INDIA

India has become self-sufficient in agricultural production, and is now the tenth industrialised country in the world. It covers an area of 32,87,263 sq.km. extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical rain forests of the south. As the seventh largest country in the world, India stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical entity.  

Location

South Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Myanmar and Pakistan

Climate

Mainly tropical in Southern India but temperatures in the Northern  range from sub-zero degrees to 50 degrees Celsius.  There are well-defined seasons in the Northern region; Winter (Dec.-Feb), Spring (Mar-April), Summer (May-June), Monsoons (July-Sept) and Autumn (Oct-Nov)

Natural Resources

Coal (fourth largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromites, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land.

Population

1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est.)

Ethnic Groups

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

Religions

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

Languages

Apart from Hindi, which is the Official Union Language and mother tongue of 30 percent of the people, there are 21 other official languages.  English is the preferred language for national, political, and commercial communication.

National Holidays

26^th January (Republic Day), 15^th August (Independence Day) and 2^nd October (Gandhi Jayanthi)

Currency

Indian Rupee (INR)

Fiscal Year

April to March

India's sustained economic growth of about 8% in the past decade has propelled India to be one of the major economies of the world and therefore has opened up opportunities for increased trade and investment.   India's chief strength comes from its large numbers of well-educated, skilled people, adept in the English language, helping India to become a major exporter of software services and software workers

Buoyed by strong performance during the second quarter (July–September 2009), which saw the GDP growing by 7.9% Year-On-Year, Indian economy staged a strong comeback by recording 7% growth during the first half of the financial year.  Indian economy had grown by 6.1% during the first quarter (April–June 2009). The good performance of the economy was mainly in three factors – the stimulus package instituted between November 2008 and March 2009, increased natural gas production in the mining sector and the revival of the Manufacturing sector, which clocked growth in excess of 9%.  The size of the domestic economy stood at US$ 385.75 billion in the first half of 2009-10.