India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives for the official photo for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port-Of-Spain November 27, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO POLITICS)CARLOS BARRIA/Reuters
Kesterton's India
- India is among the world's fastest growing economies. Policymakers say high growth is critical if the country is to solve widespread poverty among its 1.2 billion people. Millions of people still live on less than $2 a day.
- Indians are great savers. The current household saving rate is more than 20 per cent.
- According to the 2001 census, 29 languages in India are spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 languages by more than 10,000 people. In 1950, the Indian constitution was ratified; it was written in English.
- Thanks to bureaucracy, starting a business in India is very hard and enforcing contracts can be almost impossible. In a recent survey of business executives in 12 Asian countries, India ranked worst for excessive red tape: on a scale of one to 10, the country scored 9.41.
- India's space program plans a manned mission in five or six years' time. The crew will be called "vyomonauts," from the Sanskrit language, which means space traveler.
Culture
Top cultural exports: Numerous forms of folk, classical and modern dance; Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, writers; Bollywood film industry
Food: tea, chutneys, curries
Notable Canadian relation: Deepa Mehta, film director; Rohinton Mistry, author; MP Ujjal Dosanjh
Speed Limit: In some regions there are no posted road speed limits. India tops the global list of deaths in road accidents with 125,000 fatalities and at least 2.2 million serious injuries each year. India also accounts for 10 per cent of global road accident deaths. (source: Indo-Asian News Service)
National pastime: Cricket
Politics
Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh
- Age: 77
- Elected: July 2007
- Legislature: Bicameral, elected Assembly, indirectly elected Council of States
- Political system: Parliamentary
Background: Mr. Singh has served in the Indian parliament as the minister of finance and minister for external affairs. He has also held positions at the Reserve Bank of Canada and the International Monetary Fund.
G20 Plans: Mr. Singh and Mr. Harper have agreed that there is a need to expedite economic and trade relations.
Economy
Gross Domestic Product: $1.21-trillion
Jobless rate: n.a.
Gross government debt (as a percentage of GDP)
- 2000: 75.2
- 2009: 80.8
- 2015 (projected): 67.3
NATION PROFILES
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