Location:

Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan

Area:

total:  3,287,590 sq km

Climate:

varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north

Natural resources:

coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

Population:

1,029,991,145 (July 2001 est.)

Country name:

conventional long form:  Republic of India
conventional short form:  India

Capital:

New Delhi

Administrative divisions:

28 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh*, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli*, Daman and Diu*, Delhi*, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry*, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal

National holiday:

Republic Day, 26 January (1950)

GDP:

purchasing power parity - $2.2 trillion (2000 est.)

Industries:

textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software

Agriculture - products:

rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish

Exports - commodities:

textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures

Imports - commodities:

crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

Telephones - main lines in use:

27.7 million (October 2000)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

2.93 million (November 2000)

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 153, FM 91, short wave 68 (1998)

Radios:

116 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:

562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997)

Televisions:

63 million (1997)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

43 (2000)

Internet users:

4.5 million (2000)

Railways:

total:  62,915 km (12,307 km electrified; 12,617 km double track)  (1998 est.)

Highways:

total:  3,319,644 km 

Waterways:

16,180 km 

Pipelines:

crude oil 3,005 km; petroleum products 2,687 km; natural gas 1,700 km (1995)

Ports and harbors:

Chennai (Madras), Cochin, Jawaharal Nehru, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), Vishakhapatnam

Merchant marine:

total:  315 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 6,433,831 GRT/10,691,973 DWT  (2000 est.)

Airports:

337 (2000 est.)