Independence: August 15, 1947 (from the United Kingdom);
Adjacent Countries: Bangladesh (southeast), Bhutan (northeast), Burma (east), China (north), Nepal (northeast), Pakistan (west); Click Here for a map
Government: Federal Republic; Capital: New Dehli Chief of State: President Kicheril Raman NARAYANAN (since July 25, 1997) Head of Gov't: Prime Minister Behari VAJPAYEE (since March 19, 1998)
Population (July 2001 est.):
1,029,991,145
Infant mortality rate (2001 est.):
63.19 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth (2001 est.): Total Population: 62.86 years Male: 62.22 years Female: 63.53 years
Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan - 72% Dravidian - 25% Mongoloid and other - 3%
Religions: Hindu - 81.3% Muslim - 12% Christian - 2.3% Sikh - 1.9% other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi - 2.5%
Languages: English - most important language for national, political, and commercial; Hindi - national language; and primary tongue of 30% of the people; Bengali (official), Telugu (official), Marathi (official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati (official), Malayalam (official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official), Punjabi (official), Assamese (official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi (official), Sanskrit (official), Hindustani
Literacy: (definition: age 15 and over can read and write)(1995 est.) Total Population: 52% Male: 65.5% Female: 37.7%
