President of the High Transitional Authority: Andry Rajoelina
Population
22,599,098
1,220,800,359
Life Expectancy
64.850 years
67.480 years
Capital City
New Delhi
Largest city
Antananarivo (population: 1,391,430)
Mumbai (population: 12,691,800)
Human Development Index
0.533
0.609
GDP per capita
$3,900 US
Literacy Rate
68.9%
61%
Corruption Perception Index
3.4
3.4
Percentage of Women in Parliament
9.4%
9.2%
Wealthiest Citizens
NA
Mukesh Ambani ($19.5bn US)
Unemployment Rate
9.900%
Death Penalty
Abolished in practice
Legal
Political System
republic
federal republic
Independence date
15 August 1947 (from UK)
Religions
indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%, Muslim 7%
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)
Languages
English (official), French (official), Malagasy (official)
Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9% note: 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 41% 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 (2001 census)
