WORLD'S HIGHEST VIDEO CONFERENCING STUDIO

Among the rarefied air at the stupendous height of  13890 ft, but still not out of touch! The world's highest Vsat based video-conferencing studio is at Nyoma in Leh district of Kashmir, India, at an altitude of 13890 ft (exact location and altitude verified from Google Earth). It is located at 33 degree North 78 degree East. The Vsat based video-conferencing studio was established by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The video conferencing studio has three DAMA Vsats - One at the SDM Office Nyoma, One at the DC Office, Leh and the third at the Hill Council Secretariat, Leh. It can accommodate 50 people. It was inaugurated in January 2002.

Nyoma is the one of the block headquarters of district Leh. This whole area is a cold and arid high altitude desert having 100mm average rainfall. In summer maximum temperature goes up to 30 Degree Centigrade and in winter minimum upto –40 degree centigrade. Humidity 6 to 24 %, Solar radiation 6 to 7 Kwh/mm with 300 days of clear sky and sunshine.

MOST DISHES ON DISPLAY

The largest display of different types of dishes was held at Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu on March 3, 2007. Marking the year 2007 celebrations, Sree Parshwa Padmavathi Seva Trust of India inspired by His Holliness Sri Vasantha Kumar Keval Chand has organised this spectacular event. There were 2007 dishes(in reference to the year), prepared by 500 cooks assisted by 100 others. The preparation started at 7.00 a.m on march 2, 2007 and finished at 6.45 a.m. on the next day. Significantly, all the dishes were vegetarian. All sweets were made in pure ghee and without egg.

The significance of this event is celebrating the Holi festival in India. Holi is the most colourful festival of the Hindus and falls on the Full moon day in the month of March. It is an ancient festival of myriad colours, of gaiety, of friendships and re-unions all over the country. It is celebrated very grandly with colours, offering of sweets and praying for peace, happiness and prosperity.

WORLD'S HIGHEST BATTLEGROUND

The Siachen glacier is the highest battleground on earth, where India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since April 13, 1984. Both countries maintain permanent military personnel in the region at a height of over 6,000 metres (20,000 ft). The site is a prime example of mountain warfare.

The Siachen Glacier, which stretches across Ladakh and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, lies south of the great watershed that separates China from the Indian subcontinent in the extensively glaciated portion of the Karakoram. It is located in the eastern Karakoram range (actually between Saltoro Ridge and Karakoram Range) in the Himalaya Mountains along the disputed India-Pakistan border at approximately 35°30'N 77°00'E . It is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second longest in the world's non-polar areas. It ranges from an altitude of 5,753 m (18,875 ft) above sea level at its source at Indira Col (pass) on the China border to its snout at 3,620 m (11,875 ft).

The glacier's melting waters are the main source of the Nubra River, which drains into the Shyok River. The Shyok in turn joins the Indus River, thus the glacier is a major source of the river Indus. Global warming has had one of its worst impacts here in the Himalayas with the glaciers melting at an unprecedented rate and monsoon rains now appearing north of the mountains. The volume of the glacier has been reduced by 35 percent over the last twenty years and military activity since 1984 has also been blamed for much of the degradation of the glacier.

Both sides have been wishing to disengage from the costly military outposts but after the Kargil War in 1999, India has backed off from withdrawing in Siachen, wary that the Kargil scenario could play out again if they vacate their Siachen Glacier posts without any official confirmation of their positions.

During her tenure as Prime Minister of Pakistan, Ms Benazir Bhutto, visited the area west of Gyong La, making her the first premier from either side to get to the Siachen region. On June 12, 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the area, calling for a peaceful resolution of the problem. The President of India, Abdul Kalam became the first head of state to visit the area.

MOST HOT CHILLIES EATEN

Anandita Dutta Tamuly from Titabor village, 325 km east of Guwahati, Assam, India, has a pecuiliar fiery habit - gobbling red-hot chillies without batting an eyelid or shedding a tear.

She is like any other woman of her age - except for her preference for the local chilli variety called the Naga Jolokia or Bhut Jolokia (Capsicum frutescens). She can easily chew down 60 of the fiery peppers in two minutes. She can even break the chilli and splash it on her eyes without any apparent discomfort. She gave a stunning performance of her abilities in a TV show named "Shabaash India".

The Naga Jolokia is claimed by scientists and also recognised by the Guiness book of records as the world's fieriest. The hotness of the Naga Jolokia chilli, measured in Scoville units, was 1,001,304 units compared to the Mexican chilli's 577 units, they said. Tamuly hails from the state of Assam, where the pepper occurs as a natural hybrid. The local variety of the chilli is grown mostly in the hilly terrain and is considered a staple menu in every meal among the northeastern people.

'I have been eating Naga Jolokia since my childhood and never realised the hotness in my mouth,' she said.

She started munching chillies when she was just five years old. 'I had a sore tongue and my mother applied chilli paste to cure the infection when I was five years old. Since then I developed a penchant for chillis,' Tamuly said.

Tamuly claims her chilli eating habit has had no adverse effect on her health.

MEMORISING MOST PLACES OF e

The mathematical constant e is one of the most important numbers in mathematics, along with the constant π(pi), and the imaginary unit i. The mathematical constant e is the unique real number such that the function e to the power of x has the same value as the slope of the tangent line, for all values of x. The number e is sometimes called Euler's number after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler.

Since e is transcendental, and therefore irrational, its value cannot be given exactly as a finite or eventually repeating decimal. The numerical value of e truncated to 20 decimal places is:

2.71828 18284 59045 23536...

Bhaskar Karmakar of India created world record by reciting e to an astonishing 5,002 decimal places. He performed his world record breaking feat on 25 November 2007, taking a time of just 1 hour 29 minutes 52 seconds. He also recited the value backwards to 5002 decimal places in 1 hr 48 min 45 seconds.

COUNTRY WITH MOST POST OFFICES

India has the most post offices in the world! According to Guiness book of records, India thrives with well over 150,000 post offices. The number of post offices in India is more than double of its nearest competitor China.

World's Top 10 Countries With Most Post Office Country Total NO. Of Post Office (2001)
India 154,919
China 57,135
Russia 41,052
USA 38,123
Japan 24,760
Indonesia 19,881
UK 17,633
France 17,067
Ukraine 14,963
Italy 13,788

Established by the British colonial rulers for the smooth running of their administration, the Indian postal system has evolved into a multi-technology and multi-service organisation which is present throughout the length and breadth of the country. Even in th age of SMS and e-mail, the Indian postal system is thriving with its fascinating ability to act as the life blood of written communication.