detroit
	Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
Damascus, Syria
	Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.
Istanbul, Turkey
	Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.
Kola Peninsula, Russia
	The deepest hole ever made by humans is in Kola Peninsula in Russia, was completed in 1989, creating a hole 12,262 meters (7.6 miles) deep.
Los Angeles
	Los Angeles's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula --and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
New York City
	The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression "apple" for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple. There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv,  Israel.
Ohio
	There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.
Pitcairn Island
	The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.
Rome
	The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.
Siberia
	Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests. S.M.O.M.The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta ( S.M.O.M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 people less than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.
Sahara Desert
	In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years.
Spain
	Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits'.
St. Paul, Minnesota
	St.Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant who set up the first business there.
Roads
	Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A.: 1%, in Canada: 75% The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
United States' Waterfalls
	The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.

The Taj Mahal, located near the Indian city of Agra, is one of the world's greatest architectural treasures. The almost supernatural beauty of the Taj Mahal and its grounds transcends culture and history, and speaks with a voice of its own to visitors from all over the world of feelings that are common to all humanity.

There are two stories of how the Taj came to be.

The Taj's Love Story

It has been called the most beautiful temple in the world, despite the fact that it was built at the cost of much human life. The Taj Mahal is a real monument of one man's love for a woman. The story is a sad one, told many times. But it never hurts to tell it again.

In 1631, when his wife died in childbirth, the emperor Shah Jahan brought to Agra the most skilled craftsmen from all Asia and even Europe, to build the white marble mausoleum that is the Taj Mahal. He intended to build a black marble mausoleum for himself, and the link between the two was to be a silver bridge. This fantastic plan suffered a dramatic and permanent setback when the Shah himself died.

Its stunning architectural beauty is beyond description, particularly at dawn and at sunset when it seems to glow in the light. On a foggy morning, it looks as though the Taj is suspended in mid-air when viewed from across the Jamuna river.

This is, of course, an illusion. The Taj stands on a raised square platform with its four corners truncated, forming an unequal octagon. The architectural design uses the interlocking arabesque concept, in which each element stands on its own and perfectly integrates with the main structure. It uses the principles of self-replicating geometry and a symmetry of architectural elements.

If you don't want the huge crowds to distract you from your view, try arriving just as it opens or is about to close. A few minutes alone in the perpetually echoing inner sanctum will reward you far more than several hours spent on a guided tour. Especially if your tour guide is Murbat Singh, who makes it his job to find a new comic slant on the Taj story every time he tells it.

To really do the Taj Mahal justice, you should plan to spend at least a full day in the grounds, to see this stunning piece of architecture at dawn, midday, and at dusk. The colours and atmosphere of the gardens and the Taj itself constantly change throughout the day. Under moonlight the marble glows.

The Taj's Other Story

If you have ever visited the Taj Mahal then your guide probably told you that it was designed by Ustad Isa of Iran, and built by the Moghul Emperor, Shah Jahan, in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Indian children are taught that it was built in 22 years (1631 to 1653) by 20,000 artisans brought to India from all over the world.

This story has been challenged by Professor P.N. Oak, author of Taj Mahal: The True Story, who believes that the whole world has been duped. He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.

In the course of his research, Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodelled the palace into his wife's memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.

The use of captured temples and mansions as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Hamayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions.

Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Moghul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time. The term 'Mahal' has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria.

'The usual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal is illogical in at least two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani,' he writes. 'Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building.'

Taj Mahal is, he claims, a corrupt version of Tejo-mahalaya, or the Shiva's Palace. Oak also says that the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting that the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era:


Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.


European traveller Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.


The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest that the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time.

Oak also points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief that the Taj Mahal is a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum.

Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples.

Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition with dire consequences.

The only way to really validate or discredit Oak's research is to open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal, and allow international experts to investigate.


PHOTOS THAT SUPPORT OAK'S RESEARCH

Built: 1887-1889 for 1889 Universal Exhibition and Centennial of the French Revolution.

Engineers : Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier

Architect : Stephen Sauvestre

Contractor : Gustave Eiffel

Tower inaugurated: March 31, 1889

Number of Workers Killed during Construction: 1

Steps to Top: 1665 (Official Eiffel Tower Website)

Steps walkable by visitors 704 (Ground to 2nd floor)

Rivets: 2,500,000

Steel pieces: 18,038

Height: 300.51 meters (986 feet) (+/- 15 cm depending on temperature)

Height including television antenna: 320.755 meters (1052 feet)

Weight: 7,000 tons (1,000 tons removed during 1990's renovation)

Base: 412 feet square, although also noted as about 2.5 acres

Foundation Pressure: 58.26 to 64 psi (9000 psf)

Paint: 50 tons every 7 years

Paint Color: Dark Brown

Lighting : 352 projectors of 1000 watts

First TV transmission: 1957

First Radio Transmission: 1918

Maximum sway in wind: 12 cm

Visibility on a clear day: 67 kilometers (42 miles)

The Hollywood Neighborhood was named after the Hollywood Theater which opened on July 17th, 1926 with the silent movie, "More Pay-Less Work".

The first Junior Rose Festival parade was held in June 1918

The Hollywood Neighborhood was the most popular automobile cruising destination in Oregon.

The trolley operated between 1906 and 1937 in the Hollywood District and was the 3rd largest electrical transport system in the U.S. during the 1930s.

The Banfield Highway was named after T.H. Banfield, a prominent Portland businessman.

In 1848, Niagara Falls had a break of half an hour because of an ice jam blocking the source river.

There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 levels in the Residence. There are also 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators. With 55,000 square feet of space, it is one of the largest houses in the United States

The White House has a movie theater, swimming pool, bowling lane, jogging track, and a tennis court.

Presidential Firsts while in office... President James Polk (1845-49) was the first President to have his photograph taken... President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) was not only the first President to ride in an automobile, but also the first President to travel outside the country when he visited Panama... President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45) was the first President to ride in an airplane.

John Adams is said to have held the first fireworks display at the White House.

With five full-time chefs, the White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as 140 guests and hors d'oeuvres to more than 1,000.

The White House requires 570 gallons of paint to cover its outside surface.

George Bush invited tennis champions to play with him on the White House tennis courts.

John F. Kennedy's young son, John Jr., used to hide under the president's desk. John Jr. called the desk "my house."

Franklin D. Roosevelt got permission to build a swimming pool and a movie theater in the White House.

Rutherford B. Hayes had the first telephone installed in the White House. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, gave Hayes personal instructions on how to use it.

No one realized that MOUNT EVEREST was the tallest until 1856.

The official height of Mount Everest is 8848 meters or 29,029 feet, which is based on a 1954 ground-based measurement. However, in 1999, a National Geographic Society satellite-based measurement indicated that Mount Everest was about 2 meters (6 feet) taller.


Mount Everest is not standing still. Due to massive geological forces, it is rising at the rate of almost 1 centimeter (1/3 inch) per year - and moving northeast at about 6 centimeters (2 inches) per year.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first humans to scale Mount Everest. Some say two climbers accomplished this feat in 1924, but the evidence is weak.

More than 2,200 people have reached the summit, but over 200 climbers died.A blind person, a one-legged person, a 15 year old, and a 70 year old have successfully made it to the top. And other adventurers have skied, snowboarded and hang glided down the mountain.

Climbing Mount Everest is not cheap. Commercial expeditions can cost climbers $60,000 to $75,00 each.

Don't call the mountain "Mount Everest" in Tibet or Nepal. That's British coinage. Tibetans refer to it as Chomolungma and Nepalese call it Sagarmatha.

When Paul Anka first played Vegas he was too young to be allowed in the casino.

Bugsy Siegel named his casino the Flamingo after the long legs of his showgirl girlfriend.

In Nevada it is mandatory that video slot machines pay a minimum of 75 percent on average.

Vegas Vic, the enormous neon cowboy that towers over Fremont Street, is the world's largest mechanical neon sign.

Howard Hughes stayed at the Desert Inn for so long that he was asked to leave. He bought the hotel.

Camels were used as pack animals in Nevada as late as 1870.

Over 39.2 million people visit Las Vegas each year.

Seventeen of the 20 biggest hotels in the U.S. are in Las Vegas.

Year first casino was licensed 1931

Current number of licensed gambling places in Las Vegas 1701

Approximate number of Las Vegas city residents 500,000

Approximate number of Clark County residents 1,500,000

Number of slot machines in the city 197,144

Annual visitors to Las Vegas, in millions 36.7

Percentage of visitors from Southern California 25

Percentage of visitors who say they come to Vegas mainly to gamble 5

Percent of visitors who end up gambling during their stay 87

Hours per day average visitor spends gambling 3.9

Annual state gaming revenue, in billions of dollars 9

A small, uninhabited town in Texas has been sold on the internet auction site, eBay, to a buyer in Italy for a little over $3m. The town, called Albert, is about 100km (62 miles) outside San Antonio and features a schoolhouse, a dancehall and a bar.

Albert, a 13-acre town about 50 miles north of San Antonio with a resident population of four, is in the Texas Hill Country. The town's current owner, Bobby Cave, said he was checking the identity of the buyer, to confirm the deal. He added he had several other serious bids should the sale fall through.

Mr Cave, 47, an estate agent, said he sold the land after three-and-a-half years as he was ready to move on to his next project. "I bought it with the intention of creating a little family camping venue where people could come out and drink and enjoy local live music," he told PA news agency.

He said the town's population consisted of himself and groundsman at weekends. The winning buyer will take over an icehouse created from the frame of the old general store, a pavilion, an 85-year-old dance hall, a tractor shed and a three-bedroom house, together with peach and pecan orchards.

1. What is the hottest place on Earth?

Count one wrong if you guessed Death Valley in California. True enough on many days. But El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922 -- the hottest ever measured. In Death Valley, it got up to 134 Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913.

2. WHAT IS coldest place around here?

Far and away, the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.

We are living in an age of scientific progress. In our generation we have seen man achieve some things that our forefathers considered impossible.

The pace at which science is progressing is perpetually accelerating. It has been estimated that the entire scientific knowledge that man had acquired from the time of his creation to 1750 A.D. was doubled all of a sudden within a period of 150 years by 1900 A.D. The knowledge that was man’s by 1900 A.D. doubled again and this time in just 50 years - by 1950 A.D. This knowledge doubled again in just 10 years - by 1960. It has been estimated that man’s scientific knowledge has been doubling thereafter every two and half years.

Take for instance the speed of travel, as one indication of scientific advance. 200 years ago man traveled on horseback just like his primitive ancestors did thousands of years earlier. But by1900, man could travel by advanced means of locomotion at about 80 kilometres per hour and this was considered a very fast speed in those days. By 1945, jet planes had come into the air and man was traveling at 1000 kmph. Today, man travels in space at over 40,000 kmph.

We say that space has been conquered because man has reached the moon; but we must not forget that the moon is just on the fringe of space. Space itself is so vast that it staggers our imagination. Let’s have a look at the universe and at space!

The average distance of the moon from the earth is about 400,000 kilometres. This is very small compared with the distance from the earth to the sun which is about 150 million kilometres. The distance of the sun looks quite considerable, but is actually quite negligible when compared with the distance of the nearest star.

When calculating distances to the stars, ordinary units of measurement will not do, for they lead us into fantastically large figures. Scientists and astronomers therefore use the "light year" as the unit of measurement - that is, the distance that light travels in one year. Remember that light travels about 300,000 kilometres (or 7 times around the earth) in one second. So the distance that it travels in one year comes to over 9000 billion kilometres.

Let us consider the distances to some of the stars. The nearest star visible to the naked eye is a star called "Alpha Centauri" - which is four and a half light years away - that is, about 250,000times the distance to the sun. This means that if you traveled at the speed of light, even though you would reach the moon in one and a half seconds and the sun in eight and a half minutes you would have to travel for four and a half years at that speed to reach "Alpha Centauri." To get a better idea of what this means, consider a scale model of the universe where the earth is represented by a grain of sand and the sun by a marble, 3 feet away from the earth. All the planets of our solar system would then come within a radius of 100 feet from the sun. But the nearest star would be 150 miles away from the earth on that scale model of the universe.

The farthest star visible to the naked eye is in the Andromeda Galaxy, which is more than 1.5million light years away. There are still more distant galaxies that are visible through telescopes,6,500 million light years away.

Now look at the sizes of some of the stars. They look so small that little children say "Twinkle, twinkle little star". The earth looks pretty large! It takes us many hours to get from one place to another on this earth. But the sun is so large that 1 million spheres the size of the earth could fit into it, if it were hollow. Yet even the sun is small compared to some stars. Some stars are so large that 500 million spheres the size of the sun could fit inside each of them if they werehollow.

The star Betelgeuse, 520 light years from the earth, is one of the bright stars of the Orion belt. Itsdiameter is 500 million kilometres - which means that if it were hollow, the earth could comfortably revolve around the sun, INSIDE THIS STAR, in its normal orbit! (The earth’ s orbitaround the sun being only 300 million kilometres in diameter)

Now consider the number of the stars. Our solar system is part of a galaxy called the "Milky Way". Astronomers have estimated that there are at least 100,000 million stars in this galaxy.The sun is just one such star. And the Milky way is just one galaxy among many. Astronomers tell us that there are at least 100 million galaxies in the part of space that telescopes can see.



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India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization.

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history

India is the world's largest democracy

When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).

India is one of the few countries in the World, which gained independence without violence

India has the second largest pool of Scientists and Engineers in the World.

India is the largest English speaking nation in the world.

India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenously.

India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.

The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people.

India exports software to 90 countries.

India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees originally from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who escaped to flee religious and political persecution.

Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987.

India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

The World's first university was established in Takshashila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education

Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.

The art of Navigation was bornin the river Sindhu 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.

Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.

The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians.

Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12).

Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipment were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts

The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdish Bose and not Marconi

The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.

The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist

Chess was invented in India.

The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.

The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after leveling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.

The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.

There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world

The oldest European church and synagogue in India are in the city of Cochin. They were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.

Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively

Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, runs his government in exile from Dharmashala in northern India.

The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.

The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia built at the end of the 11th century.

Varanasi, also known as Benares, was called "the ancient city" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C.E, and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.

The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This magnificent temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola

According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called Sudarshana was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time

Quotes on India

Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Mark Twain said: India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border

Facts

Q. Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems?
A. Vinod Khosla

Q. Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of thetoday's computers run on it)?
A. Vinod Dahm

Q. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web
based email program)?
A. Sabeer Bhatia

Q. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator
of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
A. Arun Netravalli

Q. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard?
A. Rajiv Gupta

Q. Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000,
responsible to iron out all initial problems?
A. Sanjay Tejwrika

Q. Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even
faring better than the whites and the natives.

There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population).

Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth.

Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the world (Source : Gemological Institute of America).