Our Favorite Facts About India!

We've created this page to share some amazing facts about India with you! India is a large and unique country that has been around since the beginning of civilization so there are a lot of fun and interesting facts to share! Although Indian culture has been around for a long time, it's still a something that much of the western world is discovering.

Here are some facts for you:

India has the world's largest cannon called Jaivana. This cannon that was so loud when fired that its operator had to jump into a pool of water to avoid going deaf.

India is the second most populated country in the world, China is the first?

India is home to roughly 1.15 billion people, this makes up about 17% of the entire world's population.

The country's name, India, comes from the Indus River because early Indian civilizations emerged and settled along the Indus river of Eastern Pakistan and North Western India.

The nomadic Aryans took over these early settlements and referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu, but Persian invaders later converted it into Hindustan. The name Hindustan combines Sindhu and Hindu and refers to the land of the Hindus.

The study of the math forms Algebra, Calculus and Trigonometry began in India, this is one of the lesser known facts about India.

Both the concepts of the "place value system" and the "decimal system" were developed in 100 BC in India.

The first six Mogul Emperor’s of India ruled in an unbroken succession from father to son for two hundred years, from 1526 to 1707; talk about keeping the power in the family!

India's Brihadeswara is the world's first granite temple, located in the city of Tanjavur in the state of Tamil Nadu. The temple's rounded, layered disc structure called the shikhara was made from a single 80-ton piece of granite.

India's Brihadeswara Temple was built in just five years, from 1004 AD to 1009 AD.

India is the sixth largest country in the world by land area.

It's also one of the most ancient living civilizations at more than 10,000 years old.

More than 2500 years ago, an Indian man named Mr. Charaka created Ayurveda the oldest school of medicine.

India was one of the world's richest countries until the British ruled it in the early 17th Century; India is still working to recoup its status of wealth.

Christopher Columbus was attracted by India’s wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered North America by mistake.

The value of the mathematical character pi was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana.

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

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

An ancient Indian named Sushruta is regarded as the father of surgery. More than 2500 years ago, Sushrata and his group did complicated operations like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones and also plastic and brain surgeries.

Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity are also found in many ancient Indian texts.

The economy of India is the eleventh largest economy in the world by nominal GDP[1] and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).

One of the funny facts about India is that due to large domestic market demand, India has now surpassed the United States to be the world’s second largest consumer of natural rubber, following China.

India has the No.1 position in the ICC Test Championship table for Cricket after the annual update and is now 11 rating points ahead of the number two teams.

India has been ranked second in global manufacturing competence ahead of the US and South Korea.

India emerged as one of the world’s top ten countries in industrial production per United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

India's Gross Domestic Product: 1,217.5 billion US dollarsSource: World Bank, 2009.

As of 2004, India has the world's second largest English-speaking technical workforce; this is partially due to outsourcing by the United States.

India is expected to boast a $17 Billion internet industry by 2008; we will find out if this happened when research has been updated! (Source: Stylus, August 2004)

As of 2004, India claimed control of 85% of the internet technology market. (Source: Stylus)

As of 2004, India's internet professionals have grown from just over 2,000 in 1996 to more than a quarter million in 2002 and continue to grow. (Source: Stylus)

55% of young Indians living in India opt for careers in web-related activities (telemarketing, design, integration, web services, content writing, database integration, e-commerce etc). (Source: Stylus, August 2004)

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