Basic facts about India

India, with an area of 32,87,263 sq.km. is the seventh largest country in the world.
The countries which are larger than India (in area) are Russia, Canada, China, USA, Brazil and Australia.
India has a land frontier of about 15,200 km and a coastline of 7516.6 km. A ratio of approximately 2 : 1
Among the Indian states, Gujarat has the longest coastline of approximately 1600 km.
The southernmost point of Indian mainland is Kanyakumari. Indira Point is the southernmost point of India which is located in the Great Nicobar island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The countries which have a common border with India are Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
India shares the longest border with Bangladesh (4,000 km appx).
The nearest country with which India does not share a border is Sri Lanka which is separated from India by a narrow channel of sea formed by Palk Strait on one side and Gulf of Mannar on the other.

India’s population as on 1 March 2011 stood at 1,21,05,69,573 (62,31,21,843 males and 58,74,47,730 females).
India accounts for a meagre 2.4 per cent of the world surface area of 135.79 million sq km. Yet, it supports and sustains a whopping 16.7 per cent of the world population..
The sex ratio is 943 females per 1000 males.
The overall literacy rate is 74.04% (82.14 for males and 65.46 for females).
Three most populous countries of the world viz. China (1.34 billion), India (1.21 billion) and USA (308.7 million) account for 40% population of the world.
The census moment, the referral time at which the snapshot of the population is taken was 00.00 hours of 1 March 2001. Until the 1991 Census, the sunrise of 1 March was taken to be the census moment.

1. Indian shares the longest international border with China
2. India accounts for approximately 17% of world's population
3. Afghanistan does not share a border with India
4. Among Indian states Gujarat has the longest coastline
5. India's coastline is longer than India's land frontier
6. The overall literacy rate in India is about 74%
7. Brazil is larger than India in area
8. The area of India is approximately 33,00,000 sq km