Traveling Tales  Mahabalipuram Girl |
Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings.
- Indian Proverb |
Stories | |
Country Overview | |
India is a large and populous country located in Southern Asia, with a total land area of 3,287,590 sq km. India's peninsular shape leaves it with over 7,000 km of coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Climate varies greatly from tropical in the south to temperate in the north. The lowest point is sea level at the Indian Ocean and the highest is Kanchenjunga in the Himilayas at 8,598 meters. Government type is a federal republic with New Delhi as the capital. President Kocheril Raman Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee work with the cabinet and parliament to govern the largest democracy in the world. Population is 1.033 billion with a 1.7% rate of natural increase. Language is diverse in India. Dialects in the north belong to the Aryan family while those in the south belong to the Dravidian family. National or official languages include: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kennada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English. Hundreds of other languages are also spoken. Economy encompases a vast array of agriculture, production, technology and service industries from traditional to modern. GDP is US$2,200 with 35% of the population (3.5 million people) living below the poverty line. Sixty-seven percent of the labor force is engaged in agriculture, with 18% in services and 15% in industry. Maps: Political Map - Physical Map |