INDIA

INDIA
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BY K.R. Dikshit | See All Contributors Last Updated: Sep 29, 2021 | View Edit History
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India, country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. Its capital is New Delhi, built in the 20th
century just south of the historic hub of Old Delhi to serve as India’s administrative centre. Its
government is a constitutional republic that represents a highly diverse population consisting of
thousands of ethnic groups and likely hundreds of languages. With roughly one-sixth of the world’s total
population, India is the second most populous country, after China.
Yu
It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated urbanized culture—the Indus
civilization—dominated the northwestern part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 BCE. From
that period on, India functioned as a virtually self-contained political and 1cultural arena, which gave rise
to a distinctive tradition that was associated primarily with Hinduism, the roots of which can largely be
traced to the Indus civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, originated in India—
though their presence there is now quite small—and throughout the centuries residents of the
subcontinent developed a rich intellectual life in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, architecture,
literature, music, and the fine arts.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India
India: Introduction
India is located in Southern Asia bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Neighboring countries
include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal, and Pakistan. India has a diverse geology: upland
1
plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along the Ganges river, deserts in west, and the
Himalayas in the north. The government is a federal republic; the chief of state is the president, and the
head of government is the prime minister. India has a market economy in which the prices of goods and
services are determined in a free price system. India is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement
(APTA) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
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https://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/india
Intro to Government
INDIA GOVERNMENT OVERVIEW
Last updated: January 25, 2016
The Republic of India is a federation of 29 states and 7 union territories. It has a parliamentary
government, organized under the Constitution of India.
The Indian Parliament consists of two Houses – Rajya Sabha (Council of States/Upper House) and Lok
Sabha (House of the People/Lower House). While the President is the head of the state, the Prime
Minister, as head of the Central or Union government, exercises the most executive power.
The Central Government is formed by the party holding the majority of seats at the Lok Sabha. Each
state is also governed by State Governments elected through State Legislative assembly elections. The
Chief Minister is the Head of the State Government. The power to govern the states is divided between
the state and the central governments.
The Central Government governs the country with the help of its numerous ministries, departments,
and agencies. The Government consists of Cabinet Minister (who must be a member of either the Upper
House or the Lower House), Minister of States (who reports to Cabinet of Ministers) and Minister of
States (Independent Charge).
http://alttox.org/mapp/regulatory-policy/india-programs-policies/india-government-overview/
Government and politics
The dominion of India was reborn on January 26, 1950, as a sovereign democratic republic and a union
of states. With universal adult franchise, India’s electorate was the world’s largest, but the traditional
feudal roots of most of its illiterate populace were deep, just as their religious caste beliefs were to
remain far more powerful than more recent exotic ideas, such as secular statehood. Elections were to
be held, however, at least every five years, and the major model of government followed by India’s
constitution was that of British parliamentary rule, with a lower House of the People (Lok Sabha), in
which an elected prime minister and a cabinet sat, and an upper Council of States (Rajya Sabha). Nehru
led his ruling Congress Party from New Delhi’s Lok Sabha until his death in 1964. The nominal head of
India’s republic, however, was a president, who was indirectly elected. India’s first two presidents were
Hindu Brahmans, Rajendra Prasad and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the latter a distinguished Sanskrit
scholar who had lectured at the University of Oxford. Presidential powers were mostly ceremonial,
except for brief periods of “emergency” rule, when the nation’s security was believed to be in great
danger and normal constitutional procedures and civil rights were feared to be too cumbersome or
threatening.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Government-and-politics
Central Govt
Union government
The three branches of the union government are charged with different responsibilities, but the
constitution also provides a fair degree of interdependence. The executive branch consists of the
president, vice president, and a Council of Ministers, led by the prime minister. Within the legislative
branch are the two houses of parliament—the lower house, or Lok Sabha (House of the People), and the
upper house, or Rajya Sabha (Council of States). The president of India is also considered part of
parliament. At the apex of the judicial branch is the Supreme Court, whose decisions are binding on the
higher and lower courts of the state governments.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Constitutional-structure
2021
Central government hatched conspiracies to remove TMC from power in Bengal: Mamata Banerjee
ANI
Oct 03, 2021, 06:49 PM IST
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Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that the
central government hatched conspiracies to remove TMC from power since the start of the elections.
Banerjee's remarks came a short while before the election commission announced her massive victory
in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.
"Since the elections started in West Bengal, central government hatched conspiracies to remove us
(from power). I was hurt in my feet so that I don't contest the polls. I am grateful to the public for voting
for us and to the Election Commission of India for conducting polls within six months," said the TMC
supremo while greeting her supporters outside her residence in Kolkata.
Banerjee also said that nearly 46 per cent of non-Bengalis in Bhabanipur voted for her. "Around 46 per
cent of people here (in Bhabanipur) are non-Bengalis. They all have voted for me. People of West Bengal
are watching Bhabanipur, which has inspired me," she said.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/central-government-hatched-conspiracies-to-
remove-tmc-from-power-in-bengal-mamata-banerjee/articleshow/86729711.cms
State Government
The government structure of the states, defined by the constitution, closely resembles that of the union.
The executive branch is composed of a governor—like the president, a mostly nominal and ceremonial
post—and a council of ministers, led by the chief minister.
All states have a Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly), popularly elected for terms of up to five years,
while a small (and declining) number of states also have an upper house, the Vidhan Parishad
(Legislative Council), roughly comparable to the Rajya Sabha, with memberships that may not be more
than one-third the size of the assemblies. In these councils, one-sixth of the members are nominated by
the governor, and the remainder are elected by various categories of specially qualified voters. State
governors are also regarded as members of the legislative assemblies, which they may suspend or
dissolve when no party is able to muster a working majority.
Each Indian state is organized into a number of districts, which are divided for certain administrative
purposes into units variously known as tahsils, taluqs, or subdivisions. These are further divided into
community development blocks, each typically consisting of about 100 villages. Superimposed on these
units is a three-tiered system of local government. At the lowest level, each village elects its own
governing council (gram pancayat). The chairman of a gram pancayat is also the village representative
on the council of the community development block (pancayat samiti). Each pancayat samiti, in turn,
selects a representative to the district-level council (zila parishad). Separate from this system are the
municipalities, which generally are governed by their own elected councils.
From the state down to the village, government appointees administer the various government
departments and agencies. Financial grants from higher levels, often made on a matching basis, provide
developmental incentives and facilitate the execution of desired projects. Approving, withholding, or
manipulating grants, however, often serves as a lever for the accumulation of personal power and as a
vehicle of corruption.
State governments of India
Language
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State governments in India are the governments ruling over 28 states and 8 union territories of India
and the head of the Council of Ministers in a state is the Chief Minister. Power is divided between the
Union government and state governments. While the Union government handles defence, external
affairs etc., the state government deals with internal security and other state issues. Income for the
Union government is from customs duty, excise tax, income tax etc., while state government income
comes from sales tax (VAT), stamp duty etc.; now these have been subsumed under the various
components of the Goods and Services Tax
Each state has a legislative assembly. A state legislature that has one house - State Legislative Assembly
(Vidhan Sabha) - is a unicameral legislature.
A state legislature that has two houses - the State Legislative assembly and State Legislative Council
(Vidhan Parishad) - is a bicameral legislature. The Vidhan Sabha is the lower house and corresponds to
the Lok Sabha while the Vidhan Parishad is the upper house and corresponds to the Rajya Sabha of the
Parliament of India.
The Sarkaria Commission was set up to review the balance of power between states' and the Union
governments. The Union government can dissolve a state government in favour of President's rule if
necessary, subject to certain conditions, as ruled by the Supreme Court of India in S. R. Bommai v. Union
of India. It is for 5 years only.
Www.india.gov.in
Justice
Introduction to the Indian Judicial System
Share|
Author: Taruni Kavuri
Publish Year: 2020
Last updated: 2020
Primary Citation: Animal Legal & Historical Center
The Indian judicial system follows the common law system based on recorded judicial precedents as
inherited from the British colonial legacy. The court system of India comprises the Supreme Court of
India, the High Courts and subordinate courts at district, municipal and village levels.
I. Hierarchy of courts
The Indian judiciary is divided into several levels in order to decentralize and address matters at the
grassroots levels. The basic structure is as follows:
1. Supreme Court: It is the Apex court of the country and was constituted on 28th January 1950. It is the
highest court of appeal and enjoys both original suits and appeals of High Court judgments. The
Supreme Court is comprised of the Chief Justice of India and 25 other judges. Articles 124-147 of the
Constitution of India lay down the authority of the Supreme Court.
2. High Courts: High Courts are the highest judicial body at the State level. Article 214 lays down the
authority of High Courts. There are 25 High Courts in India. High Courts exercise civil or criminal
jurisdiction only if the subordinate courts in the State are not competent to try the matters. High Courts
may even take appeals from lower courts. High Court judges are appointed by the President of India
upon consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of the High Court and the Governor of
the State.
3. District Courts: District Courts are established by the State Governments of India for every district or
group of districts based on the caseload and population density. District Courts are under the direct
administration of High Courts and are bound by High Court judgments. Every district generally has two
kinds of courts:
a. Civil Courts
b. Criminal Courts
District Courts are presided over by District Judges. Additional District Judges and Assistant District
Judges may be appointed based on the caseload. Appeals against District Court judgments lie in the High
Court.
4. Lok Adalats/Village Courts: these are subordinate courts at the village level which provide a system
for alternate dispute resolution in villages.
5. Tribunals: the Constitution provides the government with the power to set up special Tribunals for
the administration of specific matters such as tax cases, land cases, consumer cases etc.
Appellate jurisdiction refers to the authority of a court to rehear/review a case decided by a lower court.
In India, appellate jurisdiction is vested in both the Supreme Court and High Courts. They may either
overrule or uphold the judgments of lower courts.
https://www.animallaw.info/article/introduction-indian-judicial-system
The tradition of an independent judiciary has taken strong root in India. The Supreme Court, whose
presidentially appointed judges may serve until the age of 65, determines the constitutional validity of
union government legislation, adjudicates disputes between the union and the states (as well as
disputes between two or more states), and handles appeals from lower-level courts. Each state has a
high court and a number of lower courts. The high courts may rule on the constitutionality of state laws,
issue a variety of writs, and serve as courts of appeal from the lower courts, over which they exercise
general oversight.
Political process
Oversight of the electoral process is vested in the Election Commission. There is universal adult suffrage,
and the age of eligibility is 18. Seats are allocated from constituencies of roughly equal population. A
certain number of constituencies in each state are reserved for members of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes based on their proportion of the total state population. Those reserved constituencies
shift from one election to the next. As candidates do not have to be and frequently are not residents of
the areas they seek to represent, none runs the risk of losing a seat solely by virtue of the allocation
procedure.
The Indian party system is complex. Based on performance in past elections, some parties are
recognized as national parties and others as state parties. Parties are allocated symbols (e.g., a cow or a
hammer and sickle), and ballots are printed with these symbols to help illiterate voters. The only party
that has enjoyed a nationwide following continuously from the time of independence (in fact, since its
founding in 1885) is the Indian National Congress. There have been several party schisms, however, and
the Indian National Congress–Indira, or simply the Congress (I)—created in 1978 by the former prime
minister Indira Gandhi and her supporters—has been by far the most successful of its derivative entities.
Parties to the left of the Congress have included not only the Communist Party of India, which generally
followed the lead of the Soviet Union, and the subsequently formed Communist Party of India (Marxist),
more inclined toward policies espoused by China, but also an assortment of small, mainly short-lived
Marxist and socialist groups. Parties to the right of the Congress have largely appealed either to Hindu
sentiments (such as the Bharatiya Janata [“Indian People’s”] Party; BJP) or those of other communally
defined groups, and some have sought to further the interests of landed constituencies (the
preindependence princely families or the more recently affluent peasant factions).
Over time there has been a steady increase in the number and power of parties promoting the parochial
interests of individual states. As a result, political bargains and alliances between parties with widely
divergent platforms are made and dissolved frequently. Moreover, expedient defections from one party
to another in pursuit of personal political ambitions have become a feature of the political system.
Legislation aimed at discouraging this practice has had only limited success.
Armed Forces
OCTOBER 23, 2019
Imbalance of Power
India’s Military Choices in an Era of Strategic Competition with China
By Daniel Kliman, Iskander Rehman, Kristine Lee and Joshua Fitt
Executive Summary
The United States has made a strategic bet: that India will decisively shape the military balance in Asia.1
In an era of avowed great power competition with China,2 at a time when the U.S. military’s edge over
the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to erode,3 this wager will have an outsized impact on the
future trajectory of the region. If India can maintain an advantage over China along its Himalayan
frontier and sustain its dominance in the Indian Ocean, U.S. efforts to deny Beijing a regional sphere of
influence are far more likely to succeed—as is the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific shared by
Washington and Delhi. If India fails to realize its military potential, the United States, caught in between
its many global commitments, will struggle to uphold a favorable balance of power.
Today, America’s wager has yet to fully pay off. The trend lines in the India-China military equation are
broadly negative. Despite very real improvements in Delhi’s defense capabilities and a significant
advantage conveyed by India’s maritime geography, its longstanding superiority over China in the Indian
Ocean is at risk of slipping away. Beijing has enhanced the capability and capacity of the naval forces it
can project into the Indian Ocean and pursued overseas military facilities to support a more regular
People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) presence there. Moreover, China’s long-range precision strike
complex, though constructed primarily with the United States as the intended adversary, extends into
the Indian Ocean—presenting a threat to Delhi’s maritime operations. The state of play along India’s
Himalayan frontier is more mixed. Delhi possesses a clear advantage in localized military strength, but
China has made significant infrastructure improvements in Tibet to enhance PLA mobility to surge
troops forward, while folding the entire border with India under a single unified theater command—a
major organizational restructuring that could yield an operational edge.
India has not stood still amid growing military competition with China. Delhi has sought to provide its
forces with greater mobility and operational awareness along the Himalayan frontier, while giving
increased focus to maritime domain awareness, logistics, and subsurface monitoring across the vast
expanses of the Indian Ocean. To weather a potential PLA attack, India has placed greater emphasis on
infrastructure hardening; base resiliency; redundant command, control, and communications systems;
and improved air defense. At the same time, India has shifted to a more punitive deterrence posture:
Having invested in long-range strike capabilities suitable to both land and maritime warfare, it
conducted a recent trial of a new anti-satellite weapon. It has also refined an operational concept for
the Himalayan theater that aims to take the battle into China’s territory. Lastly, Delhi has begun taking
steps to promote greater military jointness through new forms of defense organization.
https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/imbalance-of-power
WHO'S THE STRONGEST OF 'EM ALL?
India’s military is one of the strongest in the world—but its soldiers are among the worst paid
REUTERS/ADNAN ABIDI
Fight club.
FROM OUR OBSESSION
Borders
How borders are drawn and enforced has far-reaching consequences, whether we live on either side of
them or halfway across the world.
Niharika Sharma
By Niharika Sharma
Reporter
Published March 22, 2021Last updated on March 25, 2021
This post has been updated.
India has one of the strongest militaries in the world—but its soldiers are among the worst paid.
The country currently stands at the fourth spot, after China, the US, and the Russian Federation, in terms
of military strength, according to a study released on March 21 by Military Direct, an e-commerce site
that sells military gear.
The study, which included 12 major countries, ranked the military prowess of countries on a variety of
factors such as budgets, the number of inactive and active personnel, total air, sea, land, and nuclear
power, average salaries, and weight of equipment. The countries were given scores on a scale of one to
100.
As per the conventional rankings, the US military is known for being the strongest, followed by the
Russian Federation, and China. Military Direct ranked China as the strongest based on a scoring system
and information from its own sources.
“It looks like China would come out as top dog in a hypothetical super conflict,” the study said.
https://qz-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/qz.com/india/1987147/indian-military-strength-lags-china-us-
but-better-than-uk-japan/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D
%3D#aoh=16333456694023&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Findia%2F1987147%2Findian-military-strength-
lags-china-us-but-better-than-uk-japan%2F
2021
India paves way for more women in armed forces
8 September 2021
India's top court has cleared the way for more women to join the armed forces.
On Wednesday, the government told the Supreme Court that women can join military colleges and be
eligible for permanent commissions.
The decision comes less than a month after the top court allowed women to sit for examinations to
India's National Defence Academy (NDA).
Women make up a miniscule 0.56% of India's 1.4 million army personnel.
Their representation is somewhat better in the air force (1.08%) and navy (6.5%).
On Wednesday, the government sought time to frame guidelines for women candidates to take courses
in the NDA, a joint defence service training institute of India's armed forces.
India's soldiers 'not ready for women in combat'
"The armed forces play an important role... but need to do more for gender equality in the forces. We
want them to take a proactive approach themselves in ensuring gender equality rather than waiting for
courts to intervene," the Supreme Court said.
In August, the court had criticised the government of having a "regressive mindset" for not allowing
women to sit for NDA examinations. "It is a policy decision which is based in gender discrimination," the
court had said.
Women at the moment are inducted into the army through the Short Service Commission (SSC) and
don't qualify for a permanent commission - which allows an officer to serve a full tenure.
So women are initially meant to serve for five years, but have the option of extending their tenure.
However, they don't get the same benefits as their male counterparts.
Indian Air Force takes aim at gender norms

The only exceptions are the army's legal and education wings, where women officers have been eligible
for permanent commissions since 2008.
So women have worked in the armed forces as doctors, nurses, engineers, signallers, administrators and
lawyers. They have treated soldiers on battlefields, handled explosives, detected and removed mines,
and laid communication lines.
Experts say women have ended up doing almost everything except combat roles: they are still not
allowed to serve in infantry and the armoured corps.
In 2019 the government agreed to give permanent commissions to women but said this would only
apply to those officers who had served less than 14 years, citing physical limitations of older women
officers.
https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58486771.amp?
amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D
%3D#aoh=16333449466588&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-asia-india-58486771
People
What My DNA Says About India’s History
What a dive into the past, as told through genetics, can reveal about South Asia’s history.
Akhilesh Pillalamarri
By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
March 14, 2018
Going further back, it is likely that some of my ancestors originated in north India, being members of the
upper Brahmin caste, which has been endogamous (marrying only within its group) since the Gupta Era
(320-605 CE). According to DNA evidence, “the transition in India from free intermarriage to endogamy
took place about 70 generations ago; that is, about 1600 years ago.” With the post-Gupta rise of South
Indian kingdoms such as the Rashtrakutas, Cholas, and Chalukyas, many Brahmins were invited south to
serve as scribes, ritual priests, and administrators, presumably, some assimilation and intermarriage still
took place, given that my maternal DNA suggests that I have a female ancestor “who likely lived among
the inhabitants of present-day southern India shortly over 35,000 years ago.”
The aforementioned fact derives from my maternal and paternal haplogroup information.
https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/what-my-dna-says-about-indias-history/
INDIA
People of India
Ethnic groups
India is a diverse multiethnic country that is home to thousands of small ethnic and tribal groups. That
complexity developed from a lengthy and involved process of migration and intermarriage. The great
urban culture of the Indus civilization, a society of the Indus River valley that is thought to have been
Dravidian-speaking, thrived from roughly 2500 to 1700 BCE. An early Aryan civilization—dominated by
peoples with linguistic affinities to peoples in Iran and Europe—came to occupy northwestern and then
north-central India over the period from roughly 2000 to 1500 BCE and subsequently spread
southwestward and eastward at the expense of other indigenous groups. Despite the emergence of
caste restrictions, that process was attended by intermarriage between groups that probably has
continued to the present day, despite considerable opposition from peoples whose own distinctive
civilizations had also evolved in early historical times. Among the documented invasions that added
significantly to the Indian ethnic mix are those of Persians, Scythians, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, and
Afghans. The last and politically most successful of the great invasions—namely, that from Europe—
vastly altered Indian culture but had relatively little impact on India’s ethnic composition.
Broadly speaking, the peoples of north-central and northwestern India tend to have ethnic affinities with
European and Indo-European peoples from southern Europe, the Caucasus region, and Southwest and
Central Asia. In northeastern India, West Bengal (to a lesser degree), the higher reaches of the western
Himalayan region, and Ladakh, much of the population more closely resembles peoples to the north and
east—notably Tibetans and Burmans. Many aboriginal (“tribal”) peoples in the Chota Nagpur Plateau
(northeastern peninsular India) have affinities to such groups as the Mon, who have long been
established in mainland Southeast Asia. Much less numerous are southern groups who appear to be
descended, at least in part, either from peoples of East African origin (some of whom settled in historical
times on India’s western coast) or from a population commonly designated as Negrito, now represented
by numerous small and widely dispersed peoples from the Andaman Islands, the Philippines, New
Guinea, and other areas.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/People
In India, a debate over population control turns explosive
Proposed measures in two states reflect the volatile tensions between Hindus and Muslims over the
country’s future.
Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India, is promoting legislation
encouraging two-children-only families. Critics accuse him of fomenting Hindu anger against the
country's growing Muslim population. (Ritesh Shukla/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
By
Gerry Shih
August 29, 2021 at 4:56 p.m. EDT
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article stated that state and national leaders had rejected proposals aimed at
limiting the number of children that families may have. In fact, the proposals have been considered by
those leaders. The article has been updated.
NEW DELHI — Yogi Adityanath, a star of India’s political right wing, stood before television cameras in
his trademark saffron tunic and dramatically introduced a bill pushing for smaller families — two
children at most.
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In previous decades, this measure by the leader of the country’s most populous state might have been
uncontroversial. Over the past month, it’s been explosive.
Supporters held a protest to demand even tougher population controls in Uttar Pradesh, a vast expanse
of 220 million people. Demographers debated whether legislation was necessary, given that Indian
birthrates are falling swiftly. Critics saw something deeply cynical: a veiled attempt to mobilize Hindu
voters by tapping into an age-old trope about India’s Muslim population ballooning out of control.
Story continues below advertisement
As India barrels toward a pivotal election in Uttar Pradesh early next year, population bills introduced by
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have become a new flash point in the national debate, vividly
illustrating how the issues of religion and identity, spoken or implied, form the most powerful
undercurrent in the country’s politics.
BJP leaders in two states, Uttar Pradesh in the north and Assam in the far northeast, have formally
proposed legislation that would bar those with more than two children from sought-after public sector
jobs or benefits, such as government food rations. Similar proposals have been aired by other states’
leaders and at the national level in parliament.
Adityanath and other top party officials say they seek to improve life for all Indians by tackling a
generally accepted problem. India will edge past China as the world’s most populous country sometime
around 2027, according to United Nations projections.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/29/india-population-hindus-muslims/
The current population of India is 1,397,013,045 as of Monday, October 4, 2021, based on Worldometer
elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
India 2020 population is estimated at 1,380,004,385 people at mid year according to UN data.
India population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population.
India ranks number 2 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.
The population density in India is 464 per Km2 (1,202 people per mi2).
The total land area is 2,973,190 Km2 (1,147,955 sq. miles)
35.0 % of the population is urban (483,098,640 people in 2020)
The median age in India is 28.4 years.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/india-population/
India Demographics
Data on ethnicity is not collected by the Indian census, although the CIA World Factbook estimates the
population is 72% Indo-Aryan, 25% Dravidian, and 3% Mongoloid and other.
India’s growth rate has declined significantly over the past few decades, attributed to growing
urbanization, rising education levels, specifically among women, and increasing alleviation of poverty.
While India's population growth has slowed remarkably over the last few years, it's still growing faster
than China and is expected to surpass China in population by 2026, when both will have about 1.46
billion people. After 2030, India is expected to be the most populous country in the world.
India is expected to reach its peak population of 1.65 billion people by 2060, after which it will begin to
decrease. The number of children in India peaked over a decade ago and is now decreasing
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/india-population
Languages
More than a decade after the 2001 Census, the People’s Linguistic Survey of India, headed by eminent
academic G.N. Devy, found that our country is home to 780 languages and 66 different scripts. Given
this enormous heterogeneity, doesn’t the privileging of one language by the state do great disservice to
other equally-deserving languages?
But then, a counter-question arises: Doesn’t Hindi hold a special place because it is the most-spoken
language in the country? In the 2001 Census, 41% of Indians listed ‘Hindi’ as their mother tongue. Taking
this figure at face value, we can say that Hindi is the first language of less than half of our population.
Even if we count the total number of Hindi speakers — including those who list it as a ‘second’ or ‘third’
language — the figure only just about crosses the halfway mark, at 53%.
Compare this to other countries. In China, Mandarin, the most-spoken language in the world, is the
language of choice of 71% of the population. In Russia, 81% of the population speaks Russian. In France,
over 88% of people identify their official language as French and in Germany, over 95% of people speak
German or call it their mother tongue. The argument that Hindi is to India what these languages are to
their respective countries hence falls flat. Hindi can, at most, claim to be the primus inter pares, first
among equals, of all Indian languages.
What does the Constitution say?
At this point, after several language-linked agitations, the question has been almost put to rest — Hindi
cannot claim to be India’s sole official language. While the Constitution’s Article 343 says “the official
language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script,” it also empowers the use of English
indefinitely. Furthermore, the provision coexists with the Eighth Schedule, which, as per Articles 344(1)
and 351, permits the use of 22 languages as official languages.
And then there is Article 347, which provides for the recognition and use of even those languages that
are not the ‘official language’ of the State, allowing for greater State autonomy. This partnership of
multiple constitutional provisions, though often messy, has kept our Union alive, diverse and vibrant.
India, a land of many tongues
Hari Narayan
Follow
AUGUST 7, 2017, 18:19IST
https://www.thehindu.com/thread/arts-culture-society/india-a-land-of-many-tongues/
article19445187.ece
Which Languages Are Spoken In India?
Did you know that India has 22 official languages? Here’s an overview of what these languages are, why
Hindi is so prevalent, and the current state of English in India today.
BY VALERIA CASTILLO
February 15, 2019
A census conducted in 2011 showed that India has about 19,569 languages and dialects, of which almost
1,369 are considered dialects and only 121 are recognized as languages (the acceptance criterion being
that the language has 10,000 or more speakers). The languages spoken in India belong mainly to two big
linguistic families: the Indo-European and the Dravidian; others come mainly from the Austro-Asian and
Tibetan-Burman linguistic families.
The Indian constitution recognizes 22 official languages: Bengali, Hindi, Maithili, Nepalese, Sanskrit,
Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Dogri, Kannada, Gujarati, Bodo, Manipur (also known as Meitei), Oriya, Marathi,
Santali, Telugu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Malayalam, Konkani and Kashmiri. Tamil and Sanskrit (considered by
some academics as a lingua franca in India) are the only two official classical languages.
The states of India were organized based on the common language spoken in each region, and while
Hindi is the official language of the central government in India along with English, individual state
legislatures can adopt any regional language as the official language of their state.
Many children in India grow up in a bilingual environment, either because their parents speak different
languages or because they’re surrounded by a community that originates from another part of the
country. The literacy rate in India is 71.2% and most private schools strive to motivate children to learn
several languages, sometimes beginning in primary school. Public schools (generally attended by
working-class children) teach in the vernacular, but there has been an effort to incorporate more English
classes throughout the years.
Although for many English is still a symbol of the British Raj, others enjoy its continued use as an official
language in India, especially because it’s (unofficially) recognized as the language of business. Many
tourists say that the better your English is, the more money you have in the eyes of Indian merchants.
That said, English doesn’t have a strong presence in the general social life of India, except in the upper
classes. For many people in India, English is no longer a foreign language because, after almost 100 years
of colonization, Indians made it their own. For cultural and linguistic reasons, Indian English is very
different from Standard English, and is best known as “Hinglish.”
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-languages-are-spoken-in-india
There are probably hundreds of major and minor languages and many hundreds of recognized dialects
in India, whose languages belong to four different language families: Indo-Iranian (a subfamily of the
Indo-European language family), Dravidian, Austroasiatic, and Tibeto-Burman (a subfamily of Sino-
Tibetan). There are also several isolate languages, such as Nahali, which is spoken in a small area of
Madhya Pradesh state. The overwhelming majority of Indians speak Indo-Iranian or Dravidian languages.
Devanagari script
Devanagari script
Devanagari script from a section of the Sanskrit Bhagavata-purana, c. 1880–c. 1900; in the British
Library.
The British Librfary/Robana/REX/Shutterstock.com
The difference between language and dialect in India is often arbitrary, however, and official
designations vary notably from one census to another. That is complicated by the fact that, owing to
their long-standing contact with one another, India’s languages have come to converge and to form an
amalgamated linguistic area—a sprachbund—comparable, for example, to that found in the Balkans.
Languages within India have adopted words and grammatical forms from one another, and vernacular
dialects within languages often diverge widely. Over much of India, and especially the Indo-Gangetic
Plain, there are no clear boundaries between one vernacular and another (although ordinary villagers
are sensitive to nuances of dialect that differentiate nearby localities). In the mountain fringes of the
country, especially in the northeast, spoken dialects are often sufficiently different from one valley to
the next to merit classifying each as a truly distinct language. There were at one time, for example, no
fewer than 25 languages classified within the Naga group, not one of which was spoken by more than
60,000 people.
India: Linguistic composition
India: Linguistic composition
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Lending order to the linguistic mix are a number of written, or literary, languages used on the
subcontinent, each of which often differs markedly from the vernacular with which it is associated.
Many people are bilingual or multilingual, knowing their local vernacular dialect (“mother tongue”), its
associated written variant, and, perhaps, one or more other languages. The constitutionally designated
official language of the Indian central government is Hindi, and English is also officially designated for
government use. However, there are also 22 (originally 14) so-called “scheduled languages” recognized
in the Indian constitution that may be used by states in official correspondence. Of those, 15 are Indo-
European (Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya,
Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Urdu), 4 are Dravidian (Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu), 2 are
Sino-Tibetan (Bodo and Manipuri), and 1 is Austroasiatic (Santhali). Those languages have become
increasingly standardized since independence because of improved education and the influence of mass
media. English is an “associate” official language and is widely spoken.
Most Indian languages (including the official script for Hindi) are written by using some variety of
Devanagari script, but other scripts are used. Sindhi, for instance, is written in a Persianized form of
Arabic script, but it also is sometimes written in the Devanagari or Gurmukhi scripts.
The difference between language and dialect in India is often arbitrary, however, and official
designations vary notably from one census to another. That is complicated by the fact that, owing to
their long-standing contact with one another, India’s languages have come to converge and to form an
amalgamated linguistic area—a sprachbund—comparable, for example, to that found in the Balkans.
Languages within India have adopted words and grammatical forms from one another, and vernacular
dialects within languages oftendiverge widely. Over much of India, and especially the Indo-Gangetic
Plain, there are no clear boundaries between one vernacular and another (although ordinary villagers
are sensitive to nuances of dialect that differentiate nearby localities). In the mountain fringes of the
country, especially in the northeast, spoken dialects are often sufficiently different from one valley to
the next to merit classifying each as a truly distinct language. There were at one time, for example, no
fewer than 25 languages classified within the Naga group, not one of which was spoken by more than
60,000 people.
Lending order to the linguistic mix are a number of written, or literary, languages used on the
subcontinent, each of which often differs markedly from the vernacular with which it is associated.
Many people are bilingual or multilingual, knowing their local vernacular dialect (“mother tongue”), its
associated written variant, and, perhaps, one or more other languages. The constitutionally designated
official language of the Indian central government is Hindi, and English is also officially designated for
government use. However, there are also 22 (originally 14) so-called “scheduled languages” recognized
in the Indian constitution that may be used by states in official correspondence. Of those, 15 are Indo-
European (Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya,
Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Urdu), 4 are Dravidian (Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu), 2 are
Sino-Tibetan (Bodo and Manipuri), and 1 is Austroasiatic (Santhali). Those languages have become
increasingly standardized since independence because of improved education and the influence of mass
media. English is an “associate” official language and is widely spoken.
Most Indian languages (including the official script for Hindi) are written by using some variety of
Devanagari script, but other scripts are used. Sindhi, for instance, is written in a Persianized form of
Arabic script, but it also is sometimes written in the Devanagari or Gurmukhi scripts.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/People
Way of Life
India offers astounding variety in virtually every aspect of social life. Diversities of ethnic, linguistic,
regional, economic, religious, class, and caste groups crosscut Indian society, which is also permeated
with immense urban-rural differences and gender distinctions. Differences between north India and
south India are particularly significant, especially in systems of kinship and marriage. Indian society is
multifaceted to an extent perhaps unknown in any other of the world’s great civilizations—it is more like
an area as varied as Europe than any other single nation-state. Adding further variety to contemporary
Indian culture are rapidly occurring changes affecting various regions and socioeconomic groups in
disparate ways. Yet, amid the complexities of Indian life, widely accepted cultural themes enhance social
harmony and order.
India is a hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village,
virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities.
Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life.
Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups, amongst individuals, and in family and kinship groups.
Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste-like groups also exist among Muslims, Indian,
Christians, and other religious communities. Within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative
rankings of each locally represented caste, and behavior is constantly shaped by this knowledge.
Many status differences in Indian society are expressed in terms of ritual purity and pollution, complex
notions that vary greatly among different castes, religious groups, and regions. Generally, high status is
associated with purity and low status with pollution. Some kinds of purity are inherent; for example, a
member of a high-ranking Brahmin, or priestly, caste is born with more inherent purity than someone
born into a low-ranking sweeper, or scavenger, caste. Other kinds of purity are more transitory—for
example, a Brahmin who has just taken a bath is more ritually pure than a Brahmin who has not bathed
for a day.
One of the great themes pervading Indian life is social interdependence. People are born into groups—
families, clans, subcastes, castes, and religious communities—and feel a deep sense of inseparability
from these groups. People are deeply involved with others, and for many, the greatest fear is the
possibility of being left alone, without social support. Psychologically, family members typically
experience intense emotional interdependence. Economic activities, too, are deeply imbedded in a
social nexus. Through a multitude of kinship ties, each person is linked with kin in villages and towns
near and far. Almost everywhere a person goes, he can find a relative from whom he can expect moral
and practical support.
https://asiasociety.org/education/indian-society-and-ways-living
Family life
Family and Kinship
Family Ideals
The essential themes of Indian cultural life are learned within the bosom of a family. The joint family is
highly valued, ideally consisting of several generations residing, working, eating, and worshiping
together. Such families include men related through the male line, along with their wives, children, and
unmarried daughters. A wife usually lives with her husband’s relatives, although she retains important
bonds with her natal family. Even in rapidly modernizing India, the traditional joint household remains
for most Indians the primary social force, in both ideal and practice.
Large families tend to be flexible and well suited to modern Indian life, especially for the more than two-
thirds of Indians who are involved in agriculture. As in most primarily agricultural societies, cooperating
kin help provide mutual economic security. The joint family is also common in cities, where kinship ties
are often crucial to obtaining employment or financial assistance. Many prominent families, such as the
Tatas, Birlas, and Sarabhais, retain joint family arrangements as they cooperate in controlling major
financial empires.
The ancient ideal of the joint family retains its power, but today actual living arrangements vary widely.
Many Indians live in nuclear families—-a couple with their unmarried children—-but belong to strong
networks of beneficial kinship ties. Often, clusters of relatives live as neighbors, responding readily to
their kinship obligations.
As they expand, joint families typically divide into smaller units, which gradually grow into new joint
families, continuing a perpetual cycle. Today, some family members may move about to take advantage
of job opportunities, typically sending money home to the larger family.
Family Authority and Harmony
In the Indian household, lines of hierarchy and authority are clearly drawn, and ideals of conduct help
maintain family harmony. [i] All family members are socialized to accept the authority of those above
them in the hierarchy. The eldest male acts as family head, and his wife supervises her daughters-in-law,
among whom the youngest has the least authority. Reciprocally, those in authority accept responsibility
for meeting the needs of other family members.
Family loyalty is a deeply held ideal, and family unity is emphasized, especially in distinction to those
outside the kinship circle. Inside the household, ties between spouses and between parents and their
own children are de-emphasized to enhance a wider sense of family harmony. For example, open
displays of affection between husbands and wives are considered highly improper.
Traditionally, males have controlled key family resources, such as land or businesses, especially in high-
status groups. Following traditional Hindu law, women did not inherit real estate and were thus
beholden to their male kin who controlled land and buildings. Under Muslim customary law, women can
—and do—inherit real estate, but their shares have typically been smaller than those of males. Modern
legislation allows all Indian women to inherit real estate. Traditionally, for those families who could
afford it, women have controlled some wealth in the form of precious jewelry.
Veiling and the Seclusion of Women
A significant aspect of Indian family life is purdah (from Hindi parda, or “curtain”), or the veiling and
seclusion of women. In much of northern and central India, particularly in rural areas, Hindu and Muslim
women follow complex rules of veiling the body and avoidance of public appearance, especially before
relatives linked by marriage and before strange men. Purdah practices are linked to patterns of authority
and harmony within the family. Hindu and Muslim purdah observances differ in certain key ways, but
female modesty and decorum as well as concepts of family honor and prestige are essential to the
various forms of purdah. Purdah restrictions are generally stronger for women of conservative high-
status families. [ii] Restriction and restraint for women in virtually every aspect of life are essential to
purdah, limiting women’s access to power and to the control of vital resources in a male-dominated
society. Sequestered women should conceal their bodies and even their faces with modest clothing and
veils before certain categories of people, avoid extramarital relations, and move about in public only
with a male escort. Poor and low-status women often practice attenuated versions of veiling as they
work in the fields and on construction gangs.
Hindu women of conservative families veil their faces and remain silent in the presence of older male in-
laws, both at home and in the community. A young daughter-in-law even veils from her mother-inlaw.
These practices emphasize respect relationships, limit unapproved encounters, and enhance family lines
of authority.
https://asiasociety.org/education/indian-society-and-ways-living
Family and kinship
For almost all Indians the family is the most important social unit. There is a strong preference for
extended families, consisting of two or more married couples (often of more than a single generation),
who share finances and a common kitchen. Marriage is virtually universal, divorce rare, and virtually
every marriage produces children. Almost all marriages are arranged by family elders on the basis of
caste, degree of consanguinity, economic status, education (if any), and astrology. A bride traditionally
moves to her husband’s house. However, nonarranged “love marriages” are increasingly common in
cities.
Within families, there is a clear order of social precedence and influence based on gender, age, and, in
the case of a woman, the number of her male children. The senior male of the household—whether
father, grandfather, or uncle—typically is the recognized family head, and his wife is the person who
regulates the tasks assigned to female family members. Males enjoy higher status than females; boys
are often pampered while girls are relatively neglected. This is reflected in significantly different rates of
mortality and morbidity between the sexes, allegedly (though reliable statistics are lacking) in occasional
female infanticide, and increasingly in the abortion of female fetuses following prenatal gender testing.
This pattern of preference is largely connected to the institution of dowry, since the family’s obligation
to provide a suitable dowry to the bride’s new family represents a major financial liability. Traditionally,
women were expected to treat their husbands as if they were gods, and obedience of wives to husbands
has remained a strong social norm. This expectation of devotion may follow a husband to the grave;
within some caste groups, widows are not allowed to remarry even if they are bereaved at a young age.
Hindu marriage has traditionally been viewed as the “gift of a maiden” (kanyadan) from the bride’s
father to the household of the groom. This gift is also accompanied by a dowry, which generally consists
of items suitable to start a young couple in married life. In some cases, however, dowries demanded by
grooms and their families have become quite extravagant, and some families appear to regard them as
means of enrichment. There are instances, a few of which have been highly publicized, wherein young
brides have been treated abusively—even tortured and murdered—in an effort to extract more wealth
from the bride’s father. The “dowry deaths” of such young women have contributed to a reaction
against the dowry in some modern urban families.
Beyond the family the most important unit is the caste. Within a village all members of a single caste
recognize a fictive kinship relation and a sense of mutual obligation, but ideas of fictive kinship extend
also to the village as a whole. Thus, for example, a woman who marries and goes to another village
never ceases to be regarded as a daughter of her village. If she is badly treated in her husband’s village,
it may become a matter of collective concern for her natal village, not merely for those of her own caste.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Daily-life-and-social-customs
Village life
A Glimpse into What Rural Village Life in India is Like
Post author
By Merlin Chacko
Post date
June 30, 2017
This has to be your first concern. Their lifestyle is truly very different from what you or I have grown up
in.
Usually, the houses in Indian villages are made of bamboo, clay and mud. Most of these households
have cows and hens to get fresh milk and eggs. They also have domestic animals. The best thing about
these villages is that they are very environment-friendly. They collect forest produces and most of the
villagers are farmers. Other jobs usually include blacksmiths, carpenters or potters. Their houses don’t
have many rooms. In fact, they wouldn’t even have doors most of the time.
Although some villages are getting electricity now, most of them are still devoid of it, so forget about
internet connectivity or proper cell reception. They usually grow their own vegetables and have a
common well to collect water. In states like Rajasthan, the women have to walk for miles to bring water
because of its scarcity.
Transportation facilities into the villages are limited unless it’s an important village. Therefore, you’d
have to catch a bus auto-rickshaw from the closest town that you’ll have to share with at least 4 or more
people.
There is not much traffic near villages so its very calm and peaceful. Festival seasons are celebrated with
lots of fervor here. Every one plays an equal part in decoration and arrangement during such occasions.
A collective, familylike feeling is common among the villagers unlike in a city where every one prefers to
mind their own business. They lead a very simple lifestyle and naturally, they feel content with it.
Just like Indian states are diverse, the food is too. A village in Punjab will offer you different dishes than a
village in Kerala would.
As mentioned earlier, villages in India are the major agricultural hotspots of the country. Therefore, the
cuisine of each state depends largely on the crops that are grown there.
States like Kashmir, Bengal, North-Eastern states, etc have their own particular dressing style which
usually differs from Central India and South India.
Villages in India have boundless beauty surrounding them. Usually, these villages are tucked away in
deserts, hilly areas, near forests or near some rivers. This gives them a natural appeal. They are away
from the pollution of the city life. You will have a relaxing time in the villages, left to your own thoughts.
The villagers in this country are extremely friendly. They will treat you like a member of their family and
make sure that you face no inconveniences during your stay with them. If you’re here to not only visit
places but also learn about the culture of the country, you should definitely think about staying in an
Indian village.
https://blog.karlrock.com/a-glimpse-into-what-rural-village-life-in-india-is-like/
Life in an Indian Village
Google News
Updated At: Oct 25, 2020 09:51 PM
Life in an Indian village is not a walk in the park by any means. Farming and agriculture are one of the
most difficult jobs. The Indian farmer, in particular, is a hardworking and diligent man. The land and the
crops need close attention and efforts day and night for a successful harvest. A farmer usually starts his
day before the sun's up and works throughout the day. His work involves a lot of manual labour and
persistence.
A lot of the farmers do not enjoy the luxury of machines or tractors and have to rely on intense manual
labor. Rain or shine, they can never take a day off and even after all these efforts and sacrifices, the
financial condition of farmers in India remains very poor.
The rising cost of living, frequent crop failures due to climate changes, insufficient support from the
government and many other factors are contributing to their woes.
India, in fact, also faces the shameful problem of rising farmer suicides as well.
Although, since independence, our government has made many efforts to provide the villages with basic
infrastructure facilities, one major disadvantage of living in an Indian village is the lack of infrastructure.
The houses in most of the villagers in the country still
have thatched roofs and are made of mud or clay. These are not permanent structures. There is maybe
one school and one hospital shared by 3-4 small villages.
The roads, too, are not well maintained and usually the villages are not well connected. Transportation
facilities are also generally lacking and inadequate.
But it is the grit and spirit of the hardworking villagers that is really inspiring. In spite of all these
hardships they follow the path of honesty and lead a simple and virtuous life. They have extreme regard
for the environment and for the traditions of our country. Indian villages have a rich history of culture
and tradition. Art is celebrated in the form of dance, songs, plays, etc. In fact, some of our most famous
dance forms and songs come to us from these traditions practiced in various villages from India. Our
villages may lack modern infrastructure, but these are the places where we can find the true spirit of
India.
https://m-tribuneindia-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/m.tribuneindia.com/news/schools/life-in-an-
indian-village-161027?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#referrer=https
%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&csi=1&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fm.tribuneindia.com%2Fnews
%2Fschools%2Flife-in-an-indian-village-161027%23referrer%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
%26csi%3D1
Village Life in India Won’t Be the Same as Coronavirus Chases Migrants Out of Cities
The migration is hitting economies in villages that depended on remittances from workers
By Vibhuti Agarwal , Krishna Pokharel and Rajesh Roy
June 18, 2020 7:00 am ET
The village of Sarna Toli in eastern India hasn’t recorded one coronavirus case. Yet the rural enclave of
about 250 people has been transformed by the global pandemic.
Dozens of men who would normally be working in faraway big cities, sending cash home to their
families, while away time playing cards and chatting in the village square or under trees near the local
Hindu temple.
There is little work for them in the village. The loss of the money they were shipping home is a huge
blow to the local economy. Worries are growing that they could introduce the coronavirus from India’s
cities, where it is raging, to a hinterlands area where the state-run hospital shut down last month and
the sole private health-care provider is too expensive for all but the richest residents.
India’s major cities have been hardest hit by the coronavirus, as outbreaks in Mumbai and Delhi
overwhelm hospitals stretched in the best of times. But life in rural villages, home to more than two-
thirds of Indians, is now also being upended.
The first blow came in March, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi plunged the country into one of the
world’s strictest shutdowns on four hours’ notice. Tens of millions of villagers working in the big cities
lost their jobs. The flow of money back home, where it was a big chunk of the village’s total income,
ceased.
https://www-wsj-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/village-life-in-india-wont-be-
the-same-as-coronavirus-chases-migrants-out-of-cities-11592478003?
usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D&amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.google.com&csi=1&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Famp%2Farticles%2Fvillage-
life-in-india-wont-be-the-same-as-coronavirus-chases-migrants-out-of-cities-11592478003%23referrer
%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%26csi%3D1
City life
City life: Delhi
Crowded, chaotic and cacophonous, the Indian capital can overwhelm. But stick around and you'll
discover Delhi is an arty, cosmopolitan and green city that's far more laid-back than you think
By Nick Boulos
Published 10 Feb 2016, 08:00 GMT, Updated 7 Jul 2021, 11:21 BST
The Indian capital isn't a place that delivers a gentle introduction. It grabs you by the arm and hauls you
into its overwhelming world of swirling sounds and smells. It's a mighty metropolis of mayhem. Of
course, the chaos won't come as much of a surprise, but what will are the hidden corners of calm and
culture that have seen modern Delhi embrace its arty, cosmopolitan side.
Millions visit each year, but relatively few for the city itself. Nearly all make hasty tracks: north to the
Himalayas, east to the Ganges, west to the forts and palaces of Rajasthan and south to the tiger reserves
and the Taj Mahal. While that's unlikely to change any time soon, the city itself shouldn't be lightly
dismissed.
Big, bold and brash, this is a city in transition as it seeks to shake off negative international headlines and
compete with bohemian Mumbai. Dwell in Delhi for a few days and you'll discover a city both spiritual
and sprawling, home to more than 25 million engaging souls (making it the second most populous in the
world after Tokyo) that's very much divided between old and new. Old Delhi — a swelling blur of cattle-
choked streets and labyrinthine alleys where spices sizzle from street-side stalls — offers a taste of the
India that everyone imagines, while New Delhi, to the south, is leafy, green and serene, with long
avenues lined with mansions built by the British, who made it the capital in 1931.
https://www-nationalgeographic-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/
2016/02/city-life-delhi/amp?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.co.uk%2Ftravel
%2F2016%2F02%2Fcity-life-delhi%2Famp%23aoh%3D16333938420306%26referrer%3Dhttps%253A
%252F%252Fwww.google.com%26amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s
Accelerating urbanization is powerfully affecting the transformation of Indian society. Most Indian cities
are very densely populated. New Delhi, for example, had 6,352 people per square kilometer in 1991.
Congestion, noise, traffic jams, air pollution, and major shortages of key necessities characterize urban
life. Every major city of India faces the same proliferating problems of grossly inadequate housing,
transportation, sewerage, electric power, water supplies, schools, and hospitals. Slums and jumbles of
pavement dwellers' lean-tos constantly multiply. An increasing number of trucks, buses, cars, three-
wheel autorickshaws, motorcy-cles, and motorscooters, all spewing uncontrolled fumes, surge in
sometimes haphazard patterns over city streets jammed with jaywalking pedestrians, cattle, and goats.
Accident rates are high (India's fatality rate from road accidents, the most common cause of accidental
death, is said to be twenty times higher than United States rates), and it is a daily occurrence for a city
dweller to witness a crash or the running down of a pedestrianspedestrian.
Cities are the source of television broadcasts and those great favorites of the Indian public, movies.
Bombay, sometimes called "Bollywood," and Madras are major centers of film production, bringing
depictions of urban lifestyles before the eyes of small-town dwellers and villagers all over the nation.
With the continuing national proliferation of television sets, videocassette recorders, and movie
videocassettes, the influence of such productions should not be underestimated.
Social revolutions, too, receive the support of urban visionaries. Among the more important social
developments in contemporary India is the growing women's movement, largely led by educated urban
women. Seeking to restructure society and gender relations, activists, scholars, and workers in the
women's movement have come together in numerous loosely allied and highly diverse organizations
focusing on issues of rights and equality, empowerment, and justice for women. Some of these groups
exist in rural areas, but most are city based.
http://countrystudies.us/india/91.htm
1 min read . 08 Sep 2019
Sriharsha Devulapalli
Nearly one in two workers in urban India has a regular job, according to data from the latest annual
periodic labour force survey conducted in 2017-18
In a 10-part data journalism series, Mint will examine different aspects of city life
As in most developing countries, it is the rural parts of the country that drive India’s politics but its
economy is increasingly being driven by cities. As densely packed networks of economic activity, cities
create opportunities for the growth of both labour and consumer markets, data suggests.
In urban India, nearly one in two workers has a regular job, according to data from the latest annual
periodic labour force survey conducted in 2017-18. This proportion is much lower (13%) in rural India.
Regular jobs offer the highest wages, and the average urban regular wage earner earns roughly 33%
more than his counterpart in rural India, the same database shows.
The data shows that cities are critical to the health of the economy. How the health of cities is managed
will influence how fast the economy grows in the long run.
In a 10-part data journalism series beginning today, Mint examines different aspects of city life in the
largest urban agglomerations of the country to shed light on how cities, and different parts of them, fare
in comparison to others. From mobility to migration, open spaces to housing, each part of the series will
examine hard data on each key component of city life.
https://www-livemint-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.livemint.com/news/india/what-data-tells-us-
about-urban-life-in-india/amp-1567964137612.html?
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livemint.com%2Fnews%2Findia%2Fwhat-data-tells-
us-about-urban-life-in-india%2Famp-1567964137612.html%23aoh%3D16333942145320%26referrer
%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%26amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s
In India's cities, life is lived on the streets – how coronavirus changed that
Lakshmi Priya Rajendran, Anglia Ruskin University
April 16, 2020 3.10pm BST
India’s coronavirus lockdown of 1.3 billion people is unprecedented in size and scope, particularly in a
country where city streets are so thronged with life in all its guises. After an initial three-week
shutdown, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced the lockdown would be extended until
May 3.
Mobility data from Google published on April 11 showed that compared to the baseline, there had been
a 52% drop in visits to parks, plazas and public gardens in India, and a 69% decrease in visits to public
transport hubs such as bus and train stations.
Stunning images of India’s deserted landmarks and public places are being posted daily on social media.
Meanwhile, debates continue about the various economic, social and environmental impacts of the
lockdown.
As an architect and urbanist who is interested in everyday life in cities, I’ve been thinking about the
significant role of public spaces, and their relationship with people’s daily life in India.
While India’s famous landmarks remain deserted during the lockdown, people are still navigating the
public spaces to buy from street vendors and corner shops.
The way citizens behave and interact in public spaces helps to create a sense of familiarity and belonging
in cities, and plays a key role in shaping people’s quality of life.
While people experience new kinds of physical interactions during this coronavirus crisis, such as waiting
in queues a few metres apart as they shop, the sudden and unexpected interruption of their other
outdoor activities makes it a good moment to reflect on the significance of the mundane yet multi-
layered spaces in India’s cities.
https://theconversation-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/theconversation.com/amp/in-indias-cities-life-is-
lived-on-the-streets-how-coronavirus-changed-that-135232?
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Famp%2Fin-indias-cities-life-is-
lived-on-the-streets-how-coronavirus-changed-that-135232%23aoh%3D16333942145320%26referrer
%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%26amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s
Managing India’s urban transition in 2021
4 January 2021
RUMI AIJAZ
Globally, there is consensus over the promotion of urbanisation. Most national governments, including
India, consider urbanisation as an important component of their development agenda. This is in
recognition of the undeniable benefits that urbanisation can bring to nations and societies. When
people with different skills, ideologies, social and cultural backgrounds get together and engage in
productive activities and dialogues, a creative environment is formed, and the outputs can be
extraordinarily helpful. Such a vibrant environment, which, in theory at least, offers immense
possibilities as well as opportunities to all — is witnessed in many of the world’s cities today.
Communities, regardless of their educational attainments, skills, or income levels, are benefiting in a
variety of ways. Indeed, urbanisation has significantly aided national growth and pulled vast sections of
societies from extreme poverty.
These facts, in support of urbanisation, in no way imply that nations should be one hundred-percent
urbanised. There are large populations of people who prefer to stay away from the kind of life offered
by cities. Furthermore, there is increasing realisation amongst urban policymakers, planners and
development agencies, about preservation as well as promotion of culture and traditional practices in
rural areas situated within urban jurisdictions. In India, there is evidence of supportive actions taken by
the administration in this regard.
https://www-orfonline-org.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/managing-india-
urban-transition-2021/?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D
%3D#aoh=16333946256137&amp_ct=1633394660465&referrer=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.orfonline.org
%2Fexpert-speak%2Fmanaging-india-urban-transition-2021%2F%23aoh
%3D16333946256137%26amp_ct%3D1633394660465%26referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F
%252Fwww.google.com%26amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s
Social Structure
What is India's caste system?
25 February 2016
Updated 19 June 2019
India's caste system is among the world's oldest forms of surviving social stratification. The BBC explains
its complexities.
The system which divides Hindus into rigid hierarchical groups based on their karma (work) and dharma
(the Hindi word for religion, but here it means duty) is generally accepted to be more than 3,000 years
old.
How did caste come about?
Manusmriti, widely regarded to be the most important and authoritative book on Hindu law and dating
back to at least 1,000 years before Christ was born, "acknowledges and justifies the caste system as the
basis of order and regularity of society".
The caste system divides Hindus into four main categories - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the
Shudras. Many believe that the groups originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation.
At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and are
believed to have come from Brahma's head. Then came the Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers,
supposedly from his arms. The third slot went to the Vaishyas, or the traders, who were created from his
thighs. At the bottom of the heap were the Shudras, who came from Brahma's feet and did all the
menial jobs.
The main castes were further divided into about 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes, each based on
their specific occupation.
Outside of this Hindu caste system were the achhoots - the Dalits or the untouchables.
How does caste work?
For centuries, caste has dictated almost every aspect of Hindu religious and social life, with each group
occupying a specific place in this complex hierarchy.
Rural communities have long been arranged on the basis of castes - the upper and lower castes almost
always lived in segregated colonies, the water wells were not shared, Brahmins would not accept food
or drink from the Shudras, and one could marry only within one's caste.
Independent India's constitution banned discrimination on the basis of caste, and, in an attempt to
correct historical injustices and provide a level playing field to the traditionally disadvantaged, the
authorities announced quotas in government jobs and educational institutions for scheduled castes and
tribes, the lowest in the caste hierarchy, in 1950.
What about job quotas?
In recent years, there have been demands from several communities to be recognised as OBCs - in 2016
there were violent protests by the Jat community in Haryana and the Patel community led huge protests
in Gujarat in 2015 demanding access to caste quotas.
Both are prosperous and politically dominant communities, but they support their demand for caste
quotas by saying large numbers in their communities are poor and suffering.
Some say the caste system would have disappeared by now if the fires were not regularly fanned by
politicians.
At elections, many caste groups still vote as a block and are wooed by politicians looking for electoral
gains.
As a result, what was originally meant to be a temporary affirmative action plan to improve the lot of
the unprivileged groups has now become a vote-grabbing exercise for many politicians.
https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616.amp?
%2Fwww.google.com&csi=0&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-asia-india-
35650616.amp%23referrer%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%26csi%3D0
THE PULSE | SOCIETY | SOUTH ASIA
What Attempts to Measure India’s Caste System Get Wrong
Modern surveys on caste can feel like inadvertent replications of a colonial mistake.
By Shareen Joshi
August 26, 2021
What Attempts to Measure India’s Caste System Get Wrong
Credit: Depositphotos
The Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center recently released a landmark survey on religion and
society in India. Administered to 29,999 respondents in 17 languages between November 2019 and
March 2020, the survey is certainly a formidable endeavor. The final report provides fascinating insights
into the coexistence of religiosity, pluralism, and secularism in modern India.
When it comes to analysis of caste, however, this survey disappoints. Pew argues that “India’s caste
system, an ancient social hierarchy with origins in Hindu writings, continues to fracture society.” But
caste has been defined narrowly and interpreted broadly. The assumptions are far removed from both
lived experience and academic understandings of how caste really works in India. This is unfortunate –
history teaches us that how we define caste, and design surveys to ask people their caste, can
inadvertently create feedback loops that intensify social divisions.
At first glance, Pew’s statement is well-supported by the specific numbers. Nearly all Indians (98
percent) identify with a caste, regardless of whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist,
or Jain. About one-quarter (24 percent) say all their close friends belong to their caste, and 46 percent
say most of their friends are from their caste. Surprisingly, 82 percent of Indians say they have not
personally faced caste-based discrimination, and less than a quarter see evidence of widespread
discrimination against disadvantaged communities. But as Pratap Bhanu Mehta reminds us, these
numbers could mean that India has “not have even progressed from exclusion to discrimination.”
While most Indians would agree that caste is divisive, the survey seems to have been set up to get that
result. All respondents were asked whether they are “from a General Category, Scheduled Caste,
Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class.” Self-identified responses to this question were carefully
coded. The methodology appears to have been adapted from Pew’s surveys of racial divisions in the
United States. These specific categories are official labels that come from the Indian state; they do not
correspond to identity in daily life. Choices of neighbors, friends or marriages are not based on these
identities.
Caste in real life is complicated. Most Indians viscerally understand caste identity as their “jati” of birth.
This is a Sanskrit word with equivalents in many local languages that refers to the 3,000-plus closed
endogamous communities with distinct occupations, property ownership patterns, diets, and lifestyles.
Historically, each jati was a part in an interdependent and non-competitive system of labor. While jati
identity is inherited, the status of a jati varies spatially. In practical terms, this means that in a typical
village, there are several jatis that fit into a hierarchical structure where some groups have faced severe
discrimination for generations. But there is no pan-Indian system of ranking them. Empirical research
confirms that there is variation within and variation across jatis.
When diverse people place themselves into just a few discrete categories that are presented in a clear
hierarchy, it is difficult to infer anything about the subtle processes of exclusion and discrimination that
operate in real life. Drawing further inference about the lingering impact of archaic religious practices is
even harder. Pew’s statement about current caste divisions being an “ancient hierarchy” with roots in
“Hindu writings” is thus quite puzzling. The authors seem to be referring to the ancient varna scheme –
the idealized social order described in the Rig Veda, a Hindu text. But most scholars agree that there is
much more to caste than an ancient religion.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/08/what-attempts-to-measure-indias-caste-system-get-wrong/
Religion
JUNE 29, 2018
5 facts about religion in India
BY SAMIRAH MAJUMDAR
Graffiti on a Mumbai wall. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)
India is home to 1.4 billion people – almost one-sixth of the world’s population – who belong to a variety
of ethnicities and religions. While 94% of the world’s Hindus live in India, there also are substantial
populations of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and adherents of folk religions.
For most Indians, faith is important: In a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, eight-in-ten Indians said
religion is very important in their lives.
Here are five facts about religion in India:
India’s massive population includes not only the vast majority of the world’s Hindus, but also the
second-largest group of Muslims within a single country, behind only Indonesia.
2India is a religiously pluralistic and multiethnic democracy – the largest in the world. Its constitution
provides for freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practice and propagate religion. It has
protections for minorities against discrimination on the grounds of religion or caste (a strict social
stratification based on Hinduism).
While there are legal protections for religious groups and minorities, Indians still generally experience
“high” levels of government restrictions on religion, according to an annual Pew Research Center study.
There are legal restrictions on religious conversions in at least six states that have at times been used to
arrest and intimidate Muslims and Christians who proselytize, according to the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom.
India also has experienced “very high” levels of religion-related social hostilities in the past decade,
according to the same Pew Research Center study.
Communal tensions – between Indians of various religious faiths and castes – have long plagued Indian
society. Most Indians are at least somewhat concerned about these tensions, but even larger shares are
worried about other national issues, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey. Almost four-in-
ten Indians (37%) said “communal relations” are a very big problem in their country, while an additional
31% named this as a moderately big problem. But greater shares of Indian adults named crime,
terrorism, corruption, lack of employment opportunities, rising prices and other issues as major national
problems.
https://www-pewresearch-org.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/06/29/5-
facts-about-religion-in-india/?amp=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D
%3D&amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&csi=0&ampshare=https
%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewresearch.org%2Ffact-tank%2F2018%2F06%2F29%2F5-facts-about-religion-in-
india%2F%3Famp%3D1%23referrer%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%26csi%3D0
UPDATED: SEP 30, 2019 | ORIGINAL: OCT 6, 2017
Hinduism
BY HISTORY.COM EDITORS
Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, according to many scholars, with roots and customs dating back
more than 4,000 years. Today, with about 900 million followers, Hinduism is the third-largest religion
behind Christianity and Islam. Roughly 95 percent of the world’s Hindus live in India. Because the
religion has no specific founder, it’s difficult to trace its origins and history. Hinduism is unique in that it’s
not a single religion but a compilation of many traditions and philosophies.
https://www-history-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.history.com/.amp/topics/religion/hinduism?
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.history.com%2Ftopics%2Freligion%2Fhinduism
JUNE 29, 2021
Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation

Indians say it is important to respect all religions, but major religious groups see little in common and
want to live separately
More than 70 years after India became free from colonial rule, Indians generally feel their country has
lived up to one of its post-independence ideals: a society where followers of many religions can live and
practice freely.
India’s massive population is diverse as well as devout. Not only do most of the world’s Hindus, Jains and
Sikhs live in India, but it also is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations and to millions of
Christians and Buddhists.
A major new Pew Research Center survey of religion across India, based on nearly 30,000 face-to-face
interviews of adults conducted in 17 languages between late 2019 and early 2020 (before the COVID-19
pandemic), finds that Indians of all these religious backgrounds overwhelmingly say they are very free to
practice their faiths.
Indians see religious tolerance as a central part of who they are as a nation. Across the major religious
groups, most people say it is very important to respect all religions to be “truly Indian.” And tolerance is
a religious as well as civic value: Indians are united in the view that respecting other religions is a very
important part of what it means to be a member of their own religious community.
These shared values are accompanied by a number of beliefs that cross religious lines. Not only do a
majority of Hindus in India (77%) believe in karma, but an identical percentage of Muslims do, too. A
third of Christians in India (32%) – together with 81% of Hindus – say they believe in the purifying power
of the Ganges River, a central belief in Hinduism. In Northern India, 12% of Hindus and 10% of Sikhs,
along with 37% of Muslims, identity with Sufism, a mystical tradition most closely associated with Islam.
And the vast majority of Indians of all major religious backgrounds say that respecting elders is very
important to their faith.
https://www.pewforum.org/2021/06/29/religion-in-india-tolerance-and-segregation/
Want to Know about Clothing in India? Here You Go!
By : Jen Grimble 11 September 2018
Culture . Attractions ' . India . traditional indian clothing .
The history of traditional Indian Clothing

Indian clothing has been evolving for an extremely long time. In fact, the first evidence of spinning and
dying cotton cloth dates back some 7,000 years to the ancient Indus Valley civilization. Over the years,
its inhabitants left clues about Indian Customs, Culture, and Fashion through epic sagas such as the
Mahabharata and grandiose rock sculptures including the world-famous Ellora caves. Indeed, clothing is
as much a part of Indian history as food and religion (or even cricket!).
Since these early beginnings, the subcontinent has produced a plethora of finely woven garments, with
distinct styles for both men and women found right throughout. Gender and geography aside, it is class
and caste which has the most heavily defined Indian dress. The upper echelons of society continue to
don golden ornaments and fine threads such as Munin, while those at the bottom are forced to be
considerably more refined.
Over time, outside influences such as trading via the Silk Road, colonialization by Britain, and
homogenization from the West have diminished the prevalence of traditional dress in India.
Nevertheless, ancient traditions remain strong throughout the country, and - even today - can still be
seen adorning the bodies of its proud traditional inhabitants.
Indian Women clothing
Indian women dress in modest and colorful clothing, taking great care not to expose too much skin no
matter how humid the climate may be.
1- The Sari (Saree)
The most ubiquitous piece of feminine Indian attire is a classic and colorful sari. Indeed, a regional
variation of the archetypal outfit can be found across all corners of the subcontinent. Although it may
look similar to a dress, the sari is actually a long piece of cloth – ranging from 13 to 30 feet – which is
wrapped snugly around the woman’s body. Most choose to start from the waist and finish around the
shoulders to leave the midriff exposed, although each region has a slightly different wrapping style.
Special occasions such as weddings warrant a more elaborate pink or red shade of the sari.
2- Mundum Neriyathum
The ancient original form of the sari is the Mundum Neriyathum, a similar design that was only intended
to cover the legs. Still in use today, the Mundum Neriyathum comes from the hot and humid state of
Kerala where women went about their lives topless until the arrival of Muslims from the Middle East.
These days, of course, a lightweight top is worn up above
Experience the authentic culture of India, Plan your India Travel Packages Now!
3- Salwaar Kameez
The other famous piece of appeal for Indian women is the Salwaar Kameez. Although at first glance it
may appear similar to the sari, the costume is remarkably different. Rather than a wraparound cloth, it’s
a complete dress ensemble. The outfit includes the Salwaar, loose trousers that become tighter around
the ankles, as well as the kameez, an intricately decorated tunic. To finish off the look, many women
prefer to add a dupatta or odani, a unique type of veil which covers their head and shoulders.
The Salwaar Kameez originated in northwest India, particularly the provinces of Punjabi and Himachal
Pradesh. These days, however, the in-vogue outfit can be found virtually anywhere in the country and
has become increasingly popular with the movie stars of Bollywood.
Get your own special Indian outfit and Plan your India Group Tours Now!
Indian Men Clothing
Traditional men’s clothing in India is often adapted to suit the climate. Don’t be surprised to see males
wearing what appear to be skirted.
1- Dhot
Few outfits of Indian clothing are as ubiquitous as the dhoti. Considered India’s national dress, its
practicality has rapidly led it to become the unofficial uniform of the country’s countless outlying
villages. City slickers sometimes take a liking to the whitewashed outfit as well, which consists of a long
sleeve shirt on top and a sarong wrapped around the waist.
Above all else, the energy-efficient design is a hit in warmer regions because it provides substantial relief
from the blazing midday sun. Other colors and combinations are typically worn on special events and
occasions.
Visit India in unforgettable Experience and Plan your Luxury India Tours Now!
2- Nehru jacket
As eclectic as Indian clothing is, these exotic styles rarely find their way into wardrobes overseas. One
exception is the Nehru jacket, a slim fit blazer that somewhat resembles the executive suits of the West.
After becoming a staple of Indian men’s formalwear in the ’40s, it eventually began piquing the interest
of trendsetters overseas.
International adoption reached a fever pitch after the Beatles started wearing the garment upon
returning from a creative and meditative holiday in Rishikesh at the height of their career. The Nehru
has since been spotted on everyone from the Monkeys to villains in James Bond. Funnily enough, India’s
first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, never actually wore the jacket which would later bear his name.
He was more fond of a slightly different style known as the sherwani.
3- Achkan and Sherwani
Despite their striking regal nature, these two staples of Indian formalwear are mostly indistinguishable
to the outsider. Both elegant ensembles entail a suit-like jacket worn over either tight-fitting trousers or
a wraparound dhoti. The primary difference between these and the Nehru jacket is that the former are
much longer, hanging down below the knees rather than the upper thighs.
4- Lungi
First-time visitors to India might be surprised to see so many men wearing a white wraparound cloth,
which is not unlike the sarong. There is a good reason for it, though. Before the arrival of the monsoon
season, most of India becomes oppressively hot. Many men prefer the Lungi over trousers for the extra
aeration the garment provides. This added comfort has become so highly sought-after that the article
has been adopted in neighboring Asian countries as well.
Accessories and headgear
Perhaps the most striking aspect of traditional Indian clothing is the many exotic headdresses and
accessories which adorn both men and women alike. In many regions, the men don large turbans that
vary in color and style according to religious and cultural preferences.
The women, on the other hand, are better known for their infatuation with jewelry. Noses, ears, mouths
and belly buttons are all frequently pierced and embroiled with an array of glistening gems and golden
chains. But who could forget the bangle? A benchmark piece of Indian jewelry that some women wear a
dozen or more.
You won’t spend a fortune in putting together an exciting Indian wardrobe, and you’ll receive plenty of
smiles and goodwill from the friendly locals you’ll meet along the way.
Inquire Golden Triangle Tour Package!
https://www.memphistours.com/blog/how-to-dress-like-indian
Clothing of India
Clothing for most Indians is also quite simple and typically untailored. Men (especially in rural areas)
frequently wear little more than a broadcloth dhoti, worn as a loose skirtlike loincloth, or, in parts of the
south and east, the tighter wraparound lungi. In both cases the body remains bare above the waist,
except in cooler weather, when a shawl also may be worn, or in hot weather, when the head may be
protected by a turban. The more-affluent and higher-caste men are likely to wear a tailored shirt,
increasingly of Western style. Muslims, Sikhs, and urban dwellers generally are more inclined to wear
tailored clothing, including various types of trousers, jackets, and vests.
Although throughout most of India women wear saris and short blouses, the way in which a sari is
wrapped varies greatly from one region to another. In Punjab, as well as among older female students
and many city dwellers, the characteristic dress is the shalwar-kamiz, a combination of pajama-like
trousers and a long-tailed shirt (saris being reserved for special occasions). Billowing ankle-length skirts
and blouses are the typical female dress of Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat. Most rural Indians, especially
females, do not wear shoes and, when footwear is necessary, prefer sandals.
The modes of dress of tribal Indians are exceedingly varied and can be, as among certain Naga groups,
quite ornate. Throughout India, however, Western dress is increasingly in vogue, especially among
urban and educated males, and Western-style school uniforms are worn by both sexes in many schools,
even in rural India.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Clothing
Food and drink
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Nomadic Boys
Best foods and drinks to try in India
Sebastien
Sebastien
Sep 7, 2021
Categories Posted in Indian recipes
Best foods and drinks to try in India
India has a variety of many many tasty foods.
So many, that we could spend months…years trying to blog about it! Instead we decided to shout about
our favourite and most memorable Indian foods and drinks.
Table of Contents show
#1 CURRIES AND INDIAN THALIS
Thalis are popular throughout India and are an inexpensive foodgasm of various small pots of different
curries and other treaties.
The curries are usually vegetable, dal (lentils), meat or fish. The other treaties include curd (yoghurt) and
spicy chutney or pickle and it is usually served with rice and sometimes roti bread.
Indian Thali is similar to Nepalese daal bhat and Sri Lankan ‘rice and curry’.
A fish based thali in Kochi, Kerala, South India
A very spicy fish based thali in Kochi, Kerala, South India
Thalis kept us very very happy during our travels in India. And, as there is no universal way to cook
them, each one always tastes different meaning you will never get bored with them.
A happy Sebastien with two Thalis

“Are you REALLY going to eat all of that by yourself Sebastien???!!!!”
#2 TANDOORI AND CHICKEN TIKKA
The tandoor oven is a cylinder like clay or metal oven in which food is cooked over an intense fire.
Tandoor cooked foods are popular in North India, in particular two of our favourite Indian foods:
tandoori chicken and chicken tikka.
An Indian tandoor oven
Tandoori chicken cooking in an Indian tandoor clay oven
Tandoori chicken and chicken tikka are bright red/orange dishes, which have been marinated with
yoghurt and spices like garam masala (a blend of various ground spices like peppercorns, cloves,
cardamon, nutmeg etc), garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper and red chilli powder (which
gives it its colour).
Tandoori chicken is cooked with the bone on and is usually marinated over night.
Tandoori chicken selfie in Delhi
“OI! Hands off my tandoori Sebastien…get your own!” cries a hungry Stefan
Chicken tikka is boneless and cooked as skewers.
In the UK, the tikka was developed to be served with a spicy sauce and hence the famous “chicken tikka
masala” was born (yup you read right, this famous Indian food dish is in fact born in the UK not India!)
Stefan with chicken tikka
Stefan with red tikka on forehead about to go face down on a plate of red tikka chicken – see what he
did there? 🙂
#3 PANEER, HEAVENLY INDIAN CHEESE
Paneer is another yummy favourite of ours, popular in north India.

Paneer is a soft white fresh cheese, which doesn’t melt (Stefan compares it to a softer version of the
Cypriot halloumi cheese).
Stefan with paneer curry dish
Stefan about to go face down in to this delicious paneer curry
Paneer is used to make a variety of tasty curries, popular with vegetarians.
Amongst the many different types of paneer dishes, we particularly liked mutter paneer (with peas),
palak paneer (with spinach) and kadai paneer – so named because it is cooked in a “kadai” pan, similar
to a Chinese wok but with more depth:
A kadai - popular in Indian cooking
A kadai is similar to a Chinese wok but with more depth
South Indian food
South Indian food is unique because of the use of coconut as a base for almost every dish.
The spices used are differ a little bit from North Indian cuisines, for example, cumin is more popular in
north India whereas in the south, tamarind and mustard seeds are preferred.
#4 SOUTH INDIAN BREAKFAST CURRIES
A curry for breakfast? Yup, and they’re damn tasty!
South Indian breakfasts commonly comprise ‘wet’ based dishes like sambar (a fragrant vegetable soapy
daal lentil broth) and coconut chutney.
They are usually served with dosas (rice/lentil based pancakes) and idlis (small cylinders of pressed rice,
like savoury cakes), which are used for dipping.
South Indian breakfast of sambar and idli
South Indian breakfast of sambar lentils broth with idli rice savoury cakes for dipping
Another popular breakfast dish, particularly in Kerala, is puttu (or pittu).
These are steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut and served with side dishes like
chickpeas curry.
Freshly made puttu by Sebastien
Sebastien showing off his freshly made puttu during our cooking class in Kochi, Kerala in South India
Puttus are made in a specifically designed phallic shaped steamer:
A puttu steamer and one nomadicboy
Sebastien posing with phallic shaped puttu steamer
#5 BARFI, INDIAN SWEETS
India is an awesome place if you have a sweet tooth. Barfi are small square or diamond shaped Indian
treaties made from condensed milk and sugar.
Different types of barfi include badam (almonds), pista (pistachios) and kaaju (cashew nuts). Fruits are
also used to enhance the flavour, like mango and coconut, as well as spices like cardamon and rose
water.
Barfi are delicious and completely captivated us, especially in this barfi bakery in Jaipur:
Barfi bakery in Jaipur

Stefan posing with staff of this barfi bakery in Jaipur (selling his favourite barfi treaties)
Our favourite Indian drinks
#6 LASSI
Lassi is the popular yoghurt based drink in India, which can be salted or sweet.
The traditional salty lassi is more popular in North India and flavoured with spices like ground cumin.
They reminded us a lot of the salted yoghurt drink, ayran, popular in Turkey and Arabic countries.
Stefan enjoying a salted lassi in Jaipur
Stefan enjoying a salted lassi with this group of girls from Gujurat who were also touring Rajasthan,
North India
Sweetened lassis are flavoured with fruits instead of spices. The most popular is banana and mango and
taste more like smoothies or milkshakes.
Sebastien enjoying a tasty sweet lassi in Varanasi
The Blue Lassi shop in Varanasi is popular and serves up some of the tastiest lassis we’ve tried in India
Another popular lassi is “bhang” lassi, made from cannabis buds and leaves mixed into a paste with milk,
ghee and spices. And yes, it’s apparently legal in most parts of India.
#7 CHAI, INDIAN TEA
India is one of the world’s largest exporters of tea along with China and Sri Lanka. Chai is the Indian (and
also Greek!) word for tea.
An Indian chai is usually served milky and very sweet. Even more special is the delicious Chai Masala,
which is milked tea flavoured with lots of spices like cardamon, cloves, cinnamon and many others.
Chai Masala is delicious and we highly recommend it.

Stefan's chai selfie
Stefan’s chai selfie – Indian chai masala is delicious!
FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:
https://food.nomadicboys.com/traditional-indian-food-drinks/
Health care
Indian Journal of Community Medicine : Official Publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social
Medicine
Wolters Kluwer -- Medknow Publications
Challenges to Healthcare in India - The Five A's
Arvind Kasthuri
Additional article information
The Indian healthcare scenario presents a spectrum of contrasting landscapes. At one end of the
spectrum are the glitzy steel and glass structures delivering high tech medicare to the well-heeled,
mostly urban Indian. At the other end are the ramshackle outposts in the remote reaches of the “other
India” trying desperately to live up to their identity as health subcenters, waiting to be transformed to
shrines of health and wellness, a story which we will wait to see unfold. With the rapid pace of change
currently being witnessed, this spectrum is likely to widen further, presenting even more complexity in
the future.
Our country began with a glorious tradition of public health, as seen in the references to the
descriptions of the Indus valley civilization (5500–1300 BCE) which mention “Arogya” as reflecting
“holistic well-being.”[1] The Chinese traveler Fa-Hien (tr.AD 399–414) takes this further, commenting on
the excellent facilities for curative care at the time.[2] Today, we are a country of 1,296,667,068 people
(estimated as of this writing) who present an enormous diversity, and therefore, an enormous challenge
to the healthcare delivery system.[3] This brings into sharp focus the WHO theme of 2018, which calls
for “Universal Health Coverage-Everyone, Everywhere.”
What are the challenges in delivering healthcare to the “everyone” which must include the socially
disadvantaged, the economically challenged, and the systemically marginalized? What keeps us from
reaching the “everywhere,” which must include the remote areas in our Himalayan region for instance,
where until recently, essentials were airlifted by air force helicopters?.[4]
While there are many challenges, I present five “A's” for our consideration:
Awareness or the lack of it: How aware is the Indian population about important issues regarding their
own health? Studies on awareness are many and diverse, but lacunae in awareness appear to cut across
the lifespan in our country. Adequate knowledge regarding breastfeeding practice was found in only
one-third of the antenatal mothers in two studies.[5,6] Moving ahead in the lifecycle, a study in urban
Haryana found that only 11.3% of the adolescent girls studied knew correctly about key reproductive
health issues.[7] A review article on geriatric morbidity found that 20.3% of participants were aware of
common causes of prevalent illness and their prevention.[8]
Why is the level of health awareness low in the Indian population? The answers may lie in low
educational status, poor functional literacy, low accent on education within the healthcare system, and
low priority for health in the population, among others.
What is encouraging is that efforts to enhance awareness levels have generally shown promising results.
For instance, a study in Bihar and Jharkhand demonstrated improved levels of awareness and
perceptions about abortion following a behavioral change intervention.[9] A review on the effectiveness
of interventions on adolescent reproductive health showed a considerable increase in the awareness
levels of girls with regard to knowledge of health problems, environmental health, nutritional
awareness, and reproductive and child health following intervention.[10]
The message is clear – we must strive to raise awareness in those whom we work with and must
encourage the younger generation to believe in the power of education for behavior change.
Access or the lack of it: Access (to healthcare) is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The right or
opportunity to use or benefit from (healthcare)”[11] Again, when we look beyond the somewhat well-
connected urban populations to the urban underprivileged, and to their rural counterparts, the question
“What is the level of access of our population to healthcare of good quality?” is an extremely relevant
one. A 2002 paper speaks of access being a complex concept and speaks of aspects of availability,
supply, and utilization of healthcare services as being factors in determining access. Barriers to access in
the financial, organizational, social, and cultural domains can limit the utilization of services, even in
places where they are “available.”[12]
Physical reach is one of the basic determinants of access, defined as “ the ability to enter a healthcare
facility within 5 km from the place of residence or work”[13] Using this definition, a study in India in
2012 found that in rural areas, only 37% of people were able to access IP facilities within a 5 km
distance, and 68% were able to access out-patient facilities[14] Krishna and Ananthapur, in their 2012
paper, postulate that in general, the more rustic (rural) one's existence – the further one lives from
towns – the greater are the odds of disease, malnourishment, weakness, and premature death.[15]
Even if a healthcare facility is physically accessible, what is the quality of care that it offers? Is that care
continuously available? While the National (Rural) Health Mission has done much to improve the
infrastructure in the Indian Government healthcare system, a 2012 study of six states in India revealed
that many of the primary health centers (PHCs) lacked basic infrastructural facilities such as beds, wards,
toilets, drinking water facility, clean labor rooms for delivery, and regular electricity.[14]
As thinkers in the disciplines of community medicine and public health, we must encourage discussion
on the determinants of access to healthcare. We should identify and analyze possible barriers to access
in the financial, geographic, social, and system-related domains, and do our best to get our students and
peers thinking about the problem of access to good quality healthcare.
Absence or the humanpower crisis in healthcare: Any discussion on healthcare delivery should include
arguably the most central of the characters involved – the human workforce. Do we have adequate
numbers of personnel, are they appropriately trained, are they equitably deployed and is their morale in
delivering the service reasonably high?
A 2011 study estimated that India has roughly 20 health workers per 10,000 population, with allopathic
doctors comprising 31% of the workforce, nurses and midwives 30%, pharmacists 11%, AYUSH
practitioners 9%, and others 9%.[16] This workforce is not distributed optimally, with most preferring to
work in areas where infrastructure and facilities for family life and growth are higher. In general, the
poorer areas of Northern and Central India have lower densities of health workers compared to the
Southern states.[17]
While the private sector accounts for most of the health expenditures in the country, the state-run
health sector still is the only option for much of the rural and peri-urban areas of the country. The lack of
a qualified person at the point of delivery when a person has traveled a fair distance to reach is a big
discouragement to the health-seeking behavior of the population. According to the rural health statistics
of the Government of India (2015), about 10.4% of the sanctioned posts of auxiliary nurse midwives are
vacant, which rises to 40.7% of the posts of male health workers. Twenty-seven percentage of doctor
posts at PHCs were vacant, which is more than a quarter of the sanctioned posts.[18]
Considering that the private sector is the major player in healthcare service delivery, there have been
many programs aiming to harness private expertise to provide public healthcare services. The latest is
the new nationwide scheme proposed which accredits private providers to deliver services reimbursable
by the Government. In an ideal world, this should result in the improvement of coverage levels, but does
it represent a transfer of responsibility and an acknowledgment of the deficiencies of the public health
system?
As trainers and educators in public health, how are we equipping our trainees to deliver a health service
in the manner required, at the place where it is needed and at the time when it is essential? It is time for
a policy on health human power to be articulated, which must outline measures to ensure that the last
Indian is taken care of by a sensitive, trained, and competent healthcare worker.
Affordability or the cost of healthcare: Quite simply, how costly is healthcare in India, and more
importantly, how many can afford the cost of healthcare?
It is common knowledge that the private sector is the dominant player in the healthcare arena in India.
Almost 75% of healthcare expenditure comes from the pockets of households, and catastrophic
healthcare cost is an important cause of impoverishment.[19] Added to the problem is the lack of
regulation in the private sector and the consequent variation in quality and costs of services.
The public sector offers healthcare at low or no cost but is perceived as being unreliable, of indifferent
quality and generally is not the first choice, unless one cannot afford private care.
The solutions to the problem of affordability of healthcare lie in local and national initiatives. Nationally,
the Government expenditure on health must urgently be scaled up, from <2% currently to at least 5%–
6% of the gross domestic product in the short term.[20] This will translate into the much-needed
infrastructure boost in the rural and marginalized areas and hopefully to better availability of
healthcare– services, infrastructure, and personnel. The much-awaited national health insurance
program should be carefully rolled out, ensuring that the smallest member of the target population is
enrolled and understands what exactly the scheme means to her.
Locally, a consciousness of cost needs to be built into the healthcare sector, from the smallest to the
highest level. Wasteful expenditure, options which demand high spending, unnecessary use of tests, and
procedures should be avoided. The average medical student is not exposed to issues of cost of care
during the course. Exposing young minds to issues of economics of healthcare will hopefully bring in a
realization of the enormity of the situation, and the need to address it in whatever way possible.
Accountability or the lack of it: Being accountable has been defined as the procedures and processes by
which one party justifies and takes responsibility for its activities.[21]
In the healthcare profession, it may be argued that we are responsible for a variety of people and
constituencies. We are responsible to our clients primarily in delivering the service that is their due. Our
employers presume that the standard of service that is expected will be delivered. Our peers and
colleagues expect a code of conduct from us that will enable the profession to grow in harmony. Our
family and friends have their own expectations of us, while our government and country have an
expectation of us that we will contribute to the general good. A spiritual or religious dimension may also
be considered, where we are accountable to the principles of our faith.
In the turbulent times that we live in, the relationships with all the constituents listed above have come
under stress, with the client-provider axis being the most prominently affected. While unreasonable
expectations may be at the bottom of much of the stress, it is time for the profession to recognize that
the first step on the way forward is the recognition of the problem and its possible underlying causes.
Ethics in healthcare should be a hotly discussed issue, within the profession, rather than outside it.
Communication is a key skill to be inculcated among the young professionals who will be the leaders of
the profession tomorrow. As leaders in community medicine and public health, we may be the best
placed to put this high up in the list of skills to be imparted. A good communicator is better placed to
deal with the pressures of the relationships with client, employer, peer, colleague, family, friend, and
government.
The five as presented above present challenges to the health of the public in our glorious country. As we
get ready to face a future which is full of possibility and uncertainty in equal measure, let us recognize
these and other challenges and prepare to meet them, remembering that the fight against ill health is
the fight against all that is harmful to humanity.
Article information
Indian J Community Med. 2018 Jul-Sep; 43(3): 141–143.
doi: 10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_194_18
PMCID: PMC6166510
PMID: 30294075
Arvind Kasthuri
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166510/
INDIAN HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY REPORT (SIZE: 1.15 MB ) (AUGUST, 2021)
Introduction
Healthcare has become one of India’s largest sector, both in terms of revenue and employment.
Healthcare comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical
tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. The Indian healthcare sector is growing at a brisk
pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well private
players.
Indian healthcare delivery system is categorised into two major components public and private. The
Government, i.e. public healthcare system, comprises limited secondary and tertiary care institutions in
key cities and focuses on providing basic healthcare facilities in the form of primary healthcare centres
(PHCs) in rural areas. The private sector provides majority of secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care
institutions with major concentration in metros and tier I and tier II cities.
India's competitive advantage lies in its large pool of well-trained medical professionals. India is also cost
competitive compared to its peers in Asia and Western countries. The cost of surgery in India is about
one-tenth of that in the US or Western Europe.
As of August 11, 2021, >52 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the country.
Market Size
The healthcare market can increase three-fold to Rs. 8.6 trillion (US$ 133.44 billion) by 2022. In Budget
2021, India’s public expenditure on healthcare stood at 1.2% as a percentage of the GDP.
A growing middle-class, coupled with rising burden of new diseases, are boosting the demand for health
insurance coverage. With increasing demand for affordable and quality healthcare, penetration of
health insurance is poised to expand in the coming years. In FY21, gross direct premium income
underwritten by health insurance companies grew 13.3% YoY to Rs. 58,572.46 crore (US$ 7.9 billion).
The health segment has a 29.5% share in the total gross written premiums earned in the country.
Recent developments
Between April 2000 and December 2020, FDI inflows for drugs and pharmaceuticals sector stood at US$
17.99 billion, according to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal
Trade (DPIIT). Some of the recent initiatives in the Indian healthcare industry are as follows:
By August 2021, the Health Ministry’s eSanjeevani telemedicine service crossed 9 million
teleconsultations since its launch, enabling patient-to-doctor consultations, from the confines of their
homes, and doctor-to-doctor consultations.
In July 2021, India made its Covid19 vaccination platform, CoWIN, open source for all countries. Almost
76 countries have displayed interest in leveraging the CoWIN platform to manage their national COVID-
19 vaccination drives.
As of July 2021, Biological E. Ltd, is conducting Phase-III trials for its Corbevax vaccine. The company is
expected to apply for an ‘Emergency Use License’ by August end and supply 300 million doses to the
Government of India by December 2021.
In July 2021, the Indian government granted Sanofi and GSK approvals to conduct late-stage clinical
trials of their protein-based vaccines.
In July 2021, the Ministry of Tourism established the ‘National Medical & Wellness Tourism Board’ to
promote the Medical and Wellness Tourism in India.
In July 2021, the union cabinet approved continuation of the National Ayush Mission, responsible for the
development of traditional medicines in India, as a centrally sponsored scheme until 2026.
In July 2021, the Union Cabinet approved the MoU between India and Denmark on cooperation in
health and medicine. The agreement will focus on joint initiatives and technology development in the
health sector with the aim of improving public health status of the populations of both countries.
In June 2021, PharmEasy acquired a majority stake in Thyrocare Technologies, a diagnostics chain, to
diversify and bolster its testing business.
In June 2021, AstraZeneca India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Docon
Technologies, a Bengaluru-based health start-up, to digitise 1,000 clinics across India by implementing
customised electronic medical record (EMR) systems in clinics to offer doctors access to a patient’s
complete medical history.
As of June 2021, the Health Ministry’s eSanjeevani telemedicine service crossed 6 million (60 lakh)
teleconsultations since its launch, enabling patient-to-doctor consultations, from the confines of their
home, and doctor-to-doctor consultations.
As of April 2021, over 75,500 Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) were
operationalised in India.
In April 2021, Tata Digital infused Rs. 100 crore (US$ 13.45 million) debt in 1mg, the online medicine
start-up, and was in the final stages of acquiring a controlling stake in the company.
In April 2021, the Ministry of Ayush and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research completed multi-
centre clinical trial of a AYUSH 64 (a medicine) and found it useful for treatment of mild-to-moderate
COVID-19 infections.
By March 2021, India exported more vaccines than it had administered to its citizens—60 million doses
had been dispatched to 76 countries, while 52 million doses had been administered to Indian citizens.
Apart from vaccines, drugs indicated for Covid-19 treatment too witnessed an uptrend in exports. For
example, Remdesivir exports doubled in March 2021 to $14.8 million from $5.75 million in February
2021
In March 2021, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed the Rajya Sabha that 157 medical
colleges are under various stages of implementation across India. Of this, 58 colleges are in the first
phase of implementation, 24 in the second phase and 75 are in the third phase.
In March 2021, gross written premiums of health insurance companies in the non-life insurance sector
increased by 41% YoY to Rs. 2,185.05 crore (US$ 294 million), driven by rising demand for health
insurance products amid COVID-19 surge.
On March 17, 2021, the Health Ministry’s eSanjeevani telemedicine service crossed 3 million (30 lakh)
teleconsultations since its launch, enabling patient-to-doctor consultations from the confines of their
home, and doctor-to-doctor consultations.
In March 2021, Virchow Biotech, a Hyderabad-based firm, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund
(RDIF) announced a collaboration to manufacture up to 200 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in
India.
In February 2021, India approved the commercial supply of 24 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 25
countries, more than 2x the 10.5 million vaccines exported in January 2021. Through this, seven
countries, including Brazil, Morocco and South Africa, were sent >~10 million doses on a commercial
basis.
On February 2021, the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC)
signed a MOU with Apollo Medskills Pvt Ltd. to co-fund a COVID Vaccine Administration training
programmes for nurses, medical & nursing students and pharmacists belonging to the NBCFDC target
community.
In February 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved acquisition of Varian Medical
Systems, Inc. by Siemens Healthineers Holding I Gmb (SHS GmbH).
In February 2021, the Minister for Commerce and Industry of India, Mr. Piyush Goyal, and the UK
Secretary of State for International Trade, Ms. Elizabeth Truss MP, completed a meeting to discuss the
bilateral trade and economic relations of India–UK trade and investment relationship. The Ministers also
welcomed enhancement of bilateral health cooperation between the two countries, such as on vaccines,
which is allowing India to serve as a global source of strength in overcoming COVID-19-imposed
challenges.
In February 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stones for two hospitals and
launched ‘Asom Mala’, a programme for state highways and major district roads, in Assam. He also
added that ~1.25 crore people in the state are being benefitted from Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
Government Initiatives
Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote Indian healthcare industry
are as follows:
According to a spokesperson, the Indian government is planning to introduce a credit incentive

programme worth Rs. 500 billion (US$ 6.8 billion) to boost the country’s healthcare infrastructure. The
programme will allow firms to leverage the fund to expand hospital capacity or medical supplies with
the government acting as a guarantor and strengthen COVID-19-related health infrastructure in smaller
towns.
In June 2021, the Union Cabinet was apprised of an MoU that was signed between Indian Council of
Medical Research (ICMR), India and the Department of Medical Research (DMR), Ministry of Health and
Sports of Myanmar in February 2020. The objective of this MoU was to build on the health research
relationship in topics of mutual research between India and Myanmar.
In June 2021, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in partnership with UNICEF, held a
capacity building workshop for media professionals and health correspondents in Northeastern states
on the current COVID-19 situation in India, the need to bust myths regarding COVID-19 vaccines &
vaccination and reinforce the importance of COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB).
In June 2021, Bolo Indya, a domestic social live streaming platform, partnered with the Ministry of
AYUSH to improve awareness for traditional Indian methods of medicines and care such as siddha, yoga,
unani and ayurveda to boost healthy living among citizens. Through this partnership, >10 million citizens
will be covered in the next 12 months.
In June 2021, West Bengal proposed for six new medical colleges in the state, nine new medical colleges
became operational in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana approved six medical colleges in the state and Punjab
announced establishment of four new medical colleges in the state.
In June 2021, the Uttar Pradesh government announced to introduce automatic medicine dispensing
machine to expand the primary healthcare industry and clinical centres in the country. The state health
department has been nominated to design an action plan and install ‘Health ATMs’ walk-in medical
kiosks, with combined medical devices for basic laboratory testing, emergency offerings, cardiology,
neurology, pulmonary and gynaecology testing services that will be operated by a medical assistant in all
75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
In June 2021, the government invited bids for using drones to deliver COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to
remote and difficult-to-reach areas to ensure last-mile coverage in select locations of the country.
As of May 2021, 11.9 lakh Health IDs have been generated and 3,106 doctors and 1,490 facilities have
registered on the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) platform.
In May 2021, Defense Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh launched ‘Services e-Health Assistance & Tele-
consultation (SeHAT)’ OPD portal to provide telemedicine services to armed forces personnel and
veterans.
On May 12, 2021, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), accepted recommendation of Subject
Expert Committee (SEC) and accorded permission to conduct the Phase II/III clinical trials of Covaxin
(COVID vaccine) for the age group of 2-18 years to its manufacturer, Bharat Biotech Ltd.
On May 17, 2021, the Defence Ministry launched the first batch of anti-COVID drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose
(2-DG) that was developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), along with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL),
Hyderabad.
In May 2021, the government announced its plan to ramp up supply and availability of Amphotericin-B,
the anti-fungal drug, for treatment of the ‘Black Fungus’ disease. It has also given the license to five
manufactures to produce the drug within the country.
In March 2021, various states and UTs started implementation of the ‘Intensified Mission Indradhanush
3.0’—a campaign aimed to reach those children and pregnant women who were missed out or have
been left out of the routine immunisation programme due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is aimed to
accelerate the full immunisation of children and pregnant women through a mission mode intervention.
In March 2021, the Parliament passed the National Commission for Allied, Healthcare Professions Bill
2021, which aims to create a body that will regulate and maintain educational and service standards for
healthcare professionals.
In the Union Budget 2021, investment in health infrastructure expanded 2.37x, or 137% YoY; the total
health sector allocation for FY22 stood at Rs. 223,846 crore (US$ 30.70 billion).
The government announced Rs. 64,180 crore (US$ 8.80 billion) outlay for the healthcare sector over six
years in the Union Budget 2021-22 to strengthen the existing ‘National Health Mission’ by developing
capacities of primary, secondary and tertiary care, healthcare systems and institutions for detection and
cure of new & emerging diseases.
In Union Budget 2021-22, the government announced its plans to launch ‘Mission Poshan 2.0’ to merge
‘Supplementary Nutrition Programme’ with ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ (Nutrition Mission) in order to improve
nutritional outcomes across 112 aspirational districts.
The Government of India approved continuation of ‘National Health Mission’ with a budget of Rs. 37,130
crore (US$ 5.10 billion) under the Union Budget 2021-22.
In the Union Budget 2021, the Ministry of AYUSH was allocated Rs. 2,970 crore (US$ 407.84 million), up
from Rs. 2,122 crore (US$ 291.39 million).
Road Ahead
India is a land full of opportunities for players in the medical devices industry. The country has also
become one of the leading destinations for high-end diagnostic services with tremendous capital
investment for advanced diagnostic facilities, thus catering to a greater proportion of population.
Besides, Indian medical service consumers have become more conscious towards their healthcare
upkeep.
Indian healthcare sector is much diversified and is full of opportunities in every segment, which includes
providers, payers, and medical technology. With the increase in the competition, businesses are looking
to explore for the latest dynamics and trends which will have positive impact on their business. The
hospital industry in India is forecast to increase to Rs. 8.6 trillion (US$ 132.84 billion) by FY22 from Rs. 4
trillion (US$ 61.79 billion) in FY17 at a CAGR of 16–17%.
The Government of India is planning to increase public health spending to 2.5% of the country's GDP by
2025.
India's competitive advantage also lies in the increased success rate of Indian companies in getting
Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) approvals. India also offers vast opportunities in R&D as well
as medical tourism. To sum up, there are vast opportunities for investment in healthcare infrastructure
in both urban and rural India.
Note: Conversion rate used for May 2021 is Rs. 1 = US$ 0.01365
References: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), RNCOS Reports, Media
Reports, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Union Budget 2021-22
https://www.ibef.org/industry/healthcare-india.aspx
Recreation
Homepage
Sports and recreation in India
sports and recreation in india
This is a selection of resources on sports and recreation in India from the NLB catalogue or the Internet
and is not meant to be an exhaustive list.
NLB print and digital resources
Free hit: The story of women’s cricket in India
Free Hit is the untold story of women’s cricket in India, casting light on the gender-based pay gaps,
sponsorship challenges, and the sheer indifference of cricketing officials along the way. Take a step into
the lives of the spirited female athletes who, just like their male counterparts, brought home laurels
worth celebrating.
Retrieved from OverDrive. myLibrary ID is required to access this ebook.
Imperfect
Sanjay Manjrekar looks back on his career as a cricketer, taking the reader on a journey from the dusty
maidans of Mumbai to the world stage as a combative batsman. He comments on the Indian greats he
shared the dressing room with, lessons learnt from his opponents, and his own obsession and quest for
cricket perfection.
Barefoot to boots: The many lives of Indian football

Few football fans today may recall that India was once known as the “Brazil of Asia”. In this book,
commentator Novy Kapadia reveals Indian football’s glorious legacy through riveting descriptions and
analysis of on-field action, stories of memorable matches and exclusive conversations with legendary
players and officials.
Nation at play: A history of sport in India
This is an informative overview of the history of India’s sports from ancient times to contemporary India.
The ebook also analyses the cultural and political development of India’s sports. Read on for interesting
and significant historical sporting events such as India’s soccer team Mohun Bagan’s victory in the 1911
IFA Shield and India’s first participation in the Olympic Games in 1924.
Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. myLibrary ID is required to access this ebook.
Wisden India Almanack 2017
The fifth edition of Wisden India Almanack offers essays on Indian cricket from the best writers, and
those from other fields who are passionate about cricket, such as the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella. In
addition, it lists the records, matches and interesting occurrences in India’s domestic cricket in 2017.
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National Games – Indian Olympic Association
The Olympic movement gathered momentum in India in the 1920s, with the need to identify national
talent for the Olympic Games prompting the initiation of the National Games in India. The first edition
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Education
Education in India
September 13, 2018
Stefan Trines, Research Editor, WENR
INTRODUCTION: INDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
India is a rapidly changing country in which inclusive, high-quality education is of utmost importance for
its future prosperity. The country is currently in a youth bulge phase. It has the largest youth population
in the world—a veritable army of 600 million young people under the age of 25. Fully 28 percent of the
population is less than 14 years of age, and with more than 30 babies being born every minute,
population growth rates are expected to remain at around 1 percent for years. India is expected to
overtake China as the largest country on earth by 2022 and grow to about 1.5 billion people by 2030 (up
from 1.34 billion in 2017). The UN projects that Delhi will become the largest city in the world with 37
million people by 2028.
This demographic change could be a powerful engine of economic growth and development: If India
manages to modernize and expand its education system, raise educational attainment levels, and
provide skills to its youth, it could gain a significant competitive advantage over swiftly aging countries
like China.
Some analysts consequently argue that India will eventually economically close in on China, because of
India’s greater propensity for entrepreneurial innovation, and its young, technically skilled, rapidly
growing English-speaking workforce—which is projected to be in increased global demand as labor costs
in China rise faster than in India.
Indeed, India is now the world’s fastest growing major economy, outpacing China’s in terms of growth
rates, even though it is still much smaller in overall size. Large parts of Indian society are simultaneously
growing richer—the number of Indians in middle-income brackets is expected to increase almost 10-fold
within just two decades, from 50 million people in 2010 to 475 million people in 2030. Some analysts
now predict that India will become the second-largest economy in the world by 2050.
Islands of Prosperity in a Sea of Poverty: Constraints, Challenges and Uneven Development
At the same time, India is still a developing country of massive scale and home to the largest number of
poor people in the world next to Nigeria. Consider that some 40 percent of India’s roads are still
unpaved, while the country accounts for more than a quarter of all new tuberculosis infections
worldwide—the disease kills more than 435,000 Indians each year. India also has one of the highest
mortality rates among children under the age of five worldwide, as well as one of the worst sanitation
systems: 524 million Indians did not use a toilet in 2017.
According to the World Bank, India succeeded in bringing 133 million people out of poverty between
1994 and 2012, and extreme poverty continues to decline drastically. However, India still has about a
quarter of the world’s extreme poor, and social inequalities in the country are not only rampant but
rising. If current trends continue, India will be in danger of disintegrating into parallel societies with
economic realities of elites in economic centers like Mumbai or Bangalore looking exceedingly different
from those of the impoverished masses in underdeveloped states like Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. As
economists Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze put it in a famous quote, India is looking “more and more like
islands of California in a sea of sub-Saharan Africa.”
The Skyline of Mumbai and a Village in Rural Bihar

In light of such problems, it remains very much an open question whether India can harness its youth
dividend to achieve inclusive economic development, or if it will become overburdened by population
growth. As of now, India struggles to educate and employ its growing population: More than 27 percent
of the country’s youth are excluded from education, employment, or training, while the overwhelming
majority of working Indians are employed in the informal sector, many of them in agriculture, often in
precarious engagements lacking any form of job security or labor protections.
It has been estimated that India’s economy needs to create 10 million new jobs annually until 2030 to
keep up with the growth of its working-age population—that’s more than 27,000 jobs each day for the
next 12 years. While that’s not impossible—China reportedly created 13.14 million new jobs in its cities
in 2016—it’s certainly a tremendous challenge. Between 2013 and 2016 India’s economy only generated
an estimated 150,000 to 400,000 jobs each year. In one stark example of the dire labor market situation
in present-day India, 2.3 million applicants applied for 368 open government positions in the state of
Uttar Pradesh in 2015.
India’s higher education system, meanwhile, does not have the capacity to achieve enrollment ratios
anywhere close to those of other middle-income economies. The country’s tertiary gross enrollment
rate is growing fast, but remains more than 20 percentage points below that of China or Brazil, despite
the creation of large numbers of higher education institutions (HEIs) in recent years.
Educational attainment in present-day India is also not directly correlated to employment prospects—a
fact that raises doubts about the quality and relevance of Indian education. Although estimates vary,
there is little doubt that unemployment is high among university graduates—Indian authorities noted in
2017 that 60 percent of engineering graduates remain unemployed, while a 2013 study of 60,000
university graduates in different disciplines found that 47 percent of them were unemployable in any
skilled occupation. India’s overall youth unemployment rate, meanwhile, has remained stuck above 10
percent for the past decade.
Such bottlenecks have caused a large-scale outflow of labor migrants and international students from
India: The number of Indian students enrolled in degree programs abroad has grown almost fivefold
since 1998, while hundreds of thousands of labor migrants leave the country each year. Many of these
migrants are low-skilled workers, but there is also a pronounced brain drain of skilled professionals—
950,000 Indian scientists and engineers lived in the U.S. alone in 2013 (a steep increase of 85 percent
since 2003).
Aside from cross-border outmigration, there is also tremendous internal migration: Rural poverty causes
a staggering nine million people to relocate to India’s mushrooming cities annually. According to India’s
latest census, there was a total of 139 million internal migrants in the country in 2011.
The stakes for India in this situation are high. If the country fails to create meaningful job opportunities
for its swelling youth cohorts, population growth could quickly turn toxic, exacerbating uncontrolled
urbanization, overcrowding, pollution, and shortages of vital resources like drinking water.
This lack of opportunity, in turn, could stir up political radicalization and militant religious extremism—
legions of idle and frustrated youths are easy prey for populist politicians playing religious identity
politics. The landslide election victory of hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) in 2014 indicates that Hindu nationalism has already become more palatable in India—a
trend that is also a defensive reaction to globalization, similar to the current developments in the United
States.
Recent attempts by authorities to redefine diverse, multicultural India as a purely Hindu nation, spikes in
mob killings of Muslims, and increasingly zealous bans by Indian governments on the slaughter of cows
and the sale of beef—measures described as “dietary profiling”—are all signs that religious Hindu
extremism and anti-Muslim resentment could become growing problems in India.
India’s social problems will magnify if the country does not provide more quality jobs, increase social
mobility, and expand and improve its overburdened education system, which is weakened by
inadequate funding and infrastructure, absenteeism among underpaid and poorly qualified teachers,
high student-to-teacher ratios, academic corruption, and mounting problems of quality, particularly in
India’s rapidly growing private higher education sector.
The Indian government rightly considers education the “… key catalyst for promoting socio-economic
mobility in building an equitable and just society.” Gargantuan progress has been made in expanding
access to growing segments of India’s society over the past decades, but providing relevant educational
opportunities for a majority of the country’s burgeoning youth remains a pivotal challenge for Indian
policy makers.
Incredible India: A Few Facts About a Highly Diverse Country With a Difficult Past
Modern India has been shaped by centuries of European imperialism and colonialism, most notably the
formal colonial rule by Great Britain, which governed almost all of present-day India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh during the 19th century. Perhaps the most destructive aspect of that rule was the British
sowed religious divisions by defining communities based on religious identity and divided the Indian
subcontinent into administrative units along religious lines.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan (which then included present-day Bangladesh) were
eventually granted independence in 1947 as separate sovereign countries—an event that was marred by
horrific sectarian violence and mutual genocidal mass killings between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. An
estimated 200,000 to two million people were killed; between 10 million and 20 million people fled and
migrated between the newly created countries, or were forcefully displaced in one of the largest
dislocations of people in modern history.
This tragedy was perhaps the most defining moment for contemporary South Asia. It antagonized
Hindus and Muslims and placed India and Pakistan on a hostile footing ever since, resulting in three
separate wars and a nuclear arms race between the two countries. The conflict over the disputed
territory of Kashmir continues to be a constant source of tension and military confrontation today.
Of course, India remains a land of colossal proportions despite the partition. The country is, in a word,
vast—it’s the world’s seventh-largest in terms of geographical area, stretching from the southern plains
of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to the snow-capped Himalayas in the north. India borders Bangladesh, Bhutan,
China, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan and features some of highest mountains on earth, the huge Thar
Desert, 4,300 miles of coastline, and the famous and religiously important Ganges River. It has 36 states
and territories, the largest of which are Uttar Pradesh (home to an estimated 219 million people) and
Maharashtra (with approximately 119 million). To put it differently, India is a place where one individual
state has more people than Pakistan or Nigeria, the world’s sixth and seventh largest countries in terms
of population size.
Equally notable, there is tremendous ethnic, religious, and cultural variety across India’s states and
territories. India’s constitution officially recognizes 1,108 castes and more than 700 tribes (formally
called scheduled castes and tribes)—a degree of diversity that is mirrored by an astonishing assortment
of languages that are spoken throughout the country.
While Hindi is the most widespread language, spoken as the mother tongue by 44 percent of the
population, India’s 1991 census counted 1,576 mother tongues in total, with 184 of these languages
spoken by more than 10,000 people. In terms of religious affiliation, Hindus make up the majority—
almost 80 percent—of India’s population, but the country is also home to the world’s second-largest
Muslim population after Indonesia—14.2 percent of the total population or about 172 million people
identify as Muslims, as well as other religious minorities like Christians (2.3 percent), Sikhs (1.7 percent),
Buddhists (0.7 percent), and Jains (0.4 percent).
OUTBOUND STUDENT MOBILITY
Student mobility trends in India are of great interest to university admissions personnel in the U.S.,
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and increasingly in countries like Germany or China. India is
currently the second-largest sending country of international students worldwide after China, and
outbound student flows are surging. The number of Indian international students enrolled in degree
programs abroad doubled from 134,880 students in 2004 to 278,383 in 2017, as per UNESCO.
Among these students, the U.S. is the most favored destination country by far, hosting 112,713 Indian
students—40.5 percent of all outbound students in 2015. The second and third most popular study
destinations are Australia, where numbers recently surged to 46,316 degree-seeking students, and
Canada, which saw Indian enrollments almost quadruple from 5,868 in 2010 to 19,905 in 2016. In the
UK, Indian enrollments have tanked by 53 percent since 2011, but the country is still the fourth-largest
destination with 18,177 students in 2015. New Zealand, meanwhile, saw Indian enrollments explode by
more than 500 percent since 2007 and became the fifth most popular destination with 15,016 students
in 2016.
Notably, outbound mobility is not only growing, but also diversifying with Indian students increasingly
branching out to countries beyond traditional English-speaking study destinations. The United Arab
Emirates, for instance, has become the sixth-largest study destination with 13,370 students—a trend
partially driven by the fact that Indian labor migrants now make up more than 25 percent of the
country’s resident population, while a number of Indian universities have set up branch campuses in the
Emirates. In Germany, the number of Indian students almost tripled to 9,896 within a decade and
enrollments are growing briskly even in countries like Ukraine, which now hosts 4,773 students (up from
1,170 in 2006).
There is no UNESCO data available for China, but the country is an emerging destination with strong
growth rates. According to data provided by Project Atlas of the Institute of International Education (IIE),
there were 18,717 Indians studying in China as of 2017 (a sharp increase from 10,178 students in 2013).
Note that these numbers, like other data cited below, are not directly comparable to UNESCO data,
since they rely on a different method for counting international students.1
Future Growth Potential and Factors Affecting Outbound Student Mobility
Notwithstanding the high number of Indian international students around the globe, India actually has a
very low outbound student mobility ratio of only 0.9 percent. Merely a tiny fraction of the country’s 36
million tertiary students is currently going abroad, which means that there’s enormous long-term
potential for further growth. While overall momentum in outbound mobility is slowing in countries like
aging China, where the quality of universities has matured and the benefit of a Western education for
Chinese students has decreased, India’s burgeoning youth population will continue to face much more
Darwinian challenges in securing access to quality education for years to come.
There is little question that a lack of access to high-quality education is a key driver of student mobility
from India. Demand for education in the country is surging, yet unmet by supply—India will soon have
the largest tertiary-age population in the world, but the tertiary gross enrollment rate (GER) stands at
only 25.8 percent, despite the opening of ever-more HEIs. Large and growing numbers of aspiring youth
remain locked out of the higher education system.
As of now, outbound mobility from India is still inhibited by the limited financial resources available to
most students. WES research by Rahul Choudaha, Li Chang and Paul Schulmann found that less than half
of Indian students in the U.S. are financially independent and that more than two-thirds seek some form
of financial aid. The per capita income in India is growing, but presently stands at only USD$1,570, which
means that studying abroad in expensive foreign destinations remains out of reach for most Indians
unless they obtain scholarships or other forms of financial assistance.
There is consequently a strong relationship between outbound student flows and macroeconomic
conditions. Between 2011 and 2013, outbound students flows decreased drastically when India suffered
a severe economic downturn and the Indian rupee depreciated by 44 percent against the U.S. dollar,
making it much more expensive for Indians to study abroad. Funding opportunities in the U.S.
simultaneously dried up, so that many prospective international students waited out the crisis at home
— a trend clearly illustrated in the graph above.
Against this backdrop, current economic developments could throttle mobility from India, particularly to
the United States. The Indian rupee has depreciated 10 percent against the U.S. dollar since the
beginning of the year, amid rising interest rates in the U.S. and concerns about a global trade war.
However, while such developments could presage downward fluctuations in the near term, they are
unlikely to slow growth in the long run, given that India’s emergent middle class will gain greater
purchasing power in the years ahead. As India’s Economic Times has noted, over “the past two decades,
many first-generation Indians have risen up the corporate hierarchy and are financially well-off. These
well-traveled, financially stable corporate executives desire the best for their children,” including a high-
quality education.
Yet, while the number of people able to afford quality education is growing, top-notch learning
opportunities are still in short supply and difficult to access in India. Many academic institutions are of
lackluster quality and churn out graduates with poor employment and earning prospects—making a
degree from a reputable foreign university a valuable asset in India’s competitive job market. Many
Indian companies prefer to hire graduates of foreign schools.
India’s engineering programs pump out some 1.5 million graduates annually, but many of these alumni
cannot find quality jobs—it is no coincidence that more than 70 percent of Indian students in the U.S.
are enrolled in STEM fields. WES surveys of Indian graduate students in the U.S. found that many of
them are disillusioned about their career opportunities at home; they are motivated to study abroad in
order to improve their employment prospects in India.
Barriers to entering high-quality programs at top institutions like India’s Institutes of Technology (IITs),
meanwhile, are so high that entrance requirements even at top U.S. universities are almost modest by
comparison. The admissions rate at IITs has been below 2 percent for years, while other prestigious
institutions like the Christian Medical College, Vellore admitted a miniscule 0.25 percent of applicants in
2015.
In another example, 374,520 applicants competed over 800 available seats in MBBS (Bachelor of
Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) programs at India’s top-rated All India Institute of Medical Sciences in
2018. Surveys of Indian students in China, where some 80 percent of Indian international undergraduate
students are enrolled in medical programs, found that the likelihood of being admitted was the most
important motivating factor for China-bound Indian students. Exploding costs for medical education at
India’s private medical schools are another reason for the recent surge of Indian enrollments in China.
High unemployment and cutthroat labor market competition in India also cause many Indian
international students to use education as a springboard for employment and immigration abroad.
Opportunities to work in the U.S. on optional practical training (OPT) extensions and H-1B visas, for
instance, are a major draw for Indian students, as discussed in greater detail below.
In sum, social conditions in India are favorable for a further expansion of outbound mobility; it is almost
certain that increasing numbers of Indians will flock to universities in foreign countries in coming years.
While the tertiary enrollment rate in India is low, it is growing quickly—a key factor, since it usually
increases the overall student population and with it the pool of potential international students. Rising
prosperity among an emergent urban middle class will simultaneously make it easier for more Indians to
afford studying abroad.
Trends in the United States
The number of Indian students in the U.S. has more than tripled since the beginning of the 21st century
and grown rapidly as of recently. According to IIE’s Open Doors data, the number of Indian students
reached its highest peak ever in 2016/17, when it spiked from 165,918 students in the previous
academic year to 186,267 students—an increase of 12.3 percent.
However, it is highly unlikely that such growth rates can be sustained in the current political climate in
the United States. Enrollments have already slipped—data on active student visas provided by the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show that the total number of student visas in the F and M
category held by Indian students dropped by 0.27 percent between December 2017 and March 2018,
following a decrease of 28 percent in new F-1 visas being issued to Indians in 2017.
https://wenr.wes.org/2018/09/education-in-india
Explore: The education system in India

Published on August 6th, 2021 by FutureLearn
Category: FutureLearn India, FutureLearn Local
We take a comprehensive look at India’s growing primary, secondary and higher education system,
exploring the history of education in India and how it plans to develop.
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India has a unique education system designed to uphold its nation’s culture, history, values, and
customs.
While traditionally, education in India was reserved mostly for the higher-caste children, new education
policies have been aiming to achieve equity in education and the right to education for all children
irrespective of social class.
Facts and statistics about education in India
Under India’s Right to Education Act 2020, free and compulsory education is ensured to every child
between the ages of three to 18.
As of 2020, education in India statistics show that about 26 per cent of the Indian population (1.39
billion) falls into the 0-14 year category, which provides a great opportunity for the primary education
sector.
Furthermore, 18 per cent of the population, or approximately 500 million, fall into the 15-24 year
category, allowing for opportunities for growth across the secondary and higher education institutions in
India.
Additional Indian education statistics reveal how the literacy ratio of India for adults (15+ years) is 69.3
per cent, with male literacy at 78.8 per cent and female literacy at 59.3 per cent.
The Indian state with the highest literacy rate is Kerala, at 96.2 per cent as of 2018.
The most popular Indian higher education institution is the University of Delhi, followed by the Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay.
India was ranked 34 among the 100 countries in the 2019 English Proficiency Index, allowing for easy
delivery of educational material that meets Universal standards.
Aims for the future of education in India
In April 2021, India joined the United Nation’s E9 initiative, whose purpose is to create an initiative on
digital learning and skills, targeting marginalised children and youth, especially girls.
According to Union Budget 2021-22, the Indian government allocated an expenditure budget of US$5.28
billion for higher education and US$7.56 billion for school education and literacy.
By 2030, it’s estimated that India’s higher education system will have more than 20 universities among
the global top 200 universities. It’s also thought that it will be among the top five countries in the world
in terms of research output, with an annual research and development (R&D) spend of US$140 billion.
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/futurelearn-international/explore-india-education-system
The arts
Few areas of the world can claim an artistic heritage comparable to that developed in India over the
course of more than four millennia. For a detailed discussion of Indian literature, music, dance, theatre,
and visual arts, see South Asian arts.
Architecture
Architecture is perhaps India’s greatest glory. Among the most-renowned monuments are many cave
temples hewn from rock (of which those at Ajanta and Ellora are most noteworthy); the Sun Temple at
Konarak (Konarka); the vast temple complexes at Bhubaneshwar, Khajuraho, and Kanchipuram
(Conjeeveram); such Mughal masterpieces as Humayun’s tomb and the Taj Mahal; and, from the 20th
century, buildings such as the High Court in the planned city of Chandigarh, designed by the Swiss-born
architect Le Corbusier, and the Bhopal State Assembly building in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, designed by
the Indian architect and urban planner Charles Correa. Also notable are stepwells, such as the Rani ki
Vav (“Queen’s Stepwell”) in Patan (northern Gujarat), now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Other traditional art forms in India—painting, embroidery, pottery, ornamental woodworking and
metalworking, sculpture, lacquerware, and jewelry—are also well represented. Much of the best work
resulted from patronage by the court (often being produced in royally endowed workshops), by temples,
and by wealthy individuals. Vigorous folk traditions have a very long history, as witnessed by the ancient
rock paintings found in scores of caves across India.
Radha; Krishna
Radha; Krishna
Radha and Krishna, detail of a Kishangarh painting, mid-18th century; in a private collection.
P. Chandra
Dance and music
The performing arts also have a long and distinguished tradition. Bharata natyam, the classical dance
form originating in southern India, expresses Hindu religious themes that date at least to the 4th century
CE (see Natya-shastra). Other regional styles include odissi (from Orissa), manipuri (Manipur), kathakali
(Kerala), kuchipudi (Andhra Pradesh), and kathak (Islamicized northern India). In addition, there are
numerous regional folk dance traditions. One of these is bhangra, a Punjabi dance form that, along with
its musical accompaniment, has achieved growing national and international popularity since the 1970s.
Indian dance was popularized in the West by dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar.
Bharata natyam
Bharata natyam
Bharata natyam, a traditional dance drama of India.
Mohan Khokar
kathakali dancers
kathakali dancers
In Indian classical dance, male and female kathakali dancers.
Foto Features
kathak school dancer
kathak school dancer
Kathak school dancer, in Mughal costume, performing Indian classical dance.
Mohan Khokar
manipuri-style dance
manipuri-style dance
Manipuri-style performance of Indian classical dance.
Mohan Khokar
Traditional Indian music is divided between the Hindustani (northern) and Carnatic (southern) schools.
(The Hindustani style is influenced by musical traditions of the Persian-speaking world.) Instrumental
and vocal music is also quite varied and frequently is played or sung in concert (usually by small
ensembles). It is a popular mode of religious expression, as well as an essential accompaniment to many
social festivities, including dances and the narration of bardic and other folk narratives. Some virtuosos,
most notably Ravi Shankar (composer and sitar player) and Ali Akbar Khan (composer and sarod player),
have gained world renown. The most popular dramatic classical performances, which are sometimes
choreographed, relate to the great Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Regional variations
of classical and folk music abound. All of these genres have remained popular—as has devotional Hindu
music—but interest in Indian popular music has grown rapidly since the late 20th century, buoyed by
the great success of motion picture musicals. Western classical music is represented by such institutions
as the Symphony Orchestra of India, based in Mumbai, and some individuals (notably conductor Zubin
Mehta) have achieved international renown.
Theatre, film, and literature
In modern times, Bengali playwrights—especially Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, who was
also a philosopher, poet, songwriter, choreographer, essayist, and painter—have given new life to the
Indian theatre. Playwrights from a number of other regions also have gained popularity.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Clothing
Land
Intro
Land
India’s frontier, which is roughly one-third coastline, abuts six countries. It is bounded to the northwest
by Pakistan, to the north by Nepal, China, and Bhutan; and to the east by Myanmar (Burma). Bangladesh
to the east is surrounded by India to the north, east, and west. The island country of Sri Lanka is situated
some 40 miles (65 km) off the southeast coast of India across the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar.
The land of India—together with Bangladesh and most of Pakistan—forms a well-defined subcontinent,
set off from the rest of Asia by the imposing northern mountain rampart of the Himalayas and by
adjoining mountain ranges to the west and east. In area, India ranks as the seventh largest country in
the world.
Much of India’s territory lies within a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west and
the Bay of Bengal to the east; Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, marks the
dividing line between those two bodies of water. India has two union territories composed entirely of
islands: Lakshadweep, in the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie between the
Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India
Himalayas
The Himalayas. The great mountain wall of the Himalayas stretches for some 1,500 miles (2,400
kilometers) across northern and northeastern India. The Himalayas consist of three parallel ranges--the
Great Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas, and the Outer Himalayas. At their western end stands another
lofty mountain range, the Karakoram.
The Great Himalayas and Karakoram have an average elevation of more than 20,000 feet (6,100 meters)
and contain the highest mountains in the world, including K2 (or Mt. Godwin Austen), the world's
second highest mountain peak. It is situated in the Karakoram, in a part of Kashmir controlled by
Pakistan. At 28,250 feet (8,611 meters), K2 ranks second only to Mt. Everest, which lies on the border
between Tibet and Nepal. The world's third highest peak, Kanchenjunga, on the border between the
Indian state of Sikkim and Nepal, rises to 28,169 feet (8,586 meters).
The mountains of the Lesser Himalayas, though smaller, also reach considerable heights. They are
crossed by numerous large valleys, some of which are fertile and of great scenic beauty. Indians who can
do so visit hill stations (mountain resorts) here, such as Simla and Darjeeling, to escape the intense
summer heat of the plains.
The low foothills of the Outer Himalayas lie between the Lesser Himalayas and the Gangetic Plain.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/india-land/
The Himalayas of India
The Himalayas (from the Sanskrit words hima, “snow,” and alaya, “abode”), the loftiest mountain
system in the world, form the northern limit of India. That great, geologically young mountain arc is
about 1,550 miles (2,500 km) long, stretching from the peak of Nanga Parbat (26,660 feet [8,126
metres]) in the Pakistani-administered portion of the Kashmir region to the Namcha Barwa peak in the
Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Between those extremes the mountains fall across India, southern
Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. The width of the system varies between 125 and 250 miles (200 and 400 km).
Within India the Himalayas are divided into three longitudinal belts, called the Outer, Lesser, and Great
Himalayas. At each extremity there is a great bend in the system’s alignment, from which a number of
lower mountain ranges and hills spread out. Those in the west lie wholly within Pakistan and
Afghanistan, while those to the east straddle India’s border with Myanmar (Burma). North of the
Himalayas are the Plateau of Tibet and various Trans-Himalayan ranges, only a small part of which, in
the Ladakh union territory (in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir), are within the territorial
limits of India.
Because of the continued subduction of the Indian peninsula against the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayas
and the associated eastern ranges remain tectonically active. As a result, the mountains are still rising,
and earthquakes—often accompanied by landslides—are common. Several since 1900 have been
devastating, including one in 1934 in what is now Bihar state that killed more than 10,000 people. In
2001 another tremor (the Bhuj earthquake), farther from the mountains, in Gujarat state, was less
powerful but caused extensive damage, taking the lives of more than 20,000 people and leaving more
than 500,000 homeless. Still others—notably the 2005 quake in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and the
2015 temblor in Nepal—principally affected those regions but also caused widespread damage and
hundreds of deaths in adjacent parts of India. The relatively high frequency and wide distribution of
earthquakes likewise have generated controversies about the safety and advisability of several
hydroelectric and irrigation projects.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/The-Himalayas
Northern Plains
The Gangetic Plain. The lowlands of the Gangetic Plain, also known as northern plains, stretch in a wide
arc across India. This is the country's most productive and densely populated region. All three of the
great rivers that water these lowlands--the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra--are fed by the
permanent snows and glaciers of the Himalayas.
The Northern Plains | Part 1
Post author
By Explains
Post date
August 4, 2017
Northern plains are the youngest physiographic feature in India. They lie to the south of the Shivaliks,
separated by the Himalayan Frontal Fault (HFF). The southern boundary is a wavy irregular line along the
northern edge of the Peninsular India. On the eastern side, the plains are bordered by the Purvanchal
hills.
Due to the uplift of the Himalayas in the Tethys Sea, the northern part of the Indian Peninsula got
subsided and formed a large basin.
That basin was filled with sediments from the rivers which came from the mountains in the north and
from the peninsula in the south. These extensive alluvial deposits led to the formation of the northern
plains of India.
The northern plain of India is formed by three river systems, i.e. the Indus, the Ganga and the
Brahmaputra; along with their tributaries.
The northern plains are the largest alluvial tract of the world. These plains extend approximately 3200
km from west to east.
The average width of these plains varies between 150 and 300 km. In general, the width of the northern
plains increases from east to west (90-100km in Assam to about 500km in Punjab).
The exact depth of alluvium has not yet been fully determined. According to recent estimates, the
average depth of alluvium in the southern side of the plain varies between 1300-1400m, while towards
the Shiwaliks, the depth of alluvium increases. The maximum depth of over 8000m has been reached in
parts of Haryana.
The extreme horizontality of this monotonous plain is its chief characteristic (200m – 291m). The highest
elevation of 291 m above mean sea level near Ambala forms a watershed between Indus system and
Ganga system).
The monotony of the physical landscape is broken at the micro level by the river bluffs, levees etc.
[Floodplain – That part of a river valley, adjacent to the channel, over which a river flows in times of a
flood.
Levee – An elevated bank flanking the channel of the river and standing above the level of the flood
plain.
Bluff – A river cut cliff or steep slope on the outside of a meander. A line of bluffs often marks the edge
of a former floodplain.]
https://www.civilsdaily.com/the-northern-plains-part-1/
Indo-Gangetic Plain
plain, Asia
Alternate titles: Gangetic Plain, North Indian Plain
BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History
Indo-Gangetic Plain, also called North Indian Plain, extensive north-central section of the Indian
subcontinent, stretching westward from (and including) the combined delta of the Brahmaputra River
valley and the Ganges (Ganga) River to the Indus River valley. The region contains the subcontinent’s
richest and most densely populated areas. The greater part of the plain is made up of alluvial soil,
deposited by the three main rivers and their tributaries. The eastern part of the plain has light rains or
drought in the winter, but in summer rainfall is so heavy that vast areas become swamps or shallow
lakes. The plain becomes progressively drier toward the west where it incorporates the Thar (Great
Indian) Desert.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Indo-Gangetic-Plain
DECCAN PLATEAU
Peninsular India. Southern India consists of a vast wedge-shaped peninsula covered mostly by a plateau
called the Deccan. The plateau is separated from the Gangetic Plain by many hills varying in height and is
bounded on the east and west by two low mountain ranges--the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats.
The average elevation of the Eastern Ghats is about 2,000 feet (610 meters), although in some places
the mountains rise to almost three times that height. The Western Ghats are more rugged, with
elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet (900 to 1,500 meters).
The northwestern part of the Deccan is covered by vast lava flows from ancient volcanoes. Successive
lava flows created what is known as the Deccan Traps, which look like giant staircases. They are actually
weathered step-like, flat-topped hills, and they are a major scenic feature of the region.
The west coast of the peninsula is a land of small fishing villages, coconut palms, and spice gardens. In
the hills a few miles inland are coffee, tea, and rubber plantations.
Peninsular Plateau (Deccan Plateau) | Plateaus in the Peninsular Region
January 18, 2016 by PMF IAS 10 Comments
Deccan Plateau
It covers an area of about five lakh sq km.
It is triangular in shape and is bounded by the Satpura and the Vindhya in the north-west, the Mahadev
and the Maikal in the north, the Western Ghats in the west and the Eastern Ghats in the east.
Its average elevation is 600 m.
It rises to 1000 m in the south but dips to 500 m in the north.
Its general slope is from west to east which is indicated by the flow of its major rivers.
Rivers have further subdivided this plateau into a number of smaller plateaus.
Maharashtra Plateau
The Maharashtra Plateau lies in Maharashtra.
It forms the northern part of the Deccan Plateau.
Much of the region is underlain by basaltic rocks of lava origin [Most of the Deccan Traps lies in this
region].
The area looks like a rolling plain due to weathering.
The horizontal lava sheets have led to the formation of typical Deccan Trap topography [step like].
The broad and shallow valleys of the Godavari, the Bhima and the Krishna are flanked [bordered on the
opposite sides] by flat-topped steep sided hills and ridges.
The entire area is covered by black cotton soil known as regur.
Karnataka Plateau
The Karnataka Plateau is also known as the Mysore plateau.
Lies to the south of the Maharashtra plateau.
The area looks like a rolling plateau with an average elevation of 600-900 m.
It is highly dissected by numerous rivers rising from the Western Ghats.
The general trend of the hills is either parallel to the Western Ghats or across it.
The highest peak (1913 m) is at Mulangiri in Baba Budan Hills in Chikmaglur district.
The plateau is divided into two parts called Malnad and Maidan.
The Malnad in Kannada means hill country. It is dissected into deep valleys covered with dense forests.
The Maidan on the other hand is formed of rolling plain with low granite hills.
The plateau tapers between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in the south and merges with the
Niligiri hills there.
Telangana plateau
The Telangana plateau consists of Archaean gneisses.
It’s average elevation is 500-600 m.
The southern part is higher than its northern counterpart.
The region is drained by three river systems, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Penneru.
The entire plateau is divided into Ghats and the Peneplains (a vast featureless, undulating plain which
the last stage of deposition process).
Chhattisgarh Plain
The Chhattisgarh plain is the only plain worth the name in the Peninsular plateau.
It is a saucer shaped depression drained by the upper Mahanadi.
The whole basin lies between the Maikala Range and the Odisha hills.
The region was once ruled by Haithaivanshi Rajputs from whose thirty six forts (Chhattisgarh) it derives
its name.
The basin is laid with nearly horizontal beds of limestone and shales.
The general elevation of the plain ranges from 250 m in the east to 330 m in the west.
https://www.pmfias.com/peninsular-plateau-deccan-plateau-marwar-plateau-bundelkhand-plateau-
malwa-plateau-baghelkhand-chotanagpur-plateau/
Deccan
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Geography & Travel
Physical Geography of Land
Plains & Plateaus
Deccan
plateau, India
Alternate titles: Deccan Plateau
BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History
Deccan, the entire southern peninsula of India south of the Narmada River, marked centrally by a high
triangular tableland. The name derives from the Sanskrit daksina (“south”). The plateau is bounded on
the east and west by the Ghats, escarpments that meet at the plateau’s southern tip. Its northern
extremity is the Satpura Range. The Deccan’s average elevation is about 2,000 feet (600 metres), sloping
generally eastward. Its principal rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery)—flow from the
Western Ghats eastward to the Bay of Bengal. The plateau’s climate is drier than that on the coasts and
is arid in places.
The Deccan’s early history is obscure. There is evidence of prehistoric human habitation; low rainfall
must have made farming difficult until the introduction of irrigation. The plateau’s mineral wealth led
many lowland rulers, including those of the Mauryan (4th–2nd century BCE) and Gupta (4th–6th century
CE) dynasties, to fight over it. From the 6th to the 13th century, the Chalukya, Rastrakuta, Later
Chalukya, Hoysala, and Yadava families successively established regional kingdoms in the Deccan, but
they were continually in conflict with neighbouring states and recalcitrant feudatories. The later
kingdoms also were subject to looting raids by the Muslim Delhi sultanate, which eventually gained
control of the area.
In 1347 the Muslim Bahmanī dynasty established an independent kingdom in the Deccan. The five
Muslim states that succeeded the Bahmanī and divided its territory joined forces in 1565 at the Battle of
Talikota to defeat Vijayanagar, the Hindu empire to the south. For most of their reigns, however, the five
successor states formed shifting patterns of alliances in an effort to keep any one state from dominating
the area and, from 1656, to fend off incursions by the Mughal Empire to the north. During the Mughal
decline in the 18th century, the Marathas, the nizam of Hyderabad, and the Arcot nawab vied for
control of the Deccan. Their rivalries, as well as conflicts over succession, led to the gradual absorption
of the Deccan by the British. When India became independent in 1947, the princely state of Hyderabad
resisted initially but joined the Indian union in 1948.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Deccan
Climate
To understand the climate of India, one must understand the monsoon wind system. In winter, when
the landmass is cooler than the surrounding water, the prevailing winds of the monsoon move from the
subcontinent toward the ocean. These land winds are generally dry, and therefore no rain falls over
most of India in winter. In summer, when the landmass is warmer than the surrounding water, the
monsoon winds move deep into the subcontinent from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The
season of the summer monsoon brings a great deal of rain. The summer monsoon usually starts about
the middle or end of June, with very heavy rain and violent thunder and lightning. Throughout the
period between June and September, the southwest winds of the summer monsoon bring rain to most
parts of India. The northwest winds of the winter monsoon bring rain only to the southeastern coast.
Temperatures vary widely from north to south. In January the days are generally warm and the nights
cold. The average January temperature is less than 55°F (13°C) in the Punjab in northwestern India and
about 75°F (24°C) in the state of Tamil Nadu. April and May, when the sun is directly overhead, are the
hottest months. The average temperature for May is more than 100°F (38°C) in northwestern India and
over 85°F (29°C) in the Ganges delta in east central India.
The amount of rainfall also varies greatly from region to region. It ranges from less than 10 inches (250
millimeters) a year in parts of the very dry northwest to over 450 inches (11,430 millimeters) at
Cherrapunji in Assam in the northeast. Cherrapunji is one of the wettest spots on Earth.
Years when rainfall is unusual may be disastrous for the people of India. It can result in drought in one
region and floods in another, with the loss of lives and the destruction of crops and property.
India – Climate and Geography
Mountains in Dharamsala India Volunteering in India | WorkingAbroadIndia is the seventh largest

country in the world by size and it boasts an incredibly diverse collection of landscapes which are
bordered along the eastern, western and southern coast by the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the
Indian Ocean respectively. In the north, the country shares its borders with Bangladesh, China, Nepal,
Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, and just off the southern coast – alongside a number of islands – lies Sri
Lanka. The country is largely divided up into a number of main regions geographically. These include
the great mountains in the north; the Thar desert to the northwest; the Indo-Gangetic plain
characterised by three important rivers (the Ganges, the Indus and the Brahmaputra); the peninsular
plateau divided by central highlands and scattered with shallow valleys and rounded hills; and the
coastal plains home to a great number of smaller rivers. There are also two main groupings of islands,
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea.
In terms of climate, India can be divided into a number of regions. For the most part, the country has a
tropical climate which throughout most of the interior is a mixture of wet and dry tropical weather. In
northern parts there is a humid tropical climate and along the western coast lies wet tropical areas.
Stretching in a strip up the centre of the country is a semi-arid climate, which also stretches across the
north-west. Although stereotypical images may bring to mind the heat of India, the country can also
experience extreme cold. This takes place largely in the northern mountainous regions which include
the cold, arid and windswept Himalayas.
Backwater boat trip in Kerala India Volunteering in India | WorkingAbroadThere are quite strong
variations in India’s four seasons. The summer months can get extremely hot, stretching between
March and June with maximum temperatures in certain parts reaching at least 40°C. This is the pre-
monsoon season (though thunderstorms are experienced in the north-eastern and eastern parts of
Bihar, Assam and West Bengal while in the plains of north-west India, hot and dry winds are common).
July to September brings the monsoon rains which supply around three-quarters of the countries yearly
rainfall. Autumn stretches from October to December and marks the transition to winter.
Temperatures slowly start to decrease and there is also a reduction in the humidity experienced across
the country. Rainfall is still common in some parts. Winter can begin as early as December, however for
most areas January and February see the onset of of this cold season which brings average
temperatures of between 10°C and 15°C in the northwest regions and between 20°C and 25°C in the
southeast region of mainland India. The heaviest snowfall in the mountainous regions occurs between
these months and the temperatures can drop well below zero.
Aerial view of Jaipur India Volunteering in India | WorkingAbroadOur wildlife conservation project in
India is based in Agra and the Uttar Pradesh state. Here, the weather is consistently mild all year around
but has particularly hot temperatures from March to November. These summer months see
temperatures rise to the mid 40°Cs between April and June and remain in the mid-to-high 30°Cs till
November. The rainy months – and peak humidity times – are July, August and September, with the
remainder of the year staying relatively dry. Across the state of Uttar Pradesh the summers can be
extremely hot while October to March brings more pleasantly cool weather.
Copyright © 1998-2021
https://www.workingabroad.com/travel/india-climate-and-geography/
ECONOMY
Introduction
India’s economy
India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy, when measured by GDP (with USD 2.59 trillion or AUD
3.74 trillion GDP and USD 6,284 or AUD 9,093 GDP per capita) in 2020.
On the alternative measure of purchasing power parity, India ranks third, after China and the United
States. According to the International Monetary Fund, India is currently one of the fastest-growing
economies in the world and is expected to outgrow other major economies in 25 years – an expectation
underpinned by Prime Minister Modi’s introduction of economic liberalisation policies.
In the half century following independence, the economy was characterised by protectionist policies and
extensive regulation. An economic crisis in 1991 ignited a process of economic liberalisation, moving
India towards a market-based economy.
Economic growth began to take off in the late 1990s, and averaged more than 7 per cent through the
first decade of this century. However, growth slowed from 2011 through to 2013, after which sentiment
again picked up on the back of reforms introduced by then newly elected Prime Minister Modi and
inflation dropped to its lowest level in years.
placeholder
The economy rebounded strongly in 2014 but as government-owned banks faced mounting bad debt
and cash shortages, growth was restrained in 2016. A decline in oil prices around the world has, among
other factors, contributed to a remarkable reduction in India’s current account deficit between 2013 and
2016. Nonetheless, with the Reserve Bank of India taking steps towards restoring balance of payments
stability and reducing currency volatility, growth in 2018 and 2019 has been strong.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, India had -10.3% growth in 2020. Economic optimism around increasing
exports and renewed growth in industrial production has positively impacted the IMF's prediction for
India's GDP growth in 2021, which at 8 per cent.
In spite of these positive developments, India still faces a number of impediments to its economic
progress, including poor infrastructure, low agricultural yields and low productivity, as well as relatively
low ease of doing business, which can dissuade foreign investors.
https://asialinkbusiness.com.au/india/getting-started-in-india/indias-economy?doNothing=1
Agriculture
1 Introduction
Indonesia is the fifth most populated country in the world and is a major producer of agricultural
products. The islands of Java and Bali account for only 7 percent of Indonesia’s total land area but 60
percent of the population. Agriculture is very intensive on these islands, with up to three crop rotations
per year. Off Java, soils are less fertile, and agriculture is less intensive. The major food crops, ranked by
area harvested, are rice, corn, cassava, soybeans and peanuts. Indonesia is also one of the world’s
largest producers and exporters of tree crops such as rubber, copra, palm kernels, palm oil, coffee,
cocoa and spices (Ministry of Agriculture, 2001).
The Government of Indonesia has made a great effort to integrate the Indonesian economy into the
world economy. The process began in the mid-1980s and accelerated in the 1990s when the
Government reduced international trade barriers substantially and opened up the economy to foreign
investment. The impetus for Indonesia’s market opening measures was the sharp drop in oil prices. The
objective was to restructure the economy by diversifying the trade sector away from its heavy
dependence on oil.
Government policies were highly successful at attracting foreign investment into light, labour-intensive
export industries and led to the rapid growth of Indonesia’s manufacturing sector. One consequence is a
declining share of agriculture in the total economy. In 1985, the share of agriculture in the GDP stood at
23.2 percent.[63] By 2000, that share had fallen to 16.9 percent.
Although agriculture’s importance has declined, it remains critical to the overall health of the Indonesian
economy. In 2000, for example, agriculture still absorbed 45.1 percent of the Indonesian labour force.
Even more importantly, agriculture provided a cushion against the effects of the Asian economic crisis.
Agriculture depends less on the formal financial system than other sectors and was therefore less
affected by the collapse of Indonesian banks. Furthermore, the massive devaluation of the Indonesian
rupiah caused a large adjustment in relative prices in favour of traded goods, such as agriculture. One
consequence is that even though real GDP declined by 8.3 percent between 1997 and 2000, agriculture
expanded by 3.0 percent.
Indonesia’s policy objectives for agriculture have evolved in response to the changing economy. These
objectives are now far more complex than they were 25 years ago. Some examples of Indonesia’s more
important objectives are:
Diversification, which has long been a goal of agricultural policy, has taken on a broader meaning to
include expanding the types of employment opportunities available in rural areas.
A priority for trade policy is to enhance Indonesia’s industrial competitiveness and to move up the value-
added processing chain. This is particularly the case for natural resource-based sectors such as
agriculture where exports are still highly concentrated in primary products.
As in other countries that have experienced rapid economic growth, Indonesia now attaches far more
importance to protecting farm incomes. Twenty-five years ago, low food prices for consumers were a
major objective of the Government. Now, some argue that high prices for producers are of equal
importance.
As a result of the economic crisis, poverty in Indonesia nearly doubled from 15.7 percent of the
population in 1996 to 27.1 percent of the population in 1999 (World Bank, 2001). Although poverty has
since returned to pre-crisis levels, a significant proportion of the Indonesian population remains at risk.
According to the World Bank, “poverty is the development challenge facing Indonesia today”.
Indonesia’s policy objectives can lead to inherent contradictions, particularly when price policy is the
only policy instrument that is used for several objectives. Achievement of one objective through price
policy can have negative consequences for others. This poses a dilemma for the Government and can
make it more difficult to develop a clear strategy for the agricultural negotiations in the WTO.
2 Experience in implementing the agreement on agriculture
2.1 Market access[64]
As noted in the Introduction, Indonesia began to open up its economy in the late 1980s. Trade policy
reforms were implemented through a series of deregulation packages that were issued at least once
each year and which aimed at converting non-tariff barriers into tariffs, rationalizing and reducing tariffs
and removing restrictions on foreign investment.
An important feature of Indonesia’s reforms is that they were for the most part undertaken unilaterally.
With few exceptions, Indonesia’s international trade policy commitments, such as those with the WTO,
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), serve
only to complement reforms that Indonesia had in any case decided to undertake unilaterally.
Exceptions are Indonesia’s commitments to the IMF. Under the structural adjustment component of its
1998 Letter of Intent (LOI) with the IMF, Indonesia committed to a large number of trade policy reforms.
Some of these reforms go further than what Indonesia had decided to undertake unilaterally, and to
what it had agreed to internationally.[65] This is particularly the case for agriculture.
https://www.fao.org/3/y4632E/y4632e0l.htm
Agriculture industry in Indonesia- statistics & facts
Overview
Key figures
Statistics
Published by Statista Research Department, Jul 19, 2021
Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of agricultural products, supplying
important commodities such as palm oil, natural rubber, cocoa, coffee, rice, and spices to the rest of the
world. In the past decades, it is also the largest sector of employment in the country. However, the
share of the agricultural sector to Indonesia’s GDP has been decreasing as the country shifts towards
industrialization.
Indonesia's key agricultural subsectors
As the world’s biggest producer of plantation crops such as palm oil and natural rubber, Indonesia’s crop
production is vital to the national economy. However, the production of food and horticultural crops in
Indonesia is relatively low. The last decades have seen an increase in imports of horticultural products,
indicating that Indonesians now enjoy a diversified food supply more than before. There is therefore
great potential in expanding the domestic market by cultivating more profitable fruits and vegetables.
The demand for fish and meat is also increasing every year. Indonesia is the second-biggest producer of
poultry birds in the Asia Pacific region and one of the largest seafood producers in the world. However,
there is a large gap between the income from the fisheries sector compared to land-based agriculture.
The fisheries sector contributed less than three percent of Indonesia’s GDP even though 77% of its
geographical area is made up of the ocean. Realizing the unexplored potential of the marine sector,
Indonesia’s current president, Joko Widodo, is shifting the country’s focus towards this sector as part of
his goal to make Indonesia a global maritime axis.
As for the forestry sector, Indonesia is one of the world’s largest exporters of tropical timber products,
ranging from plywood, pulp, and paper to furniture and handicrafts. This subsector, however, is
expected to grow slower in the future as Indonesia attempts to decrease its deforestation rates.
Challenges facing the Indonesian agriculture sector
Despite the significant size of Indonesia’s agriculture industry, some barriers to maximizing its potential
still exist, such as poor technological advancement and supply chain challenges. These challenges are
further compounded by prolonged spells of bad weather, such as drought, leading to shortages of basic
commodities such as rice, wheat, soybean, and sugar.
Indonesian ‘agripreneurs’ and the government have been transforming the agricultural sector by
establishing collectives and using modern farming methods in recent years. However, with emerging
challenges such as increasing demand for food traceability and the impact of climate change are already
taking a toll on Indonesia’s agriculture. The country needs to innovate and adopt emerging digital
technologies into its agricultural practices faster than before. Improving the agricultural sector through
technology could help shorten the long distribution chain from farmers to consumers, reduce its large
carbon footprint, and evenly distribute economic growth in Indonesia.
https://www.statista.com/topics/7732/agriculture-industry-in-indonesia/#dossierKeyfigures
Manufacturing
Manufacturing Sectors in India: Outlook and Challenges☆
Author links open overlay panelYashMehtaaA. JohnRajanb
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.01.173
India is fast becoming one of the most lucrative options for manufacturing industry to prosper. This
research was carried out to study the current manufacturing strategies implied by India for its growth in
the manufacturing sector. An analysis was done on the factors which affect the manufacturing sector in
different states across the country. Good infrastructure, compliance to tax & labour laws and meeting
the desired environmental standards were some of the factors responsible for better performance of
states like Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.” International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised a concern about the
pace of the reforms which are being passed. They pointed out that Indian economy is facing
“decelerating pace of reforms”. Recently the long waited GST bill had been passed by the government of
India which would enable an easy and a cost cutting flow of goods across different states of the country.
It presents a wonderful opportunity for the manufacturing sector to re-establish the logistic sector of
the country. A strong infrastructure is an essential ingredient for any manufacturing sector to grow.
Keeping that in mind the government of India is investing a lot of funds in building a strong network of
roads, rails and transport to foster the growth of the manufacturing sector. As many industrial corridors
and road networks rapidly are being formed, this paper focuses on how these networks are catering to
the growth of this sector. From this research we found out how new laws especially on land and labour
coupled with constant improvement in the infrastructure is aiding India to emerge as the new
manufacturing sector hub.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187770581730173X
India Today Web Desk
New Delhi
August 27, 2021UPDATED: August 31, 2021 09:28 IST
ndia’s economy needs a strong manufacturing push as the nation’s dominant services sector struggles to
return to normalcy after two deadly waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country has huge untapped potential to become a global manufacturing hub, but economic growth
has been primarily driven by the services sector growth for decades. In contrast, growth in
manufacturing has been abysmal despite the availability of cheap labour and other resources.
While the rapid growth of the services sector has served the nation well right from the 1990s, the
pandemic has shown why the nation needs to shift its focus on boosting the crucial manufacturing
sector.
Read | Covid-19: India’s services activity in May contracts for 1st time in 8 months
SLOW PROGRESS IN MANUFACTURING
Even before the pandemic brought the economy to a standstill in 2020, growth in India’s manufacturing
sector was ebbing. In fact, many reports suggest that manufacturing activities in India started slowing
down after demonetisation was announced in November 2016. The years that followed ‘note bandi’ saw
weak growth in manufacturing,
Although the government has reiterated its focus on making India a manufacturing-heavy economy, its
earlier plans have failed due to lack of infrastructure required to achieve the goal.
For instance, the ‘Make in India’ — the government’s first flagship goal towards making India self-reliant
— aimed to increase the share of the manufacturing sector to 25 per cent of the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). Other plans like ‘Startup India’ and other policies aimed at boosting the manufacturing
capabilities of the nation have also cooled off in recent years.
But experts suggest that the goal may not be realised by 2025 or even by 2030 due to the lack of
infrastructure pipeline.
The Centre for Economic Data & Analysis and Centre For Monitoring India Economy said in May that
manufacturing employment is nearly half of what it was 5 years ago.
The manufacturing sector currently accounts for nearly 17 per cent of India’s GDP. It employed over 5
crore Indians in 2016-17 and has declined by 46 per cent to reach 2.73 crore in 2020-21. This indicates
that the sector has been gradually losing momentum over the years.
While manufacturing growth has jumped sharply in the first few months of FY22 due to the low base
effect after last year’s devastation due to the Covid-induced economic slowdown, it still remains weak —
something the government needs to focus on if it wants to ensure steady economic growth in future.
Read | Why the Indian economy may be seeing green shoots of recovery
WHY INDIA NEEDS TO FOCUS ON MANUFACTURING
The country needs to increase its focus on the overall manufacturing sector in view of the impact of the
pandemic on its services-dominated economy.
The services sector comprises high-contact jobs in sectors such as aviation, hospitality, entertainment
and tourism — all of these sectors were the first to collapse when the government announced a
nationwide lockdown in 2020 to contain the pandemic.
Months of a stringent lockdown resulted in crores of job losses and some businesses were forced to shut
operations. The rapid decline of the sector, which accounts for roughly 54 per cent of the country’s GDP,
has rendered millions jobless.
In the absence of a strong manufacturing sector, a sizeable number of affected citizens are still
struggling to find jobs, even as India’s economy rebounds after tackling two deadly waves of the
pandemic. Some who had joined the growing services sector were forced to go back to farming activities
as the pandemic snatched their jobs.
Also Read | India’s GDP in June quarter likely to touch record high. Here’s why
Jobs are not the only reason why India needs to focus on boosting the manufacturing sector. Focusing
on boosting the sector is also important for the country’s future growth potential, which could face
stagnation if it continues to depend on agriculture and exports besides services.
Sonal Verma, an economist at Nomura Holdings, told bloomberg.com that India has “leapfrogged from
agriculture to services” and missed out on manufacturing so far. She said there is a need to fix this gap.
Like Verma, several economists said boosting labour productivity is crucial for increase the potential for
economic growth. Besides economic growth, it would also lead to lower dependence on non-essential
imports. At the moment, India relies on countless imports including heavy machinery, toys and other
commodities that can be manufactured domestically.
TARGETED POLICIES TO BOOST MANUFACTURING
Experts suggest that the government should introduce targeted policies aimed at encouraging domestic
manufacturing as part of its goal to make the country self-reliant.
Having said that, the government has already introduced several measures to boost domestic
manufacturing under its ‘Atmnanirbhar Bharat’ mission. Some plans include offering subsidies to
manufacturers and simplifying tax rules to encourage global investors to come to India.
While it may take years before India can establish itself as a global manufacturing hub, now seems the
perfect time to lay the foundation as countless global firms look to invest in the country.
https://www-indiatoday-in.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.indiatoday.in/amp/business/story/explained-
why-india-s-economy-needs-a-manufacturing-push-1846038-2021-08-27?
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%2Fstory%2Fexplained-why-india-s-economy-needs-a-manufacturing-push-1846038-2021-08-
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Mining
India July 18 2018
Use the Lexology Getting The Deal Through tool to compare the answers in this article with those from
other jurisdictions.
Mining industry
Standing
What is the nature and importance of the mining industry in your country?
Mining is an important economic activity in India. India is one of the largest exporters of iron ore,
chromite, bauxite, mica and manganese, and it is ranked fifth among the mineral-producing countries in
terms of volume of production. The mining sector contributes nearly 2.4 per cent to India’s GDP.
While there has been private sector participation in mining, the government through its various public-
sector companies continues to be the largest participant in the domestic mining industry.
Much of India’s potential mineral resources are yet to be fully explored. Earlier, government policies and
legislation had largely focused on regulation of mines and minerals rather than on exploration and
development. Taking cognisance of the stagnation of the mineral industry, various reforms have been
initiated by the Indian government allowing for greater private sector participation in mineral
exploration, mine development and maintenance.
Target minerals
What are the target minerals?

India produces nearly 88 minerals, which include fuel, atomic, metallic and non-metallic minerals. India
is a leading producer of several metallic minerals such as chromite, iron ore, zinc, bauxite, manganese,
aluminium and copper.
India has set a goal to switch completely to electric vehicles by 2030. However, to achieve this goal, it
needs to invest in domestic manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries (which is currently an electric
vehicle’s most expensive component). The NITI Aayog (a government of India thinktank) has observed
that India does not have adequate reserves of some of the most important lithium-ion components
including lithium, cobalt and nickel. India will need to forge international partnerships and joint ventures
to secure access to key minerals in order to build up its domestic battery manufacturing industry. We
understand from reports that India is in the process of conducting talks for partnerships with Argentina,
Bolivia and Chile for importing lithium at concessionary rates.
Regions
Which regions are most active?
India’s mining wealth is concentrated in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Iron ore reserves are predominantly found in Odisha, Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
and Karnataka are major areas for manganese reserves. Copper reserves are available in Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Zinc reserves are predominantly found in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. Chromite ore reserves are available in Odisha, Manipur,
Nagaland, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Legal and regulatory structure
Basis of legal system
Is the legal system civil or common law-based?

The Indian legal system is common law-based.
Regulation
How is the mining industry regulated?
Regulatory framework
The mining industry is regulated both at the federal and state level. Under the Constitution of India, the
states have the power to regulate mines and mineral development. However, this power is subject to
the federal laws and regulations on mining.
Mineral classification
Minerals are classified into two types - major and minor. State governments have the power to frame
policy and regulate the exploration, extraction and processing of all minor minerals such as building
stones, clay and sand. All minerals (other than the minor minerals) are automatically classified as major
minerals. The federal government has the power of revision, fixing of royalty, issuing regulations, etc, in
respect of major minerals. As metallic minerals are largely classified as major minerals, we have focused
on federal legislations and major minerals in this chapter.
The federal government also has ownership over all offshore minerals (ie, minerals extracted from the
sea or ocean floor in the Indian maritime zones such as the territorial waters, continental shelf and
exclusive economic zones). The federal government has the right to allot concessions and collect royalty
for mining offshore minerals.
What are the principal laws that regulate the mining industry? What are the principal regulatory bodies
that administer those laws? Were there any major amendments in the past year?
The Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act 1957 (MMDR Act) is the federal legislation
which overall regulates the mining sector and ensures that the states exercise their power within a
uniform national framework. The Mines Act 1952 sets out the regulations for health and safety in mines
and conduct of mining operations. The development and regulation of offshore mineral resources is
regulated by the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development & Regulation) Act 2002.
Mining regulatory bodies
The Ministry of Mines is responsible for legislation, policy formulation and administration of mines and
minerals in the country. It is principally composed of:
the Geological Survey of India (GSI), which carries out regional exploration and mapping of mining
resources;
the Indian Bureau of Mines, which maintains the National Mineral Inventory, and is the national
regulator for state governments, approving mining plans, closure operations and the conservation of
mineral materials;
the Controller of Mining Leases, which governs modification of mining leases granted before 1972; and
the Directorate General of Mines Safety is the principle health and safety regulator for this sector.
Significant amendments
In 2015, the Indian government significantly amended the mining laws, through the MMDR Amendment
Act 2015, to bring in greater accountability and transparency to the concessionary regime. Some of the
key features of the MMDR Amendment Act are:
the mining concessions are to be granted only through competitive bidding by auction;
mining concessions are valid for 50 years. The concession is transferable, but it cannot be renewed after
the expiry of the concession period;
reconnaissance permits for exploration will be granted on a non-exclusive basis to encourage private
parties to undertake exploration;
in connection to notified minerals (ie, bauxite, iron ore, limestone and manganese ore), the state
government may reserve a mine for a particular end use. In such cases, it must prescribe the end use
before auction of the mining lease. The minerals extracted from a reserved mine can only be utilised for
the specified end use and cannot be sold or transferred. This end use restriction was relaxed in 2017
(see ‘Update and trends’);
district mineral foundations (DMF) are to be established for the utilisation of the proceeds from mining
operations to develop the local area around the mines; and
a National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) is to be set up to facilitate detailed mineral exploration in
the country.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6e1b8cb8-f7bd-4905-9d0e-13a304d9cb4d
India’s mining sector: Present is tense and future could be imperfect
by Mayank Aggarwal on 17 July 2020
The Indian government has bet big on the mining sector, including coal, to revive the economy,
following the pandemic. However, the history of the mining sector in the country shows that it has often
led to injustice with poor communities and has a harmful impact on the environment.
In June 2020, the government launched coal auctions for commercial coal mining which once again
triggered the debate around transition to clean energy.
Energy experts, environmentalists and those working with affected communities concede that mining is
needed but do not want the government to miss out the larger question on how it can be carried out
while protecting the environment and ensuring justice to the communities affected by it.
Giving a boost to the mining sector, especially commercial coal mining, and bringing in reforms to attract
more investment into the sector is the direction taken by the government in its announcements
intended to revive the economy following the pandemic. But a boost to mining brings with it associated
troubles such as land conflicts, run-ins with communities and an impact on the environment.
According to the official government data, India produces over 85 minerals including coal, lignite,
bauxite, chromite, copper ore and concentrates, iron ore, lead and zinc concentrates, manganese ore,
silver, diamond, limestone, phosphorite etc. India is the second-largest producer and importer of coal in
the world. Over the decades, the value of mineral production has also risen and, as of 2015-16, stands at
around Rs. 2.82 trillion. There are over 3,500 mining leases that are in force in the country across 23
states covering an area of 316,290.55 hectares. Of those, nearly 70 percent are in five states alone –
Madhya Pradesh (702 mining leases), Tamil Nadu (464), Andhra Pradesh (453), Gujarat (432), and
Karnataka (376).
In June 2020, while launching commercial coal mining in 41 coal mines, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
said India will turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity and he hailed it is a major step in making the
country self-reliant in the energy sector. However, the government’s decision has not inspired much
confidence in investors as they feel auction in time of pandemic is a dampener. Instead, they have
sought extension of the auction by a few months.
Nandikesh Sivalingam, who is the Director of the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a
think-tank working on clean energy issues, emphasised the extent of coal generation in India saying that
the country has Coal India Limited, one of the largest coal producers in the world, that is aiming to cross
one billion tonnes of coal production alongside importing coal, which is not going to stop.
“We are witnessing a scenario wherein power assets are not being able to produce power and banks are
writing off loans given to them. If we are not careful enough about coal production, we may see a similar
scenario in coal mining as well because everyone would be producing more coal including CIL at a time
when there is a lack of demand. As a simple business case, in today’s scenario, an increase in coal
production is quite challenging,” he told Mongabay-India.
Will a shift to renewable power trigger a “just transition”?
The government’s launch of coal auctions for commercial coal mining once again triggered the debate
around transition to clean energy. The shift to renewable energy from coal is one of the main pillars of a
transition that is deemed to be fair to communities, protects health and environment and boosts
growth. Moreover, it is also part of the global efforts to cut down on coal to control climate change.
India has promised 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 and at least 350 GW by 2030. At present,
India’s overall installed renewable capacity is 87.66 GW and of installed solar power capacity is around
35 GW.
However, the push and focus on renewable do not mean India is cutting down its focus on coal.
According to CIL, in the next five years, it is going to open 55 new coal mines and expand at least 193
present ones. Together, these two steps will ensure an increase of 400 million tonnes in coal production.
CIL has about 463 coal blocks with which the country can continue thermal power production for
another 275 years.
India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal recently announced that the government is
bringing in reforms in the mining sector to increase economic activities.
But a closer look at the mining statistics reveals that the country’s major mineral area is under its richest
forests and in the watersheds of its key rivers which are also the homes of India’s poorest people, mainly
tribal communities and forest dwellers. India’s track record so far in dealing with their concerns as
mining is pursued vigorously, is ridden with conflicts and doesn’t inspire much confidence.
There are, in fact, enough rules and laws to ensure that in areas where mining is being done, the
environment is protected, water bodies are not polluted, mined-out land is reclaimed and communities
get justice. Earlier this year, following an order of the Supreme Court of India, the union environment
ministry passed an order making it mandatory to carry out re-grassing in the mined-out areas once the
mining activity is over to make them suitable for the growth of flora and fauna.
In reality, these rules and laws are not always implemented effectively. Scores of mines across the
country are left abandoned without proper reclamation.
https://india.mongabay.com/2020/07/indias-mining-sector-present-is-tense-and-future-could-be-
imperfect/
INDIAN METALS AND MINING INDUSTRY REPORT (SIZE: 1.39 MB ) (AUGUST, 2021)
Introduction
India holds a fair advantage in production and conversion costs in steel and alumina. Its strategic
location enables export opportunities to develop as well as fast-developing Asian markets.
As of FY21, the number of reporting mines in India were estimated at 1,229, of which reporting mines
for metallic minerals were estimated at 545 and non-metallic minerals at 684.
Rise in infrastructure development and automotive production are driving growth. Power and cement
industries are also aiding growth for the sector. Demand for iron and steel is set to continue given the
strong growth expectations for the residential and commercial building industry.
Market Size
Coal production in the country stood at 715.95 million tonnes (MT) in FY21. In April 2021, coal
production stood at 516 lakh tonnes.
Iron ore production in the country stood at 189 million tonnes in FY21. In May 2021, iron ore exports
stood at US$ 574.56 million, compared with US$ 457.05 million in May 2020.
In FY20, India had a total number of 914 steel plants producing crude steel. In FY21, India’s crude steel
production stood at 102.49 million tonnes. According to worldsteel, crude steel output in India
registered a 46.9% YoY growth to reach 9.2 million tonnes in May 2021, as compared with 5.8 million
tonnes of crude steel output registered in May 2020.
Production of aluminium stood at 3.65 MT in FY20. In value terms, aluminium export from the country
stood at US$ 20.18 million in FY20.
India is the world's second-largest coal producer as of 2021.
India is the world's second-largest crude steel producer, as of 2020, with an output of 99.6 MT.
Investments/ Developments
Vedanta Limited is planning a US$ 20 billion investment across its operations, including increase silver
production and steel capacity.
In August 2021, Hindustan Zinc collaborated with Normet Group, a Finnish technology firm, to bring
battery-powered service equipment and utility vehicles in underground mining.
The Union Cabinet has approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Steel
of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the field
of coking coal, which is used in steelmaking.
Road Ahead
There is a significant scope for new mining capacities in iron ore, bauxite and coal and considerable
opportunities for future discoveries of sub-surface deposits.
Infrastructure projects continue to provide lucrative business opportunities for steel, zinc, and
aluminium producers.
Iron and steel make up a core component for the real estate sector. Demand for these metals is set to
continue given strong growth expectations for the residential and commercial building industry.
https://www.ibef.org/industry/metals-and-mining.aspx
Foretsry and fishing
Agriculture
GVA from agriculture, forestry and fishing sector India FY 2012-2019
Published by Statista Research Department, Aug 16, 2021
Agriculture, forestry and fishing contributed about 23 trillion Indian rupees in fiscal year 2019 to India's
gross value output. Figures showed an increasing trend in values since fiscal year 2012. The largest share
came from crops within the industry at 55 percent that same year, although fishing and livestock grew
rapidly in the measured time period.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/805180/india-real-gva-in-agriculture-forestry-and-fishing-sector/
Forestry
Commercial forestry is not highly developed in India. Nevertheless, the annual cutting of hardwoods is
among the highest of any country in the world. Species that are sources of timber, pulp, plywoods,
veneers, and matchwood include teak, deodar (a type of cedar), sal (Shorea robusta), sissoo (Dalbergia
sissoo), and chir pine (Pinus roxburghii). Virtually any woody vegetation is used for firewood, much of it
illegally gathered, and substantial amounts go into making charcoal. Minor forest products include
bamboo, cane, gum, resins, dyes, tanning agents, lac, and medicinal plants.
The principal areas for commercial forestry, in order of importance, are the Western Ghats, the western
Himalayas, and the hill regions of central India. In an effort to counteract forest depletion, the central
and state governments have vigorously supported small-scale afforestation projects; these have met
with mixed success, both economically and ecologically.
Population growth has, over the centuries, resulted in a continuous diminution of forest land. Most of
India’s formerly forested area has been converted to agricultural use (though some of that land is no
longer productive), and other large areas have been effectively turned into wasteland from either
overgrazing or overexploitation for timber and firewood. The problem of obtaining sufficient firewood,
mainly for cooking, is particularly acute. In many areas forests have ceased to exist, and the only trees of
consequence are found in protected village groves, often planted with mangoes or other fruit trees,
where people and animals can seek shade from the fierce summer sun. In some areas, especially the
northeast, bamboo thickets provide an important substitute for wood for structural purposes. Official
figures on the amount of forested land (roughly one-fifth of India’s total area) are virtually meaningless,
as much of the area officially classified as forest contains little but scrub. Among the ecological
consequences of deforestation in India are the reduced groundwater retentiveness, a concomitant rapid
runoff of monsoon rains, a higher incidence of flooding, accelerated erosion and siltation, and an
exacerbated problem of water scarcity.
Fishing
Fishing is practiced along the entire length of India’s coastline and on virtually all of its many rivers.
Production from marine and freshwater fisheries has become roughly equivalent. Because few fishing
craft are mechanized, total catches are low, and annual per capita fish consumption is modest. The shift
to mechanization and modern processing, however, has been inexorable. Thus, an increasingly large
part of the catch now comes from fishing grounds that the small craft of coastal fishing families are
unable to reach. The problem is most severe in Kerala, the leading fishing state. Major marine catches
include sardine and mackerel; freshwater catches are dominated by carp. Intensive inland aquaculture,
for both fish and shrimp (the latter of which has become an important export), has increased
significantly.
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Agriculture-forestry-and-fishing
Service Sector
MAY 16, 2019
INDIAN ECONOMY
Service Sector in India: A Paradigm Shift
By:
Remya Lakshmanan
Share:
Indian Services
Introduction to the Service Sector in India
The growth of the Services Sector in India is a unique example of leap-frogging traditional models of
economic growth. Within a short span of 50 years since independence, the contribution of the service
sector in India to the country’s GDP is a lion’s share of over 60%. However, it still employs only 25% of
the labour force. Consequently, agriculture (which is stagnant) and manufacturing (which has not yet
risen to its full potential) continue to sustain the majority of our employed population. This presents a
unique challenge to future economic growth in India and requires out of the box solutions that will help
rapidly harness the potential of the service industry in India. Invest India takes a look at the contribution
of the services sector in the Indian economy, its successes and also explores potential enablers for
future equitable economic growth.
Market Size of Service Industry
A quick comparison with the American and Chinese economy reveals the unique nature of India’s GDP
growth from the contribution of the Service sector and its linkages to employment and income
distribution (Figures in bracket indicate employment). Over time, a robust manufacturing and productive
agriculture sector leads to the Service industry in India becoming the mainstay of GDP and employment.
In our context, the Service sector has become extremely important to grow not only our GDP, as well as
make it the key vehicle for employment generation. However, the question is - how to increase value
add to GDP from Service companies in India, while reducing employment dependency from agriculture,
as well as boosting the manufacturing industry.
The current growth of service sector in India is based mainly on labour market arbitrage. Moving
forward, India can no longer rely on ‘low cost’ for ‘low value added’ services. Therefore, we need
solutions that address these:
i) Boosting the manufacturing sector with both direct and indirect spin - off benefits for the growth of
the service sector in India (e.g. Make in India)
ii) Moving up the value chain, especially in the IT/ ITeS sector.
iii) Broad - basing the Indian Services offering platform into sectors beyond the traditional IT/ ITeS by
identifying the global demand for such services, and meeting these demands based on our natural
competencies and comparative advantages.
IT-BPM/ Fintech
The IT/ITeS & Fintech segments provide over $ 155 bn in gross value add and have the potential to grow
between 10 -15% p.a. Exports form its largest component. So far, our key advantage has been low - cost
labour arbitrage in a predominantly English - speaking country. Going forward, the IT and ITeS segments
require significant upskilling to move beyond a ‘low - cost low value add service provider’ to a ‘high
value add partner’.
Indian IT companies can also leverage their skill sets to provide fintech solutions to global financial
customers. Financial risk management services, insurance, natural disaster modelling and underwriting
are examples of high value add services performed within India for a global audience.
Healthcare & Tourism
The current contribution of the healthcare industry is over $ 110 bn and is expected to touch $ 280 bn
by 2020. Availability of world - class medical facilities, skilled doctors, technicians and pharmaceuticals
are some of our advantages. With digital communication and interfaces, diagnostic medicine can also be
tapped into as a service for global customers.
Similarly, for tourism, India is renowned for its places of natural beauty and historical significance.
Tourism presently contributes $ 47 bn to the country’s GD, compared with $ 115 bn for China. Thus,
tourism has exponential possibilities to boost the Indian services sector in the next decade.
To attract significant revenues, improved customer experience (medical or tourism) is the key factor that
will determine its future growth. In this context, government initiatives such as e - Visas, better
infrastructure facilities, safety, connectivity etc. are enablers in the right direction.
https://www.investindia.gov.in/team-india-blogs/service-sector-india-paradigm-shift
Rebooting Economy 58: The untold story of India's services sector
Prasanna Mohanty
Jan 13, 2021,
Updated Jan 13, 2021, 12:11 PM IST
How neglected is India's services sector can be easily determined by asking a simple question to
policymakers, planners, or economists: What was the services sector's contribution to the GDP in 1950-
51?
It is highly unlikely that anyone would even guess it right: 36%. Its contribution then was next to
agriculture but it surpassed agriculture in mid-1960s, crossed 50% in mid-1960s, zoomed past 60% in
FY05, and continues its lofty perch since then. It has also been the main engine of India's growth for
several decades and, going by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) projections, it became the
largest employer in 2019 (closest to India's FY20), surpassing agriculture.
Yet there is no national policy, department, or ministry dedicated to services or national debate on it. It
has grown virtually on its own, as India's IT sector would vouchsafe. But before going further, here is a
reality check.
https://www-businesstoday-in.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.businesstoday.in/amp/opinion/columns/
story/indian-economy-the-untold-story-of-indias-services-sector-despite-being-main-driver-of-countrys-
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Energy supply
Review
Open Access
Published: 07 January 2020
Renewable energy for sustainable development in India: current status, future prospects, challenges,
employment, and investment opportunities
Charles Rajesh Kumar. J & M. A. Majid
Energy, Sustainability and Society volume 10, Article number: 2 (2020) Cite this article
146k Accesses
43 Citations
20 Altmetric
Metr
The sources of electricity production such as coal, oil, and natural gas have contributed to one-third of
global greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential to raise the standard of living by providing cleaner and
more reliable electricity [1]. India has an increasing energy demand to fulfill the economic development
plans that are being implemented. The provision of increasing quanta of energy is a vital pre-requisite
for the economic growth of a country [2]. The National Electricity Plan [NEP] [3] framed by the Ministry
of Power (MoP) has developed a 10-year detailed action plan with the objective to provide electricity
across the country, and has prepared a further plan to ensure that power is supplied to the citizens
efficiently and at a reasonable cost. According to the World Resource Institute Report 2017 [4, 5], India
is responsible for nearly 6.65% of total global carbon emissions, ranked fourth next to China (26.83%),
the USA (14.36%), and the EU (9.66%). Climate change might also change the ecological balance in the
world. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) have been submitted to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The latter has
hoped to achieve the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to well below 2 °C [6, 7]. According
to a World Energy Council [8] prediction, global electricity demand will peak in 2030. India is one of the
largest coal consumers in the world and imports costly fossil fuel [8]. Close to 74% of the energy demand
is supplied by coal and oil. According to a report from the Center for monitoring Indian economy, the
country imported 171 million tons of coal in 2013–2014, 215 million tons in 2014–2015, 207 million tons
in 2015–2016, 195 million tons in 2016–2017, and 213 million tons in 2017–2018 [9]. Therefore, there is
an urgent need to find alternate sources for generating electricity.
In this way, the country will have a rapid and global transition to renewable energy technologies to
achieve sustainable growth and avoid catastrophic climate change. Renewable energy sources play a
vital role in securing sustainable energy with lower emissions [10]. It is already accepted that renewable
energy technologies might significantly cover the electricity demand and reduce emissions. In recent
years, the country has developed a sustainable path for its energy supply. Awareness of saving energy
has been promoted among citizens to increase the use of solar, wind, biomass, waste, and hydropower
energies. It is evident that clean energy is less harmful and often cheaper. India is aiming to attain 175
GW of renewable energy which would consist of 100 GW from solar energy, 10 GW from bio-power, 60
GW from wind power, and 5 GW from small hydropower plants by the year 2022 [11]. Investors have
promised to achieve more than 270 GW, which is significantly above the ambitious targets. The
promises are as follows: 58 GW by foreign companies, 191 GW by private companies, 18 GW by private
sectors, and 5 GW by the Indian Railways [12]. Recent estimates show that in 2047, solar potential will
be more than 750 GW and wind potential will be 410 GW [13, 14]. To reach the ambitious targets of
generating 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, it is essential that the government creates 330,000
new jobs and livelihood opportunities [15, 16].
A mixture of push policies and pull mechanisms, accompanied by particular strategies should promote
the development of renewable energy technologies. Advancement in technology, proper regulatory
policies [17], tax deduction, and attempts in efficiency enhancement due to research and development
(R&D) [18] are some of the pathways to conservation of energy and environment that should guarantee
that renewable resource bases are used in a cost-effective and quick manner. Hence, strategies to
promote investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector along with jobs for the unskilled
workers, technicians, and contractors are discussed. This article also manifests technological and
financial initiatives [19], policy and regulatory framework, as well as training and educational initiatives
[20, 21] launched by the government for the growth and development of renewable energy sources. The
development of renewable technology has encountered explicit obstacles, and thus, there is a need to
discuss these barriers. Additionally, it is also vital to discover possible solutions to overcome these
barriers, and hence, proper recommendations have been suggested for the steady growth of renewable
power [22,23,24]. Given the enormous potential of renewables in the country, coherent policy measures
and an investor-friendly administration might be the key drivers for India to become a global leader in
clean and green energy.
Projection of global primary energy consumption
An energy source is a necessary element of socio-economic development. The increasing economic

growth of developing nations in the last decades has caused an accelerated increase in energy
consumption. This trend is anticipated to grow [25]. A prediction of future power consumption is
essential for the investigation of adequate environmental and economic policies [26]. Likewise, an
outlook to future power consumption helps to determine future investments in renewable energy.
Energy supply and security have not only increased the essential issues for the development of human
society but also for their global political and economic patterns [27]. Hence, international comparisons
are helpful to identify past, present, and future power consumption.
https://energsustainsoc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13705-019-0232-1
India’s Energy Mix and the Pathways to Sustainable Development
by Pravakar Sahoo
March 5, 2021
Pravakar Sahoo explores pathways for India to revolutionize its energy mix in order to achieve
sustainable development. He examines major challenges and issues faced by the energy sector,
particularly related to renewable and clean energy, and suggests reforms to attract investment in more
sustainable energy sources.
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with rising urbanization and an expanding middle
class. The country will account for 25% of the rise in global energy use by 2040 and will have record
growth in energy demand over the next several decades.[1] India’s energy profile continues to be
heavily dominated by fossil fuel–based sources: by 2040, 42% of the new demand will be met by coal,
and the country is projected to be among the largest oil consumers. India contributed 2.48 billion tons
of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2019, which amounted to 7% of global CO2 emissions.[2]
The Paris Agreement aimed to tackle this problem by keeping the global temperature below 2 degrees
Celsius relative to preindustrial levels. To do so, countries pledged to develop their own national
objectives by 2020. India is facing extreme threats from climate change. The majority of its agriculture is
dependent on rains during the monsoon season, and the nearly 175 million people living along the
country’s 7,500 kilometer coastline are at risk from rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions. To
help mitigate these impacts, India has set a target of producing 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy
by 2022, with 100 GW coming from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from biomass energy, and 5 GW
from small hydropower. The country already added nearly 86 GW in 2019[3] and plans to increase its
target for renewable energy to 450 GW by 2030.
However, as noted above, fossil fuel consumption is also increasing at a rapid rate. Given India’s role in
mitigating climate change, it is important to analyze the country’s energy mix, demand and supply
projections, and efforts so far to transition to sustainable energy sources. This essay explores pathways
for India to revolutionize its energy mix in order to achieve sustainable development. To this end, the
essay examines major challenges and issues faced by the energy sector, particularly related to
renewable and clean energy, and suggests reforms to attract investment in more sustainable energy
sources.
THE CURRENT ENERGY SCENARIO
India’s primary energy demand has increased with the country’s GDP and population. Electricity
consumption has grown at a 7.39% compound annual rate,[4] and electricity demand is expected to
grow to 1,894.7 Terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022.[5] Demand comes from all aspects of the economy, from
industrial and commercial to agricultural and residential uses. This trend will continue over the coming
decades.[6] A key area of demand-side management will be reducing energy intensity.
Although India has the supply to meet current energy demand, it lacks quality infrastructure such as
conductors, transformers, and other equipment required for transmission and distribution of power.
Through several initiatives focused on developing efficient technologies and promoting renewable
energy, India is making progress in addressing power supply deficits. Both electricity installation capacity
and power generation at an aggregate level from different sources have increased over time. Moreover,
the share of clean energy (hydropower, nuclear, and renewable) has increased over the last two
decades. India is thus slowly shifting from fuel-based energy sources to non-fuel-based sources to meet
peak demand. However, it continues to largely depend on coal and oil for energy, with reliance on
hydropower decreasing over the years. Natural gas still has a much smaller presence in India’s energy
portfolio than in the global energy mix, while renewable energy rose to 3.6% in 2019 from 0.2% in 2000
(see Table 1 for an overview of India’s renewable energy sources).
Coal. Coal accounts for over 57% of India’s electricity production. Despite large deposits in the east and
south, the quality of the country’s coal is not exceptional, with an ash content of 45% and low calorific
values. In contrast, high-quality coal imported from Indonesia, South Africa, Russia, and Australia has
only ash content of 10%–15%[7]
Oil and gas. India is highly dependent on oil and gas imports, which in 2019 totaled around 229 million
tonnes (MT) (roughly 85% of the total oil and gas consumed domestically). The crude oil reserves found
in western offshore and Assam fields stand at just over 604 MT, while the natural gas reserves confined
to eastern and western offshore fields stood at nearly 1,290 billion cubic meters in 2017. The total
installed capacity of oil- and gas-based thermal power stood at 638 megawatts (MW) and 24,937 MW,
respectively, in 2019.[8]
Hydropower. In 2019, India had 45.4 GW of hydropower-generating capacity from its twenty-plus
hydroelectric dams. According to the Ministry of Power, the country’s hydropower potential is around
145 GW. However, the share of hydropower generation has been declining over time due to energy
from other sources increasing at faster rates and a lack of focus from both government and the private
sector.
Nuclear. As of 2019, India possessed around 6.8 GW of installed capacity of nuclear energy sources from
its 22 nuclear reactors. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, India produced nearly 35
TWh of electricity through nuclear power in 2017.
Renewable energy. The share of renewable energy in India’s energy mix is expected to increase by 91%
from 2017 to 2022, as the share of thermal generation declines due to recent growth in the renewable
energy sector. This growth will occur primarily in solar and wind energy.[9]
https://www.nbr.org/publication/indias-energy-mix-and-the-pathways-to-sustainable-development/
International Trade
FOREIGN TRADE POLICY OF INDIA
GO BACK
Last updated: Oct, 2021
Introduction
India’s gross domestic product (GDP), at current prices, stood at Rs. 51.23 lakh crore (US$ 694.93 billion)
in the first quarter of FY22, as per the provisional GDP estimates for the first quarter of 2021-22. India’s
trade and external sector had a significant impact on the GDP growth as well as expansion in per capita
income.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India’s overall exports between April 2021 and
August 2021 were estimated at US$ 256.17 billion (a 44.04% YoY increase). Whereas overall imports
between April 2021 and August 2021 were estimated at US$ 273.45 billion (a 64.18% YoY increase).
India’s merchandise exports between April 2021 and August 2021 were estimated at US$ 164.10 billion
(a 67.33% YoY increase). Merchandise imports between April 2021 and August 2021 were estimated at
US$ 219.63 billion (an 80.89% YoY growth).
According to Mr. Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce and Industry & Railways, the Government of
India is keen to grow export and provide more jobs for young, talented, and well-educated people as
well as for semi-skilled and unskilled workforce in India.
Capital Inflows
As of August 27, 2021, foreign exchange reserves in India stood at US$ 633.5 billion.
External Sector
In September 2021, India and the US introduced the ‘Climate Action and Finance Mobilisation Dialogue
(CAFMD)’ to strengthen bilateral ties and boost climate initiatives and economic development.
In September 2021, Defence Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, announced that India and Australia plan to
explore new areas in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and unmanned vehicles.
In September 2021, India and the US signed a project agreement for an air-launched unmanned aerial
vehicle.
In September 2021, the Union Cabinet approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the
Geological Survey of India (GSI), India, and the Joint Stock Company Rosgeologia, Russia, for
collaboration in the field of geoscience.
In September 2021, India and Germany had discussions to strengthen their cooperation in handling
circular economy, waste management and issues related to climate change.
In August 2021, the Union Cabinet approved an MoU between the Institute of Professional Accountants
of Russia (IPAR) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to strengthen bilateral alliance
for advancements in accounting knowledge, professional accountancy training, technical research,
professional ethics and professional & intellectual development.
In July 2021, the Union Cabinet approved a Memorandum on Cooperation (MoC), between Japan Fair
Trade Commission (JFTC) and Competition Commission of India (CCI), to encourage and strengthen
alliance in the area of competition law & policy.
In June 2021, India and Bhutan signed an MoU for developing alliances in the area of environment.
In June 2021, Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) announced that it extended a line of credit (LOC)
worth US$ 100 million to the Sri Lankan government to fund solar energy sector related projects.
In June 2021, India and Australia announced collaboration in cyber-enabled critical technologies,
emphasising the need to boost critical information security infrastructure such as 5G telecom networks.
In May 2021, Shahi Litchi, the season’s first consignment from Bihar was exported to the UK, boosting
exports of GI certified products.
In May 2021, India and Israel signed a three-year work programme (2021-2023) for cooperation in
agriculture and to strengthen bilateral alliances.
In May 2021, India and Oman renewed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in areas of military and
maritime collaboration.
In May 2021, Alankit Imaginations Ltd. collaborated with Digital Swiss Gold (DSG) to allow users to trade
in gold digitally in Switzerland.
Foreign Trade Policy
In May 2021, the merchandise exports increased to US$ 32.27 billion, registering an increase of ~ 69%
YoY and indicating broad recovery in the trade driven by strong performance of small businesses that
accounted for ~50% of India’s merchandise exports. With the upcoming trade policy 2021-26, the
government plans to increase merchandise exports with emphasis on the higher share of MSMEs.
Foreign trade policy 2021-26 is expected to focus on MSMEs and new export potential. In March 2021,
the central government announced plans to establish a new mechanism to increase import screening in
order to protect domestic manufacturers. Details of the new screening process would be available in the
foreign trade policy 2021-26, which is expected to commence next month.
The available data would help domestic manufacturers analyse the market potential of such goods.
The foreign trade policy 2021-26 is also expected to boost MSMEs and e-commerce exports and identify
new sectors to boost domestic export.
On December 2, 2020, a meeting of the Board of Trade (BOT) was held under the chairmanship of the
Commerce and Industry Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal. Focus of the meeting was on the new Foreign Trade
Policy (2021-26), and outlining policies and steps to drive domestic production and exports. Mr. Piyush
Goyal said, “We look at a single window that can help us improve the ease of doing business. People
worldwide should trust that they can come and buy property, get all the required approvals, participate
in India's trade and industry, expand the manufacturing side and the network of services.”
In the mid-term review of Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015–20, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
enhanced the scope of Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and Service Exports from India
Scheme (SEIS), increased MEIS incentive raised for ready-made garments and made-ups by 2% and
raised SEIS incentive by 2% and increased the validity of Duty Credit Scrips from 18 months to 24
months. In April 2020, the Government extended FTP for one more year, up to March 31, 2021.
Road Ahead
India is presently known as one of the most important players in the global economic landscape. Its
trade policies, Government reforms and inherent economic strengths has attributed to its standing as
one of the most sought-after destination for foreign investments in the world. Also, technological, and
infrastructural development being carried out across the country augurs well for the trade and
economic sector in the years to come.
The Government of India has been working on striking important deals with the Governments of Japan,
Australia, and China to increase contribution towards the economic development of the country and
growth in the global market.
India has a potential to increase its goods and services export to Australia to US$ 15 billion by 2025 and
US$ 35 billion by 2035.
https://www.ibef.org/economy/trade-and-external-sector
Transportation
City public transportation developments in India
: 14 December 2016 | Jaspal Singh (Head of the UITP India Office) | 5 comments
India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, is achieving a growth rate of 7.5% per annum.
With a growing population too, the country is working hard to transform itself over the next few
decades. Improving public transportation is high on the agenda and Jaspal Singh, Head of the UITP India
Office, writes that although private-vehicle ownership in India is growing and therefore causing major
congestion problems in cities, there are however many plans to revamp bus systems and invest in metro
networks.
Metro station Mumbai, India
The cities of this diverse country and its urban population play an important role in the growth of the
country. As per the 2011 census, 31.2% of India’s population (377 million) is living in urban areas. As the
UN estimates, these numbers will grow to 40% (590 million) by 2030 and 58% (875 million) by 2050.
While only 30% of the total population live in urban areas, approximately 63% of India’s Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) is contributed by those urban areas1.
India’s transport problems
Even with the current size of the urban population, Indian cities are facing a multitude of issues such as
severe congestion; deteriorating air quality; increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the
transport sector; increasing road accidents; and an exploding growth in the number of private vehicles
(largely motorcycles). With the urban population projected to more than double in the next generation,
the situation could easily get out of control and thwart India’s economic development efforts unless
remedial measures are soon taken.
In a move to recognise and act upon urban mobility issues, in 2006 the federal government of India
introduced the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP), setting the policy framework for providing
sustainable mobility for the future (see Figure 1). In 2015 the government unveiled its new plan to
upgrade 100 cities into ‘smart cities’ and to ‘renew’ 500 cities.
Growth of private-vehicle ownership
Figure 1: The policy framework of India’s National Urban Transport Policy (2006) to provide sustainable
mobility in the future.
The growth of vehicles has been much faster than that of the population. The number of registered
vehicles increased from 55 million in 2001 to 142 million by 2011, with a currently-estimated 195.6
million in 20162. Seventy-five per cent of these registered vehicles (147 million) are motorcycles.
Furthermore, the physical infrastructure hasn’t been able to keep pace with the growth in demand. The
urban road length has increased from 252,001km in 2001 to 411,840km by 2011. In the last decade
registered vehicles per million population has increased by 219% while urban road infrastructure per
million only increased by 124%.
This rapid motorisation has led to severe congestion, longer journeys and higher per capita trips. Indian
roads are also popular for heterogeneity of vehicles sharing the same road space. There are around 32
different vehicle types in India such as bicycles, cycle-rickshaws, auto-rickshaws (‘tuk-tuk’), motorcycles,
cars, buses and trucks.
Congestion
The rapid growth in private-vehicle ownership has led to increased congestion problems in cities. The
average speed of a vehicle on Indian roads is just 17-19km/h between 9:00 and 21:00, with the slowest
times witnessed during the evening hours. The average speed of traffic in key Indian cities is just 17-
23km/h while the average cycling speed is 15-16kmph3.
Road accidents
India recorded a total of 501,423 road accidents and 146,133 road accident deaths in 2015; this equates
to 1,374 accidents and 400 deaths on India’s roads every day. Sadly, 54.1% of people killed in road
accidents are in the 15-34 years age group. It is estimated that the economy lost around 3% of GDP
(1999-2000) due to road mishaps4.
Air pollution
In the Global Burden of Disease 2010 (GBD) study, ‘outdoor air’ pollution is among the top 10 risks
worldwide and the top six risks in the developing countries of Asia. Air pollution has greater impact on
developing countries such as India, as 1.4 million people lost their life due to air pollution; US$ 505
billion towards welfare losses; and US$ 55.4 billion towards lost labour5.
https://www.intelligenttransport.com/transport-articles/21458/city-public-transportation-india/
Urban public transport in India - statistics & facts

Overview
Key figures
Statistics
Published by Shangliao Sun
, Jun 8, 2021
India had the second largest population worldwide after China, more than one-third of which lived in
urban areas. Public transportation had an indispensable role in daily mobility. Majority of public
transport in Indian cities relied on buses, and many had developed bus rapid transit system (BRTS) to
improve capacities and reliability of the conventional bus system. Several metropolitan cities also
developed mass rapid transit (MRT) metro system for more efficient and nondisruptive urban passenger
transportation.
https://www.statista.com/topics/8005/urban-public-transport-in-india/#topicHeader__wrapper
Contents
Cite
Indian Culture
Core Concepts
Greetings
Religion
Family
Naming
Dates of Significance
Etiquette
Do's and Don'ts
Communication
Verbal
Indirect Communication: The communication style of Indians tends to be polite and indirect. They may
try to speak appeasingly to those they are not close to in order to avoid conflict or confrontation. People
often exchange opinions or viewpoints through negotiation rather than arguing that their perspective is
definitively correct. This communication style can come across as ambiguous. Direct communication is
reserved for relationships with a high level of trust or crucial situations.
Refusals: Direct refusals, such as ‘no’, may be considered to be too harsh and open disagreement is
likely to be interpreted as hostile or aggressive. Therefore, Indians tend to give evasive refusals and
indirectly express disagreement. Indians may use phrases such as ‘maybe’ or ‘I'll do my best’ as a way to
express ‘no'. Moreover, ‘yes' has various connotations that differ from the word's usage in English-
speaking Western cultures. For example, an Indian may say ‘yes’ to indicate that they are listening to the
speaker, whilst indicating disagreement or refusal through their body language.
Silence: Sometimes people will remain silent rather than provide a direct ‘no’. Thus, it is advisable to pay
attention to what is not said, as the absence of agreement may be an expression of disagreement.
Questioning: The cultural preoccupation with politeness and modesty can sometimes mean that some
Indians automatically answer ‘yes' to direct questions that require a yes or no answer. For an Indian, a
flat ‘no' may indicate that you wish to end the relationship. One way of navigating around ambiguity is
to check for clarification several times using open-ended questions. For example, rather than asking “Is
the shop this way?”, it is better to ask “Which way is the shop?”.
Hierarchy: The social hierarchy of Indian society often influences communication patterns in many
scenarios. Respect and deference to authority figures in and outside the home are prevalent in various
ways, such as being sensitive about how one refuses requests and disagrees with a senior’s opinion.
Non-Verbal
Physical Contact: Indians prefer not to touch people when it can be avoided, but they may touch
someone's arm or hand when speaking so long as they are the same gender. Body contact between the
genders is kept minimal throughout most of India. For example, hugging, kissing and holding hands are
not customary.
Personal Space: Indians generally respect each other's personal space and an arm's length of distance is
common during interactions. This is usually a similar proximity to what Westerners are familiar with.
They may stand further away from those who are of the opposite gender.
Eye Contact: In general, Indians prefer to keep eye contact minimal or avert their eyes from the opposite
gender rather than sustaining eye contact. Some women may avoid eye contact altogether. Direct eye
contact is generally appropriate so long as you divert your gaze every so often.
Whistling and Winking: Both these actions are considered sexually suggestive in India.
Head Tilt: People may tilt their head to the side or shake it to both sides to indicate agreement and
understanding. This head movement is similar to the Western gesture indicating “I don’t know” with a
shrug of the shoulders and tilting one’s head to the side.
Nodding: Indians will often nod to acknowledge what is said out of politeness. However, this does not
always mean they understand or agree.
Gestures: Pointing the index finger towards someone is considered to be accusatory. A more polite way
to beckon or refer to someone is to use your whole palm facing down. Standing with your hands on your
hips suggests that you are angry or ready to argue. Holding or pulling on one's ears is a gesture that
indicates sincerity or repentance.
Head: The head is considered to be the holiest part of one's body. Touching someone on the top of the
head is deemed to be insensitive and offensive.
Feet: Feet are thought to be the dirtiest part of the body, and displaying the soles of one’s feet or
touching people with one’s feet is considered rude.
https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/indian-culture/indian-culture-communication
History
Welcome
Home
› Currentaffairs
Year in Review: Events that made biggest political news in India in 2019
By Shivansh Jauhri | New Delhi | Last Updated at December 26 2019 15:38 IST
Topics Year Ender 2019 | Year End Specials | Article 370
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and BJP President Amit Shah receive a grand welcome at the party
headquarters in New Delhi | Photo: PTI
The year 2019 saw several events that could be termed ‘turning points’ in India's modern history. From
revoking Jammu & Kashmir’s special status through abrogation of Article 370 to the Citizenship
Amendment Act (CAA), which brought the country’s youth to the streets in chilly nights of December,
there are several good and bad memories this year is going to leave Indians with.
Business Standard lists six defining events of 2019 that became the biggest political issues in India
August 5, 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah announced the scrapping of Article 370 of the Indian
constitution, a move that stripped the state of Jammu & Kashmir of its special status. Shah also
announced that J&K would cease to be a state and get split into two Union Territories — J&K with a
legislature
This Bill proposing revocation of the erstwhile state’s special status was cleared by both Houses of
Parliament after heated debates.
Prior to the abrogation of Article 370, the central government had to take the Jammu & Kashmir
government’s permission to enforce laws in the state. Now, that will not be required.
https://wap-business--standard-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/wap.business-standard.com/article-amp/
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Economic Developments in India
10 December 2020
Zan Fairweather and Maxwell Sutton[*]
Download 685KB
commoditiesindiapandemictrade
Photo: EyeEm – Getty Images
Abstract
Over recent decades, India's rapid economic growth has led to a substantial increase in its demand for
Australian exports. However, India is currently facing the most significant setback to its economic
development in decades as a result of COVID-19. Like in many other economies, the pandemic has
severely affected near-term economic activity and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities in the Indian
economy. While it will take some time for the Indian economy to recover, underlying fundamentals
should support growth in the long term. This in turn should increase demand for some key Australian
exports such as coking coal and education services, and so India will likely remain an important trading
partner for Australia. The outlook for other resource exports such as iron ore and thermal coal is less
positive because India is expected to be self-sufficient in these commodities.
India's economy has grown rapidly over the past few decades but growth had been slowing before the
onset of COVID-19
India has recorded strong economic growth over the past 4 decades (Graph 1). Over this period, real per
capita incomes have increased four-fold. India's share of global output has doubled to 7 per cent, and it
is now the world's third largest economy in purchasing power parity terms. This growth has been
primarily driven by an expansion of the services sector, in contrast to the manufacturing-led growth that
characterised the development of many of India's fast-growing east Asian peers (Lamba and
Subramanian 2020). India's development lifted over 200 million people out of poverty over the decade
to 2015 (United Nations Development Programme 2020).
Graph 1
Graph 1: India - GDP Growth
Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, India was in the midst of its most significant slowdown in
economic growth since the global financial crisis. Over the year to the March quarter 2020, GDP growth
had slowed to just above 4 per cent, well below the decade average of around 7 per cent during the
2010s. Investment, which makes up one-quarter of GDP, contracted for the first time in over a decade.
The slowdown reflected a range of factors, including disruptions associated with partial demonetisation
and the introduction of a goods and services tax, and a decline in credit growth associated with
structural issues in the financial sector that culminated in the default of a high-profile non-bank financial
company. Fiscal and monetary authorities had provided some support to the economy, although these
measures had yet to arrest the slowdown before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2020/dec/economic-developments-in-india.html
Introduction
India ranks third among the most attractive investment destinations for technology transactions in the
world. Modern India has had a strong focus on science and technology, realising that it is a key element
for economic growth. India is among the topmost countries in the world in the field of scientific
research, positioned as one of the top five nations in the field for space exploration. The country has
regularly undertaken space missions, including missions to the moon and the famed Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
India is likely to take a leading role in launching satellites for the SAARC nations, generating revenue by
offering its space facilities for use to other countries.
As of June 18, 2021, India comprised 988 universities.
Market size
At rank 48, India stands among the top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 with a
score of 35.6. In 2019, it was placed at #52 position with a GII score of 36.58. India ranks 45th on the
innovation output and 57th on the innovation input sub-indices.
The Government is extensively promoting research parks technology business incubators (TBIs) and
(RPs), which would promote the innovative ideas till they become commercial ventures.
India’s gross expenditure in R&D was forecast to reach US$ 96.50 billion in 2020. By 2022, R&D
expenditure is targeted to reach at least 2 per cent of the country’s GDP. The engineering R&D and
product development market in India is forecast to post a CAGR of ~12% to reach US$ 63 billion by 2025,
from US$ 31 billion in 2019.
IT spending in India is estimated to reach US$ 93 billion in 2021 (7.3% YoY growth) and further increase
to US$ 98.5 billion in 2022.
India's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy prepared by NITI Aayog outlined a way forward to harness
the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different fields. Accenture offers a framework for assessing
the economic effect of AI for selected G20 countries in its latest AI research studies and forecast that AI
will raise India's annual growth rate by 1.3% points by 2035.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research runs 37 national laboratories and 39 outreach centres.
India ranks 10th in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 that was launched by the International
Telecommunication Union.
Developments/Investments:
With support from the Government, considerable investment and development has incurred in different
sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, space research, and nuclear power through scientific research.
For instance, India is gradually becoming self-reliant in nuclear technology.
Recent developments
Some of the recent developments in the field of science and technology in India are as follows:
In July 2021, ISRO announced that its geo-imaging satellite ‘EOS-03’, which will enable near-real time
monitoring of natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, is scheduled for launch in the third quarter
of 2021 and Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched in the third quarter of 2022.
In August 2021, the central government approved Deep Ocean Mission (DOM), which will be
implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences at a total budget of Rs. 4,077 crore (US$ 548.54 million)
for five years. The mission is a multi-ministerial, multi-disciplinary programme to develop deep-sea
technologies such as manned submersibles (that are rated for 6,000-metre water depth) and enable
deep-sea mining, exploration of deep-sea mineral resources and marine biodiversity, acquisition of a
research vessel to explore oceans, conduct deep-sea observations and build capacities in marine biology
research.
In August 2021, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh
announced that gamma irradiation technology for food preservation has been shared with private
players and at present, 26 gamma radiation processing plants are operational in the country in private,
semi government and government sector for irradiation of various products.
In August 2021, ISRO announced that it is in discussions with European and Israeli space agencies to
boost cooperation and recognise potential opportunities to work.
In August 2021, INDIAai and NASSCOM launched the first edition of the Lab2Market initiative to boost
industry-academia collaboration.
DST and GE India are likely to collaborate for Advanced Technology Research, according to the Science
and Engineering Research Board. Over the next five years, academic institutes will get up to US$ 2.68
million in funding for research in the fields of energy, healthcare and aviation.
In June 2021, DRDO developed an anti-drone technology to detect and neutralise unmanned aerial
vehicles. This technology uses radar system that offers 360-degree coverage.
On June 28, 2021, DRDO tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile ‘Agni P’ with range capability of 1,000-
2,000 kms.
On June 9, 2021, ICAR signed a MoU with the Digital India Corporation to provide location-specific
demand-based tele-agriculture advisories.
In March 2021, the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari, inaugurated two
technology centres at Visakhapatnam and Bhopal, three extension centres of big technological centres
and seven mobile Udyam Express of MSME.
In February 2021, production linked incentive scheme for IT Hardware was approved to boost domestic
manufacturing of IT Hardware.
In February 2021, about 1 lakh women were trained on digital literacy in India via ‘We Think Digital’
In February 2021, Union Minister for MSME & Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated 50
artisan-based SFURTI (Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries) clusters, which will be
spread >18 states, to support >42,000 artisans in traditional crafts.
Oppo’s India research and development centre (R&D) has filed 200 patents, including patents for 5G and
camera technologies. The company is also planning to make huge investments in India from its US$ 7
billion global investment bucket.
In December 2020, Ambassador of France, Germany and the European Union announced that they will
together work out a detailed plan to fund more eco-friendly projects in Kerala in the coming years.
In November 2020, the Engineering Exports Promotion Council India and the National Institute of Design
collaborated to promote and upgrade designs and technology for the medical devices industry, enabling
it to meet the emerging needs of the country’s health sector, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19.
In November 2020, Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru,
and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the GRANTECAN, S.A. (GTC), Spain to develop
scientific and technical collaborations in astronomy field.
The Union Budget 2021-22
Under the Union Budget 2021-22, the government announced allocation of Rs. 14,794.03 crore (US$
2.02 billion) to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Department of Atomic Energy has been
allocated Rs. 18,264.89 crore (US$ 2.50 billion). The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has
been allocated Rs. 6,067.39 crore (US$ 831.63 million). The Ministry of Earth Sciences was allocated Rs.
1,897.13 crore (US$ 260.03 million).
The Road Ahead
India is aggressively working towards establishing itself as a leader in industrialisation and technological
development. Significant developments in the nuclear energy sector are likely as India looks to expand
its nuclear capacity. Moreover, nanotechnology is expected to transform India’s pharmaceutical
industry. The agriculture sector is also likely to undergo a major revamp with the government investing
heavily for a technology-driven Green Revolution. Government of India, through the Science,
Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy-2013, among other things, aspires to position India among the
world’s top five scientific powers. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its first Indian
human mission by 2022.
India initiated a landmark policy called Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 with core vision
of being decentralized, evidence informed, bottom-up, experts-driven, and inclusive. The policy aims to
be bring-in the concept of ‘dynamic policy’ with a robust policy governance mechanism incorporating
features such as periodic review, policy evaluation, feedback, and adaptation, and a timely exit strategy
for various policy instruments.
References - Media reports, Press Releases, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Union Budget 2021-22
INDIAN SCIENCE AND R&D INDUSTRY REPORT (SIZE: 1.79 MB ) (AUGUST, 2021)
https://www.ibef.org/industry/science-and-technology.aspx

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The Race to 5G Continues

The Future of the Global Tea Industry

INDIA GOVERNMENT OVERVIEW

Last updated: January 25, 2016

Government and politics

Oct 03, 2021, 06:49 PM IST

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State governments of India

Introduction to the Indian Judicial System

Author: Taruni Kavuri

Publish Year: 2020

Last updated: 2020

Primary Citation: Animal Legal & Historical Center

OCTOBER 23, 2019

India’s Military Choices in an Era of Strategic Competition with China

By Daniel Kliman, Iskander Rehman, Kristine Lee and Joshua Fitt

WHO'S THE STRONGEST OF 'EM ALL?

FROM OUR OBSESSION

This post has been updated.

India paves way for more women in armed forces

Women make up a miniscule 0.56% of India's 1.4 million army personnel.

India's soldiers 'not ready for women in combat'

Indian Air Force takes aim at gender norms

What My DNA Says About India’s History

March 14, 2018

August 29, 2021 at 4:56 p.m. EDT

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India population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population.

India ranks number 2 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.

The total land area is 2,973,190 Km2 (1,147,955 sq. miles)

35.0 % of the population is urban (483,098,640 people in 2020)

The median age in India is 28.4 years.

India, a land of many tongues

AUGUST 7, 2017, 18:19IST

Which Languages Are Spoken In India?

February 15, 2019

India: Linguistic composition

India: Linguistic composition

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Family and Kinship

Family Authority and Harmony

Veiling and the Seclusion of Women

Family and kinship

A Glimpse into What Rural Village Life in India is Like

June 30, 2017

Updated At: Oct 25, 2020 09:51 PM

By Vibhuti Agarwal , Krishna Pokharel and Rajesh Roy

June 18, 2020 7:00 am ET

City life: Delhi

1 min read . 08 Sep 2019

Lakshmi Priya Rajendran, Anglia Ruskin University

April 16, 2020 3.10pm BST

Managing India’s urban transition in 2021

What is India's caste system?

Updated 19 June 2019

How did caste come about?

How does caste work?

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