India fact sheet

General Facts

Land area: 3.29 million square kilometres (7th largest country in the world, India is 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. It has land frontiers of about 15,200 kms and a coast line of 7,516 kms).

Capital: New Delhi

The Polity: India, a Union of States, is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic. The Constitution of India, which came into force on January 26, 1950, provides for a parliamentary system of Government and a federal structure. India comprises 28 States and 7 Union Territories. There is a bicameral parliament and three independent branches of Government: the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. The President of India is the Constitutional Head of Executive of the Union. The Constitution provides for a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to aid and advise the President who shall in exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice. The real executive power thus vests in the Council of Ministers which is collectively responsible to the lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha). Similarly, in states, Governor is the head of the executive, but it is the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister in whom the real executive power vests. The Council of Ministers of a State is collectively responsible to the State Legislative Assembly.

Top functionaries of Government of India are:

President: Mrs. Pratibha Patil
Vice-President: Mr. Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Prime Minister: Dr. Manmohan Singh
Speaker (Lower House): Mr. Somnath Chatterjee
Chief Justice of India: Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan

Minister of External Affairs: Mr. Pranab Mukherjee
Minister of State for
External Affairs: Mr. E. Ahmed and Mr. Anand Sharma

National Flag: The National flag of India is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (kesaria) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal proportion. The ratio of width of the flag to its length is two to three. In the centre of the white band is a navy-blue wheel which represents the charka. Its design is that of the wheel which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. Its diameter approximates to the width of the white band and it has 24 spokes.

State Emblem: The state emblem of India is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. In the original, there are four lions, standing back to back, mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening wheels over a bell-shaped lotus, Carved out of a single block polished sandstone, the Capital is crowned by the Wheel of the Law (Dharma Chakra).

In the State emblem, adopted by the Government of India on 26 January 1950, only three lions are visible, the fourth being hidden from view. The wheel appears in relief in the centre of the abacus with a bull on right and a horse on left and the outlines of other wheels on extreme right and left. The bell-shaped lotus has been omitted. The words Satyameva Jayte from Mundaka Upanishad, meaning ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’, are inscribed below the abacus in Devanagari script.

Population: 1,028 million (2001).

Population growth rate: 1.95 per cent (1991 – 2001)

Population density: 324 persons per square kilometre

Languages spoken: India is a multilingual society with 18 principal languages recognised by the constitution. Hindi is the language of a large percentage of people (40 percent), while English is the preferred business language.

Major religions: Majority are Hindus, though a significant number are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and others.

International airports: Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Goa, Amritsar, Guwahati.

Major ports of entry: Kandla, Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Tuticorin, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam, Paradip, Kolkata, and Haldia.

Climate: Mainly tropical in Southern India but temperatures in the north range from sub-zero degrees to 50 degrees Celsius. There are well defined seasons in the northern region : winter (Dec – Feb), Spring (Mar – Apr), Summer (May – Jun), monsoons (Jul – Sep) and autumn (Oct – Nov).

Time zone: GMT +5,5 hours.

Currency unit: 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.