Aryan tribes from the northwest infiltrated onto the Indian subcontinent about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. The Maurya Empire of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. - which reached its zenith under ASHOKA - united much of South Asia.

The Golden Age ushered in by the Gupta dynasty (4th to 6th centuries A.D.) saw a flowering of Indian science, art, and culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkic in the 12th were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late 15th century.

By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru brought independence in 1947.

The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan.

A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, significant overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.

Source: CIA World Fact Book

Population: 1,129,866,154 (July 2007 est.)

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Age structure: 0-14 years: 31.8% (male 188,208,196/female 171,356,024) 15-64 years: 63.1% (male 366,977,821/female 346,034,565) 65 years and over: 5.1% (male 27,258,259/female 30,031,289) (2007 est.)

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Median age: total: 24.8 years male: 24.5 years female: 25.2 years (2007 est.)

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Population growth rate: 1.606% (2007 est.)

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Birth rate: 22.69 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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Death rate: 6.58 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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Net migration rate: -0.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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Sex ratio: at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.098 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.061 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.908 male(s)/female total population: 1.064 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

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Infant mortality rate: total: 34.61 deaths/1,000 live births male: 39.42 deaths/1,000 live births female: 29.23 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

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Life expectancy at birth: total population: 68.59 years male: 66.28 years female: 71.17 years (2007 est.)

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Total fertility rate: 2.81 children born/woman (2007 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.9% (2001 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5.1 million (2001 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - deaths: 310,000 (2001 est.)

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Major infectious diseases: degree of risk: high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis are high risks in some locations animal contact disease: rabies note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified among birds in this country or surrounding region; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2007)

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Nationality: noun: Indian(s) adjective: Indian

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Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

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Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

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Languages: English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language

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Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 61% male: 73.4% female: 47.8% (2001 census)

India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for more than half of India's output with less than one third of its labor force. About three-fifths of the work force is in agriculture, leading the UPA government to articulate an economic reform program that includes developing basic infrastructure to improve the lives of the rural poor and boost economic performance. The government has reduced controls on foreign trade and investment. Tariffs averaged 12.5% on non-agricultural items in 2006. Higher limits on foreign direct investment were permitted in a few key sectors, such as telecommunications. However, tariff spikes in sensitive categories, including agriculture, and incremental progress on economic reforms still hinder foreign access to India's vast and growing market. Privatization of government-owned industries remained stalled in 2006, and continues to generate political debate; populist pressure from within the UPA government and from its Left Front allies continues to restrain needed initiatives. The economy has posted an average growth rate of more than 7% in the decade since 1996, reducing poverty by about 10 percentage points. India achieved 8.5% GDP growth in 2006, significantly expanding manufacturing. India is capitalizing on its large numbers of well-educated people skilled in the English language to become a major exporter of software services and software workers. Economic expansion has helped New Delhi continue to make progress in reducing its federal fiscal deficit. However, strong growth - more than 8 percent growth in each of the last three years - combined with easy consumer credit and a real estate boom is fueling inflation concerns. The huge and growing population is the fundamental social, economic, and environmental problem.

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GDP (purchasing power parity): $4.164 trillion (2006 est.)

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GDP (official exchange rate): $805.5 billion (2006 est.)

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GDP - real growth rate: 9.4% (2006 est.)

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GDP - per capita (PPP): $3,800 (2006 est.)

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GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 19.9% industry: 19.3% services: 60.7% (2005 est.)

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Labor force: 509.3 million (2006 est.)

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Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 60% industry: 12% services: 28% (2003)

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Unemployment rate: 7.8% (2006 est.)

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Population below poverty line: 25% (2002 est.)

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Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 3.5% highest 10%: 33.5% (1997)

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Distribution of family income - Gini index: 32.5 (2000)

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Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.3% (2006 est.)

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Investment (gross fixed): 29.2% of GDP (2006 est.)

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Budget: revenues: $109.4 billion expenditures: $143.8 billion; including capital expenditures of $15 billion (2006 est.)

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Public debt: 52.8% of GDP (federal and state debt combined) (2006 est.)

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Agriculture - products: rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish

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Industries: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software

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Industrial production growth rate: 7.5% (2006 est.)

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Electricity - production: 630.6 billion kWh (2004)

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Electricity - consumption: 587.9 billion kWh (2004)

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Electricity - exports: 60 million kWh (2004)

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Electricity - imports: 1.5 billion kWh (2004)

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Oil - production: 785,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

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Oil - consumption: 2.45 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

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Oil - exports: 350,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

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Oil - imports: 2.098 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

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Oil - proved reserves: 5.371 billion bbl (1 January 2005 est.)

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Natural gas - production: 28.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

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Natural gas - consumption: 30.83 billion cu m (2004 est.)

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Natural gas - exports: 0 cu m (2004 est.)

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Natural gas - imports: 2.63 billion cu m (2004 est.)

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Natural gas - proved reserves: 853.5 billion cu m (1 January 2005 est.)

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Current account balance: -$26.4 billion (2006 est.)

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Exports: $112 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)

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Exports - commodities: textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures

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Exports - partners: US 17.2%, UAE 8.4%, China 7.8%, UK 4.4% (2006)

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Imports: $187.9 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)

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Imports - commodities: crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

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Imports - partners: China 8.5%, US 5.9%, Germany 4.5%, Singapore 4.5% (2006)

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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $165 billion (2006 est.)

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Debt - external: $132.1 billion (30 June 2006 est.)

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Economic aid - recipient: $2.9 billion (FY98/99)

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Currency (code): Indian rupee (INR)

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Exchange rates: Indian rupees per US dollar - 45.3 (2006), 44.101 (2005), 45.317 (2004), 46.583 (2003), 48.61 (2002)

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Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March