| |
India |
New Zealand |
| Capital |
New Delhi |
Wellington |
| Population |
1.22 billion |
4.3 million |
| Official languages |
Hindi, English
14 other official languages |
English; Maori; NZ Sign |
GNI per capita
NZ$1= US$0.71 (2010) |
US$1,340
NZ$1,887 |
US$29,050
NZ$40,915 |
| Life expectancy |
65 years |
81 years |
| Under 5 mortality rate |
63/1000 |
6/1000 |
| Adult literacy rate |
63% |
99% |
| Source: Unicef.
2010 |
People
The official languages of the Indian Union are Hindi and
English. More than 80 per cent of the population adheres to
Hinduism. Other major religions include Islam (13.4 per cent),
Sikhism (1.9 per cent), Christianity (2.3 per cent), and others
such as Buddhism and Jainism (1.8 per cent). The caste system
continues to influence society, despite anti-discrimination laws.
Although gender disparities have declined, gender-biased attitudes
towards girls still result in early marriage and childbirth, lack
of autonomy, low levels of literacy, poor nutrition and high
maternal mortality rates. India is also a source, destination, and
transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the
purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
History
The civilisation in the Indus valley is one of the oldest in the
world. In the early 1800s, Britain took control of the area
stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar (Burma), ruling until 1947.
With independence, the colony was partitioned into Muslim (Pakistan
and Bangladesh) and Hindu (India) countries. India's relations with
its neighbours remain troubled. There have been two wars with
Pakistan and one with China, and borders with both nations are
still in dispute.
Geography
Stretching from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean, India's
topography and climate varies greatly. In general, the climate is
hot and tropical. The coolest weather is between December and
February, and the hottest April to June. Monsoon rains occur
between June and September. Very little of India's surface area is
uninhabited and its high population density puts pressure on the
environment through overgrazing, soil erosion, slash-and-burn
agriculture, large-scale industrialisation, mining and
indiscriminate felling of trees.
Economy
According to the World Bank, India has been making sustained
economic progress during the past two decades. Both agriculture and
industry are important to India's economy - agriculture alone
employs 60 per cent of the population. However, rural land is
poorly distributed and there are large numbers of landless
labourers. Owing to rapid urbanisation, slum areas in cities are
spreading. Many service industries, including railways, road
transport and banking, are state-owned. India began to open up to
foreign investment in the late 1980s.lnformation technology has
become a specialist area, taking advantage of large numbers of
well-educated, English-speaking workers with the ability to export
services around the world. Today, India is the fourth largest
economy in the world with an average growth rate of 8.8 percent
India has the fifth largest telecom network in the world. The
country has a middle class population of 250 to 300 million
people.
Education
Before 1986, India's national government left the implementation
of education policy to individual states. Although it now takes a
more active role, a concerted political and social effort will be
required for substantial progress to be made. One of India's
long-term educational goals has been a literacy rate of 75 per cent
by 200S.The current average literacy rate is pegged at 66 per cent.
India has made huge progress in enrolling more children, especially
girls, into primary school. Since 200 I, the government's Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan programme, with some support from donors, has
helped to bring at least 20 million children into school; many of
them are first-generation learners. The aim is to have free
schooling for all children aged 6 to 14 by the end of 20 I O. India
still accounts for a fifth of the world's out-of-school children.
It has the largest number of working children in the world, a third
of which are under 16 years old.
Health
While childhood communicable diseases are becoming less common,
malnutrition is a significant factor in childhood deaths and poor
physical development. Almost 48 per cent of children under the age
of 5 are malnourished and 30 per cent of infants are significantly
underweight. About 125 million people lack access to safe drinking
water. The World Bank estimates that 21 per cent of communicable
diseases in India are water-related. Vitamin A deficiency results
in night blindness and a lack of iodine in the soil contributes to
goitre. India has a third of the world's tuberculosis (TB) cases,
and HIV and AIDS prevalence is increasing.
India at a glance
India is the world's second most populous country and the
seventh largest country by area. Since the I980s, India has been
making unprecedented progress in its own history, but there are
still wide disparities in access to healthcare, education and
infrastructure. The number of poor living below NZ$2 a day has
increased from 421 million in 1981 to 456 million in 2005.
