India is known for its rich culture, traditions and values. Testimony by Mark Twain that India is the cradle of human race, the birth place of human speech, the mother of history, grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition is more than sufficient to prove the inherent strength of the country. It is also known Bharat.

India: Geography

India which can confidently boast of one of the oldest and greatest civilizations of the world extends from Himalayas in the north to Kanyakumari in the South. On the south of India lies Indian Ocean and on the west, Arabian sea. Within these boundaries, it covers an area of approximately 32,87,263 sq. km. It contains coastal areas, rich river valleys, mountains, vast deserts and thick forests. The mainland consists of four regions. They are the great mountain zone, plains of Ganga and the Indus, the desert region and the southern peninsula.

Neighbors of India

Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh have common borders with India. Sri Lanka is another neighbor. It is separated from India by a narrow channel of sea formed by the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar. The country is broadly divided into six zones, north, south, east, west, central and north-east.

India- Governance

India is a Sovereign, Secular and Democratic Republic. It is a union of 29 states and 7 union territories. The country follows a Parliamentary system of Government. The union government is composed of the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. In this model all powers are vested by the constitution in parliament, the prime minister and the Supreme Court. The prime minister is responsible for running the union government and is the head of executive.

The parliament is bicameral in nature, with the Lok Sabha being the lower house, and the Rajya Sabha the upper house. Laws governing the people of India are set down through parliamentary legislation. Individual state governments also consist of executive, legislative and judiciary.

The President is the constitutional head of the state. He is also the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. The Governor represents the President in the states. He is the head of Executive. The president also appoints an Administrator in each union territory to represent him. The system of government in states is similar to that of the Union. Each State/UT of India has a unique demography, history and culture, dress, festivals, language etc. The size, culture and food habits also vary from one state to another. India is indeed equivalent to many small countries in one country.

The judiciary systematically contains an apex supreme court, 24 high courts, and several district courts. Supreme court is the highest institution in the judicial system.

India: Population

1,210.9 million is the population of the country as on March 1, 2011. It consists of 623.2 million males and 587.5 million females. Though India accounts only 2.4 percent of the world surface area, the percentage of world population it sustains is very high. The population grew from 238.4 million in the twentieth century to the present level of 1210.9 million in 2011. The density of population, the number of persons per sq. km. of the country, is 382.
Sex ratio, which is a measure of the number of females per thousand number of males, in 2011 is 940. Sex ratio is an important social indicator to measure equality between males and females. The child sex ratio is on a lower side at 919 per thousand males.