India at a Glance
Official Name: Republic of India
Government type: Federal Republic
Geography
Location: South Asia bordering the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east. India shares land boundaries with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal, and Pakistan
Area: 3,287,590 sq km
Currency: Indian Rupee (Rs.)
Capital City: New Delhi
Financial Center: Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay)
GDP Growth: 8.6% during FY 2010-‘11
ECONOMY 2010-’11 (in U.S. $)
- GDP – 1.07 trillion
- GDP growth rate – 8.6 %
- Per Capita income – $1,194 and in terms of purchasing power parity (ppp) - $3,463
- Foreign Exchange Reserves – $305.5 billion (as on April 1, 2011)
- Inflation – 8.82 % (March 2011)
- Unemployment - 9.4% (2009-‘10)
- Average rupee exchange rate to a U.S. $ - Rs. 45.68 (2010),
- Agriculture and allied sector (% of GDP) – 14.2
- Industry (% of GDP) – 28.5
- Services, etc., (% of GDP) – 57.3
Population
Total: 1.21 billion (2011 census)
Age Structure: 0-14 yrs:29.7%; 15-64 yrs:64.9%; 65 yrs+: 5.5%
Rural population (% of total): 70
Urban population (% of total): 30
Independence: 15 August 1947 (from the U.K.)
Financial Year: April 1 to March 31
Work Week: Monday to Friday. Many offices work half a day on Saturdays. Central Government offices are closed on Saturdays.
Legal System: Based on English common law; limited judicial review of legislative acts;
Religions: Hinduism 80.5%; Muslim 13.4%; Christianity 2.3%; Sikh 1.9%; Buddhist 0.8%; Jain 0.4%; other 0.6%; and unspecified 0.1%
Languages: English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communications. The major official language of the Indian Union is Hindi, which is the primary tongue of 30% of the people. Besides Hindi, other prominent regional languages include: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. 700 dialects are also spoken. English has become a sort of "lingua franca" and is the accepted language for business and government.
Administrative divisions: 28 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh*, Chattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli*, Daman and Diu*, Delhi*, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Puducherry* (formerly Pondicherry), Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Uttaranchal.
- is the world's second largest small car market in the world.
- is one of only three countries that makes its own supercomputers (the U.S. and Japan are the other two).
- 100 of the Fortune 500 have R & D facilities in India.
- has the second largest group of software developers after the U.S.
- lists over 3,000 companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange; only the NYSE has more.
- is the world's largest producer of milk, and the second largest producer of food, including fruits and vegetables, and among the top five producers of sugar, cotton, tea, coffee, spices, rubber, silk, and fish.
- Indian students represent 15% of all international students in U.S. higher education, and India is now the second leading place of origin (104,897 students enrolled in academic year 2009/10). - Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world’s second largest after China (by volume of pills produced).
- hosts Asia’s largest Annual Global Business Meeting – The India International Trade Fair (New Delhi) grossing over 4 million visitors in 14 days with over 7,500 corporate participants - the largest multi-product expo in Asia.
