1 Since Independence, India has built 1.

25 million miles of new roads, raised steel output 50 times, cement 20 times. Is now 2ndlargest cycle producer 2 It has the second-largest labour force. Is selfsufficient in grain and cloth, makes more than a million cars a year, has launched 65 satellites 3 Foreigners outsource work, queue up for cheaper medical treatment, and pour in cash for better returns 4 RIL's Jamnagar is the world's largest grassroots refinery and petrochem complex. Hero MotoCorp largest two-wheeler maker 5 Churns out most films. Has the best delivery boys, the dabbawalas, with an efficiency rating of 99.9999% 6 Registered companies in India totaed 7.13 lakh in 2005. As of Aug, 1.46 lakh were dormant 7 Chess was invented here. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus too. 'Place value system' and the decimal system developed in 100BC 8 Value of 'pi' first calculated by Budhayana, who explained the concept of Pythagora's Theorem. He discovered it long before Europeans 9 Over 2,600 years ago, Sushrata, the Father of Surgery, and his team performed surgeries to remove cataractand urinary stones, & graft skin 10 The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population 11 At 129 m tonnes, India is No.1 milk producer, but imports skimmed powder in summers to meet demand 12 India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees from Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh 13 Tirupathi Temple is the world's largest pilgrimage destination. An average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 m every day 14 India has the largest number of post offices. The number of postal items, excluding money orders, handled dropped from 14.2 b in 2001-02 to 4.3 b in 2008-09 15 One-, 2- & 5-rupee notes are not being issued as their average life was less than a year & printing them was pointless 16 As of 2007, India's bovine population was 304 million, but there were only 0.44 million donkeys 17 The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, HP. Developed in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2,444 metres above sea level 18 India recycles 60% of its plastic waste. The figures for Japan and China are 12% and 10%, respectively 19 31% households use kerosene to light up their homes, 2.9% for cooking 20 The government started collecting data on rapes only in 1971. Since then, no. of recorded rapes has zoomed 873%

21 53.1% of households do not have latrine within premises 22 33.5% households draw drinking water from a handpump 23 46.5% households have mud floors, 29% have concrete roofs 24 1,448, or 31%, MPs & MLAs who contested In the past 5 yrs faced criminal charges 25 BSE is ranked fifth in the number of electronic trades, is 3rd-largest index options exchange 26 137-year-old BSE is also Asia's first stock exchange and world's No. 1 in terms of number (5,000) of listed cos