Great Indian Vedic Inventions and Discoveries

 

The credit for almost all the great inventions and discoveries so far has always rested with the Western world. We have read about them in schoolbooks, heard about them on television or in movies and talked about it tirelessly. Sadly, it’s the knowledge and teaching of our ancient science that has taken a beating. Just because their achievements were well-documented, it doesn’t mean that they were the first ones to do that. Here are 10 facts, as found in our written and oral literature, about the supremely advanced ancient Indian science that you were never taught in school.

1) Sushruta Samhita, The Oldest Medical And Surgical Encyclopedia Known To Mankind

Written during the 6th century BC, the Sushruta Samhita contains 184 chapters with descriptions of 1,120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. Its author Sushruta is also considered to be the first ever human to perform medical surgeries on humans. The book also has vast details on embryology, human anatomy, along with instructions for venesection, the positioning of the patient for each vein, and the protection of vital structures (marma). The oldest documented evidence (9000 years) for the drilling of human teeth of a living person was found in Mehrgarh along with the evidences of orthopedic surgeries.

2) The First Ones To Acknowledge The Existence Of The Solar System

While history credits Copernicus for proposing the heliocentric model of our solar system, it was the Rig Veda that first noted the central placement of the sun and other planets orbiting it in the solar system.

Rig Veda 1.164.13

“Sun moves in its orbit which itself is moving. Earth and other bodies move around sun due to force of attraction, because sun is heavier than them.”

Rig Veda 1.35.9

“The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through force of attraction.”

3) Mahabharata Mentions The Concept Of Cloning, Test Tube Babies, And Surrogate Mothers

The fact that in the Mahabharata, Gandhari had 100 sons is pretty well known. But what’s unknown is the scientific explanation behind her giving birth to a 100 kids. Each ‘Kaurava’ was created by splitting the single embryo into 100 parts and growing each part in a separate kund (container). This is identical to the cloning process today. The birth of Karan, who was ‘born from the “characteristics adopted from men of her choice” also has striking resemblance to the present-day test tube baby concept.

4) ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ Precisely Calculates The Distance Between Earth And Sun

“Yug sahasra yojana par bhanu,

leelyo taahi madhura phal jaanu”

The above excerpt is from the Hanuman Chalisa and translates to: ‘[When] Hanuman travelled thousands of kilometers to swallow it thinking of it as a fruit’. The word-to-word translation of the same excerpt reveals the distance that Hanuman travelled.

1 Yuga = 12000 years. 1 Sahsra Yuga = 12000000 years. Also, 1 Yojan = 8 miles.

Hence, “Yug Sahsra Yojana”, the first 3 words mean 12000*12000000*8 = 96000000 miles or 153,600,000 kilometers. Interestingly, the actual distance from earth to sun is 152,000,000 kms. Bafflingly, there’s error of just around 1%.

5) Indian Vedas Figured Out Gravity Before The West Did

Yet again, way before Isaac Newton explained gravity, ancient Indian scholars had already figured out how it worked.

Rig Veda 10.22.14

“This earth is devoid of hands and legs, yet it moves ahead. All the objects over the earth also move with it. It moves around the sun.”

6) We Already Knew About The Speed Of Light

Sayana, a vedic scholar from the 14th century once said, "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is 9 miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Therefore, 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 miles per second or 2,99,000 kilometers per second. That’s astonishingly close to the real ‘scientifically-proven’ 3,00,000 kilometers per second figure. It’s often believed that his source was none other than the Vedas.

7) Vedas Explained The Science Behind The Rather ‘Feared’ Eclipses

While the world feared the eclipses and associated all types of paranormal occurrences with the phenomenon, Vedas already had a very proper and scientific explanation. The below excerpt is also proof that they knew that the moon wasn’t self illuminated.

Rig Veda 5.40.5

“O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth gets scared by sudden darkness.”

8) They Knew The Exact Length Of A Year

Ancient Indians used 4 ways to measure the length of a year namely ‘Nakshatra’, ‘Savana’, ‘Lunar’ and ‘Saura’. Saura was one method based on the tropical zodiac that defines the seasons: equinoxes, solstices, year-halves, and months in relation to the (six) seasons. As unbelievable as it sounds, Saura estimates the length of a year to be exactly 365 days, 6 hours 12 mins and 30 seconds.

9) Aryabhatta’s Deduction Of The Value Of Pi

According to documented history, the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert. The great Indian mathematician Aryabhata worked on the approximation of the value of pi ( ), and concluded that is irrational and its value is approximately 3.1416. He did this in 499 Common Era at the age of 23.

10) First Ones To Measure The Circumference Of Earth

Sadly, the Greeks enjoy the credit for this discovery while it was actually Aryabhata, who deduced a formulation proving that the Earth is rotating on an axis. Then, by estimating the value of pi to be 3.1416, he concluded that the circumference of Earth was approximately 39736 kilometers. The actual circumference of Earth, as deduced by scientists today, is 40,075 kilometers. How freaking cool is that!

 

 

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Why to settle down abroad ??

No, there's nothing with India neither I am ashamed of being an Indian. It's the people here who sometimes become the driving force and make me hate my own country so much so that I end up drawing comparisons with countries abroad and even look for options to move one to those better off cities.Talk of economy, lifestyle, culture, people, mindsets and many other factors, most countries in the West give a tough competition to India. Well, though my list of reasons why I would prefer staying abroad goes beyond these basic reasons and logic  as a free spirited woman, I look for more. Here's what attempts me to settle outside of India.

1. Unlike India, you can live abroad without any fear of being judged all the time. Precisely no one has to time to be judgmental about others and would rather focus on their lives.

2. You can be rest assured about your choice of wardrobe for it won't be the hottest topic of gossip whereas Indians love to make passes at almost everything you wear.

3. You really need not worry that you are committing a sin if you are hanging out with a guy. It's just normal. People abroad don't have the time to scrutinize whether you are in a serious relationship with them or just enjoying a casual fling.

4. There is no rule book you need to follow with regards to your lifestyle and basic conduct. 

5. You can roam freely on the streets of Vegas of Sydney without the constant fear of getting raped by some sick mentality men. Owe it to the strict security and safety measures of people's mindset, cities outside India are much safer in this regard.

6. There is no set rule book that you have to abide by if you a girl. No one dictates the job you should take, clothes you should wear, time you should be back home etc.

7. Driving can be enjoyed as a true passion for people behave like humans while on roads unlike India where lane driving apparently is considered to be the most insane thing to do.

8. No corporate houses or companies would ever disturb you over the weekends. Once the working week is over, you can very conveniently switch off your mobile phones and be at peace.

9. Sex is definitely a 'natural' phenomenon, even if happens before marriage. You won't be looked down upon as a whore if you indulge in sex with someone.

10. Respect comes your way without even you asking for it. It has certainly not got anything to do with your bank balance, status in the society or professional power.

11. Power of money is not misused like the way Indians would love. Abiding by law is a much easier choice abroad than bribing the cops all the time.

12. Staying single at 30 is not a crime. Marriage is not considered as a business transaction and you are free to decide when it's time for you to tie the knot. No parental or societal pressure can force you to get married.

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Indian Parents - please stop spending on weddings

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Budget Highlights - 2013-2014

ü  Iodised salt, match-boxes, soya products to become cheaper

ü  Increase customs duty on imported cars to 75%

ü  Raises custom duty on import on large SUVS

ü  Increase excise duty on some Cigarettes

ü  Customs duty on gold bar coins raised to 4%

ü  Customs duty on platinum raised

ü  Customs duty on gold raised

ü  Some infra services exempted from service tax

ü  Tax exemption of up to Rs 5,000 for health insurance towards annual preventive check up

ü  Basic customs duty on bicycles raised to 30%

ü  Exempts LCD LED panels from customs duty

ü  Iron ore machinery part duty cut to 2.5%

ü  Airline parts exempted from basic custom duty

ü  Rs 15,890 crore for recapitalisation of PSU banks

ü  Coal LNG exempt from customs duty

ü  Exemption of customs duty of 5% on equipment for fertilizer plants

ü  To keep peak custom rate unchanged

ü  To raise duty on large cars 27 pc duty

ü  Excise duty hiked to 12 pc from 10 pc

ü  Service tax raised to 12 pc from 10 pc

ü  FY13 market borrowing at Rs 4.79 lakh cr.

ü  Introduction of compulsory reporting requirement of assets held abroad

ü  To exempt some movie services from service tax

ü  Govt services, education, entertainment, public transport exempted from service tax

ü  School education exempted from service tax

ü  FM says information on black money stashed abroad has started flowing in and prosecution to be executed in some cases

ü  Removes restriction on venture capital investment

ü  No change in corporate tax

ü  Income above 10 lakh will have 30% income tax

ü  Income from 5 to 10 lakh will have 20% income tax

ü  Income Tax at 10 percent for Rs 2-5 lakh

ü  Tax exemption limit up to 2 lakh

ü  Introduce new law for micro finance institutions

ü  FY12 fiscal deficit at 5.9% and FY13 fiscal deficit at 5.1%

ü  7 medical colleges to be upgraded to All India Institutes

ü  FY13 non plan expenditure at 9.7 lakh crores

ü  Non-tax revenue receipts estimated at Rs 1.64 lakh crores

ü  Additional 3 per cent interest subvention to farmers for promptly repaying their due

ü  Rs 25,555 cr for Right to Education in FY13

ü  Rs 193107cr in FY13 for defense

ü  Rs 1000 crores for National Skill Development Fund in FY13

ü  Rs 15,850 crore to be allocated to Integrated Child Development Scheme in 2012-13

ü  Pranab says the Nandan Nilekani panel recommendation on direct transfer of subsidy accepted

ü  NRHM allocation increased to Rs 20,820 cr.

ü  FM announces new equity savings scheme

ü  Rs 14000 crore for rural drinking and sanitation in FY 13

ü  Rs 242 crore project with World Bank assistance to improve dairy production.

ü  Credit guarantee fund for education loans

ü  National mission for food processing

ü  6,000 schools proposed to be set up in 12th year plan

ü  1 percent loan subsidy on home loans up to Rs 15 lakh

ü  New PDS for food security

ü  Allocate Rs 14232 cr to UID project

ü  Set up state-run irrigation facility

ü  Remove infrastructure bottleneck: FM

ü  Budget commits to multi-brand FDI

ü  Tax free-infra bond for Rs 60,000

ü  Allow ECB funding to finance working capital needs of airlines for 1 year

ü  Rs 30,000 crore to be raised through disinvestment

ü  To make 8,800 km of highways in FY13; outlay raised

ü  Irrigation, dams eligible for a special fund

ü  Tax exemption on individual share investment below Rs 10 lakhs

ü  Become self sufficient in urea production in next 5 years

ü  Some subsidies inevitable, says Pranab

ü  FM promises tax incentive for new investors

ü  Considering FDI in airlines

ü  Infrastructure debt fund launched

ü  Sensex trading 180 points higher

ü  Food subsidy will be fully provided for in the Budget

ü  Consortium for direct lending approved

ü  Implement direct tax code the earliest

ü  Focus on removing infrastructure bottlenecks

ü  Direct cash subsity to LPG, Kerosene

ü  Signs of turnaround in economy in March

ü  Address malnutrition decisively

ü  Bring down subsidy to 1.7 percent of GDP in the next 3 years

ü  Economy to grow at 7.6 percent in 2012/13

ü  Direct subsidy to retailers, farmers

ü  Address the problem of black money; FM expects inflation will come down; Have to accelerate pace of reforms

ü  Need to improve supply side in economy says FM

ü  Performance this year was disappointing but as compared to peers India was better says FM

ü  Weak industrial growth has held us back says Pranab

ü  Pranab Starts the budget presentation. He syas for Indian economy it has been a year of recovery interrupted.

ü  DMK MPs not attending Parliament for the Budget

ü  Can Pranab Mukherjee take the initiative to halt the deteriorating economic growth? Can he make this a significant budget?

ü  Rupee strengthens before budget

ü  Oil & Gas: expect status quo to be maintained on customs and excise duties in the oil & gas sector in the light of the sustained high losses on sales of subsidized petroleum products at current retail selling price.

ü  Nominal GDP growth of 14 to 14.5 percent is likely to be used for the budget arithmetic

ü  In the fertilizer and chemical sector, there is an expectation that the customs duty on various inputs like LNG, Naphtha, Alcohol, Propylene etc will be removed from current rate of 5 percent.

ü  In the automobile sector, the expectation is that there will be an increase in excise duty across segments and also there is possibility of additional tax on diesel vehicles.

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Indian Startups with Interesting Desi Names

While there are many established companies based in India who have adopted a foreign name to connect to the Indian mindset which aspires of foreign-label, there are a number of startups who believe “The name is built by customers, not by brands.”

Not only the mother tongue “Hindi” but quite a few startups have chosen regional languages to christen their company, right from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit to Telugu, a South Indian language.

Let us have a glimpse of these promising startups with desi names.

1. Kreeda Games

Kreeda Games is a game developer and publisher based in Mumbai. Its primary business is to design and build multiplayer Social games and game for SmartPhones. It was founded in November 2006 by three mavericks in a small garage with very big dreams. Kreeda’s particular expertise is in building games that get players to invite their friends.

Kreeda is a Sanskrit word which in English translates into “Game”.

2. Eka Software

Eka Software Solutions is a leader in technology for organizations that specialize in the buying and selling of physical commodities across world markets. Eka is derived from the word “EKAM”, which means ‘unified’ or ‘integrated’ in Sanskrit. It signifies the organizational intent to provide a single-platform solution for managing trade and risk across commodities, industry verticals and business segments.

3. Gharpay

Gharpay is a doorstep cash payment network. It collects cash from customers at their doorstep in 550 postal codes across 7 cities in India. It is practically the only organized player doing this in a  50000 crore e-commerce market that’s struggling to get people to pay online. Being an exclusive cash payment collection network, it has many advantages over courier companies providing this service.

Hindi word Gharpay translates into English as “At Home”. The second syllable “pay” is also an English word which defines the kind of service the company provides.

4. Sloka Telecom

Sloka is a Sanskrit word which means “Song”. Sloka Telecom is a Radio Access Network (RAN) solution provider. It is a pioneer in designing, developing and selling compact and cost-effective Base Stations and Consumer Premise Equipment (CPE) for new standards- WiMAX and WiFi.

5. Samvedana

Samvedana is a non-profit organization that supports social growth of the underprivileged in slums by providing educational opportunities and healthcare facilities. It achieves this by conducting welfare programmes, outdoor activities and workshops, actively in Ahmedabad. Samvedana is a Gujarati and Hindi word meaning “compassion.”

6. Pothi.com

Pothi.com is a Bangalore based start-up founded in February 2008. The company makes publishing accessible to everyone. It offers a print on demand publishing platform which can be used by individuals and organizations for publishing their books in print at very little or no absolutely zero investment. ‘Pothi’ means ‘a book’ in many North Indian languages including Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali.

7.  FoodKhoj

FoodKhoj is an online food delivery portal that allows you to place an order online, for the food of your choice from different restaurants that deliver to your area. FoodKhoj is a Hindi phrase which in English means “Search for Food”. It is a free service which aims to build up long term relationship between restaurants and customers. Customers who use the portal continuously get exclusive access to better deals, discounts and prices.

8. Makaan.com

It is the fastest growing property website in India which was established with the mission to connect relevant buyers and sellers of real estate. It helps in making wise and profitable decisions related to buying, selling, renting and leasing of properties in India.

The portal was named as such because “Makaan” is the most commonly used word among the Indian real-estate people. Most Indians also refer to their dream house as “Makaan”, which translates in English into “House”

9. SadakMap.com

SadakMap.com is a portal service that provides a different approach to finding information local to a place. It makes it convenient to use when looking for businesses, public places, etc in your locality. One unique feature about the site is the ability to post messages in your locality for everyone to see and respond to, thus creating a map-based discussion forum.

The word "Sadak" means "a road" in the Indian language "Hindi". Incidentally, it also happens to be the name of a Turkish village.

10. Chitika

Chitika is one of the largest search-targeted advertising networks, currently serving over 600 million search driven impressions per month, and growing. Founded in 2003, the founders sought a name that would suggest the speed with which its customers would be able to put up ads on their Web sites. Chitika, which means “snap of the fingers” in Telugu captured this sentiment and Chitika was born.

11. MeraEvents.com

MeraEvents which means “MyEvents” in English, is the first Indian web-based portal completely dedicated to all the Events, Conferences, Exhibitions, Seminars, and Trade fairs which offers many unique features. Its aim is to forever change the way events are organized.

12. Ayojak.com

Ayojak.com is a product innovation company which is an event solutions platform offering event discovery to users and event solutions to event organizers. It takes less than 3 minutes to publish an event page and power it with 360 degree event solution online registration apps, event solution and event marketing.

Ayojak in hindi means “organizer”, which is basically what the service is all about.

13. Mauj

Mauj, which in English means “Fun” is a company focused on building great customer destinations on Mobile Internet. Established in 2003, it was formed with a vision to empower consumers by providing entertainment and information via mobile phone and specifically on Mobile Internet platforms.

14. Saavn

Saavn was founded in 2006 by Vin Bhat, Neal Shenoy, and Paramdeep Singh in a partnership between New York based parent company 212 Media, Indian company Hungama, and Schramm Sports & Entertainment. Saavn is a digital distributor of Bollywood and Kollywood music, with rights to over 2 million music tracks. The name Saavn is an acronym for “South Asian Audio Visual Network” and in Hindi;Saavn is the season of Monsoon, which is often associated with music.

15. PaGaLGuY

PaGaLGuY is India’s biggest and most trusted MBA preparatory resources website, used by over 700,000 MBA applicants every month. It was started in 2002 and it follows an online community approach to create smart and useful products to make the lives of MBA applicants easier.

Pagalguy is one of the funniest names for a web portal which means “A mad boy” which refers to those people who are crazy about MBA preparations.

16. Sarkariexam.com

SarkariExam is the first dedicated government job portal in India with an objective of satisfying the demand of every educated individual to get a job position in Indian Government sector. It provides all the vital information that, too with most accurate and precise format so that the information is easily available and grasped by the user.

17. Avashya.com

India has seen a tremendous growth in Web 2.0 technologies. India is a unique market for interesting technological challenges, social networking and mobile devices. Together these factors have created an unseen buzz and flurry of funding into Web 2.0 initiatives. Avashya which means “Necessary” in English is a central destination for news, insights and analysis about India's contributions to Web 2.0 and beyond.

18. merinews.com

Merinews is India’s largest citizen journalism portal. It is an open platform for every citizen who wishes to share news, views, analysis, pictures etc with people around the world.

The name of the company means “My News”.

17. Apalya Technologies

Apalya, which means `mobility' in Sanskrit, is said to control the biggest share of the Indian mobile TV market, with over 4 million subscribers; the company claims it has a 99% marketshare. It was formed in 2005 to take advantage of the growing demand for Live Television, events and video on demand in the mobile space.

18. NaapTol

Launched in January 2008, Naaptol has grown to become one of India's largest comparison based social shopping portal. It is one-stop destination for shoppers, merchants and market enthusiasts which binds buyers and sellers in a profitable network. Naaptol helps people connect better making the whole experience of buying easier.

Naaptol is a Hindi word which means “To measure”.

19. Vyome Biosciences

Vyome, which means ‘Sky’ or ‘Heaven’, is a biopharmaceutical company leveraging next-generation functional genomics platforms, medicinal and polymer chemistry and nanotechnology to inspire the design and engineering of highly effective best-in-class therapeutics for dermatological indications.

22. Vaakya Technologies

Vaakya Technologies is a Bangalore based technology firm focused on fundamental research and development of innovative software infrastructure products.  for development and deployment of distributed software applications.

23. GupShup

GupShup is a social messaging service that enables users to share their short messages, privately with friends, or publicly with all. The service works on every mobile device and can be accessed via SMS, web, wap or mobile apps. It has over 60 million users in India, and expanding internationally.

“GupShup” is a Punjabi term meaning something like the English “chit chat.”

24. Yebhi.com

It is the fastest growing company in lifestyle category in India. It had started with the sale of multi brand Footwear online through its website. Enormous success in footwear category inspired the company to expand in other categories like Apparels, Accessories, Bags, Jewellery and Mobiles.

Yebhi is a Hindi phrase which in English means “This Also”.

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Indian Freshers Career Options Choices

 If you are a fresher and is wondering that, which are the career options you must opt, to achieve success, then you should definitely know that the job market in India is growing with time as in today every sector creates a new field of opportunities for Indian professionals. One should definitely know that in order to earn a good salary for a comfortable and a great living there are various career options available in India for Fresher’s which they should opt according to their own interest and preferences in order to fulfill their ambition.  We list down some of the upcoming hottest career options for freshers in India apart from Medical, engineering and management.

1. Fashion: Are you a creative person who loves designing? If yes, then you should definitely opt for a career in fashion as the recent job market demands for professionals in this field for the various industries. You can also choose to specialize in the number of options that the field of fashion designing offers like accessories, footwear or clothing, apparels for men, kids or women, interior designing, merchandising and many more. It is reported that the demand of skilled and talented professionals in this world will highly be in demand in the forthcoming years because there will be more fashion designer jobs in the market.

2. Media and Entertainment: The Media and entertainment industry in India is one of the fastest growing industries, where the jobs are flourishing. Therefore there is a great demand of professionals like radio jockey, news reporter, anchor, cameraman, editor, musician, video technologist, media planner, soundman, public relation officer etc. One can opt for any career options in the media and entertainment industry according to his/her taste and preferences. You can also earn big bucks in this industry as some of the careers in this sector are high profile which is also sure to give you lots of public attention. 

3. Hospitality: Remember that the travel, tourism and hotel sectors in India are in constant need of trained professionals. Hence you can select a number of career options that this field offers which includes management trainee, customer relation executive, marketing/sales executive, catering officer, chefs, flight kitchen, housekeeping management, kitchen management, fast food chains and related industries. You can also chase for a career in the national and international airlines.

4. Law: Throughout the world the legal profession is considered to be the most adventurous as well as exciting career. If you wish to opt for a career in this sector, then you should definitely know that it is one of the most growing and a rewarding profession. You can select to specialize in the various options that the field provides like law, civil law, international law, labor law, patent law, tax law, and criminal law.

5. Government Services:  If you prefer to work in the field that guarantees maximum job security then you should definitely opt for a career in the government sector, which is the most secured career. One can earn good pay packages and enjoy life with the number of facilities the government job provides like medical facility, government accommodation etc. The government sector offers career options for every kind of qualifications be it in the field’s science commerce or arts. One needs to clear the tests that are a part of the recruitment process in order to bag a job in this sector. Government offices and organizations, ministries, parliament, rural development sector and public sector have various job openings which you can opt for.

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