Doing Business in India - RSM Austria

1.0 PHYSICAL FEATURES
1.1 Geography
CHAPTER 1
INDIA - A PROFILE
India is situated in the southern Peninsula of the Asian continent and is the seventh
largest country in the world, in terms of size. It lies entirely in the northern
hemisphere and extends from the snow-covered Himalayan heights in the north to
the tropical rain forests of the south. India shares its borders with Afghanistan and
Pakistan to the north-west, China, Bhutan and Nepal to the north, and Myanmar and
Bangladesh to the east. Sri Lanka lies to south of India and is separated from India
by a narrow sea channel formed by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.
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India lies between latitudes 8 4’ and 37 6’ north and longitudes 68 7’ and 97 25’
east. It measures about 3,214 kilometers from north to south between its extreme
latitudes and 2,933 kilometers from east to west between the extreme longitudes.
India covers an area of 3,287,263 square kilometers and has a land frontier of 15,200
kilometers. India has a coastline of 7,516 kilometers.
The main land comprises of four regions: the mountain zone in the north, the plains
of the Ganges and the Indus rivers, a small desert region in the west and the
southern peninsula which consists of the Deccan plateau, mountains and coastal
strips.
1.2 Climate
India’s climate is mainly tropical monsoon type and is affected by two seasonal
winds: the north-east monsoon and the south-west monsoon. A year in India can be
conveniently divided into four sessions viz. the winter (January and February), the
hot weather summer (March through May), the rainy south-western monsoon (June
through September) and the post-monsoon period (October through December),
which is known as the north-east monsoon period in the southern Peninsula.
2.0 POPULATION AND SOCIAL PATTERNS
2.1 Population
As per the data published for 2001 census, India’s population as on March 2001 was
1028 million (532 million males and 496 million females), making India the second
most populated country in the world after China. The population comprises of 300
million people in the middle class bracket, which is a major consumer class in India.
The population growth rate was around 2.22% in the 1980s, which decreased
marginally to 2.14% in 1990s.
DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA 1