One-third the area of the United States, the Republic of India occupies most of the subcontinent of India in southern Asia. It borders on China in the northeast. Other neighbors are Pakistan on the west, Nepal and Bhutan on the north, and Burma and Bangladesh on the east.
The country can be divided into three distinct geographic regions: the Himalayan region in the north, which contains some of the highest mountains in the world, the Gangetic Plain, and the plateau region in the south and central part. Its three great river systems—the Ganges, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra—have extensive deltas and all rise in the Himalayas.
Country lead by President: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (2002)
Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh (2004)
Population
1,095,351,995 (growth rate: 1.4%); birth rate: 22.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 54.6/1000; life expectancy: 64.7; density per sq mi: 954
Land Area
1,147,949 sq mi (2,973,190 sq km); total area: 1,269,346 sq mi (3,287,590 sq km)
Monetary unit
Rupee Language
Hindi 30%, English, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Assamese, Sanskrit, Sindhi (all official); Hindi/Urdu; 1,600+ dialects
Ethnicity Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
Religion Hindu 81%, Islam 13%, Christian 2%, Sikh 2% (2001)
Transportation Railways: total: 63,230 km (16,693 km electrified) (2004). Highways: total: 2,525,989 km; paved: 1,448,655 km; unpaved: ,077,334 km (1999). Waterways: 14,500 km; note: 5,200 km on major rivers and 485 km on canals suitable for mechanized vessels (2004). Ports and harbors: Chennai, Haldia, Jawaharal Nehru, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), New Mangalore, Vishakhapatnam. Airports: 333 (2004 est.).
