 As Dewey Dawn gives way to early-mourn, the sun's first rays shine their blessings on a land long receptive to it. Over the eons, searchers of truth and seekers of the divine have found inspiration and encouragement here. For in India, there are books in running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything. This land of the starkest contrasts celebrates many truths and multiple roots to them. Daybreak is not just the time to wake, but a chance to rise to salute the sun and celebrate the divine. And so, yogis of all castes and creeds unite body and mind, spirit and soul through the ancient discipline of yoga that's taken the world by storm, connecting the inner self to a cosmic consciousness starts young in India. We try to see education as three edges, head, sure enough, bright head, very important, but not limited to that. It should go on for skilled hands, children who can do things, who can grow things, who can manage things. And thirdly and most importantly, a kind heart, people who can feel for others and feel for the whole planet rather than just selves. Pioneering the idea of education with experience is Sekhmal Eco School, whose location in the fragile, cold deserts of Ladakh informs every aspect of school life. Its students have helped build the low-cost, sustainable school and run its green farms and solar energy systems. With volunteers from across the world, Sekhmal is a little country in itself, one where students are citizens with rights and responsibilities. And this is how we would like them to grow up, learning real things from real people to give a real leadership to the world of 21st century. Sekhmal is just one of India's many experiments in education that have led to the quadrupling of literacy rates since independence. Today, 97% of all Indian children are enrolled in school, a number that rivals the population of Western Europe in size. With the third largest population of university students, higher education too has come of age. Creativity flowers at a range of film, design and performing art schools. Future business barons come out of the Indian Institutes of Management, reputedly the toughest bee school in the world to get into. And little needs to be said about the famed IITs, an institution whose alumni are said to have created $450 billion worth of economic value and 20 million new jobs. And ready, willing and able to follow in their footsteps are a generation of new graduates who dream of becoming so much more. No longer confined to pure science, India's generation now thrives on the crossroads of science and design, creating things you never knew you needed. The number of people at that age bracket right now who are willing to experiment with their lives and do something that's new is really big. Access to funds has increased, the government is suddenly supporting start-up India, making India, and you know all of these programs are coming out. There's never been a better time to start-up. And I think India is at a point where the system will actually give way to a bigger ecosystem of starting up and building great portfolios. Following in the path blazed by Indian giants like Tata, Reliance, Infosys and Wipro, a generation of engineers and entrepreneurs are creating companies that are taking the world by storm. New Delhi based restaurant review start-up Zomato has expanded to 62 million users in 23 countries. Like them, Bangalore based Ola's Taxi app has seen phenomenal growth, delivering real-world services and benefits to users and entrepreneurs. Breaking technological frontiers, empowering entrepreneurs, building tomorrow today, innovation has come to stay. India's economy is definitely one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and I think that it's just getting started. Surging, speeding, streaking ahead, India, the world's seventh-largest economy is also its fastest-growing large economy. We are no longer a country of snake charmers and elephants and things like that. We are rapidly moving into a very modern India. Supporting this growth is a massive investment in infrastructure. Whether it's the world's first solar-powered airport or its largest elevated metro, the highest rail bridge or a hundred smart cities, infrastructure allows the benefits of development to reach everyone. India today also has the second-largest telecommunications network and the third-largest internet user base in the world. As the nation heads towards a cashless society, e-wallet services like Paytm are helping bridge the urban-rural divide and setting the stage for a nationwide digital revolution. It's a lot of change and you can see it on the ground. You can see today the consumption patterns have changed. The number of credit cards, the number of mobile phones, the number of automobiles, all of that is going through a huge surge in the economy. With growth fueled by domestic consumption, India's success story has proven largely immune to global downturns. Today, homegrown giants in the fields of iron and steel, oil exploration, shipping, automobiles, telecom and electronics have become global players. This new strength in high-value manufacturing combined with a booming service sector and excellence in traditional industries like textiles, leather, jewellery and handicrafts is the hallmark of a highly diversified economy that will become the world's third-largest by 2050, long celebrated for its spices and cells. Cottons and indigos, Indian agriculture, has built on its strengths and has given birth to the green and white revolutions. One of the largest producers of agricultural products in the world, Indian farmers are now constantly striving to go green and grow organic. Matching the yields from conventional farming while giving the earth the nurturing it gets from traditional farming is no easy task. Luckily, these farmers have some very special help. We have to find a way to do it. We have to find a way to do it. We have to find a way to find a way to do it. All the knowledge comes from the fields of organic farming. When we do farming, we get the help of God. In India, agriculture is life. In India, agriculture is a matter of surprise. It's not about earning money. That's why when farmers sow seeds, they sow seeds for the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds. That's why God has created the soil for the farmers. Turning mud and manure into green gold is a labour of love. A farmer's gift of fresh harvests and delicious meals. Life in India is a celebration of the simple-made sublime. And so, a midday meal here isn't just a pit stop to rest and refuel, but a chance to connect to centuries long gone and cultures going strong. Full of spice, seasoned to delight, food in India is a treat for the senses. After all, combining a culinary tradition stretching back millennia with a willingness to accept, adapt and adopt the foods of migrants and monks, traders and invaders, gives Indian food mind-boggling diversity and finger-licking flavour. India is a country of spices. Like spices are needed here, food is needed here. And anything is needed. If it's sweet, then it's very sweet. If it's spicy, then it's spicy to take out water from your eyes. The whole world eats food to survive. And the Indians win to eat it. With nearly 20 regional food traditions and countless local variations, food in India is an endless permutation of flavour and texture. You see that in the Indian Thali, there are different dishes being served to you. A new dish emerges every day. It's put in different cups. You can decide what you want to eat. You can decide what you don't want to eat. You can then mix it to your own needs so that while the plate is standardised for all of us, the experience of eating and what you actually taste is highly, highly customised. This freedom to choose what's best for you extends to all aspects of life in India. This, the oldest living civilisation on earth, has thrived by making space for new ideas and serving as a safe haven for people from other cultures and countries. Parsis and Iranis, African Siddhis and Syrian Christians, Jews and Chinese, are just a few of the communities who've enlivened the mosaic of India without having to give up their identity. I used to ask my mother why my name is so and so, from where we came from. So my mother used to tell me all the little, little bit of history and all this, talking about China, this and that. My grandfather had come before the Second World War. He had come down to India. I can understand Marathi, I can understand Gujarati. So like that, I got a lot of friends in different walks of life. India is a country of God because this land is very holy. So that's why we say, food, egg. It's a land of God. Sages and Sadhus, priests and preachers, gurus and teachers. India has long delved beyond the physical and into the metaphysical. The quest for truth takes many forms and more roots, all of which are followed with dedication and devotion. And this bewildering array of religion gives India one of its most beloved traditions – festivals. Whether it's painting the earth in colours of the rainbow at holy or lighting the Diwali night with starlight. Remembering the guru or celebrating the prophet, no religion has a monopoly on festivity. For after all, joy is the birthright of every community. There are many Hindus in India, there are many Islam's in India, there are many Christianity's in India. It's a complex diversity. The diversity is in politics, in economics, in language, in customs, in religious faith, in beliefs. This complexity, nobody can even comprehend. Out of the depths of complexity, spring simple sublime truths. In a land given to philosophy, some of our greatest thinkers, be it Tagore or Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda or Mahatma Gandhi, have stressed one truth above all – that being Indian means respecting, indeed celebrating our differences. And so, unity in diversity has become India's theme. With nearly 800 languages spoken, all the world's major religions represented. Citizens that comprise both ancient tribes and people surfing the information superhighway. The Indian instinct is not to homogenize, but to allow space for all. So the approach to diversity in India has been very different, which is continuously respecting other people's truth. It's not about trying to go towards one truth, but celebrating the other person's truth. In a land where the taste of water is said to change every three kilometres and the dialect every twenty, where faces change and races mingle, the only way to run a country is to give everyone a voice and a stake in running it. India's elections, the world's largest, are an incredible logistical exercise, undertaken by more than 11 billion workers, backed by electronic voter machines and indelible ink. In a world where 3 billion people are denied the vote, and a third of all countries are autocratic, the exuberance of a billion Indians going out to vote is both inspirational and infectious. Living proof that people can put aside divisions of race and religion, language and ethnicity to come together as one country. Where centuries collide and history meets legend, where the world unites and nature beckons. India, where hospitality is in just tradition, but akin to religion. Where architecture astounds and stones become poems, here you experience the world's most beautiful building as well as the most sensual. Whether it's spectacular cave architecture carved out of living rock or the incredible range of architectural traditions, there's something to delight you at every turn. Architecture is second to none to even imagine that they actually built that stuff with chiselling hammers. It's beyond anything I could think of. Incredible, incredible. And I would love to come back to India because we only got to do a little bit of New Delhi, a little bit of Kashmir. I know there's a whole world of India out there ready for us to explore. One little known aspect of this world that tourists are increasingly exploring is wellness and medicine. Whether it's the holistic healing of Ayurveda, the oldest known medicinal system in the world, or it's high-tech modern counterpart, people from across the globe are flocking to India. In the last five to seven years, there's been a sea change in technology, in talent and in skill. And as a consequence of which, I think that India is becoming one of the places to go to for premier quality healthcare. With highly trained doctors and nurses sought after across the world and inexpensive infrastructure, India has emerged as a low-cost, high-value treatment destination. There are patients who are coming here for cardiac care because I think that the cardiac care delivery system in India is extremely top notch. But I think the main thrust of the international tourism for healthcare in India is related to orthopedics, joint replacement and spinal surgery. India increasingly attracts patients from developed countries like the US, Russia, the Gulf and Western Europe who don't see any drop in quality. And affordable procedures means that India is a ray of hope for patients from Africa and Central Asia. International companies are all now vying to get into this country. And I think as a consequence, there is no looking back, there's only looking forward and moving forward. If the future of medicine shines bright, the potential of medical research is boundless. Indian pharmaceutical companies have reverse engineered costly medicines creating a $1 a day HIV drug, an initiative hailed by the UN as well as low-cost cancer drugs and hepatitis B vaccines that save countless lives the world over. Indian biotech giants like Biocon and Panacea operate in over 60 countries while the Serum Institute supplies vital vaccines to more than 100 countries worldwide. Striving for the stars and getting there is also the hallmark of ISRO, India's space research organization. Mangalyan, its Mars mission and NAVIC, its satellite-based navigation system have excited the global imagination and reinforced the country's credentials to be a major research and innovation hub. As the sun sets and the stars rise, a generation of Indians come out to celebrate in a million ways. Ancient traditions unchanged for centuries have transformed themselves, keeping pace with an India on the moon with 12 classical and 24 folk traditions. Dance in India is primarily a retelling of evics and myths, stories and legends. In India, all our understanding of our culture comes from the oral traditions. Tradition has been passed on from generation to generation through stories and through songs and that's primarily the source of Indian culture. Audiences here are primed to accept stories with their dances, which perhaps explains the enduring popularity of Bollywood's song and dance routines. The madness of movies is infectious, a celebration of life. Bollywood reflects India in all her colours. Movies in India are made in over 30 languages. One of the few film industries to withstand the onslaught of Hollywood, Indian cinema not just survives but thrives around the world. In a land where even time repeats itself, days break is not days end, but the rise of a new dawn. Every dawn reveals India anew. Yet, it has been the same for centuries. Its sights and colours immerse you in diversity. Even the darkness is magical. It has been the same for centuries. Yet, each morning India reveals itself anew.