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 growing population is overstraining natural resources

English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication, Hindi the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, Bengali (official), Telugu (official), Marathi (official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati (official), Malayalam (official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official), Punjabi (official), Assamese (official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi (official), Sanskrit (official), Hindustani (a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India) note: 24 languages each spoken by a million or more persons; numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible

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

chief of state:

• President Kicheril Raman NARAYANAN (since 25 July 1997);
• Vice President Krishnan KANT (since 21 August 1997) head of government: Prime Minister Atal Behari VAJPAYEE (since 19 March 1998) 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 14 July 1997 (next to be held NA July 2002);
• vice president elected by both houses of Parliament for a five-year term;
• election last held 16 August 1997 (next to be held NA August 2002);
• prime minister elected by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative elections;
• election last held NA October 1999 (next to be held NA October 2004) election results: Kicheril Raman NARAYANAN elected president;
• percent of electoral college vote - NA%;
• Krishnan KANT elected vice president;
• percent of Parliament vote - NA%;
• Atal Behari VAJPAYEE elected prime minister;
• percent of vote - NA%

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 which 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 5 September through 3 October 1999 (next to be held NA 2004) election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - BJP alliance 40.8%, Congress alliance 33.8%, other 25.4%; seats by party - BJP alliance 304, Congress alliance 134, other 107

• All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or AIADMK [C. Jayalalitha JAYARAM];
• All India Forward Bloc or AIFB [Prem Dutta PALIWAL (chairman), Chitta BASU (general secretary)];
• Asom Gana Parishad [Prafulla Kumar MAHANTA];
• Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [Kanshi RAM];
• Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [Bangaru LAXMAN, president];
• Biju Janata Dal or BJD [Naveen PATNAIK];
• Communist Party of India or CPI [Ardhendu Bhushan BARDHAN];
• Communist Party of India/Marxist-Leninist or CPI/ML [Vinod MISHRA];
• Congress (I) Party [Sonia GANDHI, president];
• Dravida Munnetra Kazagham or DMK (a regional party in Tamil Nadu) [M. KARUNANIDHI];
• Indian National League [Suliaman SAIT];
• Janata Dal (Secular) [H. D. Deve GOWDA];
• Janata Dal (United) or JDU [Sharad YADAV, president, I. K. GUJRAL];
• Kerala Congress (Mani faction) [K. M. MANI];
• Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or MDMK [VAIKO];
• Muslim League [G. M. BANATWALA];
• Nationalist Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR];
• National Democratic Alliance, a 16-party alliance including BJP, DMK, Janata Dal (U), SHS, Shiromani Akali Dal, Telugu Desam, BJD, Rinamool Congress];
• Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Laloo Prasad YADAV];
• Revolutionary Socialist Party or RSP [Tridip CHOWDHURY];
• Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV, president];
• Shiromani Akali Dal [Prakash Singh BADAL];
• Shiv Sena [Bal THACKERAY];
• Tamil Maanila Congress [G. K. MOOPANAR];
• Telugu Desam Party or TDP (a regional party in Andhra Pradesh) [Chandrababu NAIDU];
• Trinamool Congress [Mamata BANERJEE]

• numerous religious or militant/chauvinistic organizations, including
  • Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
  • Bajrang Dal,
  • and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
  ;
• various separatist groups seeking greater communal and/or regional autonomy, including the All Parties Hurriyat Conference

AfDB, ARF (dialogue partner), AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, C, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G- 6, G-15, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA (observer), IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MINURSO, MIPONUH, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, SAARC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNU, UPU, WCL, 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

• 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

general assessment:

• mediocre service;
• local and long distance service provided throughout all regions of the country, with services primarily concentrated in the urban areas;
• major objective is to continue to expand and modernize long-distance network in order to keep pace with rapidly growing number of local subscriber lines;
• steady improvement is taking place with the recent admission of private and private-public investors, but, with telephone density at about two for each 100 persons and a waiting list of over 2 million, demand for main line telephone service will not be satisfied for a very long time domestic: local service is provided by microwave radio relay and coaxial cable, with open wire and obsolete electromechanical and manual switchboard systems still in use in rural areas;
• starting in the 1980s, a substantial amount of digital switch gear has been introduced for local and long-distance service;
• long-distance traffic is carried mostly by coaxial cable and low-capacity microwave radio relay;
• since 1985 significant trunk capacity has been added in the form of fiber-optic cable and a domestic satellite system with 254 earth stations;
• mobile cellular service is provided in four metropolitan cities international: satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region);
• nine gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gaidhinagar, Hyderabad, and Ernakulam;
• 4 submarine cables - LOCOM linking Chennai (Madras) to Penang;
• Indo-UAE-Gulf cable linking Mumbai (Bombay) to Al Fujayrah, UAE;
• India-SEA-ME-WE-3, SEA-ME-WE-2 with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay);
• Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with landing site at Mumbai (Bombay) (2000)

total:

• 62,915 km (12,307 km electrified; 12,617 km double track) broad gauge: 40,620 km 1.676-m gauge narrow gauge: 18,501 km 1.000-m gauge;
• 3,794 km 0.762-m and 0.610-m gauge (1998 est.)

• boundary with China in dispute;
• status of Kashmir with Pakistan;
• water-sharing problems with Pakistan over the Indus River (Wular Barrage);
• a portion of the boundary with Bangladesh is indefinite;
• exchange of 151 enclaves along border with Bangladesh subject to ratification by Indian parliament;
• dispute with Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty Island

• world's largest producer of licit opium for the pharmaceutical trade, but an undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit international drug markets;
• transit country for illicit narcotics produced in neighboring countries;
• illicit producer of hashish and methaqualone