72 Interesting facts about India

The name ‘India’ is derived from the river Indus. It is a valley around which people settled in earlier times.

India is the world’s oldest, largest and continuous civilization – the Indus Valley civilization.

India is also one of the largest democracies in the world.

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 more than 300,000 active mosques. This outnumbers any other country in the world, even the Muslim countries.

The second largest pool of engineers and scientists is from India.

India is the second largest English speaking country in the world – 125,226,449 numbers of English speakers.

India has the world’s largest Hindu population. Nearly 81 percent of its population identifies itself as Hindu. India is one of the three countries (other are Nepal and Mauritius) in the world where Hinduism is the majority.

Bollywood is the largest movie industry in terms of output, followed by Nollywood – the movie industry of Nigeria.

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.

A world record was set when 485 children dressed as Mahatma Gandhigathered and walked in Kolkata. The walk was a demonstration to attain peace in the country and the world.

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.)

With 37 teeth in his mouth, Vijay Kumar V.A. from India has the most teeth in the world.

Indian railway employs more than a million people, making it the largest employer in the world.

India is the 7th largest country in the world and the largest democracy.

The City Montessori School, in Lucknow, is the world’s largest school in terms of students with over 45,000 inductees.

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.

India leads the world with the largest number of films.

Over 4,700 daily newspapers in more than 300 languages are produced in India.

The largest wholesale spice market of Asia is in India – Khari Baoli, New Delhi.

India’s road network is the world’s second largest with 4,865,000 kms of roads constructed. (2014)

India is house to the world’s biggest family: 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grandchildren. The family lives in a 100room, four-storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram.

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.

The highest award in the country is Bharat Ratna.

‘Zero’ in the number system was invented by a mathematician from India. His name was Aryabhatta.

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. Chess was invented in India. Apart from the US and Japan, only India has built a super computer indigenously.

Yoga originated from India and is still in existence for over 5,000 years.

Calculus, Trigonometry, and Algebra originated in India.

The National Flag of India is a horizontal tricolour 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.

The decimal system and place value system were developed in India around 100 B.C.

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.

90 countries from all over the world buy software from India.

Takshila, the first ever university in the world started around 700 BC in India.

India is the place of origin of Buddhism and Jainism.

In the August of 1982, ‘the highest bridge in the world’ – the Baily Bridge, was built by the Indian Army.

Switzerland has declared May 26 as ‘The Science Day’ in honor of visiting President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Sadly, the former president passed away on 27 July, 2015 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

More than $6 million is donated in the Vishnu temple in the city of Tirupathi. It was built in the 10th Century.

Benaras, now known as Varanasi is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Buddha had also visited it.

India has the world’s largest attended events. The biggest of which is ‘Kumbha Mela’ of 2001 – attended by 60 million people and was seen from space.

India has the world’s highest cricket ground which is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. It is 2,444 meters above the sea level and was built in 1983.

More than 54 crore people voted in 2014 general elections. This is more than the entire population of the US, UK, Japan, and Australia combined.

India’s space program is among the top five space programs in the world despite having budget constraints.

There is a lake built in India due to the impact of a meteor. It is the ‘Lonar Lake’ in Maharashtra.

The British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947.

The Brihadeswara Temple is situated in Tamil Nadu is the first granite temple of the world. It was built in just five years during the 11th Century.

Before the 18th Century, India was one of the richest countries in the world.

India has the biggest population of vegetarians in the world.

Mawsynram, Meghalaya in India is the wettest place with 11,871 mm of average rainfall. This village is 15 kms away from Cherrapunji.

India is the world’s largest importer of arms but it has never invaded or attacked any country.

India has never hosted the Olympic Games.

The world’s highest (Siachin) is controlled by India.

Vande Mataram is India’s national song and Jana Gana Mana is its national anthem. Indian Lotus is its national flower. Indira Gandhi was India’s first and the only female Prime Minister till date.

White tigers are only found among Indian tigers.

The highest road is at Khardungla (Leh-Manali).

The largest dam is the Hirakud Dam in Orrisa.

NH-44 (NH-7) which turns from Varanasi to Kanyakumari is the longest highway in India.

Mango is India’s national fruit and Peacock is its national bird.

The first mining of diamonds was done in India.

India was the first to detect water on the Moon. India’s first Moon Satellite Chandrayaan-1 took the honor.

“Amar Sonar Bangla” the national anthem of Bangladesh is written by Rabindranath Tagore of Indian origin.

The Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is in India.

As per world banks report, there is 23 percent of forest area in India.

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