About India (The Country)

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The Indus Valley civilization, one of the world's oldest, flourished during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India. Aryan tribes from the northwest infiltrated the Indian subcontinent about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. The Maurya Empire of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. - which reached its zenith under ASHOKA - united much of South Asia. The Golden Age ushered in by the Gupta dynasty (4th to 6th centuries A.D.) saw a flowering of Indian science, art, and culture. Islam spread across the subcontinent over a period of 700 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded India and established the Delhi Sultanate. In the early 16th century, the Emperor BABUR established the Mughal Dynasty which ruled India for more than three centuries. European explorers began establishing footholds in India during the 16th century. By the 19th century, Great Britain had become the dominant political power on the subcontinent. The British Indian Army played a vital role in both World Wars. Years of nonviolent resistance to British rule, led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU, eventually resulted in Indian independence, which was granted in 1947. Large-scale communal violence took place before and after the subcontinent partition into two separate states - India and Pakistan. The neighboring nations have fought three wars since independence, the last of which was in 1971 and resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. India's nuclear weapons tests in 1998 emboldened Pakistan to conduct its own tests that same year. In November 2008, terrorists originating from Pakistan conducted a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai, India's financial capital. Despite pressing problems such as significant overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and widespread corruption, economic growth following the launch of economic reforms in 1991 and a massive youthful population are driving India's emergence as a regional and global power.

Geography

Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan.

Geographic coordinates

20 00 N, 77 00 E

Area

Total: 3,287,263 sq km Country comparison to the world: 7 Land: 2,973,193 sq km Water: 314,070 sq km

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, rare earth elements, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land.

Natural Hazards

Droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes volcanism: Barren Island (elev. 354 m) in the Andaman Sea has been active in recent years.

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 growing population is overstraining natural resources.

People

Population

1,236,344,631 (July 2014 est.) Country comparison to the world: 2

Age Structure

0-14 years: 28.5% (male 187,016,401/female 165,048,695) 15-24 years: 18.1% (male 118,696,540/female 105,342,764) 25-54 years: 40.6% (male 258,202,535/female 243,293,143) 55-64 years: 7% (male 43,625,668/female 43,175,111) 65 years and over: 5.7% (male 34,133,175/female 37,810,599) (2014 est.)

Median Age

Total: 27 years Male: 26.4 years Female: 27.7 years (2014 est.)

Population Growth

1.25% (2014 est.) Country comparison to the world: 94

Urbanization

Urban population: 31.3% of total population (2011) Rate of urbanization: 2.47% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)

Sex Ratio

At birth: 1.12 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.13 male(s)/female 15-24 years: 1.13 male(s)/female 25-54 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 55-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female Total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2014 est.)

Infant Mortality Rate

Total: 43.19 deaths/1,000 live births Country comparison to the world: 50 Male: 41.9 deaths/1,000 live births Female: 44.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2014 est.)

Life Expectancy at Birth

Total population: 67.8 years Country comparison to the world: 163 Male: 66.68 years Female: 69.06 years (2014 est.)

Total Fertility Rate

2.51 children born/woman (2014 est.) Country comparison to the world: 81

HIV/AIDS

0.3% (2012 est.) Country comparison to the world: 101

Nationality

Noun: Indian(s) Adjective: Indian

Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000).

Religion

Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Languages

Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9%

Note: English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the most widely spoken language and primary tongue of 41% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language (2001 census)

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write Total population: 62.8% Male: 75.2% Female: 50.8% (2006 est.)

Government

Country name

Conventional long form: Republic of India Conventional short form: India Local long form: Republic of India/Bharatiya Ganarajya Local short form: India/Bharat

Capital

New Delhi

Time Difference

UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

Legal system

Common law system based on the English model; separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus; judicial review of legislative acts.

Economy

India is developing into an open-market economy, yet traces of its past autarkic policies remain. Economic liberalization measures, including industrial deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and served to accelerate the country's growth, which averaged under 7% per year from 1997 to 2011. India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Slightly less than half of the work force is in agriculture, but, services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for nearly two-thirds of India's output with less than one-third of its labor force. India has capitalized on its large educated English-speaking population to become a major exporter of information technology services, business outsourcing services, and software workers. India's economic growth began slowing in 2011 because of a decline in investment, caused by high interest rates, rising inflation, and investor pessimism about the government's commitment to further economic reforms and about the global situation. In late 2012, the Indian Government announced additional reforms and deficit reduction measures, including allowing higher levels of foreign participation in direct investment in the economy. The outlook for India's long-term growth is moderately positive due to a young population and corresponding low dependency ratio, healthy savings and investment rates, and increasing integration into the global economy. However, India has many challenges that it has yet to fully address, including poverty, corruption, violence and discrimination against women and girls, an inefficient power generation and distribution system, ineffective enforcement of intellectual property rights, decades-long civil litigation dockets, inadequate transport and agricultural infrastructure, limited non-agricultural employment opportunities, high spending and poorly-targeted subsidies, inadequate availability of quality basic and higher education, and accommodating rural-to-urban migration. Growth in 2013 fell to a decade low, as India's economic leaders struggled to improve the country's wide fiscal and current account deficits. Rising macroeconomic imbalances in India and improving economic conditions in Western countries, led investors to shift capital away from India, prompting a sharp depreciation of the rupee. However, investors' perceptions of India improved in early 2014, due to a reduction of the current account deficit and expectations of post-election economic reform, resulting in a surge of inbound capital flows and stabilization of the rupee.

Source

Source: CIA World Factbook - India

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