Country Biography

Statistics

Population	1.08 billion
Population growth	1.4%
Birth rate	22.32 per 1000
Death rate	8.28 per 1000
Net migration rate	-0.07 per 1000
Infant mortality rate:	56.29 per 1000
Life expectancy	64.35 years
Fertility rate	2.78 children/woman
People with HIV/AIDS	5.1 million
Religions	80.5% Hindu, 13.5% Muslim, 2.3% Christian, 1.9% Sikh, 1.8% other
Literacy	70.2% male, 48.3% female
GDP (official exchange rate)	$735.6 billion
Labor force	496.4 million
Labor force (by occupation)	60% agriculture, 17% industry, 23% services
Unemployment rate	9%
Population below poverty line:	25%
Inflation rate	4.4%
Public debt	82% of GDP
Main agriculture products	Rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane
Main industries	Textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, cement, mining, petroleum

Stats from1

History

Currently ranked 127 in the UN rankings on quality of life, India is one of the world's oldest civilizations, dating back to when Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 5000 years ago. Britain controlled most the politics in India by the 19th century, but it gained independence due to the resistance of British colonialism led by Gandhi and Nehru. It was then divided into the country of India, and Muslim Pakistan. In 1971, a third war between the two countries resulted in the birth of Bangladash, formerly East Pakistan. Today, India and Pakistan are fighting over Kashmir, and India is struggling with poverty, and its massive population, which is almost as large as China's population.

Economy

Approximately two thirds of India's workforce is in agriculture, which lead the government to create an economic reform program to include developing basic communications to help the poor in rural communities and boost the economy. India's tariffs are around 20% on non-agricultural items. Recently, the privatization of government owned industries was stopped. Its average growth rate is over 6.8% since 1994, which in turn reduced poverty by 10 points. India experienced a GDP growth of 7% in 2005 because of the expansion of manufacturing in the country.

India's Labor Force

The average worker in India receives 50 cents an hour. The regular working day is 10 hours, 6 days a week, and overtime is approximately 75 hours a month. Between September to December, workers have to work until 1:30 am. The average wage for an unskilled worker is $2 US a day, and the wage for a skilled worker is $100 US per month. Women in rural areas are only paid about 60% of what men are paid.

Children under 14 years of age make up around 3.6% of the total labour force in India. Only about 0.8% of them work in factories while less than 9% work in manufacturing, services, and repairs. The government of India recently spent $21 million to build programs to combat child labour in the country. Primary education to 250 million was offered as part of its child labour elimination program.

~Jessie