Written By John Bradley
India is the world’s second-largest English speaking country - India is second only to the USA when it comes to speaking English, with around 125 million people speaking the language, which is only 10% of its population. This is expected to grow by quite a margin in the coming years.
Largest number of vegetarians in the world - Be it because of religious reasons or personal choices or both, around 20-40% of Indians are vegetarians, making it the largest vegetarian-friendly country in the world.
India is the world’s largest producer of milk - India recently overtook the European Union, with production reaching over 132.4-million tonnes in 2014.
The first country to consume sugar - India was the first country to develop extraction and purifying techniques of sugar. Many visitors from abroad learnt the refining and cultivation of sugar from us.
The human calculator - Shakuntla Devi was given this title after she demonstrated the calculation of two 13 digit numbers: 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 which were picked at random in 28 seconds.
India’s first President only took 50% of his salary - When Dr Rajendra Prasad was appointed the President of India, he only took 50% of his salary, claiming he did not require more than that. Towards the end of his 12-year tenure he only took 25% of his salary.
Freddie Mercury and Ben Kingsley are both of Indian descent - Freddie Mercury, the legendary singer of the rock band ‘Queen’ was born a Parsi with the name Farrokh Bulsara while the famous Oscar winning Hollywood star Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji.
Diamonds were first mined in India - Initially, diamonds were only found in the alluvial deposits in Guntur and Krishna District of the Krishna River Delta. Until diamonds were found in Brazil during the 18th century, India led the world in diamond production.
Snakes and Ladders originated in India - Earlier known as Moksha Patamu, the game was initially invented as a moral lesson about karma to be taught to children. It was later commercialized and has become one of the most popular board games in the world.
Water on the moon was discovered by India - In September 2009, India’s ISRO Chandrayaan- 1 using its Moon Mineralogy Mapper detected water on the moon for the first time.
Shampooing is an Indian concept - Shampoo was invented in India, not the commercial liquid ones but the method by use of herbs. The word ‘shampoo’ itself has been derived from the Sanskrit word champu, which means to massage.
