Background:   The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 12th were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late 15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.

Geography

Location:        Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan

Geographic coordinates:      20 00 N, 77 00 E

Map references:       Asia

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

Land 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

Maritime claims:       territorial sea: 12 nm; contiguous zone: 24 nm; exclusive economic zone: 200 nm; continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

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

Elevation extremes:  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m; highest point: Kanchenjunga 8,598 m

Natural resources:    coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

Land use:       arable land: 54.4%; permanent crops: 2.74%; other: 42.86% (2001)

Irrigated land:           590,000 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:        droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes

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 growing population is overstraining natural resources

Environment - international agreements:   party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:     dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean trade routes

People

Population:     1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:            0-14 years: 31.2% (male 173,634,432/female 163,932,475); 15-64 years: 63.9% (male 356,932,082/female 333,283,590); 65 years and over: 4.9% (male 26,542,025/female 25,939,784) (2005 est.)

Median age:  total: 24.66 years; male: 24.64 years; female: 24.67 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate:        1.4% (2005 est.)

Birth rate:      22.32 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate:    8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate:   -0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Sex ratio:       at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female; under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female; 15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female; 65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female; total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate:            total: 56.29 deaths/1,000 live births; male: 56.86 deaths/1,000 live births; female: 55.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:      total population: 64.35 years; male: 63.57 years; female: 65.16 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate:    2.78 children born/woman (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.9% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5.1 million (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:  310,000 (2001 est.)

Major infectious diseases:   degree of risk: high; food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever; vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis are high risks in some locations; animal contact disease: rabies (2004)

Nationality:    noun: Indian(s); adjective: Indian

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

Literacy:        definition: age 15 and over can read and write; total population: 59.5%; male: 70.2%; female: 48.3% (2003 est.)

Government

Country name:           conventional long form: Republic of India; conventional short form: India

Government type:     federal republic

Capital:          New Delhi

Administrative divisions:      28 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh*, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli*, Daman and Diu*, Delhi*, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry*, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal

Independence:  15 August 1947 (from UK)

National holiday:       Republic Day, 26 January (1950)

Constitution:  26 January 1950; amended many times

Legal system: based on English common law; limited judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus

Suffrage:        18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:     chief of state: President A.P.J. Abdul KALAM (since 26 July 2002); Vice President Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT (since 19 August 2002); head of government: Prime Minister Manmohan SINGH (since NA May 2004); cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister; elections: president elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament and the legislatures of the states for a five-year term; election last held July 2002 (next to be held 18 July 2007); vice president elected by both houses of Parliament for a five-year term; election last held 12 August 2002 (next to be held August 2007); prime minister chosen by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative elections; election last held April - May 2004 (next to be held May 2009); election results: Abdul KALAM elected president; percent of electoral college vote - 89.6%; Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT elected vice president; percent of Parliament vote - 59.8%

Legislative branch:   bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of the Council of States or Rajya Sabha (a body consisting of not more than 250 members, up to 12 of whom are appointed by the president, the remainder are chosen by the elected members of the state and territorial assemblies; members serve six-year terms) and the People's Assembly or Lok Sabha (545 seats; 543 elected by popular vote, 2 appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms); elections: People's Assembly - last held 20 April through 10 May 2004 (next to be held 2009); election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - INC 145, BJP 138, CPI(M) 43, SP 36, RJD 24, BSP 19, DMK 16, SS 12, BJD 11, CPI 10, NCP 9, JDU 8, SAD 8, PMK 6, TDP 5, TRS 5, JMM 5, LJSP 4, MDMK 4, independents 5, other 30

Judicial branch:         Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president and remain in office until they reach the age of 65)

Economy

Economy - overview: India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Services are the major source of economic growth, though two-thirds of the workforce is in agriculture. The UPA government has committed to furthering economic reforms and developing basic infrastructure to improve the lives of the rural poor and boost economic performance. Government controls on foreign trade and investment have been reduced in some areas, but high tariffs (averaging 20% in 2004) and limits on foreign direct investment are still in place. The government has indicated it will do more to liberalize investment in civil aviation, telecom, and insurance sectors in the near term. Privatization of government-owned industries has proceeded slowly, and continues to generate political debate; continued social, political, and economic rigidities hold back needed initiatives. The economy has posted an excellent average growth rate of 6.8% since 1994, reducing poverty by about 10 percentage points. India is capitalizing on its large numbers of well-educated people skilled in the English language to become a major exporter of software services and software workers. Despite strong growth, the World Bank and others worry about the combined state and federal budget deficit, running at approximately 9% of GDP. The huge and growing population is the fundamental social, economic, and environmental problem. In late December 2004, a major tsunami took at least 60,000 lives in India, caused massive destruction of property, and severely affected the fishing fleet.

GDP:  purchasing power parity - $3.319 trillion (2004 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:        6.2% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita:      purchasing power parity - $3,100 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:          agriculture: 23.6%; industry: 28.4%; services: 48% (2002 est.)

Labor force:   482.2 million (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:            agriculture 60%, industry 17%, services 23% (1999)

Unemployment rate: 9.2% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:         25% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 3.5%; highest 10%: 33.5% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 37.8 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):     4.2% (2004 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):     23.8% of GDP (2004 est.)

Budget:          revenues: $67.3 billion; expenditures: $104 billion, including capital expenditures of $13.5 billion (2004 est.)

Public debt:    59.7% of GDP (federal debt only; state debt not included) (2004 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate:   7.4% (2004 est.)

Electricity - production:        547.2 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - consumption:     510.1 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:  350 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports: 1.54 billion kWh (2002)

Oil - production:        780,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:      2.13 million bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:  NA

Oil - imports:  NA

Oil - proved reserves:           5.7 billion bbl (2004 est.)

Natural gas - production:      22.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:  22.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - exports:           0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:           0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:        542.4 billion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:     $4.897 billion (2004 est.)

Exports:         $69.18 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:         textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures

Exports - partners:    US 18.4%, China 7.8%, UAE 6.7%, UK 4.8%, Hong Kong 4.3%, Germany 4% (2004)

Imports:         $89.33 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:         crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

Imports - partners:    US 7%, Belgium 6.1%, China 5.9%, Singapore 4.8%, Australia 4.6%,

UK 4.6%, Germany 4.5% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:     $126 billion (2004 est.)

Debt - external:         $117.2 billion (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:      $2.9 billion (FY98/99)

Currency (code):       Indian rupee (INR)

Exchange rates:        Indian rupees per US dollar - 45.317 (2004), 46.583 (2003), 48.61 (2002), 47.186 (2001), 44.942 (2000)

Fiscal year:    1 April - 31 March