Did you know? To check the dwindling population of tigers in India, 'Project Tiger' was launched in April 1973. So far, 23 tiger reserves have been established in the country under this project, covering an area of 33,126 sq. km. Where was India's first motion picture screening held? India's first motion picture was screened at the Watson hotel in Mumbai. The Lumire brothers, Lousie and Auguste first showed films in India, on a commercial basis on July 7, 1896. Four 40-minute shows were held every day and the entry price for each was Re1 per person. How many words are there in the longest Indian film title? The longest film title has 20 words. This belongs to the Telugu film 'Shree Shree Rajadhiraja Shree Shree Madana Kamaraja Shree Shree Vilasa Raja Shree Shree Madhubana Raja Shree Shree Krishnadeva donga Raja'. The film was released in Chennai in Dec.1994. Which Indian actor has won an international Best Actress Award? Nirmal Pandey, a popular hindi stage and film actor won the Best Actress award at the Valenciennes Film Festival, France 1997 for his portrayal of a transvestite (a man who dresses as a woman and vice versa) in Amol Palekar's 'Daayraa' (Limitation). Nirmal shared the Best Actress award with the female lead of the film Sonali Kulkarni.  Which is India's all time biggest Best Selling Pop Track? No, its not Micheal Jackson. India's Altaf Raja's 'Tum to thehre pardesi, saath kya nibhaoge' (you are but a foreigner, how will you stay with me). The album sold over 40 lakh cassettes, the largest seller in the non-film category. Where in India is Asia's biggest sabzi market located? It's in the capital city. The New Subzi Mandi, the wholesale market at Azadpur, Delhi, is Asia's largest fruit and vegetable market. Nearly 3,000 trucks bring in fruits and vegetables here daily for over 30,000 retail vendors.
Why are there so many cows on India's roads?
Because India has more cows than anywhere else in the world. Out of a world population of 132 crore, India has 20.5 crore or 15.5 percent! The hindus, the followers of India's biggest religion believe that cows are sacred animals and should not be killed for meat. The sad part though is that not many facilities are provided for these holy ones - and they are often left to wander on the roads - where they create a nuisance for themselves and others.
Is there a rat temple in India? Yes, in Rajathan. The 575-year-old temple of Karni Devi (one of the nine incarnations of Durga) has a large number of holy rats called 'Kabas', believed to be the offsprings of the presiding deity. Located at Deshnok, 35 km from Bikaner, Rajasthan, this temple is devoted exclusively to the rats which roam around freely in the place. Who was the first Indian to be admitted to the Indian Civil Service? Satyendranath Tagore, the elder brother of Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, was the first Indian to be admitted in the Indian Civil Service. He had to pass a tough exam, which was held only in London, to discourage Indians from applying. Who was the first person to use zero as a number? Brahmagupta (598-660) an Indian mathematician first used zero as a number and showed its mathematical use. Bhaskaracharya (1114 A.D.) was the first to understand the mathematical implications of zero by stating that anything divided by zero is equal to infinity. When were India's first television signals transmitted? The first experimental telecast was attempted on Sept.15, 1959, at Delhi. The transmission was done with the help of a small transmitter in a makeshift studio. What is the name of India's oldest functioning English daily? The Times of India. This was first published in Mumbai on Nov.3, 1838 as a bi-weekly and was called Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce. It was renamed The Times of India in 1850 with J.E.Brennan as its first editor.
Who is the only Indian to have been given an honorary US citizenship? On November 16, 1996 Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhin) became the first Indian to be given an honorary US citizenship. She was the fourth person in the world to have been given this honor. Who is India's most infamous conman? That's Natwrlal or Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava, a man so clever at fooling people that he once walked out of Kanpur jail dressed in a smuggled Sub-Inspector's uniform! Having got the cell guard to open the door by handing out an attaché case full of cash, he coolly walked out, got into a waiting car and sped way. When the car broke down a little later, he coolly flagged down another vehicle and vanished! Natwarlal was wanted in over 100 cases in eight States. He has been sentenced to a whopping 113 years in jail by various courts and has made eight daring escapes, each time from a different jail. Where is India's highest motorable road located? India's highest road is at Khardung-la in the Leh-Manali in Himachal Pradesh. The road was constructed by the Boarder Roads Organisation at a height of 5,682 meters (18,383 ft).
Who is India's largest employer? Indian Railways. The railways employ over 15.79 lakh people, the largest by a single organization in India or anywhere else in the world. How many people can eat from the food cooked (at one time) in India's largest solar cooker? Over 10,000! Shirin and Deepak Gadhia devised a giant solar cooker for the Brahmakumaris World Academy in Mount Abu, Rajasthan in Jan.1998, The cooker has 84 solar dishes and a surface of 840 sq. m. This is also the largest solar cooker in the world. When did Internet come to India? In 1995 when the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Delhi, first provided users access to the World Wide Web service through the C-Web. The C-Web allows users to browse, search and publish documents on the Net. Which Indian can calculate faster than a computer? That's Shakuntala Devi of Bangalore. In 1977, she took only 50 seconds to compute the 23rd root of a 201-digit number while it took a computer well over a minute. On June 18, 1980, she multiplied 7,686,369,774,870 by 2,465,099,745,779 and arrived at the correct answer: 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds.
Which Indian is the world's youngest graduate? Tathagat Avatar Tulsi of Bihar became the world's youngest graduate by passing the Bachelor of Science examination (with honours in physics) from Science College, Patna at the age of 11 years and two months. Tathagat broke the record of Jay Luo of Garden City, USA, who had graduated at the age of 12 years, 1 month and 12 days. Tulsi had earlier cleared the Central Board of Secondary Examination at the age of nine years and six months. Which Indian language is the world's oldest living language? Tamil is the oldest of all Indian languages and also the oldest living language in the world. It represents certain literacy types not found in Sanskrit or other Aryan languages and traces its history to Tolkappiyam, the earliest extant manuscript of Tamil grammar, dated 500 B.C. Which Indian word is the longest Palindrome (reading the same forward and backward) in the Roman script? The longest palindrome in Roman script is the nine-letter word MALAYALAM, the language of Kerala. What was India's first homegrown comic book or series? The Amar Chitra Katha series of mythology and other themes in comic book form, was published by India Book House (IBH) in 1969 and sold over half-a-million copies. The series was the brainchild of Mr. Anant Pai. The first Amar Chitra Katha title was Krishna. Since then over 436 titles have been published in all Indian and some foreign languages.
Only acting Prime Minister: Gulzari Lal Nanda became acting Prime Minister twice after the death of two Prime Ministers (Jawahar Lal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri), but he was never elected to the post. As they say - always the bridesmaid, never the bride! Indira Gandhi was the first and till now the only woman Prime Minister of India. She assumed office in 1966 and ruled over the country for nearly 2 decades (except during 1977 - 80). She lost the 1977 elections because of her unpopular imposition of national 'emergency', but won the following elections on the basis of her 'garibi hatao' call! Oldest PM: Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister when he was 81 years old! Youngest PM: Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister at the age of 40. 
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