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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 59 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 32,87,263 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.
Lying entirely in the northern hemisphere, the
mainland extends between latitudes 8°4’ and
37°6’ north, longitudes 68°7’ and 97°25’ east,
and measures about 3,214 km from north to south
between the extreme latitudes and about 2,933 km
from east to west between the extreme
longitudes. It has a land frontier of about
15,200 km. The total length of the coastline of
the mainland, Lakshadweep Islands, and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands is 7,516.6 km.
India’s population,
as on 1 March 2001 stood at 1,028 million (532.1
million males and 496.4 million females).
According to the 2001 census, out of the total
population of 1.028 million in the Country,
Hindus constituted the majority with 80.5 %,
Muslims came second at 13.4%, followed by
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and others.
There are 22 National Languages have been
recognized by the Constitution of India, of
which Hindi is the Official Union Language.
Besides these, there are 844 different dialects
that are practiced in various parts of the
Country. |
