Interesting Facts About India

India! Located in the continent of Asia, it is one of the oldest civilizations known to man. This article discusses some of the more amazing facts about India, so sit back and enjoy...

 Albert Einstein: '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: '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.'

Romain Rolland: (French Scholar) '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) 'India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.'

There are so many facts about India, that it is impossible to write or read about them in a day. It would take a lifetime. But let's try and look at the important facts and statistics, and also some of the interesting facts about this diverse and amazing country.

Fast Facts about India

Topic	Fact/Statistic
Name	India (Republic of India), (Bharat), (Hindustan).
Location	20 00 N, 77 00 E.
Capital	New Delhi
States	28
Union Territories	7
Area	3.3 million sq. kms.
Population	1.15 billion
Business Capital	Mumbai (earlier known as Bombay)
Main Religions	Hinduism (81%), Islam (13%), Christianity (2%), Sikhism (2%), Others (2%)
National Emblem	Lion
Literacy Rate	65.5%
National Animal	Tiger
National Bird	Peacock
National Flower	Lotus
National Tree	Banyan
National Fruit	Mango
National Currency	Rupee
National Sport	Hockey

World Records

Category	Record
Longest Fingernails	Shridhar Chillal, Pune - Maharashtra
Oldest Prime Minister	Morarji Desai (81 yrs.),1977 - 1979
Longest Beard	Shamsher Singh (1.83m), Punjab - 1997
Longest Hair	Hoo Sateow (5.15m), 1997
Most Worms Eaten	C. Manoharan, ate 200 earthworms in 30 seconds
Hair Donation	6.5 million people, Tirupati – 1999
Largest Employer	Indian Railways - 1 million employees
Highest Bridge	Baily Bridge (5,602 meters), Ladakh
Biggest Wedding Banquet	V.N. Sudhakaran weds N. Sathyalakshmi, 150,000 guests (1995)
Highest Cricket ODI Partnership	331, by Sachin Tendulkar (186 not out) and Rahul Dravid (153) - 1999
Relay Song	210 people sang a word of a song turn by turn and finished the complete song
World’s Largest Film Studio	Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad
Most Forward-Thinking Rail Traveler	Fakhruddin Takulla traveled from Mumbai to New Delhi in 2000, using a ticket he has purchased in 1973

Amazing Facts about India

·                     India has derived its name from the River Indus, and the early settlers here lived in the valleys around.

·                     Area wise, India is the 7th largest country in the world.

·                     India has the largest democracy in the world.

·                     India invented the number system. The scientist Aryabhatta invented the number 'zero'.

·                     The study of Algebra and Trigonometry originated in India.

·                     In the 6th century, Indian Mathematician Budhayana was the first to calculate the value of "pi", and also to explain the concept of the Pythagorean Theorem.

·                     Even before Christ, the 'place value system' and the decimal system was used in India.

·                     The maximum number of post offices in the world are in India.

·                     The world's highest motorable road is Khardung La, in Ladakh. It has an altitude of 5,682 meters.

·                     The most rainfall in the world ever in a month's time fell at Cherrapunji, Meghalaya. It was in July 1861 and 9,300 mm of rainfall fell in a month.

·                     The most number of movies are made in India, over 1000 each year.

·                     The worst train disaster ever in the world took place in 1981 in Samastipur, Bihar. In this accident around 800 people lost their lives.

·                     The highest cricket ground in the world is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. It is 2444 meters above sea level.

·                     The first ever university in the world was established in Takshila in 700 BC. Students numbering more than 10,500 from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects here.

·                     Ayurveda, the earliest school of medicine known to mankind, was started in India in 2,500 BC.

·                     India was the richest country in the world until it was invaded by the British in the 17th century.

·                     The art of navigation was developed in in India nearly 6000 years ago. The word 'navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word navgatih. The word 'navy' is derived from the Sanskrit word nou.

·                     The world's largest pilgrimage destination is in India. It is called the Vishnu Temple in the the city of Tirupati. Around 30,000 people visit this temple daily, donating about $6 million US dollars everyday.

·                     One of the wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal, is in Agra, India.

·                     The oldest European Church and Synagogue are in the city of Cochin, India, and were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.

·                     Yoga originated in India some 5000 years ago.

·                     Martial arts originated in India, and later spread to Asia and other parts of the world through Buddhist missionaries.

·                     Anesthesia was used in Indian medicine long before it was adopted into modern medicine.

·                     The Hindus of India created the largest measure of time, known as kalpa. This is the time starting from the birth and ending at the annihilation of the universe, which is around 25 billion years.

·                     Sushruta is someone who is regarded as the father of surgery. More than 2600 years ago, he along with his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, cesareans, fractures, artificial limbs, urinary stones, plastic surgeries, and brain surgeries.

·                     India was the only source of diamonds in the world up to 1896.

·                     In around 1000 BC, steel was invented in India.

·                     India is one of the largest exporter of computer software products, exporting software to more than 90 countries around the globe.

·                     In the 5th century, Bhaskaracharya was the first to correctly calculate the time that the Earth takes to orbit the Sun (365.258756484 days). He managed this hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart actually did it.

·                     Snakes & Ladders, one of the most widely played board games, was created by the 13th century poet Saint Gyandev. Originally, it was known as Mokshapat. The ladders in the game represented virtues and vices were represented by the snakes.

·                     The first ever dam and reservoir for irrigation purposes was built in Saurashtra.

·                     Chess was invented in India.

·                     The 2nd largest number of scientists and engineers in the world, are in India.

·                     The largest English speaking nation in the world - India.

·                     Besides the US and Japan, India is only other country in the world to have indigenously built a super computer.

·                     India has the 2nd largest road network in the world after the US.

These were some interesting and fun facts about India.

Business-IT Facts about India

·                     AT & T-Bell Labs - President, Arun Netravalli

·                     Lucent Technologies - Chief Scientist, Arun Netravalli

·                     Hewlett Packard - GM, Rajiv Gupta

·                     Adobe Systems - CEO, Shantanu Narayen

·                     Founder and Creator of Hotmail - Sabeer Bhatia

·                     Creator of Pentium chip - Vinod Dahm

·                     CitiBank - CEO, Victor Menezes

·                     Mckensey - CEO, Rajat Gupta

·                     Stanchart - CEO, Rana Talwar

·                     Sun Microsystems - Co-founder, Vinod Khosla

·                     36% of NASA employees are Indians

·                     34% of Microsoft employees are Indians

·                     38% of doctors in America are Indians

·                     28% of IBM employees are Indians

·                     12% of scientists in America are Indians

·                     17% of Intel employees are Indians

·                     13% of Xerox employees are Indians

·                     More than a million Indians are millionaires

The names mentioned above are past and current associations