India
|
| Basic Facts |
| 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 |
| Gevernment type | federal republic |
| Capital |
name: New Delhi
geographic coordinates: 28 36 N, 77 12 E time difference: UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Flag description | three equal horizontal bands of saffron (subdued 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 |
| Currency | Indian rupee (INR) |
| Internet country code | .in |
| Ports and terminals | Chennai, Haldia, Jawaharal Nehru, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), New Mangalore, Vishakhapatnam |
| Agriculture products | rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish |
| Industries | textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software |
| Geography |
| Location | Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan |
| Coordinates | 20 00 N, 77 00 E |
| Continent | Asia |
| Area |
total: 3,287,590 sq km
land: 2,973,190 sq km water: 314,400 sq km |
| Boundaries |
total: 14,103 km
border countries: 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 |
| 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, arable land |
| Natural hazards | droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes |
| People |
| Population | 1,095,351,995 (July 2006 est.) |
| Ethnic groups | Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000) |
| Religions | Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census) |
| Languages | English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% 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 |
