1. General information
Facts
? Population: 1,080,264,388 (est. 2005)
? Area: 3,287,590 sq km
? Location: Southern Asia. Neighbours are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal and Pakistan. It Borders the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
? Capital: New Delhi
? Government type: Federal republic. President: A.P.J. Abdul KALAM
? Currency: Indian Rupee = 100 Paise
? Language: Hindi is the national language (30% of the population). There are 14 other official languages: Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit and Hindustani. English is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication.
? Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1%.
? Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%.
? Climate: Temperate in north and tropical monsoon in south.
? Terrain: In south upland plain (Deccan Plateau), in west deserts, Himalayas in north and flat land along the Ganges.
? Natural Hazards: Flooding, droughts, earthquakes and severe thunderstorms.
Population
India is one of the most populated countries in the world. In the year 2001 India became the second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark. About 1,080,264,388 people live today in India. By the middle of the 21st century, India will have passed China in the terms of number of inhabitants. India's population grew by 21.34 % between 1991 and 2000. ...