India’s economy was the best performing in 2016 [Xinhua]
Type of Government: Federal parliamentary republic
Current Leader: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee
Population: 1,266,883,598 (July 2016 estimate)
Language(s): Hindi 40%, Bengali 8%, Telugu 7% (see below)
Ethnicities: 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%
Religions: Hindu 79.8%, Muslim 14.2%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.7%, other and unspecified 2% (2011 estimate)
Capital City: New Delhi
Main Cities/Provinces: Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Agra, Bangalore, Kolkata
Area: 3,287,263 km2 [India is the 7th largest country in the world]
Major Industries: software, petroleum products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, textiles, steel, transportation equipment, machinery, leather, cement, mining, and construction materials
Major Imports: crude oil, gold and precious stones, electronics, engineering goods, chemicals, plastics, coal and ores, iron and steel, vegetable oil and other commodities
Major Exports: software, petrochemicals, agriculture, leather, jewelry, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, textiles, chemicals, transportation, ores and other commodities
Currency: Indian rupee
GDP [PPP]: $8.727 trillion (IMF April 2016) / per capita $6,664
Source