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A
country in Southern Asia; the two peninsulas of Hither and Farther India; in a
restricted sense, Hither India, or Hindostan.
india
India:Geography
Location:
Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between
Bangladesh and Pakistan
Map
references: Asia
Area:
total area: 3,287,590 km2 land area: 2,973,190 km2 comparative area: slightly
more than one-third the size of the US
Land
boundaries: total 14,103 km, Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463 km,
China 3,380 km, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km
Coastline:
7,000 km
Maritime
claims: contiguous zone: 24 nm continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the
continental margin exclusive economic zone: 200 nm territorial sea: 12 nm
International
disputes: boundaries with Bangladesh and China; status of Kashmir with Pakistan;
water-sharing problems with downstream riparians, Bangladesh over the Ganges and
Pakistan over the Indus
Climate:
varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north
Terrain:
upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along the Ganges,
deserts in west, Himalayas in north
Natural
resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese,
mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum,
limestone
Land
use: arable land: 55% permanent crops: 1% meadows and pastures: 4% forest and
woodland: 23% other: 17%
Irrigated
land: 430,390 sq km (1989)
Environment:
current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air
pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from
raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable
throughout the country; huge and rapidly growing population is overstraining
natural resources natural hazards: droughts, flash floods, severe thunderstorms
common; earthquakes international agreements: party to - Antarctic Treaty,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified -
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea
Note:
dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean trade routes
India:People
Population:
936,545,814 (July 1995 est.)
Age
structure: 0-14 years: 35% (female 159,921,309; male 168,812,255) 15-64 years:
61% (female 274,105,407; male 296,145,798) 65 years and over: 4% (female
18,870,762; male 18,690,283) (July 1995 est.)
Population
growth rate: 1.77% (1995 est.)
Birth
rate: 27.78 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Death
rate: 10.07 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Net
migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Infant
mortality rate: 76.3 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)
Life
expectancy at birth: total population: 59.04 years male: 58.5 years female:
59.61 years (1995 est.)
Total
fertility rate: 3.4 children born/woman (1995 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Indian(s) adjective: Indian
Ethnic
divisions: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%
Religions:
Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other
0.4%
Languages:
English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national,
political, and commercial communication, Hindi the national language and primary
tongue of 30% of the people, Bengali (official), Telugu (official), Marathi
(official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati (official), Malayalam
(official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official), Punjabi (official), Assamese
(official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi (official), Sanskrit (official),
Hindustani a popular variant of Hindu/Urdu, is spoken widely throughout northern
India note: 24 languages each spoken by a million or more persons; numerous
other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible
Literacy:
age 7 and over can read and write (1991) total population: 52% male: 64% female:
39%
Labor
force: 314.751 million (1990) by occupation: agriculture 65% (1993 est.)
India:Government
Names:
conventional long form: Republic of India conventional short form: India
Digraph:
IN
Type:
federal republic
Capital:
New Delhi
Administrative
divisions: 25 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*,
Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh*, Dadra and Nagar
Haveli*, Daman and Diu*, Delhi*, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu
and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry*, Punjab, Rajasthan,
Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal
Independence:
15 August 1947 (from UK)
National
holiday: Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic, 26 January (1950)
Constitution:
26 January 1950
Legal
system: based on English common law; limited judicial review of legislative
acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
Executive
branch: chief of state: President Shankar Dayal SHARMA (since 25 July 1992);
Vice President Kicheril Raman NARAYANAN (since 21 August 1992) head of
government: Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha RAO (since 21 June 1991) cabinet:
Council of Ministers; appointed by the president on recommendation of the prime
minister
Legislative
branch: bicameral Parliament (Sansad) Council of States (Rajya Sabha): body
consisting of not more than 250 members, up to 12 appointed by the president,
the remainder chosen by the elected members of the state and territorial
assemblies People's Assembly (Lok Sabha): elections last held 21 May, 12 and 15
June 1991 (next to be held by 1996); results - percent of vote by party NA;
seats - (545 total, 543 elected, 2 appointed) Congress (I) Party 245, BJP 119,
Janata Dal Party 39, Janata Dal (Ajit Singh) 20, CPI/M 35, CPI 14, Telugu Desam
13, AIADMK 11, Samajwadi Janata Party 5, Shiv Sena 4, RSP 4, BSP 1, Congress (S)
Party 1, other 23, vacant 9; note - the distribution of seats as of 18 January
1995 is as follows: Congress (I) Party 260, BJP 117, CPI/M 36, Janata Dal Party
24, Samta Party 14, CPI 14, AIADMK 12, Janata Dal (Ajit) 7, Telugu Desam 7, RSP
4, Janata Dal (Ex-Ajit) 3, Samajwadi Party 3, BSP 3, AIFB 3, Shiv Sena 2,
Congress (S) Party 1, Kerala Congress (Mani faction) 1, Bihar Peoples Party 1,
India National League 1, other 14, vacant 16
Judicial
branch: Supreme Court
Political
parties and leaders: Congress (I) Party, P. V. Narasimha RAO, president;
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), L.K. ADVANI; Janata Dal Party, S.R. BOMMAI; Janata
Dal (Ajit), Ajit SINGH; Janata Dal (Ex-Ajit), leader NA; Communist Party of
India/Marxist (CPI/M), Harkishan Singh SURJEET; Communist Party of India (CPI),
Indrajit GUPTA; Telugu Desam (a regional party in Andhra Pradesh), N. T. Rama
RAO; All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (AIADMK; a regional party in Tamil
Nadu), Jayaram JAYALALITHA; Samajwadi Party (SP), Mulayam Singh YADAV
(President), Om Prakash CHAUTALA, Devi LAL; Shiv Sena, Bal THACKERAY;
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Tridip CHOWDHURY; Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP), Kanshi RAM; Congress (S) Party, leader NA; Communist Party of
India/Marxist-Leninist (CPI/ML), Vinod MISHRA; Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (a
regional party in Tamil Nadu), M. KARUNANIDHI; Akali Dal factions representing
Sikh religious community in the Punjab; National Conference (NC; a regional
party in Jammu and Kashmir), Farooq ABDULLAH; Bihar Peoples Party, Lovely ANAND;
Samta Party (formerly Janata Dal members), Natish KUMAR; Indian National League,
Suliaman SAIT; Kerala Congress (Mani faction), K.M. MANI; All India Forward Bloc
(AIFB), Prem Dutta PALIWAL (Chairman), Chitta BASU (General Secretary)
Other
political or pressure groups: various separatist groups seeking greater communal
and/or regional autonomy; numerous religious or militant/chauvinistic
organizations, including Adam Sena, Ananda Marg, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Member
of: AfDB, AG (observer), AsDB, C, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G- 6, G-15, G-19, G-24,
G-77, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, OAS
(observer), PCA, SAARC, UN, UNAVEM II, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR,
UNOMIL, UNOMOZ, UNOSOM, UNU, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic
representation in US: chief of mission: Ambassador Siddhartha Shankar RAY
chancery: 2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1]
(202) 939-7000 consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York, and San Francisco
US
diplomatic representation: chief of mission: Ambassador Frank G. WISNER embassy:
Shanti Path, Chanakyapuri 110021, New Delhi mailing address: use embassy street
address telephone: [91] (11) 600651 FAX: [91] (11) 6872028 consulate(s) general:
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras
Flag:
three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green with a blue
chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band; similar to the flag of
Niger, which has a small orange disk centered in the white band
Economy
Overview:
India's economy is a mixture of traditional village farming, modern agriculture,
handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of support
services. Faster economic growth in the 1980s permitted a significant increase
in real per capita private consumption. A large share of the population, perhaps
as much as 40%, remains too poor to afford an adequate diet. Financial strains
in 1990 and 1991 prompted government austerity measures that slowed industrial
growth but permitted India to meet its international payment obligations without
rescheduling its debt. Production, trade, and investment reforms since 1991 have
provided new opportunities for Indian businessmen and an estimated 100 million
to 200 million middle class consumers. New Delhi has always paid its foreign
debts on schedule and has stimulated exports, attracted foreign investment, and
revived confidence in India's economic prospects. Foreign exchange reserves,
precariously low three years ago, now total more than $19 billion. Positive
factors for the remainder of the 1990s are India's strong entrepreneurial class
and the central government's recognition of the continuing need for
market-oriented approaches to economic development, for example in upgrading the
wholly inadequate communications facilities. Negative factors include the
desperate poverty of hundreds of millions of Indians and the impact of the huge
and expanding population on an already overloaded environment.
National
product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $1.2539 trillion (1994 est.)
National
product real growth rate: 5% (1994 est.)
National
product per capita: $1,360 (1994 est.)
Inflation
rate (consumer prices): 10% (1994 est.)
Unemployment
rate: NA%
Budget:
revenues: $30.85 billion expenditures: $48.35 billion, including capital
expenditures of $10.5 billion (FY93/94)
Exports:
$24.4 billion (f.o.b., 1994 est.) commodities: clothing, gems and jewelry,
engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures, cotton yarn, and fabric
partners: US, Japan, Germany, UK, Hong Kong
Imports:
$25.5 billion (c.i.f., 1994 est.) commodities: crude oil and petroleum products,
machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals partners: US, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UK,
Belgium, Japan
External
debt: $89.2 billion (November 1994)
Industrial
production: growth rate 7% (1994 est.); accounts for 28% of GDP
Electricity:
capacity: 81,200,000 kW production: 314 billion kWh consumption per capita: 324
kWh (1993)
Industries:
textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement,
mining, petroleum, machinery
Agriculture:
accounts for 34% of GDP; principal crops - rice, wheat, oilseeds, cotton, jute,
tea, sugarcane, potatoes; livestock - cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, poultry;
fish catch of about 3 million metric tons ranks India among the world's top 10
fishing nations
Illicit
drugs: licit producer of opium poppy for the pharmaceutical trade, but an
undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit international drug
markets; major transit country for illicit narcotics produced in neighboring
countries; illicit producer of hashish and methaqualone; produced 82 metric tons
of illicit opium in 1994
Economic
aid: recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $4.4 billion; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1980-89), $31.7 billion;
OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $315 million; USSR (1970-89), $11.6 billion;
Eastern Europe (1970-89), $105 million
Currency:
1 Indian rupee (Re) = 100 paise
Exchange
rates: Indian rupees (Rs) per US$1 - 31.374 (January 1995), 31.374 (1994),
30.493 (1993), 25.918 (1992), 22.742 (1991), 17.504 (1990)
Fiscal
year: 1 April - 31 March
India:Transportation
Railroads:
total: 62,211 km (6,500 km electrified; 12,617 km double track) broad gauge:
34,544 km 1.676-m gauge narrow gauge: 23,599 km 1.000-m gauge; 4,068 km 0.762-m
and 0.610-m gauge (1994 est.)
Highways:
total: 1.97 million km paved: 960,000 km unpaved: gravel, crushed stone, earth
1.01 million km (1989)
Inland
waterways: 16,180 km; 3,631 km navigable by large vessels
Pipelines:
crude oil 3,497 km; petroleum products 1,703 km; natural gas 902 km (1989)
Ports:
Bombay, Calcutta, Cochin, Haldia, Kandla, Madras, Mormugao, New Mangalore,
Pondicherry, Port Blair (Andaman Islands), Tuticorin, Vishakhapatnam
Merchant
marine: total: 299 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 6,288,902 GRT/10,454,178
DWT ships by type: bulk 114, cargo 78, chemical tanker 9, combination bulk 2,
combination ore/oil 5, container 10, liquefied gas tanker 6, oil tanker 68,
passenger-cargo 5, roll-on/roll-off cargo 1, short-sea passenger 1
Airports:
total: 352 with paved runways over 3,047 m: 11 with paved runways 2,438 to 3,047
m: 48 with paved runways 1,524 to 2,437 m: 85 with paved runways 914 to 1,523 m:
72 with paved runways under 914 m: 81 with unpaved runways 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
with unpaved runways 1,524 to 2,438 m: 7 with unpaved runways 914 to 1,523 m: 46
India:Communications
Telephone
system: NA telephones; 5 telephones/1,000 persons; domestic telephone system is
poor; long-distance telephoning has been improved by a domestic satellite system
which also carries TV local: NA intercity: NA international: 3 INTELSAT (Indian
Ocean) earth stations and submarine cables to Malaysia and the United Arab
Emirates
Radio:
broadcast stations: AM 96, FM 4, shortwave 0 radios: NA
Television:
broadcast stations: 274 (government controlled) televisions: NA
India:Defense
Forces
Branches:
Army, Navy, Air Force, various security or paramilitary forces (includes Border
Security Force, Assam Rifles, and Coast Guard)
Manpower
availability: males age 15-49 253,134,487; males fit for military service
148,814,104; males reach military age (17) annually 9,461,907 (1995 est.)
Defense
expenditures: exchange rate conversion - $7.8 billion, 2.8% of GDP (FY94/95)
: The
CIA World Factbook
