India derives its name from the river ‘Indus’. India measures 3,214 km from north to south and 2,933 km from east to west with a total land area of 3,287,263 sq. km. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km and a coastline of 7,516.5 km.
Even Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep (island), in the Arabian Sea are parts of the territory of India. India is bordered with Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) on the east and Pakistan on the west. China, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan are on the northern boarder. India lies to the north of the equator between 8.4° to 37.6° North latitude and 68.7 deg. to 97.25 deg. East longitude.
The States/Union Territories having a coastline on the Bay of Bengal are: Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar islands. The States having common border with Myanmar are : Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, the States having coastline on Arabian Sea are : Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.
The Indian Union is made-up of 28 States, six Union Territories and the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
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Area-wise, Rajasthan is the biggest State of India (3,42,239 sq. km.) and Goa is the smallest (3,702 sq. km.).
Population-wise, Uttar Pradesh is the largest and Sikkim the smallest. Population of Uttar Pradesh is 16.17 per cent of India’s total.
Languages: Languages recognised in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution are : Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Konkani, Nepali and Manipuri.
Originally fourteen languages were specified in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Sindhi was included as the fifteenth recognised language, vide the Constitution (21st Amendment) Act. Nepali, Manipuri and Konkani were included vide the Constitution (71st Amendment) Act.
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The prominent Indian languages having Dravadian origin are: Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada.
The maximum stretch of India between north to south is 3200 km.
India is now the tenth industrialised country in the world.
India is the sixth nation to have gone into outer space.
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India is the second largest populous country in the world. India is home of 16 per cent of world’s population.
2001 Census Highlights
1,027,015,247 (1.027 billion) 531,277,078 (531 million) 495,738,169 (496 million) 21.34 per cent (Males-20.93 per cent; Females-21.79 per cent) Nagaland-64.41 per cent Kerala-9.42 per cent Uttar Pradesh (16.17 per cent of the National Population) 324 per sq. km. West Bengal-904 per sq. km. 933 females per 1,000 males 65.38 per cent (Males-75.85 per cent; Females-54.16 per cent)
Five Most Populated States:
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1. U.P. 16, 60, 52,859
2. Maharashtra 9, 67, 52,247
3. Bihar 8, 28, 78,796
4. West Bengal 8, 02, 21,171
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5. Andhra Pradesh
7, 57, 27,541 7.37% of total population of India