Economy of India
The historically developed large population of India still remains one of the main factors of the low standard of living of the bulk of the population. Currently, the persistence of the problem of poverty as one of the main problems of national development is facilitated by the still too high growth of population and labor resources and the degradation of the natural base of agricultural production. For the first 25-30 years of independence, the sphere of poverty was constantly growing absolutely and relatively, but then it began to slowly decline, and state support for the poorest strata played the main role. Poverty rate (percentage of persons with an income below the level that provides the energy value of food at least 2400 kcal per person per day in the village and 2100 in the city): 27.32% (1999/2000). The bulk of the poor are concentrated in the rural sector. The incomes of rural residents are less than 1/3 of the incomes of city dwellers. The main social category of the rural poor are the landless agricultural workers, whose daily wages are well below the official minimum wage in this sector. One of the worst manifestations of poverty has been the chronic malnutrition of a large part of the rural population. According to estimates, India in the 1990s. annually lost up to $10 billion, or 3-5% of GDP, due to poor health, disease and low productivity caused by malnutrition. One of the worst manifestations of poverty has been the chronic malnutrition of a large part of the rural population. According to estimates, India in the 1990s. annually lost up to $10 billion, or 3-5% of GDP, due to poor health, disease and low productivity caused by malnutrition. One of the worst manifestations of poverty has been the chronic malnutrition of a large part of the rural population. According to estimates, India in the 1990s. annually lost up to $10 billion, or 3-5% of GDP, due to poor health, disease and low productivity caused by malnutrition.
In 2001/02, exports amounted to 9.1%, imports 10.5% of GDP. The role of India in the world market is small – 0.65% in exports, 0.77% in imports (2000). Despite a modest place in world trade, India is the largest supplier of a number of goods: in 2000, India accounted for 10.4% of world rice exports, 16.4% of tea, 11.2% of spices, 10.7% of pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, 6.2% iron ore, 6.4% leather goods, 4.4% cotton goods. The importance of new high-tech industries is rapidly growing – in con. 1990s exported to St. 1/3 of all products of the electronics industry and 70% of computer programs. In order to stimulate exports, the government promotes the creation of special production units that produce products for export – these are export-oriented enterprises, export-production zones, “production parks” of computer equipment, software and other high-tech products. Since 2000, special economic zones began to be created, which have even more favorable conditions for business development. A new direction for India is the export of capital: in 1998, Indian capital participated in 788 joint ventures in 89 countries. Fulfilling its obligations as a member of the WTO, India only in 2000/01 eliminated quantitative restrictions on imports of 715 items of goods, reduced duties by an average of 30%. A feature of foreign trade is a chronic deficit in the trade balance (million US dollars, 2002/03): exports 46,071, imports 53,866, balance 7,795. abroad, income from tourism. In 2000/01 India exported 9, 3 thousand items of goods from agricultural products to software in 220 countries of the world. The structure of exports is changing towards an increase in the share of manufacturing products (in 1999/2000 it was 78.7%), followed by jewelry – 18% (90% of which are diamonds). Trends in the structure of imports: a decrease in the share of consumer goods and an increase in the share of raw materials and semi-finished products for high-tech industries, oil, technical diamonds.
Population of India
According to Countryaah, population censuses are conducted in India every 10 years. In total, 14 censuses have already been conducted, including the last one in 2001. Population (million people): in 1981 – 683.3, in 1991 – 846.4, in 2001 – 1027.0. India is the second most populous country in the world. Birth rate is 27.4‰, mortality is 8.9‰, infant mortality is 72 people. per 1000 newborns, average life expectancy 59.4 years (1996). Share of urban population 27.2% (2001). The gender structure of the population of India against the background of most countries of the world is distinguished by a significant predominance of men. The trend of an increasing shortage of women can be traced throughout the 20th century: in 1901, there were 972 women per 1,000 men (50.7% of the total population were men), in 1951 – 946 (men 51.4%), in 2001 – 933 (51.7% ). Age structure: 0-14 years old – 39.7%, 15-59 years old – 54.8%, 60 years and older – 5.5% (1991 census).
Literate in 2001 was 55.3% (or 65.4% of the total population over 7 years old); literacy of the male population – 75.85%, female – 54.16% (all older than 7 years). Between 1991 and 2001, the number of illiterates fell by 21.5 million, but there are still 106.6 million completely illiterate.
India was the first among developing countries to implement the state policy of Family Planning since 1951, in 1979 it was renamed the Family Welfare policy. Policy-driven programs consume up to 50% of all public health funds.
India is one of the most multiethnic countries in the world. The entire population belongs to three families of peoples: Indo-Aryan – the inhabitants of the Hindi-speaking belt in the north of the country, Bengalis, Biharis, Rajathans, Punjabis, Marathas, Kashmiris; Dravidian – Telugu, Malayali, Tamil, Kannara; Tibeto-Burmese – Assamese, Naga, Manipur, Tripuri, etc. 8.08% of the population (1991) were tribal. India is the world’s largest concentration of tribal population. They number more than 456 ethnic groups and ethnic groups. 1652 languages and dialects have been recorded. According to the 1991 census, Hindi speakers are the most numerous (337.2 million), followed by Bengalis (696.6 million), Telugu (66 million), Marathi (62.5 million). In total, there are 16 languages in India, the number of speakers of which exceeds 1 million people.
In 1991 82.4% of the population (672.6 million people) professed Hinduism, 11.67% (95.2 million) – Islam, 2.32% (6.3 million) – Christianity, 1.99% (16, 3 million) – Sikhism, 0.77% (6.3 million) – Buddhism, 0.41% (3.4 million) – Jainism, 0.43% – other religions.
