Tidbits about Mother India and Her Children

In case you were wondering, or even if you weren’t, here’s some information about India and its people that I thought you should know.

The population in India is over 1 billion (compared to 295 million in the U.S.). This makes it the world’s largest democracy. It’s poised to surpass China in 10-20 years as the most populated country.

It covers 2.4% of the earth’s surface with 16.7% of the planet’s people.

Surface area is 1,269,338 sq miles – a little over one-third the size of America.

National bird – PEACOCK

National flower - LOTUS (pictured below)



Literacy rate 60%

Life expectancy - 64 years old

$1 US = 44 Rupees In 1999, minimum wage was raised to 45 rupees a day.

There are 29 states and 6 union territories (like Washington, D.C.) and they sing each state’s name in the National Anthem.

India gained independence from Britain on August 15, 1947.

In our current state, Haryana, the ratio of women to men is 842 to 1000

India has over 80,000 students studying in U.S. universities, the most foreign students from any country in the world.

Over 37% of U.S. physicians are Indian born.

India holds world records for:
* Invention of trigonometry (2 B.C.)
* The most film extras – 300,000 in the 1982 epic Ghandi
* Man with the longest fingernail – 20 feet long!
* Earliest recorded decimal system (A.D. 6)
* Longest balancer on one foot – 2 days 17 hours 50 minutes
* Highest cricket pitch in Chail at 10,682 feet
* Fastest belcher clocked at 92 bpm (that’s burps per minute)

Hot water heaters are called “geysers”

The Hindus worship over 330 million gods and goddesses. The one in the picture is of Ganesh - the elephant faced god who rides a rat.

Yes, they do drive on the left hand side of the road and use their horns A LOT.

A 10 oz jar of all-natural black cherry jelly cost more than 12 pieces of cut chicken. No, we haven’t been eating chicken on our toast quite yet.

There are 18 national languages with Hindi being the official language of the Indian Republic.

India (Bollywood) produces more movies per year than any other country.

All the students call Jennifer Ma’am.
And everyone calls me James.

I got most of my info from our Lonely Planet INDIA book as well as the CIA website.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html
http://www.lonelyplanet.com