Total area: 3,287,590 sq km (1,269,338 sq mi)
Population (2009 est.): 1,166,079,217
Capital (2003 est.): New Delhi - 15,334,000 (metro. area)
Largest cities: Bombay (Mumbai) - 18,336,000 (metro. area); Calcutta (Kolkata) - 14,299,000 (metro. area); Bangalore - 4,461,100; Madras (Chennai) - 4,382,100; Ahmedabad - 3,653,700; Hyderabad - 3,585,600; Kanpur - 2,631,800
Currency: Rupee
Languages: Hindi 30%, English, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Assamese, Sanskrit, Sindhi (all official)
Religions: Hindu 81%, Islam 13%, Christian 2%, Sikh 2%
Time zone: GMT+5.5; DST is not observed
Electricity: AC 230V/50Hz; most popular plug types are with three round pins ("old British" standard) and with two round pins (European standard)
India is a large country in South Asia, occupying the Indian Subcontinent with the Arabian Sea to the west, Bay of Bengal to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. The Himalayan mountains are situated north of the subcontinent. India borders China on the northeast, Pakistan on the west, Nepal and Bhutan on the north, and Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh on the east.
There are three distinct geographic regions in India: the Himalayan region in the north, the Gangetic Plain that runs west-east, south of Himalayas, and the plateau situated in the central and southern part.
India is the second most populous country in the world (after China) and seventh-largest by the area. It is a country with very rich history and also very diverse in many aspects - geography, climate, culture, or language.
