www.lawexams.

in
   INDIA BASIC FACTS

Official Name Bharat (Hindi), Republic of India (English)

Capital New Delhi

Population 1, 027, 015, 247 (2001 Census)

Area 3.3 million square kilometers

Geographical Location Lies between latitudes 8 ° 4' and 37 ° 6 '

north and longitudes 68 ° 7 ' and 97° 25' east

Coastline Length 7600 km

Languages has two National languages (Central administrative). They

are English (associate official) and Hindi (in the Devanagiri script). The
Indian Constitution also officially recognizes 22 regional languages.

Major Religions Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism,

Jainism

Literacy 65.38%

National Anthem Jan gana mana written by Rabindranath Tagore

National Song Vande Mataram, composed in Sanskrit by
Bankimchandra Chatterji

National Emblem Replica of the Lion Capital of Sarnath

National Flag Horizontal tricolor in equal proportion of deep saffron

on the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. In the
center of the white band is a wheel in navy blue color

National Animal Tiger

National Bird Peacock

National Flower Lotus

National Tree Banyan

National  Currency Rupee (One Rupee=100 paise)

National Sport Hockey

INDIA is one of the oldest civilisations in the world with a

kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural heritage. It has achieved all-
round socio-economic progress during the last 60 years of its
Independence. India has become self-sufficient in agricultural
production and is now the tenth industrialised 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 32,87,2631
sq km, extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the
tropical rain forests of the south. As the 7th 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 Andaman & Nicobar Islands is
7,516.6 km.

Countries having a common border with India are Afghanistan and Pakistan to the
north-west, China, Bhutan and Nepal to the north, Myanmar to the east and
Bangladesh to the east of West Bengal. Sri Lanka is separated from India by a narrow
channel of sea formed by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.

The mainland comprises four regions, namely, the great mountain zone, plains of the
Ganga and the Indus, the desert region and the southern peninsula. The Himalayas
comprise three almost parallel ranges interspersed with large plateaus and valleys,
some of which, like the Kashmir and Kullu valleys, are fertile, extensive and of great
scenic beauty. Some of the highest peaks in the world are found in these ranges. The
high altitudes admit travel only to a few passes, notably the Jelep La and Nathu La on
the main Indo-Tibet trade route through the Chumbi Valley, north-east of Darjeeling
and Shipki La in the Satluj valley, north-east of Kalpa (Kinnaur). The mountain wall
extends over a distance of about 2,400 km with a varying depth of 240 to 320 km. In
the east, between India and Myanmar and India and Bangladesh, hill ranges are much
lower. Garo, Khasi, Jaintia and Naga Hills, running almost east-west, join the chain to
Mizo and Rkhine Hills running northsouth.The plains of the Ganga and the Indus,
about 2,400 km long and 240 to 320 km broad, are formed by basins of three distinct
river systems - the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra. They are one of the world’s
greatest stretches of flat alluvium and also one of the most densely populated areas on
the earth.
FIRST IN INDIA

 First British Governor General of Independent India- Lord Mountbatten

 First Chief Justice of India- HJ .Kaniya
 First Commander-in-Chief of Free India- General K M Kariappa
 First Chief of Air Staff- Air Marshal Sir Thomos Elmhirst
First Acting PM of India- Gulsarilal Nanda
First Indian to become member of house of lords- S.P.Sinha
First Robot built in India- Progman 150
 First Indian Air Chief- Air Marshal S Mukherjee
 First Chief of Army Staff- General M Rajendra Singh
 First Chief of Naval Staff- Vice Admiral R D Katari
First Chairman-Prasar bharati- Nikhil chakravarthy
 First Cosmonaut- Rakesh Sharma
 First Female Graduates- Kadambini Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu
 First Female Head of an Undergraduate Academic Institution- Chandramukhi
 Basu
 First Female Honours Graduate- Kamini Roy
 First Female Lawyer- Cornelia Sorabjee
 First Female Physician- Kadambini Ganguly
 First Field Marshal- SHFJ Manekshaw
 First Governor-General of Indian Union- C Rajagopalachari
 First Graduate in Medicine- Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty
 First Indian to get an Oscar- Bhanu Athaiya
First actress to get Padmasree- Nargis
 First Indian to reach the South Pole- Col Jatinder Kumar Bajaj
 First Indian to win a major literary award in the United States- Dhan Gopal
Mukerji
 First Indian to win an Olympic medal- Norman Pritchard
 First Indian ICS Officer- Satyendranath Tagore
 First Indian Man to swim across the English Channel- Mihir Sen
 First Indian Woman to swim across the English Channel- Miss Arati Saha
 First Magsaysay Award Winner- Acharya Vinod Bhave
 First Nobel Prize Winner- Rabindranath Tagore
 First President of the Indian National Congress- W C Bonnerjee
 First President of the India- Rajendra Prasad
 First Prime Minister of India- Jawaharlal Nehru
 First Deputy Prime Minister of India- Vallabhbhai Patel
 First Talkie Film- Alam Ara (1931)
 First Woman President of the Indian National Congress- Annie Besant
 First Woman Prime Minister- Indira Gandhi
 First Woman Minister- Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
  First Woman Chief Minister of a State- Sucheta Kripalani
 First Woman Governor- Sarojini Naidu
 First Woman central Minister- Vijayalakshmi Pandit
 First Woman Speaker of a State Assembly- Mrs Shanno Devi
 First Woman Airline Pilot- Durga Banerjee
 First Woman to Win Asiad Gold- Kamlijit Sandhu
-
 First Woman to Win an Olympic medal- Karnam Malleswari
 First Woman Judge of Supreme Court- Meera Sahib Fatima Beevi
 First Woman IPS Officer- Kiran Bedi
 First Woman to Win Miss Universe Title- Sushmita Sen
 First Woman to win the Ford Supermodel of the World (contest)- Bipasha
Basu
 First Woman to Win Nobel Prize- Mother Teresa
 First Woman to win Miss World title- Reita Faria
 First Formula 1 Race Driver- Narain Karthikeyan
NATIONAL FLAG

National flag is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (kesaria) at the top, white in the middle and dark green
at the bottom in equal proportion. The ratio of width of the flag to its length is two to three. In the centre of
the white band is a navy-blue wheel which represents the chakra. Its design is that of the wheel which
appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. Its diameter approximates to the width of the
white band and it has 24 spokes. The design of the National Flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly
of India on 22 July 1947. Apart from non-statutory instructions issued by the Government from time to
time, display of the National Flag is governed by the provisions of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of
Improper Use) Act, 1950 (No. 12 of 1950) and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 (No.
69 of 1971). The Flag Code of India, 2002 is an attempt to bring together all such laws, conventions,
practices and instructions for the guidance and benefit of all concerned. The Flag Code of India, 2002, takes
effect from 26 January 2002 and supersedes the ‘Flag Code—Indias’ as it existed. As per the provisions of
the Flag Code of India, 2002, there shall be no restriction on the display of the National Flag by members of
general public, private organisations, educational institutions, etc., except to the extent provided in the
Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 and the Prevention of Insults to National
Honour Act, 1971 and any other law enacted on the subject.

NATIONAL EMBLEM

The state emblem is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. In the original, there are four
lions, standing back to back, mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures in high relief of an
elephant, a galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening wheels over a bell-shaped lotus.
Carved out of a single block of polished sandstone, the Capital is crowned by the Wheel of the Law (Dharma
Chakra).In the state emblem, adopted by the Government of India on 26 January 1950,only three lions are
visible, the fourth being hidden from view. The wheel appears inrelief in the centre of the abacus with a bull
on right and a horse on left and theoutlines of other wheels on extreme right and left. The bell-shaped lotus
has beenomitted. The words Satyameva Jayate from Mundaka Upanishad, meaning 'Truth Alone Triumphs',
are inscribed below the abacus in Devanagari script.