We often belittle our achievements. That's a crying shame. A sense of pride has the power to raise people's lives and hopes from the ordinary to the truly extraordinary. Pride also makes a nation, and in times of despair and helplessness, can lift the spirit of a billion people.

And there is a lot to be proud of. Amazing strides in infotech. An army that defends the nation against stupendous odds. A revolution in agriculture. A thriving, free media. Great institutions of learning. Prostheses like the incredible Jaipur Foot that helps a shattered Afghanistan walk. Protest movements of immense courage, like the Chipko Movement and the one that saved Kerala's Silent Valley. Even the dream factory of Indian cinema.

These achievements celebrate the spirit that is India and touches our soul with its heady mix of do-good and feel-good, things that make us swell our chests with pride, maybe squeeze out a tear or two of joy, and fill us with a sense of appreciation and purpose. In this tumultuous corner of the world where much is wrong and much needs to be done, India Today offers this tribute to India.

ARMED FORCES
India's Fire Wall

DID YOU KNOW India's professional standing army of 1.1 million is the second largest in the world after China's. Yet it has steadfastly kept away from politics.

The defence services of any nation are usually a source of pride, reinforced by trial and heroism. India's are no different. For the past seven months, more than half a million troops of the Indian Army have been strung out from the inhospitable Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir to Sir Creek in the Rann of Kutch as part of India's coercive diplomacy against Pakistan. Even for a million-strong force that has seen no respite since the 1980s, this must be a bit tiring. Be it Operation Vijay in Kargil or the continuing Operation Parakram along the western borders, the army troops are relentlessly taking the battle to the enemy inside and outside the country's borders.

And even as the army is out fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, the air force is securing the skies from intruders and the navy is protecting the nation's economic interests on the high seas.

The high morale and motivation of the armed forces remain an enigma despite the shortage of officers, paucity of hi-tech equipment or "force multipliers" and poor career prospects. But the armed forces appear to have taken all these negatives in their stride and are actively pursuing the doctrine of turning India into a global military power.

Security is a comforting feeling and if the providers are doing a good job that alone is a source of pride. But there is another key reason: India's armed forces have steadfastly resisted the lure of politics.

THE SPACE PROGRAMME
Top Flight

The GSLV is successfully launched

Sending a rocket that would launch a satellite in space in a precision orbit requires the accuracy of a shooter striking a rupee coin 10 km away. Such precision and reliability are not normally associated with things made in India. That's why the string of successes in rocketry and satellite technology that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has notched up lights up the faces of millions of Indians.

In the three decades of its existence, ISRO has thrust India into the exclusive space club of a handful of nations by building over a dozen sophisticated satellites-beginning with the pioneering Aryabhatta, named after the ancient Indian astronomer, in 1975-for communications, weather prediction and mapping natural resources. It has made INSAT (short for Indian Satellite Systems) a household name, with the bulk of telecommunications and television broadcasting still being beamed through it, and has boosted India's missile programme. It is now in a position to build the giant rockets needed to launch these satellites, saving millions of dollars in foreign exchange and enhancing India's prestige abroad.

NUCLEAR TEAM
Blast Force

Kalam (left) and Chidambaram (in the foreground)

On May 11, 1998, defence research chief A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was in Pokhran wearing battle fatigues, masquerading as Major-General Prithviraj. His colleague and chief of the Department of Atomic Energy, R. Chidambaram, was playing his own part in India's nuclear play, acting as Major-General Natraj. The two had led the team that since April of that year, when Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee had summoned them to give them the go-ahead for nuclear tests, had taken to subterfuge to dodge overhead satellites and any curious observer. Vajpayee would say later of the three simultaneous nuclear explosions that rocked the desert at 3.45 p.m., "The tests have given India shakti."

The world-and India's liberal establishment-may have been outraged, but as far as the bomb team and their political masters were concerned it was, like when Indira Gandhi commanded a nuclear test in 1974, as much a boost to self-confidence as a deterrent. And ultimately, to change the impression of India as a benign democracy slow to anger and action, to a country hawkish in the pursuit of national interest. As the then Planning Commission chief Jaswant Singh put it, "It's one-sixth of humanity seeking its rightful place in the calculus of great powers." The regional balance was changed forever-in the great game, India counts.