Interesting Facts About India
Facts About India |
India,
officially the Republic of India, is the 2nd most populous country
in the world, after China. India has a total area of 3,287,263 sq km. It is
a country in South Asia and has 28 states. The country’s capital
state is New Delhi. India has eight union territories. Its official language
is Hindi. It does not have any national language. The nationals or citizens of
India is called the Indians. The Indian currency is known as the Indian Rupee
(INR). It has six land bordering countries that are Pakistan,
China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. It shares a maritime border with
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives, and Indonesia. With these 89 facts about
India, let us learn about its history, geography, culture, flag, famous people,
agriculture, notable inventions, and much more.
54 Interesting facts about India
1. The
name ‘India’ is derived from the river Indus. It is a
valley around which people settled in earlier times.
2. India
is the world’s oldest, largest and
continuous civilization – the Indus Valley civilization.
3. India is
also one of the largest democracies in the world.
4. India
has the largest postal system in the world with more than
150,000 post offices, which is thrice the size of that of China. India has the world’s only floating
post office on Dal Lake, Sri Nagar. The office provides all regular postal
services.
Image Source: Times Of India |
5. Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer and innovator born in
Ladakh, India, designed the SECMOL campus that runs on solar energy. The
campus also provides clean energy for heating, lighting, and cooking. The
building is designed in such a way that even when the minimum outside
temperature falls to minus 25 degrees Celsius, the normal evening temperature
inside this campus in the coldest part of the winter stays around plus 14
degrees Celsius. The building has south-facing windows to collect heat during
winter and insulation is also used in the roof, outer walls, and some places
under the floor. The building is made from earth. So they dig
and use the same material and mix some sand and clay to get the desired
strength for the building’s constitution. The construction of the
building is such that no electric lights are needed during the day.
6. India
has more than 300,000 active mosques. This outnumbers any
other country in the world, even the Muslim countries.
Jama Masjid - The Largest Mosque In India |
7. The second-largest pool of engineers and scientists is from India.
8. India
is the second-largest English speaking country in the world
– 125,226,449 numbers of English speakers.
9. India
has the world’s largest Hindu population. Nearly 81% of its
population identifies itself as Hindu. India is one of the three countries
(others are Nepal and Mauritius) in the world where Hinduism is the
majority.
10. Did
you know that a sharpshooter from India who is more than 80 years old;
and who started her shooting career in her late sixties is the oldest (woman)
sharpshooter in the world? Chandro Tomar known as “Shooter Dadi” was
born in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, India. To date, she has won more than 25 national
championships and counting. She has won gold at the
Veteran Shooting Championship held in Chennai. Her top
honor is a national bronze. Interestingly,
she began shooting by chance when she took her granddaughter to a nearby rifle
club. Apart from her shooting skills, she also looks after her big family and
does regular household chores. She also maintains a Twitter account.
11. India
is the only country to have an entire ocean named after it, i.e. The Indian Ocean. Commonly, there are a total of five oceans in the world, namely;
Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and the Southern Ocean.
12. India
has the fastest growing telecom market and cheapest telecom
tariff in the world.
13. Navi
Mumbai, a planned satellite township of Mumbai, is the largest planned
city in the world. Its development was started in 1972 to de-congest
Mumbai.
14. London
has more Indian restaurants than Mumbai or Delhi.
15. If you are amazed after reading about the Shooter
Dadi here is another fascinating person for you to learn about: Fauja
Singh – the oldest marathon runner in the world. He was born on 1st April,
1908 in Beas Pind, Punjab, British India. To inspire you further, it is
important to mention here that Fauja Singh was not able to walk until he was
five years old. He took up running at the age of 89 and when
he first showed up for the marathon running training, he was in three-piece
suit. He was featured alongside Mohammad Ali and David Beckham in an
advertising campaign in 2004 by Adidas. He competed in his last
marathon race in Hong Kong in 2013 clocking 1 hour 32 minutes and 28 seconds
until he reached the finish line.
16. Bollywood
is the largest movie industry in terms of output, followed by
Nollywood – the movie industry of Nigeria.
17. India
is also the country in which the highest number of votes were cast for
a national general election. In 2009, the country saw its 417 million
people cast their votes in five phases to elect the 543 members of the 15th Lok
Sabha.
18. The world record was set when 485 children dressed as Mahatma Gandhi gathered
and walked in Kolkata. The walk was a demonstration to attain peace in the
country and the world.
19. Jyoti
Kisange Amge is the world’s shortest living woman. She was
born on 16 December 1993. She is 62.8 centimeters tall (2 ft 0.6 in.)
20. With
37 teeth in his mouth, Vijay Kumar V.A. from India has the most teeth
in the world.
21. Benny
Prasad, born in 1975, is the fastest man to travel all the 195 countries in
the world. He is a gospel musician and instrumental guitarist from India.
22. A crazy
story of an Indian dad and his son would again make you wonder about
the creative abilities of the human mind. We all have seen water tanks but not
like the ones that were built by Mr. Lubhaya in the town of Jalandhar, Punjab,
India. In the early nineties, Mr. Lubhaya Kaul built a water tank in the
shape of a football. He built the tank in two parts and later
assembled them for one unit. Once the water tank made its impression on the
public’s mind, Mr. Kaul started getting orders for building statues on the
rooftops of the local residents as well. He started pursuing his passion and
was later joined by his son Balwinder Kaul. To date, the father-son duo has
crafted more than 3,000 water tanks in various shapes and sizes including
those resembling airplanes, tractors,
eagles, trucks, navy ships, etc.
23. India’s space program is among the top five space programs in the world
despite having budget constraints.
Want to Know about Everything About India Then Click Here
Want to Know about Everything About India Then Click Here
24. India
is the 7th largest country in
the world and the largest democracy.
25. India
has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.
26. The
City Montessori School, in Lucknow, is the world’s largest school in
terms of students with over 45,000 inductees.
27. India
is the world’s largest milk producer, with 16 percent of global
production, followed by the United States of America, China, Pakistan, and Brazil.
28. World’s
largest religious building, Angkor Wat is a Hindu Temple in Cambodia dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It was
built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century.
29. According
to a report published by CNN is 2013, India’s “Go Air” a budget airline, plans
to hire predominantly female flight attendants. They made this
decision based on the fact that an average female flight attendant is lighter
than their male counterparts by 15-20 kilos. Thus, this weight saving will
ultimately lead to saving fuel amounting to a total saving of $500,000 per
year. Smart move, we must say!
30. In
1928, India was so good at Hockey that the British withdrew from
the Amsterdam Olympics to avoid a possible embarrassing defeat by its own colony.
What the British feared happened! The Indian team won the Olympics Hockey final
beating Holland 3-0. And the team repeated their triumph in the Olympics in
1932 as well.
31. India
leads the world with the largest number of films.
32. Over 4700 daily
newspapers in more than 300 languages are produced in India.
33. Did
you know that the world’s lightest satellite was not built by
a renowned space agency like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) or The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) but by a bunch of
Indian science enthusiasts from Chennai, Tamil Nadu? The satellite that
weighed only 64 grams is the world’s smallest and lightest satellite
to date and was launched into space with the help of a NASA rocket. The
satellite did get into space but did not get into orbit.
34. Another satellite made by the same group of space enthusiasts that weighed only 1.26 kg, the Kalam set-V2, was launched by the Indian Space and Research Organization from
its Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. According to the ISRO chief
K. Sivan, “Kalamset-V2 was the lightest satellite to be ever built and launched
into orbit.”
35. The largest
wholesale spice market of Asia is in India – Khari Baoli, New Delhi.
Asia's Biggest Spices Market |
36. India’s road
network is the world’s second-largest with 4,865,000 km of roads
constructed. (2014)
37. Vava
Suresh, popularly known as “The Snake Man” of Kerala, is a
wildlife conservationist from India. His mission is about saving snakes that
stray into human-inhabited areas. He has rescued/captured more than
52,000 snakes. He was born in 1974 in Trivandrum, Kerala. It is
believed that he has been bitten more than 3,000 times including 300 times by
some venomous snake. On some of the occasions when he was bitten by venomous
snakes, he was kept in ICU and on the ventilator.
38. India
is house to the world’s biggest family: 39 wives, 94
children, and 33 grandchildren. The family lives in a 100-room, four-story
house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram.
Facts about Indians and their inventions
39. Mahatma Gandhi is known as The Father of the Nation. His
full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He died in 1948 and was responsible
for the freedom of India along with other freedom fighters.
Mahatma Gandhi - The Father of Nation |
40. In
1948, the Nobel Peace Prize was
not awarded. It would have been awarded to Mahatma Gandhi, however, due to his
assassination; it was left unassigned in his honor. The Nobel Committee
declined to award a prize on the ground that
“there was no suitable living candidate” that year.
Interestingly, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and,
finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948.
41. ‘Zero’ in the number system was invented by
a mathematician from India. His name was Aryabhatta.
42. The
Human Calculator, Shakuntala Devi is a math prodigy from India. She
could calculate 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 and provided the correct
answer in a mere 28 seconds.
43. Chess was invented in India.
Chess Board |
45. Yoga originated from India and is still in existence
for over 5000 years.
46. Calculus,
Trigonometry and Algebra originated in India.
Flag of India
The National Flag of India is a horizontal tricolor
with deep saffron at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom
in equal proportion. The saffron indicates the strength and courage of the
country; the white indicates peace and truth; and the green shows the
fertility, growth, and auspiciousness of the land. The flag has the Ashoka
Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its center. The flag was designed by
Pingali Venkayya. It was adopted on 22 July 1947.
Indian Flag |
47. The decimal
system and place value system were developed in India around 100 B.C.
48. Snakes and ladders – the game, was invented in India in the 13th century
by a poet saint Gyandev. The ladders represent the virtues while the snakes
indicate vices. The game was designed on the basis of the concept that good
deeds take you to heaven while bad deeds take you to hell.
49. 90
countries from all over the world buy software from
India.
50. Takshila,
the first-ever university in the world started around 700 BC in India.
51. India
is the place of origin of Buddhism and Jainism.
52. In
August of 1982, ‘the highest bridge in the world’ – the Baily
Bridge, was built by the Indian Army.
53. Switzerland has
declared May 26 as ‘The Science Day’ in honor of visiting President APJ Abdul Kalam. Sadly, the former
president passed away on 27 July 2015 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
54. More
than $6 million is donated in the Vishnu temple in the city
of Tirupathi. It was built in the 10th century.
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