Yearbook 2000
India. A state commission in February criticized the army and intelligence services on the bed of Pakistani and Muslim guerrilla groups’ incursions into Kashmir in early summer 1999. The investigation recommended a thorough modernization of military equipment in Kashmir. The proposal was adopted in the state budget in March, when defense appropriations were increased by 28% to about SEK 120 billion. The World Bank warned that a growing budget deficit could be a threat to growth. For slow economic reforms, combined with unfavorable weather for agriculture and rising oil prices, both the Reserve Bank of India and private analysis groups had to write down expectations of economic growth from 7% to below 6%. See watchtutorials.org for climate in India.
During the fall, the government offered 40% of the shares in the airlines Air India and Indian Airlines for sale, and also announced that the state will dispose of the majority ownership in 19 major banks.
India visited by both Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and US President Bill Clinton. The Russian visit was largely devoted to Indian arms purchases, while Clinton’s round trip focused attention on I’s position as a successful IT country. Clinton’s visit also became a political triumph for India, who seemed to have taken away from Pakistan the position of America’s most important partner in South Asia.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Offers three letter and two letter abbreviations for the country of India. Also covers country profile such as geography, society and economy.
The conflict in Muslim Kashmir, which has been going on since 1990, has begun to change its character. The Kashmiri independence struggle has been partially taken over by Islamic extremists from other countries, which has led to more terror attacks and war fatigue among the population. During the spring, the government released several relatively moderate Kashmiri leaders out of prison, and in July the guerrilla movement Hizbul Mujahedin announced a ceasefire and offered negotiations. However, contacts between the government and guerrillas soon broke down, since Hizbul Mujahedin demanded a negotiating role for Pakistan, and the violence escalated again. But the peace striker was believed to have shown that the fighting will begin to falter, and when in late autumn the government offered a ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, admittedly, the armed movements said no,
Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was sentenced in October to three years in prison for bribing MPs from an opposition party to support the government in a 1993 vote of no confidence. Jayalalitha Jayaram, influential former head of government in the state of Tamil Nadu, was sentenced to prison for a total of four years in two different corruption cases.
The congressional party was hit by adversities in state elections during the winter, but was pleased that party leader Sonia Gandhi’s 28-year-old daughter Priyanka gave birth to a son in August. Ecstatic party members immediately saw a sixth-generation politician from the wealthy Nehru-Gandhi family.
On May 11, I’s number of residents officially passed the billion limit. The anniversary citizen became a girl, Astha Arora, who was born in a hospital in New Delhi.
The abduction of the popular movie star Rajkumar shook the governments of two states and sparked ethnic unrest. He was kidnapped by the year-long bandwagon Koose Muniswamy Virappan, who made far-reaching political demands. When Rajkumar was released after 108 days, two Tamil nationalist movements claimed to have been behind the kidnapping.
In November, three new states, populated by ethnic minorities, were created: Chattisgarh and Jharkhand in the northeastern hinterland and Uttaranchal on the Himalayan southwest slope:
Chattisgarh, 135 100 km², 17.6 million. inv., Raipur capital, I’s 26th state formed November 1, 2000 by breaking 16 districts out of eastern Madhya Pradesh. The residents are mainly tribal people belonging to the indigenous population of I, and the area is one of the country’s poorest. However, Chattisgarh has large natural resources, including diamonds, gold and precious wood.
Jharkhand, 79 700 km², 21.8 million. inv., the capital of Ranchi, I’s 28th state formed November 15, 2000 by breaking 18 districts out of southern Bihar. The tribal people who dominate the forested area have been campaigning for their own state for almost half a century, in recent years through the party JMM, which has been represented in the Indian Parliament. JMM’s disappointment at not being able to form the first state government is believed to be able to create difficulties for the new administration. Inaccessible parts of the state are controlled in practice by Maoist-inspired guerrillas who are close to JMM. Jharkhand otherwise has good development opportunities through large assets on coal, copper, iron, bauxite and other minerals.
Uttaranchal, 55 800 km², 7 mil. inv., capital of Dehradun, I’s 27th state formed November 8, 2000 by breaking 13 districts out of northwest Uttar Pradesh. Uttaranchal on the Himalayan southwest slope is one of the most mountainous states in India. The economy is dominated by tourism, electricity generation in hydropower plants and forestry.
The Taj Mahal Mausoleum, erected in Agra in 1648, is considered the most beautiful building in the world and a poem carved in stone of the great love between the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan and his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. The play of light and shadow in white marble and the floral motifs and calligraphies embedded and carved in it create a unique and intangible impression. The reign of the Islamic Mughal rulers lasted only 150 years but during that time Agra and Delhi received, in addition to the Taj Mahal, several other notable buildings, such as the Mausoleum of Fatehpur Sikr and Humayun. Jaipur, on the other hand, is one of the famous colorful Rajastani of the warlike drunks and immersive local rulers, the Maharajas.
The conquest religion of India is Hinduism. For Hindus, the whole map of India is full of holy places, but it is a special fortune to clean up the waters of the Ganges River in Varanasi. Millions of pilgrims follow its stairs, ghats, the Aarti ceremony of the evening and the early morning sunrise. Buddhism was also born in India, but almost completely disappeared from there. Only near Varanasi in Sarnathi Deer Park can one follow in the footsteps of the founder of religion Sakyamuni Buddha. The main place of the Sikhs is the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where their holy book Guru Granth Sahib is preserved. Tibetan Buddhists, or Lamas, make pilgrimages to the Himalayan slopes to Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama has settled. Shiite Muslim festive mausoleums, imambaras, can be found in Lucknow.
The stone also blossoms at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Khajuraho, where gods, goddesses, dancers, acrobats, musicians, soldiers as well as erotic love in its many forms are presented in the sandstone world of temples built by the Chandella family a thousand years ago.
Population 2000
According to COUNTRYAAH, the population of India in 2000 was 1,056,575,438, ranking number 2 in the world. The population growth rate was 1.850% yearly, and the population density was 355.3677 people per km2.
