| Republic of India
भारत गणराज्य*
Bhārat Gaṇarājya |
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| Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" सत्यमेव जयते "Truth Alone Triumphs" |
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| Anthem: Jana Gana Mana Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people |
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| National Song Vande Mataram I bow to thee, Mother |
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| Capital | New Delhi 28°36.8′N 77°12.5′E / 28.6133°N 77.2083°E |
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| Mumbai | ||||||
| Official languages |
Hindi, English
Hindi in the Devanagari script is the official language of the Union and English the "subsidiary official language".
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| Constitutional languages |
8th Schedule:
Assamese
Bengali Bodo Dogri Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Konkani Maithili Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi Sanskrit Santali Sindhi Tamil Telugu Urdu |
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| Demonym | Indian | |||||
| Government | Federal republic, parliamentary democracy |
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| - | President | Pratibha Patil | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh | ||||
| - | Chief Justice | K. G. Balakrishnan | ||||
| Legislature | Sansad | |||||
| - | Upper House | Rajya Sabha | ||||
| - | Lower House | Lok Sabha | ||||
| Independence | from United Kingdom | |||||
| - | Declared | 15 August 1947 | ||||
| - | Republic | 26 January 1950 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 3,287,240 km2 ‡ 1,269,210 sq mi |
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| - | Water | 9.56 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2009 estimate | 1,198,003,000 | ||||
| - | 2001 census | 1,028,610,328 | ||||
| - | Density | 364.4/km2 943.9/sq mi |
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| GDP | 2008 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $3.298 trillion " title="List of countries by GDP ">4th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $2,780 _per_capita" title="List of countries by GDP per capita">130th) | ||||
| GDP | 2008 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1.206 trillion " title="List of countries by GDP ">12th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $1,017 _per_capita" title="List of countries by GDP per capita">143rd) | ||||
| Gini | 36.8 | |||||
| HDI | 0.612 | |||||
| Currency | Indian rupee | |||||
| Time zone | IST | |||||
| - | Summer | not observed | ||||
| Drives on the | left | |||||
| Internet TLD | .in | |||||
| Calling code | 91 | |||||
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Non-numbered Footnotes:
* Bharat Ganarajya, that is, the Republic of India in Hindi, written in the Devanāgarī script. See also other official names
‡ This is the figure as per the United Nations though the Indian government lists the total area as 3,287,260 square kilometres. |
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India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometres . It is bordered by Pakistan to the west; People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.
Home to the Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread non-violent resistance.
India is a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies; however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and malnutrition. A pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
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