Concise Encyclopaedia of India

India is one of the oldest civilisations with a kaleidoscopic variety, rich cultural heritage and multifaceted socio-economic progress. It covers an area of 32,87,263 sq km extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to tropical rain forests of the south. As seventh largest country in the world, India is well-marked off from the rest of Asia by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical entity. Bounded by the great Himalayas in the north, it stretches south-wards and at the tropic of cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on east and the Arabian Sea on the west. Lying entirely in the northern hemisphere, the mainland extends between latitudes 8o4 and 37o6 north, longitudes 68o7 and 97o25 east and measures about 3,214 km from north to south between the extreme latitudes and about 2,933 km from east to west between the extreme longitudes. It has a land frontier of about 15,200 km. The total length of the coast line of the mainland, Lakshadweep, Islands and Andaman and Nicobar Islands is 7,516,6 km. India, a union of states, is a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic with a parliamentary system of government and is governed as per the norms of the constitution adopted by constituent assembly on 26 November 1949 and coming into force on 26 January 1950. India comprises 25 states and seven union territories. States are : Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Union territories are : Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. The book "Concise Encyclopaedia of India’ provides in brief the different aspects of four country including the people, the population, languages, landmarks, education, transport, art, culture, literature, foreign policy, defence, agriculture, industry, banking, mass-communication, media, tourism and related activities besides the details of the above mentioned states and union territories. The idea behind bringing out this book is to help one and all in understanding the country and the unity in diversity. This will help in optimising the available resources of the country and in locating a critical path for reaching the milestone of a masterplan paradigm for tackling the different problems of the country before entering the third millennium. This book is dedicated to the people of this country who have successfully celebrated the 50 year of India’s independence during the year 1997.