India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural heritage. It has achieved multifaceted socio-economic progress during the last 60 years of its Independence. India has become self-sufficient in agricultural production, and is now the tenth industrialized country in the world and the sixth nation to have gone into outer space to conquer nature for the benefit of the people. It covers an area of 3.287 millions sq km, extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical rain forests of the south. As the seventh largest country in the world, India stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical entity. Bounded by the Great Himalayas in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west.
Location:
The Republic of India is a country in South Asia which comprises most of the Indian subcontinent. India has a coastline which stretches for over seven thousand kilometers and shares its borders with Pakistan on the northwest, the People’s Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan on the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar on the east. On the Indian Ocean, it is also adjacent to the island nations of the Maldives on the southwest, Sri Lanka on the south, and Indonesia on the southeast. India is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of over one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. The distance from India’s southern tip to its northernmost point is 3214 km. Its distance from east to west is 2933 km. It has 7,516 km of coastline on three bodies of water: the Arabian Sea off its western coast, the Indian Ocean to the south and the Bay of Bengal on its eastern side. India is a vast expanse of cultural, traditional and religious diversity. The Indian Subcontinent is separated from the rest of Asia by the Great Himalayan range. Indian subcontinent occupies an area of 3,268,000 sq. km which is roughly a third of the land mass of continental United States. Its geographical features are as diverse, ranging from perpetually snowcapped peaks to torrid deserts, form tropical rainforests to huge fertile plains & from rock escarpments to gentle rolling downs. Occupying most of the Indian subcontinent, India’s entire north and northeast states are made up of the Himalayan Range. The rest of northern, central and eastern India consists of the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain.
People in India:
Next to China, India is the country with the largest number of inhabitants in the world. Facing the fact that almost one thousand million people are living in India it is amazing that they occupy only 2.4 % of the earth’s surface. The average population density is 298 inhabitants per square km. In some areas, population density reaches over 1000 inhabitants per km Square for which two reasons can be mentioned. First, population remains concentrated in the big cities and around the fertile riverbeds of the Ganges and second huge parts of the country remain uninhabitable because they are covered either by desert or by high mountains. The average life expectancy is 58 years, the share of young people under the age of 18 is over 40%.Around a¾ of Indians are living in the rural area, a¼ of the population lives in cities. The biggest cities are Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi and Chennai (formerly Madras). About 5 million Indians are living abroad, primarily in South and East Africa, in South-East-Asia, North America and around the Persian Gulf.
Climate:
Because of India’s size, its climate depends not only on the time of year, but also the location. In general, temperatures tend to be cooler in the north, especially between September and March. The south is coolest between November to January. In June, winds and warm surface currents begin to move northwards and westwards, heading out of the Indian Ocean and into the Arabian Gulf. This creates a phenomenon known as the south-west monsoon, and it brings heavy rains to the west coast. Between October and December, a similar climatic pattern called the north-east monsoon appears in the Bay of Bengal, bringing rains to the east coast. In addition to the two monsoons, there are two other seasons, spring and autumn.
Occupation:
India is mainly an agricultural country, though it also has a large iron and steel industry and produces every type of manufactured goods. In the last few years India has gotten more and more involved in information technology and every year over 100,000 software professionals leave India to work in other countries, mainly the United States. India produces the world’s highest number of films annually. The most recognisable face is that of Bollywood, based in Mumbai, which produces mainly commercial Hindi films. Education is highly regarded by members of every socio-economic strata. India is also known for it’s beautiful jewelry and fashion.
