• DRDO, ISRO Miliary, ISR Platforms being tested during Indian Army, Air Force Joint Exercises 2011-05-11 Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would be testing some of the new military platforms during the Indian Army's six day-long ongoing exercise -- Vijayee Bhava -- in northern Rajasthan. Indian Space Research Orga..
• Rafael Derby Air-to-Air Missiles for Indian Air Force HAL Tejas Fighter Jets 2011-05-09 Leading defense and aerospace publication FlightGlobal has quoted industry sources confirming the integration of Rafael Derby Air to Air Missiles with India's indigenous HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Deliver..
• Indian Army, Air Force Begin Six-Day Joint Exercise Along Western Deserts 2011-05-09 A six-day joint exercise of the Army and the IAF will begin Monday in the deserts of Bikaner and Suratgarh near Pakistan border. "Vihayee Bhav" -- the exercise, will involve tank-to-tank wars, helicopter operations and others, Arm..
• Indian Navy Warship Protect Chinese Ships from Pirate Attacks 2011-05-06 India said Friday its warships and military aircraft had foiled a pirate attack on a Chinese cargo vessel with 24 crew members on board in the Arabian Sea off Karwar in Karnataka and forced the brigands to flee. The Chinese-owned bulk ca..
• Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon Emerge Favorites in Air Force M-MRCA Deal 2011-05-07 In the past week, a number of mainstream and defense / military specific media sources revealed that the French Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets have made the shortlist while the American Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Lock..
• Indian Air Force to Deploy Two Squadrons of Sukhoi Su-30 MKI Fighters in South Western Air Command 2011-04-21 The Indian Air Force is strengthening itself towards dealing with any sort of threats specially from Pakistan and China , air marshal A K Gogoi, AOC-in-C of South West Air Command (SWAC) said here on Wednesday. Gogoi, who was on a three-day..
• Indian Army to Conduct Vijaya Bhava War Games in Rajasthan 2011-04-19 To practice its war-fighting concepts and doctrines, the Indian Army will hold a massive war-game codenamed 'Vijaya Bhava' along the Pakistan border in first week of May. "The Division-level (around 15,000 troops) exercise wo..
• Pawan Hans Mi-17 Helicopter Crashes in Tawang; 17 Killed 2011-04-20 Mi-17 helicopter of Pawan Hans crashed while landing in the mountainous region of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh today killing 17 persons on board including three crew members but its pilot and five others miraculously survived with serious bu..
• India Approves Purchase of Four Additional Boeing P8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft 2011-04-01 The Indian government has approved the purchase of four more Boeing P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Dow Jones reported Friday. The four P-8Is come on top of the eight India ordered in 2009, for delivery between 2013 and 2015, and would be..
• Overpricing Delays Purchase of 10 Boeing C-17s by Indian Air Force 2011-04-01 The biggest-ever Indo-US defence deal expected to be worth USD 4.1 billion for procuring 10 C-17 heavylift transport aircraft has been delayed over price issue. The deal was earlier scheduled to be cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Sec..
• International Artillery Commanders to Discuss World's Largest Artillery Modernization Programme 2011-03-31 Senior officers responsible for the artillery modernisation programme of the Indian Armed Forces will be delivering presentations alongside international artillery commanders at Defence IQ's Future Artillery India conference, taking pl..
• Indian Air Force Orders 65 HAL Light Combat Helicopters for USD 1.4 billion 2011-03-21 The Indian Air Force recently announced that it will purchase 65 indigenously-designed attack helicopters in a deal worth $1.4 billion, according to a report in Defense News. The Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), are produced by state-own..
• Indian Navy, Singapore Navy to Engage in Five-Day Naval Exercise in South China Sea 2011-03-18 The five-day joint naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the Singapore Navy will start tomorrow in the South China Sea. Five Indian navy ships, under the command of Rear Admiral Harish Chandra Singh Bisht, arrived in Singapore today fo..
• HCL Wins Indian Air Force Wideband CDMA-Based Portable Wireless Network Contract 2011-03-18 HCL Infosystems -- one of India's premier technology companies -- has won a Rs. 300 crore, Indian Air Force contract to deploy a Wideband CDMA-based portable wireless network. According to Press Trust of IndiaThe..
• Indian Navy Crew Undergoing Training Onboard K-152 Nerpa Attack Submarine 2011-03-18 Russian news agency RIA Novosti quotes a Russian Navy Staff Admiral confirming that a K-152 Nerpa attack submarine will be leased to the Indian Navy by October 2011. The quote was made with the condition of anonymity. Previous reports ha..
• Underwater, Air-to-Air roles targeted for BrahMos Cruise Missile; Trials by 2011-end 2011-03-13 The BrahMos cruise missile programme is a joint venture between the Indian DRDO and the Russian NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. It is the world's fastest cruise missile in operation an..
• Dhanush, Prithvi-II Ballistic Missiles Test Fired off Orissa Coast 2011-03-11 Balasore (Orissa): Two indigenously developed, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles -- Dhanush and Prithvi-II -- were tested of the Orissa coast today. Both missiles have a strike range of 350 kilometers. While 'Dhanush' was flig..
• INS Vikramaditya Dock Trials Begin in Severodvinsk Naval Yard 2011-03-08 Dock trials of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier, the Soviet-built Admiral Gorshkov, which is being refitted for the Indian Navy, began on March 1. They will take place in the Severodvinsk naval yard, where the much-delayed reconstructio..
• Indian Army Chief V.K. Singh in United States to Discuss Military Ties 2011-03-08 Army Chief Gen V K Singh today began his official visit to the US during which terrorism, situation in the region including Afghanistan and Pakistan, besides bilateral military-to-military ties would top the agenda of his talks with top Ame..
• 1000 New Attack, Transport, Utility Helicopters for Indian Armed Forces by 2020 2011-03-03 In a massive multi billion dollar acquisition programme, the Indian Armed Forces plan to induct more than 1,000 indigenous and foreign helicopters for attack, transport and utility operations by the end of this decade. The choppers to be i..

India current population

Current Population of India - India, with 1,210,193,422 (1.21 billion) people is the second most populous country in the world, while China is on the top with over 1,350,044,605 (1.35 billion) people. The figures show that India represents almost 17.31% of the world's population, which means one out of six people on this planet live in India. Although, the crown of the world's most populous country is on China's head for decades, India is all set to take the numero uno position by 2030. With the population growth rate at 1.58%, India is predicted to have more than 1.53 billion people by the end of 2030.

More than 50% of India's current population is below the age of 25 and over 65% below the age of 35. About 72.2% of the population lives in some 638,000 villages and the rest 27.8% in about 5,480 towns and urban agglomerations. The birth rate (child births per 1,000 people per year) is 22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est.) while death rate (deaths per 1000 individuals per year) is 6.4 deaths/1,000 population. Fertility rate is 2.72 children born/woman (NFHS-3, 2008) and Infant mortality rate is 30.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 estimated). India has the largest illiterate population in the world. The literacy rate of India as per 2001 Population Census is 65.38%, with male literacy rate at 75.96% and female at 54.28%. Kerala has the highest literacy rate at 90.86%, Mizoram (88.80%) is on the second position and Lakshadweep (86.66%) is on third.

Every year, India adds more people than any other nation in the world, and in fact the individual population of some of its states is equal to the total population of many countries. For example, Population of Uttar Pradesh (state in India) almost equals to the population of Brazil. It, as per 2001 Population Census of India, has 190 million people and the growth rate is 16.16%. The population of the second most populous state Maharashtra, which has a growth rate of 9.42%, is equal to that of Mexico's population. Bihar, with 8.07%, is the third most populous state in India and its population is more than Germany's. West Bengal with 7.79% growth rate, Andhra Pradesh (7.41%) and Tamil Nadu (6.07%) are at fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively. The sex ratio of India stands at 933. Kerala with 1058 females per 1000 males is the state with the highest female sex ratio. Pondicherry (1001) is second, while Chhatisgarh (990) and Tamil Nadu (986) are at third and fourth places respectively. Haryana with 861 has the lowest female sex ratio.

Some of the reasons for India's rapidly growing population are poverty, illiteracy, high fertility rate, rapid decline in death rates or mortality rates and immigration from Bangladesh and Nepal. Alarmed by its swelling population, India started taking measures to stem the growth rate quite early. In fact India by launching the National Family Planning programme in 1952 became the first country in the world to have a population policy. The family planning programme yielded some noticeable results, bringing down significantly the country's fertility rate. In 1965-2009, the contraceptive usage more than tripled and the fertility rate more than halved. The efforts did produce positive results, however, failed to achieve the ultimate goal and the population of India since getting independence from Britain in 1947 increased almost three times. Whereas India has missed almost all its targets to bring the rate of population growth under control, China's 'One Child Policy' in 1978, has brought tremendous results for the latter. The policy claims to have prevented between 250 and 300 million births from 1978 to 2000 and 400 million births from 1979 to 2010.