India

• 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 rapidly growing population is overstraining natural resources

party to:

Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified :

none of the selected agreements

0-14 years:

35% (male 173,420,822; female 163,433,648)

15-64 years:

61% (male 304,048,569; female 281,625,342)

65 years and over:

4% (male 22,536,104; female 21,718,686) (July 1997 est.)

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1.08 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

1.04 male(s)/female

total population :

1.07 male(s)/female (1997 est.)

noun:

Indian(s)

adjective:

Indian

conventional long form:

Republic of India

conventional short form:

India

• based on English common law;
• limited judicial review of legislative acts;
• accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

chief of state:

President Shankar Dayal SHARMA (since 25 July 1992); Vice President Kicheril Raman NARAYANAN (since 21 August 1992)

head of government:

Prime Minister I.K. GUJRAL (since 21 April 1997)

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;
• vice president elected by both houses of Parliament;
• prime minister elected by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative elections

election results:

• Shankar Dayal SHARMA elected president;
• percent of electoral college vote - NA;
• Kicheril Raman NARAYANAN elected vice president;
• percent of Parliament vote - NA;
• I.K. GUJRAL elected prime minister;
• percent of vote - NA

• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), A. B. VAJPAYEE;
• Congress (I) Party, Sitaram KESRI, president;
• Janata Dal Party, Laloo Prasad YADAV;
• Janata Dal (Ajit), Ajit SINGH;
• Communist Party of India/Marxist (CPI/M), Harkishan Singh SURJEET;
• Tamil Maanila Congress, G. K. MOOPANAR;
• Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (a regional party in Tamil Nadu), M. KARUNANIDHI;
• Samajwadi Party (SP), Mulayam Singh YADAV (president), Om Prakash CHAUTALA, Devi LAL;
• Telugu Desam (Naidu) (a regional party in Andhra Pradesh), Chandrababu NAIDU;
• Communist Party of India (CPI), Indrajit GUPTA;
• Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Tridip CHOWDHURY;
• Asom Gana Parishad, Prafulla Kumar MAHANTA;
• Congress (Tiwari), Arjun SINGH and N.D. TIWARI;
• All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), Prem Dutta PALIWAL (chairman), Chitta BASU (general secretary);
• Muslim League, G. M. BANATWALA;
• Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress, Madhavro SCINDIA;
• Karnataka Congress Party, S. BANGARAPPA;
• Shiv Sena, Bal THACKERAY;
• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Kanshi RAM;
• Communist Party of India/Marxist-Leninist (CPI/ML), Vinod MISHRA;
• Akali Dal factions representing Sikh religious community in the Punjab;
• National Conference (NC; a regional party in Jammu and Kashmir), Farooq ABDULLAH;
• Bihar Peoples Party, Lovely ANAND;
• Samata Party (formerly Janata Dal members), George FERNANDES;
• Indian National League, Suliaman SAIT;
• Kerala Congress (Mani faction), K. M. MANI

note: subsequent to the election, the following parties were dissolved - Congress (Tiwari), Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress, and Karnataka Congress Party

• various separatist groups seeking greater communal and/or regional autonomy;
• numerous religious or militant/chauvinistic organizations, including
  • Adam Sena,
  • Ananda Marg,
  • Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
  • and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

AfDB, AG (observer), AsDB, BIS (pending member), C, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G- 6, G-15, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, OAS (observer), PCA, SAARC, UN, UNAVEM III, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMIH, UNOMIL, UNU, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO

chief of mission :

Ambassador Naresh CHANDRA

chancery:

2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008; note - Embassy located at 2536 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 939-7000

chief of mission:

Ambassador Frank G. WISNER

embassy:

Shanti Path, Chanakyapuri 110021, New Delhi

mailing address:

use embassy street address

telephone :

[91] (11) 600651

• three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band;
• similar to the flag of Niger, which has a small orange disk centered in the white band

• rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes;
• cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry;
• fish catch of about 3 million metric tons ranks India among the world's top 10 fishing nations

total value :

$30.5 billion (f.o.b., 1995)

commodities:

clothing, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures, cotton yarn, and fabric

partners:

US, Japan, Germany, UK, Hong Kong

total value:

$34.5 billion (c.i.f., 1995)

commodities:

crude oil and petroleum products, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

partners:

US, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UK, Belgium, Japan

recipient:

• ODA, $1.237 billion (1993);
• US ODA bilateral commitments $171 million;
• US Ex-Im bilateral commitments $680 million;
• Western (non-US) countries, ODA bilateral commitments $2.48 billion;
• OPEC bilateral aid $200 million;
• World Bank (IBRD) multilateral commitments $2.8 billion;
• Asian Development Bank (AsDB) multilateral commitments $760 million;
• International Finance Corporation (IFC) multilateral commitments $200 million;
• other multilateral commitments $554 million (1995-96)

• probably the least adequate telephone system of any of the industrializing countries;
• three of every four villages have no telephone service;
• only 5% of India's villages have long-distance service;
• poor telephone service significantly impedes commercial and industrial growth and penalizes India in global markets;
• slow improvement is taking place with the recent admission of private and private-public investors, but demand for communication services is also growing rapidly

domestic :

• local service is provided mostly by open wire and obsolete electromechanical and manual switchboard systems;
• within the last 10 years a substantial amount of digital switch gear has been introduced for local service;
• long-distance traffic is carried mostly by open wire, coaxial cable, and low-capacity microwave radio relay;
• since 1985, however, significant trunk capacity has been added in the form of fiber-optic cable and a domestic satellite system with over 100 earth stations

international :

satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean Region); submarine cables to Malaysia and UAE

total:

62,462 km (11,793 km electrified; 12,617 km double track)

broad gauge:

37,824 km 1.676-m gauge

narrow gauge:

20,653 km 1.000-m gauge; 3,985 km 0.762-m and 0.610-m gauge (1995 est.)

total :

2,009,600 km

paved:

1,006,810 km

unpaved:

1,002,790 km (1995 est.)

total :

306 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 6,832,647 GRT/11,376,028 DWT

ships by type:

bulk 132, cargo 59, chemical tanker 8, combination bulk 3, combination ore/oil 3, container 11, liquefied gas tanker 8, oil tanker 75, passenger-cargo 5, roll-on/roll-off cargo 1, short-sea passenger 1 (1996 est.)

• boundaries with Bangladesh and China in dispute;
• status of Kashmir with Pakistan;
• water-sharing problems with downstream riparian Pakistan over the Indus (Wular Barrage);
• Bangladesh and India signed a treaty 12 December 1996 to share water from the Ganges

• world's largest licit producer of opium for the pharmaceutical trade, but an undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit international drug markets;
• major transit country for illicit narcotics produced in neighboring countries;
• illicit producer of hashish and methaqualone;
• produced 47 metric tons of illicit opium in 1996 INDIAN OCEAN [Map of Indian Ocean]