India
India
India is one of the largest countries in the world with a surface are of 3,287,263 square kilometers. It is located in South-central Asia. India is bounded in the southwest by the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the southeast. In the north, India is bounded by China, Bhutan and Nepal. South of India is the Indian Ocean. Other nations to the south of India are Maldives, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. In the east, the nations that bound India are Burma and Bangladesh while on the west, India is bounded by Pakistan.
India boasts of diverse geographical features consisting of rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mountains, coastal plains, islands and oceans. The three distinct geographic regions of India are the Himalayan region in the north, the Gangetic Plain and the plateau region in the south and central part. The three major river systems in India are the Ganges, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra.
The top twenty largest cities in India are Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Indore, Thane, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Agra and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The capital city of India is New Delhi. Figure 1 below shows the map of India.
Figure 1 - Map of India
Demographic Information
It is estimated that as of July 2013, the total population of India is approximately 1,220,800,359. The estimated annual average population growth rate from 2010 to 2015 is 1.3%. The ethnic groups present in India are the Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other smaller groups consisting 3% of the total population. The urban population as of 2012 is 31.6% and grows at an average of 2.5%. On the other hand, the rural population grows at an average of 0.8% .
The age distribution of India is shown on Table 1.
The estimated life expectancy at birth for 2013 for the Indian population is 67.48 years. For the male population, life expectancy is 66.38 years while for the female, it is 68.7 years. The median age for Indians is 26.7 years. The 2013 estimated birth rate per 1,000 population is 20.24 births while their death rate is at 7.39 deaths/1,000 population. The total health expenditure of the Indian government in 2011 is 3.9% of their GDP. Meanwhile, the estimated 2013 net migration rate is -0.05 migrant(s)/1,000.
The 2006 estimated Indian literacy rate which is defined as those individuals with age 15 and above who can read and write is 62.8% for the total population. For the male, the literacy rate is 75.2% and for the female is 50.8%. India spent approximately 3.3% of their 2010 GDP for education expenditures.
According to The World Factbook, the total labor force of India is estimated to be 482.3 million as of 2012 while the unemployment rate stands at 8.5% (2013). The estimated 2006 child labor percentage in India is at 12% or a total number of 26,965,074. Child labor includes children ages 5 to 14.
The languages spoken in India are Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2% and the other minor languages consisting of 5.9%. Although Hindi is most widely spoken language, English is considered as the most important subsidiary official language which is used in national, political, and commercial communications.
The religions present in India as of the 2001 census consists of Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, others 1.8%, and unspecified religion at 0.1%.
Economic Information
Aside from China, India is also considered as one of the countries with a fast growing economy. However, in a 2011 report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). India was identified as a country with the highest number of poor people. In the same report, it was cited that 42% of its 1.21 billion people live below the poverty line or on less than $1.25 a day.
The currency of India is the Indian Rupee (INR). Table 2 below shows a historical data of the exchange rate of the Indian Rupee against the U.S. dollar.
The estimated 2012 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India is US$1.817 trillion. The agricultural sector accounts for 17.4%, while the industrial sector accounts for 17.6 %. The services sector is the largest contributor to India’s GDP at 65%. The GDP per capita is estimated at US$3,800 for the year 2012. The 2012 estimated GDP real growth rate of India is 3.2%. The estimated 2012 GDP composition by end-use is shown in Table 4.
The estimated 2012 inflation rate of India is 9.7% . Table 5 shows the inflation rate of India for the past five years
The major export trade partners of India as of 2012 are UAE 12.3%, US 12.2%, China 5%, Singapore 4.9% and Hong Kong 4.1% . The major commodities exported by India are petroleum products, precious stones, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, vehicles and apparel. On the other hand, the major import trade partners of India as of 2012 are China 10.7%, UAE 7.8%, Saudi Arabia 6.8%, Switzerland 6.2% and the US 5.1% . The main commodities imported are crude oil, precious stones, machinery, fertilizer, iron and steel, chemicals.
The major transportation facilities in India are shown in Table 6. The main seaports are located in Chennai, Jawaharal Nehru Port, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), Sikka and Vishakhapatnam while the container ports are situated in Chennai and Jawaharal Nehru Port. India’s ports are congested and inefficient .
India’s national highways and expressways span some 79,116 km; their state highways, 155,716 km and their other roads extend to 4,455,010 km. Most of India’s roads however are congested and of poor quality.
As of 2007, India’s railways can accommodate 17 million passengers and two million tonnes of freight a day. However at present, India’s railways are faced with capacity constraints
India has only 11 international airports which is a major challenge today because of the increased passengers and cargo.
References
BBC News India. (2011, December 7). India income inequality doubles in 20 years, says OECD. Retrieved from bbc.co.uk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16064321
Central Intelligence Agency. (2013). The world factbook. Retrieved from cia.gov: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
IRS.gov. (2014, January 15). Yearly average currency exchange rates. Retrieved from irs.gov: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Yearly-Average-Currency-Exchange-Rates
MBH Media, Inc. (2014, January 27). Indian Rupee exchange rates against currencies. Retrieved from exchange-rates.org: http://www.exchange-rates.org/currentRates/A/INR
Pearson Education. (2014). India. Retrieved from infoplease.com: http://www.infoplease.com/country/india.html
Princeton.edu. (n.d.). Geography of India. Retrieved from princeton.edu: http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Geography_of_India.html
The World Bank Group. (2013). India Transport Sector. Retrieved from web.worldbank.org: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSARREGTOPTRANSPORT/0,,contentMDK:20703625~menuPK:868822~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:579598,00.html
Triami Media BV. (2014). Historic inflation India - CPI inflation. Retrieved from inflation.edu: http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/india/historic-inflation/cpi-inflation-india.aspx
United Nations Statistics Division. (2014). India. Retrieved from data.un.org: http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=INDIA
World Health Organization. (2014). India. Retrieved from who.int: http://www.who.int/countries/ind/en/
