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

0-14 years:

31.7% (male 173,869,856; female 164,003,915)

15-64 years:

63.5% (male 349,785,804; female 326,289,402)

65 years and over:

4.8% (male 25,885,725; female 25,235,905) (2004 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 (2004 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 19 August 2002)

head of government:

Prime Minister Manmohan SINGH (since NA May 2004)

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 NA July 2002 (next to be held 18 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 chosen by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative elections;
• election last held April - May 2004 (next to be held NA 2009)

election results:

• Abdul KALAM elected president;
• percent of electoral college vote - 89.6%;
• Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT elected vice president;
• percent of Parliament vote - 59.8%

• 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 [Venkaiah NAIDU];
• 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 Congress or INC [leader NA];
• Indian National League [Suliaman SAITH];
• Janata Dal (Secular) [H. D. Deve GOWDA];
• Janata Dal (United) or JDU [Sharad YADAV];
• Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM [leader NA];
• Kerala Congress (Mani faction) [K. M. MANI];
• Lok Jan Shakti Party or LSP [leader NA];
• Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or MDMK [VAIKO];
• Muslim League [G. M. BANATWALA];
• Nationalist Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR];
• Pattali Makkal Katchi or PMK [leader NA];
• 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 or SAD [G. S. TOHRA];
• Shiv Sena or SS [Bal THACKERAY];
• Tamil Maanila Congress [G. K. VASAN];
• Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS [leader NA];
• 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, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, C, CERN (observer), CP, 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, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), ONUB, OPCW, PCA, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNMIK, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

chief of mission:

Ambassador Ranendra SEN

chancery:

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

telephone:

[1] (202) 939-7000

FAX:

[1] (202) 265-4351

consulate(s) general:

Chicago, Houston, New York, and San Francisco

chief of mission:

Ambassador David C. MULFORD

embassy:

Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021

mailing address:

use embassy street address

telephone:

[91] (11) 2419-8000

FAX:

[91] (11) 2419-0017

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:

• recent deregulation and liberalization of telecommunications laws and policies have prompted rapid change;
• local and long distance service provided throughout all regions of the country, with services primarily concentrated in the urban areas;
• steady improvement is taking place with the recent admission of private and private-public investors, but telephone density remains low at about seven for each 100 persons nationwide but only one per 100 persons in rural areas and a national waiting list of over 1.7 million;
• fastest growth is in cellular service with modest growth in fixed lines

domestic:

• expansion of domestic service, although still weak in rural areas, resulted from increased competition and dramatic reductions in price led in large part by wireless service;
• mobile cellular service (both CDMA and GSM) introduced in 1994 and organized nationwide into four metropolitan cities and 19 telecom circles each with about three private service providers and one state-owned service provider;
• in recent years significant trunk capacity added in the form of fiber-optic cable and one of the world's largest domestic satellite systems, the Indian National Satellite system (INSAT), with 5 satellites supporting 33,000 very small aperture terminals (VSAT)

international:

• country code - 91;
• 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, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, and Ernakulam;
• 5 submarine cables, including Sea-Me-We-3 with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay), Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with landing site at Mumbai (Bombay), South Africa - Far East (SAFE) with landing site at Cochin, i2icn linking to Singapore with landing sites at Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai (Madras), and Tata Indicom linking Singapore and Chennai (Madras), provide a significant increase in the bandwidth available for both voice and data traffic (2004)

total:

63,140 km (15,994 km electrified)

broad gauge:

45,099 km 1.676-m gauge

narrow gauge:

14,776 km 1.000-m gauge; 3,265 km 0.762-m gauge and 0.610-m gauge (2003)

total:

3,319,644 km

paved:

1,517,077 km

unpaved:

1,802,567 km (1999 est.)

• gas 6,171 km;
• liquid petroleum gas 1,195 km;
• oil 5,613 km;
• refined products 5,567 km (2004)

total:

306 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 6,555,507 GRT/11,069,791 DWT

by type:

bulk 90, cargo 77, chemical tanker 14, combination bulk 1, combination ore/oil 2, container 10, liquefied gas 10, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum tanker 93, roll on/roll off 1, short-sea/passenger 2, specialized tanker 1

foreign-owned:

China 2, Portugal 1

registered in other countries:

63 (2004 est.)

• Kashmir remains the world's most highly militarized territorial dispute with portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas), but recent discussions and confidence-building measures among parties are beginning to defuse tensions;
• India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding lands to China in the 1965 boundary agreement;
• disputes with Pakistan over Indus River water sharing and the terminus of the Sir Creek Estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch, which prevents maritime boundary delimitation;
• Pakistani maps continue to show Junagadh claim in Indian Gujarat State;
• most of the rugged, militarized boundary with China is in dispute, but sides have committed to begin resolution with discussions on the least disputed Middle Sector;
• Joint Border Committee with Nepal continues to work on resolution of minor disputed boundary sections;
• discussions with Bangladesh remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, to exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in both countries, to allocate divided villages, and to stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, and violence;
• Bangladesh protests India's attempts to fence off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary;
• dispute with Bangladesh over volcanic New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation;
• India seeks cooperation from Bhutan and Burma to keep out Indian Nagaland insurgents;
• joint border commission continues to work on small disputed sections of boundary with Nepal;
• India has instituted a stricter border regime to restrict transit of Maoist insurgents and illegal cross-border activities from Nepal

refugees (country of origin):

92,394 (China), 60,922 (Sri Lanka)

IDPs:

650,000 (Jammu and Kashmir conflicts; most IDPs are Kashmiri Hindus) (2004)

• 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