Official Name: Republic of India Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan. Capital: New Delhi Area: total: 3,287,590 sq km land: 2,973,190 sq km water: 314,400 sq km Lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m. Highest point: Kanchenjunga 8,598 m.

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Population: 1,129,866,154 (July 2007 est.) Nationality: Indian(s) Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%. Religions: Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5%. Languages: 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 30% 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.

Varies from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north.

Government type: Federal republic. Independence: 15 August 1947 (from the United Kingdom). National holiday: Republic Day, 26 January (1950).

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