Increditable India

This answer has 2 parts. The first one has mathematical facts and the 2nd covers the rest.

Mathematical Facts

• Diversity - India has almost as many Muslims as Pakistan. It has more Christians than the population of Australia, more Buddhists than Tibet, more Sikhs, Jains, and Parsis than any country in the world. And all of these are peacefully coexisting, modulo the clashes that were/are fanned by politics

• Belgian Jains were once common people originating from the Gujarati city of Palanpur. They control roughly 60% of the diamond trade
  
• As of February 1 2012, India's common men account for more than 43 million users on Facebook, giving her the 2nd spot after US. The largest traffic on Quora is from India. This is when less than 10% of people have internet access.

• More than a million common men are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. A third of the world's poorest are in India.
  
• Innovation: The common man is the most innovative person in India, with rural people taking the lead. These include Shoes with eyes for disabled, a fridge that works without electricity, new farm machines, etc. Only a few people know about these novel techniques because of lack of media coverage and govt support. Other areas of innovation are covered in this Ted talk: Nirmalya Kumar: India's invisible innovation | Video on TED.com

• In 2004, 200 women took law in their own hands and came to the court armed with vegetable knives and chilli powder and murdered on the court floor a serial rapist - Akku Yadav. Then every woman claimed responsibility for the murder. 
  
• Common men account for 929 million mobile subscribers. The population of entire Europe is 939 million. This equates to almost entire India's 1.2 billion population.However, only 366 million people- around a third of the population - have access to proper sanitation.
• The world's biggest family - Ziona Chana is the head of the world's biggest family with 39 wives, 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren and growing! They live all together in a 100-roomed mansion in Mizoram.

• In villages Mattur and Hosahalli in Karnataka, more than 90% people know Sanskrit and use it for daily communication.
  
• They speak in 1650 languages - 30 of which are spoken by more than a million speakers and 122 of which are spoken by more than 10,000. There are 6 distinct language families that go beyond India. In contrast, 95% of Europe comes under a single language family.
  
• A bigger movie market than America and Canada combined, India sold 3.2 billion tickets last year. Add piracy also and you can yourself judge the craziness of the common man.
• Less than 3 percent of the world's largest democracy pay Income Tax. But almost every common man would blame the government for wasting "his" tax - which was never paid.
• India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35 making the common man the most valuable asset for the future that other countries don't possess.

Non-Mathematical / Abstract "Facts"

• Level of Endurance - You would be amazed to know how much a common man endures. As a student he bears the peer pressure, after school corruption to get admission, passport, driving license, etc. He has to endure long traffic jams, insufficient water and electricity supply. Not to forget the mosquitoes at night. But he never complains loudly - takes in everything.
• Level of Patience - You have to wait for months to get emergency treatment unless you can afford private hospitals. Passport takes half a year to come. Pension takes a year to get started. It take years for police and legal action after filing a complaint. And decades to actually get what govt promises in elections. This makes the common man one of the most patient person in the world.
• Level of insecurity - Terrorist attack - common man dies. Govt negligence in J&K - he dies. Govt inaction in East and North East - he is killed by Naxalites. A hot-shot son of a politician drinks and drives - he dies. He tries to do good in the society - he dies. The moment he steps out of home, he has the risk of losing his gold chain, wallet and mobile. The girls have to suffer teasing and staring. Not to mention the fear of anti-social happenings in the public transportation. A housewife is always living with fear because her husband has gone out for work and may not return safely. The working husband himself is living in fear because his children are out in school. Mind-blowing, isn't it?
• He is alive, dreaming, hoping and aspiring - With all the sufferings, insecurity, delays, injustice and inflation, since time immemorial, he still manages to live. Not just live, but dream. Not only dream, but hope. And then aspire. Dream for better tomorrow. Dream for his children. Hope that some clean politician would come with a wand. Hope that humanity would finally win over insanity. He still aspires for growth. And success.

--

Regards :

Vikram Singh Rana

Computer Science Engineer

9983384690