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Country Profile

India and Regional Office, South Asia

ECONOMIC PROFILE

India is a large and heterogeneous country, with a population of 1037 million and a population growth rate of 1.77 and its economy mirrors this heterogeneity. In PPP terms, India is the fourth largest economy in the world today, after the United States, China and Japan. At present rates of growth, it will overtake Japan between 2010 and 2015. By that time, the literacy rate should touch 85%, the percentage of population below the poverty line should drop to 15% or less and the infant mortality rate should drop to 35 per thousand. There is already a middle class of 300 million and an enormous explosion in consumption is in the offing. Together with China, India is destined to be the engine of world economic growth in the 21st century.

India's economic policy till economic reforms took place in the early 1990s, focused on a drive for self-sufficiency with a minimum of foreign participation. Reforms have since proceeded slowly-a large (and inefficient) public sector co-exists with a sizeable and diversified private sector. Agriculture is almost entirely in private hands. Health care, despite a large presence of public health care delivery systems, is largely in the hands of poorly equipped semi trained medical workers.
Despite India's success in software and nuclear technology the country suffers the image of being a poor economy. With a per capita income of 470 US dollars, India is indeed a poor country. The World Bank's World Development Report for 2000/2001 ranked India 162nd in the world, measured in terms of per capita income.

TIMELINE

1947 - End of British rule and partition of sub-continent into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority state of Pakistan.

1948 - War with Pakistan over disputed territory of Kashmir.

1962 - India loses brief border war with China.

1964 - Death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

1965 - Second war with Pakistan over Kashmir.

1966 - Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister.

1974 - India explodes first nuclear device in underground test.

1975 - Indira Gandhi declares state of emergency after being found guilty of electoral malpractice.

1984 - Troops storm Golden Temple - Sikh’s most holy shrine - to flush out Sikh militants pressing for self-rule.

1984 - Indira Gandhi assassinated by Sikh bodyguards, following which her son, Rajiv, takes over.

1991 - Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by suicide bomber sympathetic to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers.

1991 - Economic reform programme begun by Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.

1992 - Hindu extremists demolish mosque in Ayodhya, triggering widespread Hindu-Muslim violence.

1998 - India carries out nuclear tests, leading to widespread international condemnation.

2001 July - Vajpayee meets Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the first summit between the two neighbours in more than two years. The meeting ends without a breakthrough or even a joint statement because of differences over Kashmir.

2002 July - Retired scientist APJ Abdul Kalam is elected president. Dr Kalam - known as “Missile Man” - was the architect of India’s missile programme. He becomes India’s third Muslim president.

2003 June - India, China reach de facto agreement over status of Tibet and Sikkim in landmark cross-border trade agreement.

2003 August - At least 50 people are killed in two simultaneous bomb blasts in Bombay.

2003 November - India matches Pakistan's declaration of a Kashmir ceasefire.

2003 December - India, Pakistan agree to resume direct air links and to allow overflights.

2004 January - Groundbreaking meeting held between government and moderate Kashmir separatists.

2004 May - Surprise victory for Congress Party in general elections. Manmohan Singh is sworn in as prime minister.

2004 June - Parliament closes for two days after the opposition demands the new government sack ministers it deems unfit for office.

Source: BBC News

for more information about India:

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