Freight traffic on the road is also fairly high, with the private sector almost entirely preferring it over the railways. India's official international carrier is Air India, with the domestic airline Indian Airlines also operates on some international routes. There are also a number of private air taxi companies operation on some of the major trunk routes. The official language of the Indian union is Hindi, the language spoken by the largest numberof people, but with 15 other major languages and 700 dialects, English has become a sort of lingua franca and is the accepted language for business and government. Telephone, telex, facsimile and electronic mail services are available in India.
Telecommunications can be problematic, particularly outside the major metropolitan areas.
With recent telecom reforms and the introduction of the private sector into the industry, service should improve dramatically in the future. India has the highest number of post offices in any country having 147,000 post offices with over 130,000 of the offices in rural areas. An international speed post service operated by the public-sector postal authorities connects 39 countries. Major international courier, such as Federal Express, DHL, UPS are also well represented in India. Prior permission from the RBI is required to enter into a lease of real property with a term of five years or more.