India-Economic and political outline

Home > Community > Country Profiles-India > India-Economic and political outline

Published: 06 Oct 2008 17:41:46 PST

Economic indicators

GDP Indicators	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
GDP (billions USD)	666.305	778.666	873.659	1089.944	1249.439
GDP (constant prices, annual % change)	7.9	9	9.7	8.9	8.4
GDP per capita (USD)	617.521	710.461	784.962	964.571	1089.371
General government balance (in % of GDP)
Inflation rate (%)	3.8	4.2	6.1	6.2	4.4
Unemployment rate (% of the labor force)
Current Account (billions USD)
Current Account (in % of GDP)	0.781	-7.836	-9.503	-23.131	-32.301

Source: IMF - World Economic Outlook Database

Note: (e) Estimated data

Breakdown of economic activity by sector	Agriculture	Industry	Services
Value added (annual % change)	-0.04014286	9.601133	9.624107
Value added (in % of GDP)		27.47	53.74
Employment by sector(in % of total employment)	66.7%	12.9%	20.3%

Source: - last available data.

Foreign Trade in figures

Foreign trade indicators	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Imports of goods (millions USD)	54700.43	68208.43
Exports of goods (millions USD)	51141.12	59338.24
Imports of services (millions USD)	21040.86	25709.86
Exports of services (millions USD)	19477.96	23396.59
Imports of goods and services (annual % change)	10.35825	7.224922	22.31866	27.10875
Exports of goods and services (annual % change)	21.80964	5.824047	28.13331	21.98735
Trade Balance (millions USD)	-3559.307	-8870.191
Current Account (millions USD)	7059.496	6853.212
Foreign trade (in % of GDP)	29.92318	30.77938	38.22035	43.61438	30.77938
Imports of goods and services (in % of GDP)	15.45842	16.03325	20.02002	23.28671
Exports of goods and services (in % of GDP)	14.46476	14.74613	18.20034	20.32767

Source:

To see more products: More imports (Intracen Data)
More exports (Intracen Data)

Sources of economic information

Economic Organizations: Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics
Reserve Bank of India
National Stock Exchange
Bombay Stock Exchange
Ministries: Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Online newspapers: The Times of India
Hindustan Times
Economic Times
The Hindu
Dainik Suprovat - Hindi
Search Engines: 123India
Altavista India
Cyberindian
Indiaa2z
India Atlas
India Connect
Indiatimes
India-World
Indo Link
New India
Pakoda
Search India
Sify
Surf India
Economic portals: Business World

Political outline

Executive Power

President is the chief of the state and is elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament and the legislatures of the provinces for a five-year term.

Prime Minister is the head of the government and is chosen by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative elections, to serve a term of five years. The President, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, appoints the Cabinet.

Legislative Power

The legislature is bicameral. The Parliament consists of: Council of States and the People's Assembly. People of India enjoy considerable political rights.

Main political parties

India has a multi-party system with predominance of small regional parties.

The major political parties in the country are:

- Indian National Congress: a major political party involved in India's independence movement
- Bharatiya Janta Party: pro-Hindu, nationalist ideology,
- Communist Party of India: Marxism-Leninism,
- Bahujan Samajwadi Party: draws support from backward classes & religious minorities.

Current political leaders

President: Mrs. Pratiba Patil (since July 2007) - non-partisan
Prime Minister: Manmohan SINGH (since May 2004) INC, heading a coalition government with CPI(M) & other parties

Next election dates