Land area

3,287,263 sq km (including Indian-administered Kashmir); of the total, 57% is agricultural land and 16% is forest area

Population

1.13bn (mid-2007)

Main towns

Population in millions, 2001 census

Mumbai (Bombay) 16.4

Kolkata (Calcutta) 13.2

Delhi 12.8

Chennai (Madras) 6.4

Bangalore 5.7

Hyderabad 5.5

Climate

Varied; humid subtropical in Ganges basin, semi-arid in the north-west, tropical humid in north-east and most of the peninsula, tundra in the Himalayas; all areas receive rain from the south-west monsoon in June-September; the south is also served by the north-east monsoon in January-March

Weather in New Delhi (altitude 218 metres)

Hottest month, May, 26-41°C (average daily minimum and maximum); coldest month, January, 7-21°C; driest month, November, 4 mm average rainfall; wettest month, July, 180 mm average rainfall

Languages

Hindi is the national language and the primary tongue of 30% of the population. There are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi and Sanskrit. English is widespread in business circles and as a second language

Religions

Hindu (80.5% in 2001 census); Muslim (13.4%); Christian (2.3%); Sikh (1.9%); Buddhist (0.8%); Jain (0.4%)

Measures

Metric system. Numbers are often written in lakhs (100,000) and crores (10m)

Currency

Rupee (Rs); Rs1 = 100 paisa. Average exchange rate in 2009: Rs48.4:US$1

Fiscal year

April 1st-March 31st

Time

5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT

Public holidays

Republic Day (January 26th); Independence Day (August 15th); Mahatma Gandhi's birthday (October 2nd); also major Hindu, Muslim, Christian and other religious holidays