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| INDIA is
one of the oldest civilisations in the world with a kaleidoscopic
variety and rich cultural heritage. It has achieved multifaceted
socio-economic progress during the last 58 years of its
Independence. India has become self-sufficient in agricultural
production, and is now the tenth industrialised country
in the world and the sixth nation to have gone into outer
space to conquer nature for the benefit of the people.
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. Bounded by the Great Himalayas
in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic
of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the
Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. |
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Source: Maps
of India
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Location:
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Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the
Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan |
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Area:
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total: 3,287,590 sq km
land: 2,973,190 sq km
water: 314,400 sq km |
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Land boundaries:
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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 |
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Climate:
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varies
from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north
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Population:
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1,065,070,607 (July 2004 est.) |
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Population growth rate:
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1.44% (2004 est.) |
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Ethnic groups:
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Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other
3% (2000) |
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Religions:
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Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%,
other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5%
(2000) |
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Languages:
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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 |
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Literacy:
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definition: age 15 and over can read and
write
total population: 59.5%
male: 70.2%
female: 48.3% (2003 est.)
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International Airports:
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Bangalore,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New
Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram |
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Major Ports of Entry:
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Kandla,
Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Tuticorin,
Chennai, Vishakhapatnam, Paradip, Kolkata, and Haldia. |
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Time Zone:
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GMT
+5 ½ hours. |
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Currency Unit:
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Indian
Rupee (INR), 100 paise=1 INR. Coins in vogue - 50
paise, INR 1 and 5. Currency notes INR 5, 10, 20,
50, 100, 500 and 1,000. |
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Currency (Code):
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Indian
Rupee (INR) |
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Fiscal Year:
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1st
April to 31st March. |
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