INDIA
Area:
total: 3,287,590 sq km
land: 2,973,190 sq km
water: 314,400 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly more than one-third the size of the US
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
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
Age structure:
0-14 years: 35% (male 173,420,822;
female 163,433,648)
15-64 years: 61% (male 304,048,569;
female 281,625,342)
65 years and over: 4% (male 22,536,104;
female 21,718,686) (July 1997 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.72% (1997 est.)
Birth rate: 26.19 births/1,000 population (1997 est.)
Death rate: 8.87 deaths/1,000 population (1997 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 65.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1997 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 62.41 years
male: 61.68 years
female: 63.18 years (1997 est.)
Total fertility rate: 3.29 children born/woman (1997 est.)
Ethnic groups: 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:
definition: age 15 and over can
read and write
total population: 52%
male: 65.5%
female: 37.7% (1995 est.)
Independence: 15 August 1947 (from UK)
Constitution: 26 January 1950
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Political parties and leaders: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), A. B. VAJPAYEE; Congress (I) Party, Sitaram KESRI, president; Janata Dal Party, Laloo Prasad YADAV; Janata Dal (Ajit), Ajit SINGH; Communist Party of India/Marxist (CPI/M), Harkishan Singh SURJEET; Tamil Maanila Congress, G. K. MOOPANAR; Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (a regional party in Tamil Nadu), M. KARUNANIDHI; Samajwadi Party (SP), Mulayam Singh YADAV(president), Om Prakash CHAUTALA, Devi LAL; Telugu Desam (Naidu) (a regional party in Andhra Pradesh), Chandrababu NAIDU; Communist Party of India (CPI), Indrajit GUPTA; Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Tridip CHOWDHURY; Asom Gana Parishad, Prafulla Kumar MAHANTA; Congress (Tiwari), Arjun SINGH and N.D. TIWARI; All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), Prem Dutta PALIWAL (chairman), Chitta BASU (general secretary); Muslim League, G. M. BANATWALA; Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress, Madhavro SCINDIA; Karnataka Congress Party, S. BANGARAPPA; Shiv Sena, Bal THACKERAY; Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Kanshi RAM; Communist Party of India/Marxist-Leninist (CPI/ML), Vinod MISHRA; 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; Samata Party (formerly Janata Dal members), George FERNANDES; Indian National League, Suliaman SAIT; Kerala Congress (Mani faction), K. M. MANI
note: subsequent to the election,
the following parties were dissolved - Congress (Tiwari), Madhya Pradesh
Vikas Congress, and Karnataka Congress Party
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 30%
industry : 28%
services: 42% (1993/94)
Agriculture - products: rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish catch of about 3 million metric tons ranks India among the world's top 10 fishing nations
Exports:
total value : $30.5 billion (f.o.b.,
1995)
commodities: clothing, gems and
jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures, cotton yarn,
and fabric partners: US, Japan, Germany, UK, Hong Kong
Imports:
total value: $34.5 billion (c.i.f.,
1995)
commodities: crude oil and petroleum
products, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals
partners: US, Germany, Saudi Arabia,
UK, Belgium, Japan
Debt - external: $97.9 billion (March 1995)
Currency: Rupee
Military manpower - fit for military service: males : 151,693,072 (1997 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $8 billion (FY95/96)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.7% (FY95/96)