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, 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:

32.2% (male 173,973,350; female 163,979,116)

15-64 years:

63% (male 342,620,712; female 319,259,867)

65 years and over:

4.8% (male 25,281,756; female 24,585,317) (2003 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 (2003 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 Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT (since 12 August 2002)

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, 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, WCO, 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 saffron (subdued 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%:

3.5%

highest 10%:

33.5% (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:

63,518 km (15,009 km electrified)

broad gauge:

45,142 km 1.676-m gauge

narrow gauge:

15,013 km 1.000-m gauge; 3,363 km 0.762-m gauge and 0.610-m gauge (2002)

total:

3,319,644 km

paved:

1,517,077 km

unpaved:

1,802,567 km (1999 est.)

• gas 5,798 km;
• liquid petroleum gas 1,195 km;
• oil 5,613 km;
• refined products 5,567 km (2003)

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)

• much of the rugged, militarized boundary with China is in dispute, but the two sides have participated in more than 13 rounds of joint working group sessions on this issue;
• India objects to Pakistan ceding lands to China in 1965 boundary agreement that India believes are part of disputed Kashmir;
• with Pakistan, armed stand-off over the status and sovereignty of Kashmir continues;
• disputes with Pakistan over Indus River water sharing and the terminus of the Rann of Kutch, which prevents maritime boundary delimitation;
• Joint Border Committee with Nepal continues to work on resolution of disputed boundary sections;
• dispute with Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty Island in the Bay of Bengal prevents maritime boundary delimitation

• 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