Indian occupies much of the Southern Asian subcontinent, with Pakistan to the western,
China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northern, and Bangladesh to the east. The actual Himalaya
Mountains, the tallest hill system in the world, are located upon India’s northern
border. Coastal Indian has the Arabian Sea to the western, the Indian Ocean towards the
south, and the Bay associated with Bengal to the east. India offers 17 percent of the world’s population,
the 2nd most populous nation in the world| after China. India can also be one of
the most ethnically diverse nations in the world. It is home to hundreds of
languages, 18 of which possess official status. Hindi is the recognized language and the
most widely voiced, but English is popular in government, business, technology,
and education.
The people of India have had a continuous civilization for more than 5,000 years.
Extensive urbanization based on commerce as well as agricultural trade appears to possess
begun in the Indus River Area (in the northwest) around Three thousand B.C. Since this period,
numerous empires have dominated various portions of South Asian countries, often assimilating a rich
variety of peoples, each adding its very own contribution to the region’s increasingly varied
cultures, ideas, and systems. The political map of ancient and medieval India was
made up of myriad kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries. In the 4th and 5th centuries
A.D., northern India was unified under the Gupta Dynasty. During this period, known
as India’s Golden Age, science, literature, and the arts flourished under Hindu culture.
The south also experienced several great empires. Arab, Turkic, and Afghan Muslims
ruled successively in the 8th to the 18th century A.D.European economic competition in India began soon after the Portuguese arrived
in 1498. The first British outpost was established by the East India Company in 1619,
and permanent trading stations were opened in other parts of the country over the rest
of the 17th century. The British expanded their own influence from these footholds until, through
the 1850s, they controlled-politically, militarily, and economically-most associated with presentday
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. A mass campaign against British
colonial rule began in the 1920s under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru. Rising civil disobedience and World War II eventually rendered
India too costly and hard to administer, and the British federal government granted independence
in The late 1940s. British India was instantly partitioned into two individual states:
India, with a Hindu vast majority; and East and Western Pakistan-now Bangladesh and
Pakistan-with Muslim majorities. The British legacy in India is substantial, including
its common law legal system, its parliamentary system of central government, and the
widespread use of the English language.
From 1947 to the late 1970s, the Indian economic climate was characterized by central
federal government socialist-style planning and import-substitution industries. Financial
production was transformed through primarily agriculture, forestry, fishing, as well as textile
manufacturing to various heavy industries and transportation. However, the lack of
competition contributed to poor product quality and inefficiencies in production.
Facing an economic crisis, the government began opening up the economy in 1991.
The market-oriented economic reforms adopted since then include the privatization of
reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers, reform and modernization of the financial
sector, significant adjustments in government monetary and fiscal policies, and safeguarding
intellectual property rights. However, a large proportion of heavy industry is
still state-owned, and high tariffs and limits on foreign direct investment are still in
place. The services sector has proved to be India’s most dynamic sector in recent
years, with telecommunications and information technology recording particularly
rapid growth.
Future economic growth is actually constrained by an insufficient infrastructure, a cumbersome
paperwork and red tape, labor marketplace rigidities, and corruption. The lack
associated with reliable and affordable facilities, especially roads and electrical power, is viewed by
numerous as the single most important brake upon future growth. Red tape also imposes
heavy costs on business in many parts of the country-for example, in bribes paid to
inspectors. Finally, labor laws impose extra costs. The reforms that started in 1991
have cut aside bureaucratic controls and encouraged the roll-out of a more
competitive marketplace. The majority of observers agree that additional reforms and additional
investment in facilities are needed to make India a number one economic player, but
because noted at the beginning of this section, the same observers are positive about
India’s growth prospects.
