Facts about India - Part 1

India is set to emerge as the world's third largest economy by 2030, according to a Standard Chartered global Research study.

By 2030, India will be at number three position with an economy of $30.3 trillion. While China will be the topper with a $73.5 trillion economy, the United States will be ranked second at $38.2 trillion, says StanChart.

India could be 8.4 times bigger than it is today, while China is estimated to grow 4 times bigger and the European Union and the US 1.7 times, by 2030.

StanChart said that within India there is often a hesitation to anticipate the ability of the economy to grow at a faster pace.

The Indian economy is the world's tenth largest in terms of nominal GDP and the fourth largest in terms of purchasing power parity.

India is likely to grow faster, on average, than China over the next two decades.

India is the seventh-largest country by area and second-largest by population and most populous democracy in the world.

India is likely to become the world's fastest growing economy in 2012. India's GDP per capita will quadruple from 2007 to 2020, according to Goldman Sachs.

India's average quarterly GDP growth was 8.40 per cent from 2004 to 2010, hitting a high of 10.10 per cent in September 2006 and a record low of 5.50 per cent in December 2004.

Around 25 per cent of the world's new workers will be Indian in the next three years. The average Indian is nearly 20 years younger than the average Japanese.

Over half of India's population is below 25 years. By 2020, the average age of an Indian is expected to be 29 years.

India is today the world's most preferred destination for outsourcing. Half the world's outsourced IT services come from India.

Seven of the world's top 15 technology outsourcing companies are based in India.

India now has a record number of 55 billionaires, according to the Forbes 2011 world billionaires' list.

India's telecommunication industry, the world's fastest growing, added 227 million subscribers during 2010-11.

Industry accounts for 28 per cent of the GDP and employs 14 per cent of the total workforce. In absolute terms, India is 12th in the world in terms of nominal factory output.

India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 15.7 per cent of the GDP in 2009, employed 52.1 per cent of the total workforce.

India is the second largest producer of rice in the world after China. Andhra Pradesh is the second largest rice producing state in India with Uttar Pradesh being the largest.

India is the largest producer in the world of milk, jute and pulses. India is also the second largest producer and the largest consumer of silk in the world.

As of 2009, India's total proven oil reserves stood at 775 million metric tonnes while gas reserves stood at 1074 billion cubic metres.

India is the fourth largest consumer of oil in the world and imported $82.1 billion worth of oil in the first three quarters of 2010.

India had an installed power generation capacity of 164,835 megawatts (MW) as of 2010.

Thermal power contributed 64.6 per cent, hydroelectricity 24.7 per cent and other sources of renewable energy 7.7 per cent, and nuclear power 2.9 per cent.

India meets most of its domestic energy demand through its 106 billion tonnes of coal reserves.

India has the world's third largest road network, covering about 3.3 million kilometers and carrying 65 per cent of freight and 80 per cent of passenger traffic. Container traffic is growing at 15 per cent a year.

There has been a dramatic increase of almost 162 per cent in the remittance that India receives from overseas Indians over the last eight years, according to the World Bank.

While India received nearly $21 billion from overseas Indians in 2003, the figure jumped to $55 billion in 2010.

Six low-income states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh - are home to more than one third of India's population.

India has the largest number of post offices in the world.

Enough with numbers and capability, lets get down to history - Facts about India - Part 2