India

agricultural land:

60.5%;

• arable land 52.8%;
• permanent crops 4.2%;
• permanent pasture 3.5%

forest:

23.1%

other:

16.4% (2011 est.)

• with the notable exception of the deserts in the northwest, including the Thar Desert, and the mountain fringe in the north, a very high population density exists throughout most of the country;
• the core of the population is in the north along the banks of the Ganges, with other river valleys and southern coastal areas also having large population concentrations

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

volcanism:

Barren Island (354 m) in the Andaman Sea has been active in recent years

• 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

• dominates South Asian subcontinent;
• near important Indian Ocean trade routes;
• Kanchenjunga, third tallest mountain in the world, lies on the border with Nepal

noun:

Indian(s)

adjective:

Indian

• with the notable exception of the deserts in the northwest, including the Thar Desert, and the mountain fringe in the north, a very high population density exists throughout most of the country;
• the core of the population is in the north along the banks of the Ganges, with other river valleys and southern coastal areas also having large population concentrations

at birth:

1.12 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.13 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

1.13 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.9 male(s)/female

total population:

1.08 male(s)/female (2016 est.)

degree of risk:

very high

food or waterborne diseases:

bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases:

dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria

water contact disease:

leptospirosis

animal contact disease:

rabies (2016)

conventional long form:

Republic of India

conventional short form:

India

local long form:

Republic of India/Bharatiya Ganarajya

local short form:

India/Bharat

etymology:

• the English name derives from the Indus River;
• the Indian name "Bharat" may derive from the "Bharatas" tribe mentioned in the Vedas of the second millennium B.C.;
• the name is also associated with Emperor Bharata, the legendary conqueror of all of India

name:

New Delhi

geographic coordinates:

28 36 N, 77 12 E

time difference:

UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

history:

previous 1935 (preindependence); latest draft completed 4 November 1949, adopted 26 November 1949, effective 26 January 1950

amendments:

• proposed by either the Council of States or the House of the People;
• passage requires majority participation of the total membership in each house and at least two-thirds majority of voting members of each house, followed by assent of the president of India;
• proposed amendments to the constitutional amendment procedures also must be ratified by at least one-half of the India state legislatures before presidential assent;
• amended many times, last in 2016 (2017)

• common law system based on the English model;
• separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus;
• judicial review of legislative acts

citizenship by birth:

no

citizenship by descent only:

at least one parent must be a citizen of India

dual citizenship recognized:

no

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

chief of state:

President Ram Nath KOVIND (since 25 July 2017); Vice President M. Venkaiah NAIDU (since 11 August 2017)

head of government:

Prime Minister Narendra MODI (since 26 May 2014)

cabinet:

Union Council of Ministers recommended by the prime minister, appointed by the president

elections/appointments:

• president indirectly elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament and state legislatures for a 5-year term (no term limits);
• election last held on 17 July 2017 (next to be held in July 2022);
• vice president indirectly elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament and state legislatures for a 5-year term (no term limits);
• election last held on 5 August 2017 (next to be held in August 2022);
• following legislative elections, the prime minister is elected by parliamentary members of the majority party

election results:

• Ram Nath KOVIND elected president;
• percent of electoral college vote - Ram Nath KOVIND (BJP) 65.7% Meira KUMAR (INC) 34.3%;
• Mohammad Hamid ANSARI reelected vice president (2012 election);
• electoral college vote - Mohammad Hamid ANSARI 490, Jaswant SINGH 238

description:

bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of the Council of States or Rajya Sabha (245 seats; 233 members indirectly elected by state and territorial assemblies by proportional representation vote, and 12 members appointed by the president; members serve 6-year terms) and the House of the People or Lok Sabha (545 seats; 543 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote and 2 appointed by the president; members serve 5-year terms)

elections:

House of the People - last held April-May 2014 in 10 phases; (next to be held by May 2019)

election results:

• House of the People - percent of vote by party - BJP 31.0%, INC 19.3%, AITC 3.8%, SP 3.4%, AIADMK 3.3%, CPI(M) 3.3%, TDP 2.6%, YSRC 2.5%, AAP 2.1%, SAD 1.8%, BJD 1.7%, SS 1.7%, NCP 1.6%, RJD 1.3%, TRS 1.3%, LJP 0.4%, other 15.9%, independent 3.0%;
• seats by party - BJP 282, INC 44, AIADMK 37, AITC 34, BJD 20, SS 18, TDP 16, TRS 11, CPI(M) 9, YSRC 9, LJP 6, NCP 6, SP 5, AAP 4, RJD 4, SAD 4, other 33, independent 3

highest court(s):

Supreme Court (the chief justice and 25 associate justices)

judge selection and term of office:

justices appointed by the president to serve until age 65

subordinate courts:

• High Courts;
• District Courts;
• Labour Court

note: in mid-2011, India’s Cabinet approved the "National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reform" to eliminate judicial corruption and reduce the backlog of cases

• Aam Aadmi Party or AAP [Arvind KEJRIWAL]
• All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or AIADMK [V.K.SASIKALA]
• All India Trinamool Congress or AITC [Mamata BANERJEE]
• Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI]
• Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [Amit SHAH]
• Biju Janata Dal or BJD [Naveen PATNAIK]
• Communist Party of India-Marxist or CPI(M) [Prakash KARAT]
• Indian National Congress or INC [Sonia GANDHI]
• Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) [Ram Vilas PASWAN]
• Nationalist Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR]
• Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Lalu Prasad YADAV]
• Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV]
• Shiromani Akali Dal or SAD [Parkash Singh BADAL]
• Shiv Sena or SS [Uddhav THACKERAY]
• Telegana Rashtra Samithi or TRS [K. Chandrashekar RAO]
• Telugu Desam Party or TDP [Chandrababu NAIDU]
• YSR Congress or YSRC [Jagan Mohan REDDY]

note: India has dozens of national and regional political parties

chief of mission:

Ambassador Navtej Singh SARNA (since 18 January 2017)

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

telephone:

[1] (202) 939-7000

FAX:

[1] (202) 265-4351

consulate(s) general:

Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, San Francisco

chief of mission:

Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires MaryKay L. Carlson (since 20 January 2017)

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), Hyderabad, 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;
• saffron represents courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation;
• white signifies purity and truth;
• green stands for faith and fertility;
• the blue chakra symbolizes the wheel of life in movement and death in stagnation

note: similar to the flag of Niger, which has a small orange disk centered in the white band

• the Lion Capital of Ashoka, which depicts four Asiatic lions standing back to back mounted on a circular abacus, is the official emblem;
• Bengal tiger;
• lotus flower;
• national colors: saffron, white, green

name:

"Jana-Gana-Mana" (Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People)

lyrics/music:

Rabindranath TAGORE

note: adopted 1950; Rabindranath TAGORE, a Nobel laureate, also wrote Bangladesh's national anthem

agriculture:

17.4%

industry:

28.8%

services:

46.2% (2016 est.)

• rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, lentils, onions, potatoes;
• dairy products, sheep, goats, poultry;
• fish

agriculture:

47%

industry:

22%

services:

31% (FY 2014 est.)

lowest 10%:

3.6%

highest 10%:

29.8% (2011)

general assessment:

• supported by recent deregulation and liberalization of telecommunications laws and policies, India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing telecom markets in the world;
• total telephone subscribership base exceeded 1 billion in 2015, an overall teledensity of roughly 80%, and subscribership is currently growing at roughly 5 million per month;
• urban teledensity now exceeds 100%, and rural teledensity has reached 50%

domestic:

• mobile cellular service introduced in 1994 and organized nationwide into four metropolitan areas and 19 telecom circles, each with multiple private service providers and one or more state-owned service providers;
• 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 6 satellites supporting 33,000 very small aperture terminals (VSAT)

international:

• country code - 91;
• a number of major international submarine cable systems, including SEA-ME-WE-3 with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay), SEA-ME-WE-4 with a landing site at Chennai, Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with a landing site at Mumbai (Bombay), South Africa - Far East (SAFE) with a landing site at Cochin, the i2i cable network 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;
• satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region);
• 9 gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, and Ernakulam (2015)

• Doordarshan, India's public TV network, operates about 20 national, regional, and local services;
• a large and increasing number of privately owned TV stations are distributed by cable and satellite service providers;
• in 2015, more than 230 million homes had access to cable and satellite TV offering more than 700 TV channels;
• government controls AM radio with All India Radio operating domestic and external networks;
• news broadcasts via radio are limited to the All India Radio Network;
• since 2000, privately owned FM stations have been permitted and their numbers have increased rapidly (2015)

number of registered air carriers:

20; inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 485

annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers:

98,927,860

annual freight traffic on registered air carriers:

1,833,847,614 mt-km (2015)

• condensate/gas 9 km;
• gas 13,581 km;
• liquid petroleum gas 2,054 km;
• oil 8,943 km;
• oil/gas/water 20 km;
• refined products 11,069 km (2013)

total:

68,525 km

broad gauge:

58,404 km 1.676-m gauge (23,654 electrified)

narrow gauge:

9,499 km 1.000-m gauge; 622 km 0.762-m gauge (2014)

country comparison to the world: 5

major seaport(s):

Chennai, Jawaharal Nehru Port, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), Sikka, Vishakhapatnam

container port(s) (TEUs):

Chennai (1,571,000), Jawaharal Nehru Port (4,492,000) (2015)

LNG terminal(s) (import):

Dabhol, Dahej, Hazira

• 16-18 years of age for voluntary military service (Army 17 1/2, Air Force 17, Navy 16 1/2);
• no conscription;
• women may join as officers, currently serve in combat roles as pilots, and will soon be allowed in all combat roles (2016)

refugees (country of origin):

• 110,098 (Tibet/China);
• 63,162 (Sri Lanka);
• 15,561 (Burma);
• 7,693 (Afghanistan) (2015)

IDPs:

796,000 (armed conflict and intercommunal violence) (2016)

• 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 and throughout Southwest Asia;
• illicit producer of methaqualone;
• vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through the hawala system;
• licit ketamine and precursor production