

Topic: Introduction
Background: The Indus Valley civilization, one of the world's oldest, flourished during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India. By the 19th century, Great Britain had become the dominant political power on the subcontinent and India was seen as the "Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire. Years of nonviolent resistance to British rule eventually resulted in Indian independence in 1947.The Indus Valley civilization, one of the world's oldest, flourished during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India. By the 19th century, Great Britain had become the dominant political power on the subcontinent and India was seen as the "Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire. Years of nonviolent resistance to British rule eventually resulted in Indian independence in 1947.

Topic: Geography
Area: total: 3,287,263 sq km

land: 2,973,193 sq km

water: 314,070 sq km
Climate: varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north
Natural resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), antimony, iron ore, lead, manganese, mica, bauxite, rare earth elements, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

Topic: People and Society
Population: 1,389,637,446 (2022 est.)
Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, and other 3% (2000)
Languages: Hindi 43.6%, Bengali 8%, Marathi 6.9%, Telugu 6.7%, Tamil 5.7%, Gujarati 4.6%, Urdu 4.2%, Kannada 3.6%, Odia 3.1%, Malayalam 2.9%, Punjabi 2.7%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.1%, other 5.6%; note - English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; there are 22 other officially recognized languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language (2011 est.)
Religions: Hindu 79.8%, Muslim 14.2%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.7%, other and unspecified 2% (2011 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.67% (2022 est.)

Topic: Government
Government type: federal parliamentary republic
Capital: name: New Delhi
Executive branch: 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) 
Legislative branch: description: bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of:
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 with one-third of the membership renewed every 2 years at various dates)
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)

Topic: Economy
Economic overview: largest South Asian economy; still informal domestic economies; COVID-19 reversed both economic growth and poverty reduction; credit access weaknesses contributing to lower private consumption and inflation; new social and infrastructure equity effortslargest South Asian economy; still informal domestic economies; COVID-19 reversed both economic growth and poverty reduction; credit access weaknesses contributing to lower private consumption and inflation; new social and infrastructure equity efforts
Real GDP (purchasing power parity): $8,443,360,000,000 (2020 est.)
Real GDP per capita: $6,100 (2020 est.)
Agricultural products: sugar cane, rice, wheat, buffalo milk, milk, potatoes, vegetables, bananas, maize, mangoes/guavas
Industries: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software, pharmaceuticals
Exports: $484.95 billion (2020 est.)
Exports - partners: United States 17%, United Arab Emirates 9%, China 5% (2019)
Exports - commodities: refined petroleum, diamonds, packaged medicines, jewelry, cars (2019)
Imports: $493.18 billion (2020 est.)
Imports - partners: China 15%, United States 7%, United Arab Emirates 6%, Saudi Arabia 5% (2019)
Imports - commodities: crude petroleum, gold, coal, diamonds, natural gas (2019)Page last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022