By Vijay Kumar

Ø The country's foreign exchange reserves stand at an all-time high of $140.600 Billion.

Ø Mobile phones are growing by about 1.5 Million a month.

Ø India is among the six countries that launch satellites and do so even for Germany, Belgium, South Korea, Singapore and EU countries.

Ø India's INSAT is among the world's largest domestic satellite communication systems.

Ø Back in 1968, India imported 9M tonnes of food-grains to support its people. Through a grand programme of national self-sufficiency which started in 1971, today it has a food grain surplus stock of 60M.

Ø India is among the three countries in the World that have built Supercomputers on their own.

Ø There are more IT professionals in Bangalore than in the Silicon Valley.

Ø India’s telecom infrastructure between Chennai, Mumbai and Singapore, provides the largest bandwidth capacity in the world

Ø With more than 250 universities, 1,500 research institutions and 10,428 higher-education institutes, India produces 200,000 engineering graduates and another 300,000 technically trained graduates every year. .

Ø Statistics that show:

§ 38% of doctors in the USA,

§ 12% of scientists in the USA,

§ 36% of NASA scientists,

§ 34% of Microsoft employees,

§ 28% of IBM employees,

§ 17% of INTEL scientists,

§ 13% of XEROX employees,

… are Indians.

Ø IIT = Harvard + MIT + Princeton

Ø "The United States imports oil from Saudi Arabia, cars from Japan, TVs from Korea and Whiskey from Scotland. So what do we import from India? We import people, really smart people," - from a TV show

Ø It is the only society in the world which has never known slavery.

Ø India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.

Ø India was the richest country on Earth until the time of the British in the early 17th Century.

Ø Robert Clive’s personal wealth, amassed from the plunder of Bengal during the 1750’s, was estimated to be around £401,102

Ø It has been estimated that the total amount of treasure that the British took from India had reached £1,000,000,000 (£1Billion) by 1901. Taking into consideration interest rates and inflation this would be worth close to $1,000,000,000,000 ($1Trillion) today.

Ø India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta. The place value system, the decimal system were developed in India in the 100 BC.

Ø Aryabhatta was the first to explain the spherical shape, size, diameter, rotation and correct speed of Earth in 499 AD.

Ø The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC.

Ø Sanskrit is considered the mother of all higher languages. Sanskrit is the most precise, and therefore the most suitable language for computer software.

Ø Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.

Ø Christopher Columbus was attracted to India's wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered the American continent by mistake.

Ø The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The word ‘Navigation’ is derived from the Sanskrit word Navagatih. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit Nou.

Ø In Siddhanta Siromani (Bhuvanakosam 6), Bhaskaracharya II described the gravity of earth about 400 years before Sir Isaac Newton. He also had some clear notions on differential calculus, and the Theory of Continued Fraction.

Ø Madhavacharya discovered the Taylor series of Sine and Cosine function about 250 years before Taylor.

Ø Madhavacharya discovered Newton Power series.

Ø Madhavacharya discovered Gregory Leibnitz series for the Inverse Tangent about 280 years before Gregory.

Ø Madhavacharya discovered Leibnitz power series for pi about 300 years before Leibnitz.

Ø Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. (Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days)

Ø Infinity was well known to ancient Indians. Bhaskaracharya II in Beejaganitha(stanza-20) has given clear explanation with examples for infinity.

Ø Theory of Continued Fraction was discovered by Bhaskaracharya II.

Ø Indians discovered Arithmetic and Geometric progression. Arithmetic progression is explained in Yajurveda.

Ø Positive and Negative numbers and their calculations were explained first by Brahmagupta

Ø Aryabhatta also propounded the heliocentric theory of gravitation, thus predating Copernicus by almost one thousand years.

Ø The Surya Siddhanta, a textbook on astronomy of ancient India, last compiled in 1000 BC believed to be handed down from 3000 BC by aid of complex mnemonic recital methods still known today,

o Showed the Earth's diameter to be 7,840 miles, compared to modern measurements of 7,926.7 miles.

o Showed the distance between the Earth and the Moon as 253,000 miles, Compared to modern measurements of 252,710 miles.

Ø The value of "pi" was first calculated by Boudhayana, and he explained the concept of what is today known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. This was ‘validated’ by British scholars in 1999.

Ø Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were propounded by Sridharacharya in the 11th century.

Ø Maharshi Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like caesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery.

Ø The usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used.

Ø Detailed knowledge of anatomy, physiology, aetiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.

Ø We had a highly scientific Tax system and the classic Arth Sasthra

Ø "In India today, we have a lady born a Catholic (Mrs. Gandhi) stepping aside so a Sikh could be sworn in by a Muslim president to lead a nation that's 80 percent Hindu. I defy anyone to cite another country with such diversity in its political leadership."

- Sanjay Puri, executive director of USINPAC

Ø “I have three visions for India.”

1. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.

Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM.

I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us. “

2. My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10% growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured.

3. I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand.

- President APJ Abdul Kalam