Basic Facts of India

India has a population of 127 crores (as per the 2015) holding the 2nd populous rank in the world. It's called the largest democracy in the world because, the highly populated country `China` is led completely and continuously by the communist party.

India is expected to be the most populous country by 2050! Though India holds a second place in population, it's placed at No.7 on the size wise. Its area stretches around 32, 87,590 square kilometers with almost 10 percent of it covered by the water.

India shares a land border with Pakistan on the west. On its east, India has Bangladesh and Myanmar. China, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan share their border with India on the north-east. Though a small portion of Afghanistan is on the western border of India... it cannot be deemed to be an official border as the said province is in the hands of Pakistan (Pakistan occupied Kashmir).

Hundreds of languages were spoken all over the country with numerous dialects within each language. Though there was no national language for India... Hindi (with devanagari script) is chosen as official language for communication. Besides, English is treated as a semi-official language of the country. The eighth schedule of the Indian constitution recognizes 22 languages to give representation to main languages. Hindi, Bengali and Telugu tops the three positions of the list in respect of their speakers. Besides every state has its own official language. For example Telugu is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry.

India was divided into 29 states and 7 union territories for the convenience of administration. Telangana is the 29th state formed in the year 2014. The states were run by the state wide governments and the Union territories were administered by the Central government. The union territories of Puducherry and Delhi gained an exception to this rule.

The main rivers of India constitute Ganga, Brahmaputra, Krishna, Godavari, Narmada, Kaveri and Mahanadi. The Mountain ranges of Himalayas, Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, Satpura, Aravali, Purvanchal, Vindhya form the major mountain ranges of India.

India has its own National symbols that represent its character. Its National flag is a tri-color flag, and the National emblem is a three lion headed symbol. Besides Lotus (flower), Mango (fruit), Ganga (river), Indian banyan (tree), Royal Bengal tiger (animal), Dolphin (aquatic animal), Indian peacock (bird) form the National symbols of the country. The Independence Day (August 15th), Republic Day (January 26th) and Gandhi Jayanti (October 2nd) constitute the National days for India.