  Observational Cosmology has indeed made very rapid progress in recent years.
The ability to quantify the universe has largely improved due to observational
constraints coming from structure formation Measurements of CMB anisotropy and,
more recently, polarization have played a very important role. Besides precise
determination of various parameters of the `standard' cosmological model,
observations have also established some important basic tenets that underlie
models of cosmology and structure formation in the universe -- `acausally'
correlated initial perturbations in a flat, statistically isotropic universe,
adiabatic nature of primordial density perturbations. These are consistent with
the expectation of the paradigm of inflation and the generic prediction of the
simplest realization of inflationary scenario in the early universe. Further,
gravitational instability is the established mechanism for structure formation
from these initial perturbations. In the next decade, future experiments
promise to strengthen these deductions and uncover the remaining crucial
signature of inflation -- the primordial gravitational wave background.
