The audience of Indian Science Fiction was rather lukewarm about this meme but some responses are worth mentioning here like this one by Cyril and this by Shruti .I have also updated the earlier post and have included the answers to the questions in sequence.
There seems to be a dichotomy still prevailing that literature and sf both are distinct genres.I am of the opinion that sf is a part and parcel of literature only and is therefore rightly categorized as branch of literature world over.Sf occupies in fact a very special but of course a small (but beautiful) niche in hitherto all the literary attributes and expressions of mankind.
So all the friends who have a natural longing to any kind of literary attributes are most welcome to the genre of sf too ,its only a branch of literature and nothing else.