India - context

• India's context


  • Political
  • Cultural
  • Social
  • Environmental
• Political


  • India was a British colony until 1947, now has one of the world's largest democratically elected governments
  • A growing global influence, one of the founding members of the UN and G20, takes part in UN peacekeeping missions and contributes second largest number of troops to the UN
• Cultural


  • India has a rich and diverse culture, over 22 officially recognised languages
  • 78% of the population practices Hinduism, 15% Islam, 2.5% Christianity and 2% Sikhism
  • Renowned for its production of Bollywood films which are exported worldwide and for its distinctive music and dancing styles, eg Bhangra
• Social


  • Large inequalities, some people are very wealthy, but the majority are very poor, and over 20% of the population live in poverty
  • The caste system has existed in some form in India for at least 3,000 years, it is a social hierarchy passed down through families, and it can dictate the professions a person can work in as well as aspects of their social lives, including whom they can marry
  • 74.4% of India's population is literate (able to read and write), although this is greatly unequal across the country, some rural villages can be very isolated and may have no access to education
  • Most of India's population speak English, an important factor in India's integration into the global economy
• Environmental


  • India has a varied landscape, including the Himalayas in the north and the Thar Desert in the north west, and large areas of forest
  • It has a long coastline - this makes it an attractive tourist destination and has allowed the development of ports, such as Mumbai, increasing trade
  • The floodplains of several major rivers, such as the Ganges and the Indus, provide fertile farmland, rivers have been central to the development of settlement in India from the earliest of times
  • India's monsoon is the Earth's most powerful weather system, the rain brought by the monsoon is vital for water supply and farming, but can also bring costs such as flooding
• India


  A Newly Emerging Economy (NEE) in Southern Asia, rapidly developing
• India has the second largest population in the world with approximately 1.4 billion and is still growing
• India


  • Biggest population and economy in South Asia
  • Plays a major role in trade and politics in the region
  • Position in the Indian Ocean has allowed it to establish trade links with southeast Asia and the Middle East, the world's fastest growing economic regions
  • Half of the world's population lives in China and Southern and south-east Asia, providing labour and a huge market for goods and services
• In 2014, 25% of India's exports went to the Middle East, China, Singapore, and Hong Kong
• India


  • Increasingly important globally
  • Exports services (e.g. IT support) and manufactured goods (e.g. medicines) across the world
  • Member of the World Trade Organisation, the BRICS and the G20 (a group of 20 of the world's largest economies)
• India is large with 3.3 million sq km, it is 13 times larger than the UK, though is only third the size of the USA
• India is predicted to become the world's second largest economy by 2050
• India's economy has grown by 7% per year on average since 1997
• Newly Emerging Economy (NEE)


  Not an LC because India is experiencing rapid industrialisation, on its journey to become a HIC in the future