About India

Historical Background

The Indus Valley civilization is one of the oldest in the world. The merger of the Aryan tribes from the northwest with the earlier inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. In 19th century Britain had assumes political control of almost all the Indian lands until India gained its independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. The ongoing concerns of India include dispute with Pakistan, massive overpopulation, environmental problems, extensive poverty, ethnic and religious strife, regardless of the fairly impressive gains in economic investment and output.

People and Language

Most of the Indian population is Indo-Aryan (72%); however, there is a large Dravidian population as well (25%). While Hinduism is the major religion in India (81%), there is a fairly large Muslim population as well. (21%). English plays an important role in India. It is the most important language for national, political and commercial communication, where Hindi is the national and primary language of one third of the population. Note that there are fourteen other official languages in India.

Economy

India's economy is mostly based on traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of support services. Overpopulation severely handicaps the economy and leaves about a quarter of the population too poor to be able to afford an adequate diet. The economy has been growing since 1990 and reducing the level of poverty in the county. A large portion of the Indian population is very well educated, skilled in English language. India is a major exporter of software services and software workers. The information technology sector of the Indian economy results in the growth pattern that has emerged in the past decade.

Information Technology

Because most of information technology, and software in particular, was developed in the English speaking world, all of us who know English and use computers have a great advantage in the digital world. This means that out of India's population of 966.7 million, around 918 million Indians cannot use a PC because popular operating systems are not available in any of the official Indian languages. This puts all the people who don’t speak English at a huge disadvantage when it comes to Information Technology. Despite that fact, as of 2000, there were 43 Internet Service Providers in India, resulting in over seven million users in 2002, which is a substantial number for a developing country.