भारत गणराज्य* Bhārat Gaṇarājya Republic of India
Flag Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit) सत्यमेव जयते  (Devanāgarī) "Truth Alone Triumphs"[1] Anthem: Jana Gana Mana Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people[2 National Song[4] Vande Mataram I bow to thee, Mother[3]	Location of India
Capital New Delhi Largest city Mumbai Official languages: Scheduled languages: Hindi, English[show] Hindi in the Devanagari script is the official language of the union[5] and English the "subsidiary official language".[6] 8th Schedule:[show] Assamese Bengali Bodo Dogri Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Konkani Maithili Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi Sanskrit Santali Sindhi Tamil Telugu Urdu[7] Demonym Indian Government Federal republic[8] Parliamentary democracy[9]  -  President Pratibha Patil  -  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Independence from British colonial rule   -  Declared 15 August 1947   -  Republic 26 January 1950  Area  -  Total 3,287,590‡ km² (7th) 1,269,346 sq mi   -  Water (%) 9.56	Population  -  2008 estimate 1,132,446,000[8] (2nd)  -  2001 census 1,027,015,248   -  Density 329/km² (31st) 852/sq mi GDP (PPP) 2007 estimate  -  Total $ 2.965 trillion[10] (4th)  -  Per capita $ 2700 (165th) GDP (nominal) 2007 estimate  -  Total $ 1.089 trillion (12th)  -  Per capita $ 977 (132nd) Gini (2004) 36.8[11]  HDI (2007) ▲ 0.619 (medium) (128th) Currency Indian rupee (₨) (INR) Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)  -  Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+5:30) Internet TLD .in Calling code +91 Non-numbered Footnotes:[show] * Bharat Ganarajya, that is, the Republic of India in Hindi,[9] written in the Devanāgarī script. See also other official names ‡ This is the figure as per the United Nations though the Indian government lists the total area as 3,287,260 square kilometers.[12]

India (Hindi: भारत Bhārat; see also other Indian languages), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi).[13] It borders Pakistan to the west;[14] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) to the east. India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

Home to the Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.[15] Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became a modern nation state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance.

India has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms have transformed it into the second fastest growing large economy;[16] however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty,[17] illiteracy, and malnutrition. A pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats