India Shining once again - Intel Duo-Centrino lanuched

A Great step for laptop technology.

A Greater step for India.

So proclaims the advertisement of Intel's brand new product for mobile computing - Centrino Duo. Indeed it's a great step for laptop technology, considering that battery life is among the prime concerns of laptop owners. The new dual-core processing can truly revolutionarize the experience of using a laptop and provide expanded connectivity. Indeed, it's a great step for mobile computing (and for Intel), but as the advertisement rightly says it is also a great step for India and
India's R&D potentials.

The fact that a substantial part of the technology was developed by the Indian wing of Intel can surely make any Indian feel proud about it. It goes a long way in acknowledging the country's tremendous potential in research and development. It is not just that Indian proffesionals are respected all over the world. It is because we truly deserve it. Indian youth, as we all know, is among the brightest and smartest lot of people in the world. This product launch has just provided an example of how Indian innovation has contributed towards changing the world. Even Albert Einstein had once quoted that India has given the world arithmetic, without which no scientific discovery could ever have been possible, and hence we owe a lot to India.

Today the engineers at Intel India have continued the legacy that the great scientists and mathematicians of the past have given us - making India proud. The senior vice president at Intel expressed that by the end of 2007, 100% of all the components that go into a PC will be designed by India. I think, that would be something that we Indians could be really proud of rather than telling the world that we are the leaders in the BPO market and the Call Centre Industry - something which I seriously feel is quite below the kind of potential that Indian youth possess. We can do much better than talk over the phone with a hundred people a day, try and solve their problems and also get abused in return (however I know that not many would agree to this).


Just to leave you with some proud trivia about India, most of which would already be known to you,
(I do not take credit for the following, the facts have been collected from over the net)

First a few starters,

Who is the creator of Pentium chip ?

Vinod Dahm

Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems?

Vinod Khosla

Who are the founder and creator of Hotmail?

Sabeer Bhatia

Who is the president of Bell Labs (Bell Labs is the creator of C, C++, Unix)?

Arun Netravalli

Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard?

Rajiv Gupta

Who is the Microsoft Testing Director of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems?

Sanjay Tejwrika

Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, McKenzie & Stanchart?

Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

To continue, take these,

Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives.

There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (just 1.5% of the population). YET,
38% of doctors in USA are Indians.

12% scientists in USA are Indians.

36% of NASA scientists are Indians.

34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.

28% of IBM employees are Indians.

17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.

13% of XEROX employees are Indians.

Now the main course, a few of India's past achievements;

• India invented the Number system. Aryabhatta invented 'zero'.
• India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
• The world's first University was established in Takshashila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
• According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.
• Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.
• Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.
• The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
• The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.
• Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.
• According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.
• USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
• The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
• Chess was invented in India.
• Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India.
• When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
• The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

Finally, a few quotes about India;

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.
Albert Einstein.

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.
Mark Twain.

If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.
French scholar Romain Rolland.

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.
Hu Shih. (Former Chinese ambassador to USA)

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS.

BUT, if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow.

India is Calling!