India

• droughts;
• flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains;
• severe thunderstorms;
• earthquakes

• 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

party to:

Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, 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, Whaling

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

0-14 years:

32.7% (male 175,858,386; female 165,724,901)

15-64 years:

62.6% (male 338,957,463; female 316,063,497)

65 years and over:

4.7% (male 24,975,465; female 24,265,514) (2002 est.)

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1.07 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

1.03 male(s)/female

total population:

1.07 male(s)/female (2002 est.)

noun:

Indian(s)

adjective:

Indian

• English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication;
• Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people;
• there are 14 other official languages:
  • Bengali,
  • Telugu,
  • Marathi,
  • Tamil,
  • Urdu,
  • Gujarati,
  • Malayalam,
  • Kannada,
  • Oriya,
  • Punjabi,
  • Assamese,
  • Kashmiri,
  • Sindhi,
  • and Sanskrit
  ;
• Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language

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 Abdul KALAM (since 26 July 2002); Vice President (vacant)

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 NA July 2002 (next to be held NA July 2007);
• vice president elected by both houses of Parliament for a five-year term;
• election last held 12 August 2002 (next to be held NA August 2007);
• 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)

head of government:

Prime Minister Atal Bihari VAJPAYEE (since 19 March 1998)

cabinet:

Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister

election results:

• Abdul KALAM elected president;
• percent of electoral college vote - NA%;
• Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT elected vice president;
• percent of Parliament vote - 59.8;
• Atal Bihari VAJPAYEE elected prime minister;
• percent of vote - NA%

• All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or AIADMK [C. Jayalalitha JAYARAM];
• All India Forward Bloc or AIFB, [D. BISWAS (general secretary)];
• Asom Gana Parishad [Brindaban GOSWAMI];
• Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI];
• Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [Jana KRISNAMURTHY];
• 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 [Dipankar BHATTACHARYA];
• Congress (I) Party [Sonia GANDHI];
• Dravida Munnetra Kazagham or DMK (a regional party in Tamil Nadu) [M. KARUNANIDHI];
• Indian National League [Suliaman SAITH];
• Janata Dal (Secular) [H. D. Deve GOWDA];
• Janata Dal (United) or JDU [Sharad YADAV];
• 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];
• Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Laloo Prasad YADAV];
• Revolutionary Socialist Party or RSP [Abani ROY];
• Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV];
• Shiromani Akali Dal [G. S. TOHRA];
• Shiv Sena [Bal THACKERAY];
• Tamil Maanila Congress [G. K. VASAN];
• Telugu Desam Party or TDP [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, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MIPONUH, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, SAARC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOVIC, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO

chief of mission:

Ambassador Lalit MANSINGH

consulate(s) general:

Chicago, Houston, New York, and San Francisco

FAX:

[1] (202) 483-3972

telephone:

[1] (202) 939-7000

chancery:

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

chief of mission:

Ambassador Robert D. BLACKWILL

embassy:

Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021

mailing address:

use embassy street address

telephone:

[91] (11) 419-8000

FAX:

[91] (11) 419-0017

consulate(s) general:

Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay)

• 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

lowest 10%:

4%

highest 10%:

34% (1997) (1997)

• 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 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:

63,693 km (13,771 km electrified)

broad gauge:

45,103 km 1.676-m gauge

narrow gauge:

• 15,178 km 1.000-m gauge;
• 3,105 km 0.762-m gauge;
• 307 km 0.610-m gauge (2001)

total:

3,319,644 km

paved:

1,517,077 km

unpaved:

1,802,567 km (1996)

Army, Navy (including naval air arm), Air Force, Strategic Nuclear Command (SNC), Coast Guard, various security or paramilitary forces (including Border Security Force, Assam Rifles, Rashtriya Rifles, National Security Guards, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Special Frontier Force, Ladakh Scouts, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Railway Protection Force, Defense Security Corps, and Indian Reserve Battalions)

• discussions with Bangladesh remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, demarcate and fence off the entire boundary, exchange 162 minuscule enclaves, and allocate divided villages while skirmishes, illegal trafficking, and violence along the border continue;
• Bangladesh has protested India's attempts to fence off high traffic sections of the porous boundary;
• dispute with Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty Island in the Bay of Bengal;
• much of the rugged, militarized boundary with China is in dispute but talks to resolve the least contested middle sector resumed in 2001;
• with Pakistan, armed stand-off over the status and sovereignty of Kashmir continues;
• dispute with Pakistan over terminus of Rann of Kutch prevents extension of a maritime boundary;
• water-sharing problems with Pakistan persist over the Indus River (Wular Barrage);
• Joint Border Committee formed with Nepal in 2001 is intended to resolve 53 disputed sections of boundary covering an area of 720 sq km

• 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 point for illicit narcotics produced in neighboring countries;
• illicit producer of methaqualone;
• vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through the hawala system