About India

India is a country of bewilderingly great diversities. We keep marveling at the incredibly harmonious co-existence of various religions & culture; its varied landscapes from Kashmir to Kannyakumari and from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, the different cuisines, etc! In fact every single home is like a school of kitchen! India is also a place for Ayurveda, Yoga, learning, amazing arts & crafts, mountains, backwaters, nature, rivers, deserts, wildlife enthusiasts. India is a jigsaw of people - of every faith and religion, living together to create a unique and colourful mosaic. There is a festival for every reason and every season.

The Indian subcontinent lies to the north of equator and is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the west, Indian Ocean in South, Bay of Bengal in the East, the Himalayas in North to North – East and Pakistan on North West frontier. It measures 3214 km from north to south and 2933 from east to west with a total area of 3,287,263 sq km. It has a land frontier of 15200 km and a coastline of 7516.5 km. Andaman & Nicobar Islands and the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep islands are also a part of India.

India shares its political borders with Pakistan & Afghanistan on the west and Bangladesh & Burma in the east. The northern boundary is adjacent to China, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. India is separated from Sri Lanka by a narrow channel of sea.

Mountain ranges: There are seven mountain ranges namely 1) The Himalayas 2) the Patkai and other ranges bordering India in the north & north-east 3) the Vindhyas, which separate the Indo-Gangetic plain from the Deccan Plateau 4) the Satpura 5) the Aravalli, 6) the Sahayadri, which covers the eastern fringe of the West Coast plains and 7) the Eastern Ghats, irregularly scattered on the East Coast and forming the boundary of the East Coast plains.

Desert: Western India has a big desert region which can be divided into two parts – the great desert and the little desert. The great desert extends from the edge of Rann of Kutcch beyond the Luni river northward. The whole of Rajasthan – Sind Frontier runs through this. The little desert extends from the Luni between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur upto northern wastes.

Rivers: There are many big rivers flowing through our country. The Indus (Sindhu), The Ganges, The Brahmaputra, the Deccan rivers (Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, Pennar, Mahanadi, Damodar, Netravati, Periyar, Narmada & Tapti to name a few. The Gangetic basin forms the biggest fertile plains in India.

Climatic Conditions: India is so vast that the climatic conditions vary a lot. It has mainly 3 seasons a year – Rainy (June – September: South West monsoon; October – November: North West monsoon), Summer (April – July) and Winter (mid – October – February). The best time to visit most of the India is October – mid April, though there are many places which can be visited during the summer time too, e.g. cooler places up in the mountains of Leh – Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Darjeeling, parts of South India including Tamilnadu & Kerala. Goa has become quite popular during the rains due to its unparalleled greenery.

India Fellow is a 6- week long fellowship program that exposes young college students to the various development challenges that India faces today.

The Fellows are selected, oriented and then placed with NGOs across India. Post fellowship volunteer engages fellows in meaningful way and help them share their learning.

The National Flag of India is made up of Khadi (type of cloth), with three bands of colour. Top Band is of Saffron colour, indicating the strength of the country. The white middle band, indicates peace with Dharma Chakra. The last band is green in colour shows the fertility of the land. The National Anthem of the country is Janaganamana composed by Ravindranath Tagore and the National song is Vande Mataram composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. The National Emblem adapted by the Government of India on 26th January 1950, is taken from the Lion capital of Sarnath erected by Ashoka - the great Mauryan King. In the emblem only three lions are visible and the fourth one is hidden from the view. In the centre of the Abacus, there is a wheel symbolising the Dharma Chakra (Eternal wheel of law) with a bull on the right and horse on the left. The word Satyameva Jayate (Truth alone triumphs) from the Upanishadas have been inscribed in Devanagari script. The emblem is the official seal of the President of India and Central and State Governments of the Indian union. Used only for official purposes, it commands utmost respect and loyalty, while proclaiming independent India's identity and sovereignty.         

National EmblemThe state emblem of India is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Asoka as preserved in the Sarnath museum. The emblem was adopted on 26 January 1950 – the day India was declared a republic with its constitution coming into effect. There are four lions standing back to back, an elephant, galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening wheels (chakras) over a bell shaped lotus. Carved out of a singe block of polished sandstone, the Capital is crowned by the Wheel of Law (Dharma Chakra).

 

NATIONAL ANIMAL The Tiger - Lord of the Indian Jungles, evokes royalty, majesty and power. With its position at top of the ecological pyramids, the tiger is the symbol of India's wealth of wildlife. India homes nearly half the world-wide population of tigers and thus tiger remains synonymous with India. To protect this royal animal Project Tiger was launched in 1973. Today, the tiger advances as a symbol of India's conservation of itself its wildlife heritage.

 

NATIONAL FLOWER Rich in meaning and metaphor, the Lotus symbolises divinity, fertility, wealth, knowledge and not to forget enlightenment. Lending to its uniqueness, the flower grows in murky waters and rises on a long stalk above the surface to bloom glorious. Untouched by the impurity, lotus symbolises the purity of heart and mind. Human beings are instructed by Indian scripture to live a life of non-attachment, which is very hard. Then in Indian thought, there is the last and final lotus - Charan Kamal or lotus feet of the Almighty. It was this depth of thought that made the founding fathers of modern India enshrine the lotus in the Constitution as the National Flower.