Iceland (continued)
Merchant marine: 18 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 62,867 GRT/87,610 DWT; includes 9 cargo, 2 refrigerated cargo, 1 container, 2 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 1 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 1 chemical tanker, 2 bulk
Civil air: 20 major transport aircraft
Airports: 99 total, 92 usable; 4 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 3,659 m; 1 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 14 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Telecommunications: adequate domestic service, wire and radio communication system; 135,000 telephones; stations—10 AM, 17 (43 relays) FM, 14 (132 relays) TV; 2 submarine cables; 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT earth station
Defense Forces
Branches: Police, Coast Guard
Military manpower: males 15-49, 68,688; 61,553 fit for military service; no conscription or compulsory military service
Defense expenditures: none
India
_India.jpg)
See regional map VIII
Geography
Total area: 3,287,590 km²; land area:
2,973,190 km²
Comparative area: slightly more than one-third the size of the US
Land boundaries: 14,103 km total; Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463 km, China 3,380, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km
Coastline: 7,000 km
Maritime claims:
- Contiguous zone: 24 nm
- Continental shelf: edge of continental margin or 200 nm
- Extended economic zone: 200 nm
- Territorial sea: 12 nm
Disputes: boundaries with Bangladesh, China, and Pakistan; water sharing problems with downstream riparians, Bangladesh over the Ganges and Pakistan over the Indus
Climate: varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north
Terrain: upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along the Ganges, deserts in west, Himalayas in north
Natural resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, crude oil, limestone
Land use: 55% arable land; 1% permanent crops; 4% meadows and pastures; 23% forest and woodland; 17% other; includes 13% irrigated
Environment: droughts, flash floods, severe thunderstorms common; deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; air and water pollution; desertification
Note: dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean trade routes
People
Population: 849,746,001 (July 1990),
growth rate 2.0% (1990)
Birth rate: 30 births/1,000 population (1990)
Death rate: 10 deaths/1,000 population (1990)
Net migration rate: migrants/1,000 population (1990)
Infant mortality rate: 89 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)
Life expectancy at birth: 57 years male, 59 years female (1990)
Total fertility rate: 3.8 children born/woman (1990)
Nationality: noun—Indian(s); adjective—Indian
Ethnic divisions: 72% Indo-Aryan, 25% Dravidian, 3% Mongoloid and other
Religion: 82.6% Hindu, 11.4% Muslim, 2.4% Christian, 2.0% Sikh, 0.7% Buddhist, 0.5% Jains, 0.4% other
Language: Hindi, English, and 14 other official languages—Bengali, Telgu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; 24 languages spoken by a million or more persons each; numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindustani, a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu, is spoken widely throughout northern India
Literacy: 36%
Labor force: 284,400,000; 67% agriculture (FY85)
Organized labor: less than 5% of the labor force
Government
Long-form name: Republic of India
Type: federal republic
Capital: New Delhi
Administrative divisions: 24 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*, Andhra Pradesh, Arunāchal Pradesh, Assam, Bihār, Chandīgarh*, Dādra and Nagar Haveli*, Delhi*, Goa and Damān and Diu*. Gujarāt, Haryāna, Himāchal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmīr, Karnātaka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Mahārāshtra, Manipur, Meghālaya, Mizoram, Nāgāland, Orissa, Pondicherry*, Punjab, Rājasthān, Sikkim, Tamil Nādu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal; note—Goa may have become a state with Damān and Diu remaining a union territory
Independence: 15 August 1947 (from UK)
