Biggest, best? Records India has set
1 Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan
Cheapest successful mission to Mars
In September 2014, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) became the only space agency in the world to reach the orbit of our neighbouring planet, Mars, on its first attempt. The real kicker was that it did it on a budget so small — $74 million — in a time frame so brief (18 months to design and deploy) that it established ISRO as the people to contact if you want to send something somewhere off the planet quickly, effectively and for as little as possible.
Only three other space agencies had made it into the Mars orbit when Mangalyaan hit its intended target — The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Russian and European space agencies.
After being launched on the indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh in November 2013, the Mars Orbiter journeyed on an immense but precise route that took it 666 million km in 300 days. Six years on, MOM is still in orbit, helping India map the red planet.
Sadly, because the mission was kept so light, it carried instruments to study surface features, morphology, minerals and atmosphere, but not enough to make complex scientific findings. The methane sensor was additionally found to contain a design flaw that kept it from contributing at all. Still, it got there — famously — for less than it took Alfonso Cuaron to make the film Gravity in the same year. Talk about a blockbuster.
2 World’s largest basketball lesson
Kevin Durant and 3,459 kids across 5 cities
It’s not the ball you’d expect so many Indian children to be carrying, but when the National Basketball Association (NBA)’S most valuable player is visiting, it’s got to go one-on-one. In 2017, NBA champion Kevin Durant conducted a record-breaking basketball clinic. The Guinness record to beat was 627 participants, previously held by Itzehoe, a town in Germany.
In its inaugural year, the NBA Academy was going to make a splash, in an effort to grow the sport in India. At their new elite basketball training centre in Delhi, they invited male and female students. In all, 3,459 kids joined in the largest basketball lesson ever, with 1,150 at the training session and the rest tuned in virtually while playing at multiple venues in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
To achieve the record, the lesson had to be for at least 30 minutes, with all children participating. The record was set. The Itzehoe record was broken.
As India becomes the market to be in, for everything from cellphones and processed food to edu-tech, there will likely be more efforts to woo the prime buying population of 15- to 34-year-olds, who number an estimated 422 million.
Over the past decade, exclusive universities have opened offsite campuses here or tied up with private universities in order to gain a toehold. Service providers from Netflix to Amazon have charted their futures with India in mind. Sports, from wrestling to football to basketball, have seen Indians join the top leagues globally and celebrities stop by in India as part of larger attempts to build a base.
In 2015, Satnam Singh became the first Indianborn player drafted into the NBA. In 2006, the Great Khali became the first Indian pro wrestler to be signed by WWE. More records could be in the making.
3 Statue of Unity Tallest statue in the world, 182 metres (the height of a 45-storey building)
Almost twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty, which inspired its name and location on the island of Sadhu-bet in Gujarat, the Statue of Unity — a monument to Vallabhbhai Patel, the Gujarati freedom fighter and first deputy prime minister of India — overlooks the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river.
The dam was a dream of Patel’s. Completed in
2017, it supplies irrigation and hydroelectric power to four massive states — Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Many would argue one is the kind of monument we need; and the other isn’t. Some would say we should think carefully about both. It’s tricky getting it just right in the world of monuments — that soft power tool used by people and nations to represent to the world who they are and what they would like to be remembered for.
The statue has made few people happy. It’s been talked about around the world, which was largely the point of its record-setting size. But much of the conversation has been about whether it can justify (in tourist numbers mostly) its massive Rs 3,000 crore price tag; and its possible environmental impact.
It’s had a rocky start on the ground too. The top of the statue leaked rainwater during the monsoon and the monument had to be closed to visitors; a 30-ft-tall under-construction replica of the Rajasaurus narmadensis dinosaur, meant as an adjacent attraction, collapsed. The police are also investigating what happened to crores in missing revenue from ticket sales. Members of the on-site staff have been arrested.
The statue has drawn in crowds though. In the first year after its inauguration on October 31, 2018, it received a reported 15,000 people per day. And it has become a popular tourist destination.
The Statue of Unity could lose its status as tallest statue on the world to another such project in India, once the Shiv Smarak statue of the Maratha warriorking Shivaji comes up on its own island in the Arabian Sea. Set to be built by the Maharashtra government, it’s expected to soar to 212 metres.
4 Atal Rohtang Tunnel World’s longest high-altitude tunnel, 9.02 km
This is a project that aims to tell the world that India is prepared for anything. It’s a tunnel through a Hima