INDIA

India obtained the independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. The big country has the 15% of the world's population and 65% of it is rural!!! Also they have 18 scheduled languages and officialy 112 mother thongues and the 80% of the people are hindus.

Also we learned about the slow industrialization in India and the fact that in 1914 this country was the 3rd rall-network, also had the largerst canal system and occupyed the 4rth place in cotton textile industry.

India applyed a faulty development strategy that was based in 3 aspects:

1- Importation substitution route rather than export-promoting route.

2- Set massive and inefficient public sector.

3- Over regulated private sector.

In independence times Gahndi vidualizad self- reliant villages and applyed some economic reforms in 1960's the Green Revolution that was based on the fact of the low production of food in the region and in 1980´s the Economic Liberalization. The culture of India is based on cast system and hierarchies. In terms of doing business or negotiating they prefer to do it with people they already know and trust, they are very punctual, they don't talk about personal stuff, they are flexible in their meetings and their customs are so different to us, some of them have no matters at all!

Question: Which is the legacy of the Indian culture to the contemporany world?

1. The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.

2. Sanskrit is considered as the mother of all higher languages. This is because it is the most precise, and therefore suitable language for computer software. ( a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987 ).

3. Chess was invented in India.

4. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus also orignated from India. Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 ( i.e 10 to the power of 53 ) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12( 10 to the power of 12 ).

5. The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.

6. The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
7. India is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old).
8. The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.

9. The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
10. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.

• Taken from: www.gfii.org/facts_about_india.htm