Outstanding Indian Achievements

You may have seen this, ad-nauseum, as it has been doing the email rounds for quite a while. But everytime you read it you can see a sense of pride surging in you. Every country will have its heroes and heroics, so let us not get too swayed by it in a spirit of jingoism.

There can be little doubt, though, that these are outstanding achievements that have not received the traction they deserve among non-Indian circles.

Since these data points may slip out of my memory soon, I am posting them here so that I can dig them up easily whenever I need to inspire myself.

-- G Joslin Vethakumar

PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN

Q. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard (hp) ?

A. Rajiv Gupta

 

Q. Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today’s computers run on it)?

A. Vinod Dahm

 Q. Who is the third richest man on the world?

A. According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Azim Premji, who is the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6th position now.

 Q. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world’s No.1 web-based email program)?

A. Sabeer Bhatia

 Q. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?

A. Arun Netravalli

 Q. Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems?

A. Sanjay Tejwrika

 Q. Who are the Chief Executives of Citibank, Mckinsey & Stanchart?

A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

 Q. We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives.

There are 3.22 million Indians in the USA (1.5% of population).

YET, 38% of doctors in USA are Indians.

12% scientists in USA are Indians.

36% of NASA scientists are Indians.

34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.

28% of IBM employees are Indians.

17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.

13% of XEROX employees are! Indians.

Some of the following facts may be known to you. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.

1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

2. India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

3. The world’s first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4 th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

6. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty-stricken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.  

8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan’s works dates to the 6 th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.

9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 10 53.

10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

13. Chess was invented in India .

14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India .

15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest-dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).

16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

 

Quotes about India

“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”

— Albert Einstein.

 “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition.”

— Mark Twain.

 “If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”

— French scholar Romain Rolland.

 “India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”

— Hu Shih (former Chinese ambassador to USA)

 ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS.

BUT, if we don’t see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever-shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow.