The Constitution also contains provisions relating to human rights, citizenship, the functions of the executive, Parliamentary procedure and elections, and procedures for appointments in the Judicature, Public Service and Police. Parliament has power to alter the Constitution but certain provisions are entrenched.

HISTORICAL LIST
GOVERNORS-GENERAL

Sir Richard Luyt, GCMG, KCVO, DCM, 26th May 1966 to 31st October 1966
Sir Kenneth Stoby, 1st November 1966 to 15th December 1966 (Acting)

Sir David Rose, GCMG, CVO, MBE, 16th December 1966 to 10th November 1969
Sir Edward Luckhoo, QC, 11th November 1969 to 22nd February 1970 (Acting)

GOVERNMENT

PRESIDENT

His Excellency Mr Arthur Chung
(Assumed office on 17th March 1970)

At the elections in December 1968 the People's National Congress (P.N.C.) won 30 seats, the People's Progressive Party (P.P.P.) 19 seats and the United Force (U.F.) 4 seats.

G*

CABINET

Prime Minister and Minister for Defence and Public Corporations:
The Hon. L. F. S. Burnham

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Development and Agriculture:
Dr The Hon. P. A. Reid

Attorney-General and Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Hon. S. S. Ramphal
Minister of State for Agriculture: The Hon. M. Kasim

Minister of Works and Communications: The Hon. H. D. Hoyte
Minister of Labour and Social Security: The Hon. W. G. Carrington
Minister of Information, Culture and Youth:

The Hon. Miss S. M. Field-Ridley (Mrs Hamilton Green)

Minister Without Portfolio and Leader of the House: The Hon. B. Ramsaroop
Minister of Health: The Hon. David A. Singh

Minister of Home Affairs: The Hon. O. E. Clarke

Minister of State for the Public Service: The Hon. C. V. Mingo
Minister of Co-operatives and Community Development:
The Hon. William Haynes

Minister of Local Government: The Hon. Abdul Salin
Minister of Public Affairs: The Hon. H. Green
Minister of Mines and Forests: The Hon. H. O. Jack

Minister of Education: The Hon. Miss C. L. Baird
Minister of Finance and Trade: The Hon. F. E. Hope
Minister of Economic Development: Dr The Hon. K. F. S. King
Minister of Housing: The Hon. S. S. Naraine

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES

Ministry of Agriculture: (Vacant); P. Duncan (for Interior Development)
Ministry of Finance: J. G. Joaquin,

Ministry of Works, Hydraulics and Supply: C. Wrights
Office of the Prime Minister: J. R. Thomas

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Dr C. B. Jagan

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Speaker: His Honour Sase Naraine

Deputy Speaker: D. C. Jagan

Clerk of the Legislature: F. A. Narain

NDIA is bounded to the north-west by West Pakistan, to the north by Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, and to the north-east by Bangladesh, China and Burma; Ceylon lies off the south-east coast. India also includes the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Laccadive Islands off the south-west coast. The mainland can be divided into three well-defined regions: (a) the mountain zone of the Himalayas; (b) the Indo-Gangetic Plain and (c) the Southern Peninsula. The main mountain ranges are the Himalayas in the north (over 29,000 ft), the Aravallis and Vindhyas (up to 4,000 ft) in central India, and the Western and Eastern Ghats (over 8,000 ft). The most important rivers are the Ganges, Jumma, Brahmaputra, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi, Nerbudda and Cauvery which are all navigable in parts.

There are four distinct seasons: (i) the cold season (December-March); (ii) the hot season (April-May); (iii) the rainy season (June-September); and (iv) what is known as the season of the retreating S.W. monsoon (October-November). The mean temperatures range at Delhi from 50°F to 92°F, at Calcutta from 65°F to 86°F and at Madras from 75°F to 89°F Maximum temperatures of about 100°F. and 115°F. are reached during May in Madras and Delhi respectively. Annual rainfall varies widely; as little as four inches falls in the Thar desert, but parts of Assam experience more than 300 inches.

For further information about India see India, a Reference Annual, published by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. An outline of the history and constitutional development of the Indian sub-continent prior to August 1947 may be found in the Commonwealth Office Year Book, 1967.

India is the world's second most populous country. A census is taken every ten years and at the time of the 1961 census the population was estimated to be 439 million, an increase of 20 per cent during the previous decade. The preliminary estimate from the 1971 census (relating to 1st April) is 547 million, an increase of 24.7 per cent since 1961. The birth rate is about 39 per 1,000 (1969 figure), and the death rate about 19 per 1,000 (1969). The numbers of adherents to the main religions practised in India at the time of the 1961 census were: Hindus 366,500,000; Muslims 47,000,000; Christians 10,725,000; Sikhs 7,850,000; Buddhists 3,250,000 and Jains 2,000,000. Primary education is free but not yet universal. In the year 1966/67 there were 30,715,045 secondary school students. About 30 per cent of the population was literate according to the 1971 census, but estimates for 1969/70 showed about 79 per cent of children receiving some primary education.

Information about the division of the country into States and about the various languages used in India will be found in the sections dealing with Constitutional Development and the Constitution below. New Delhi is the capital of the country with an estimated population of 3.9 million. Other principal cities are Calcutta (7.0 million), Great Bombay (6·0 million) and Madras (2-5 million). The States with the largest populations are Uttar Pradesh (about 88 million), Bihar (about 56 million) and Maharashtra (about 50 million).

Major ports, showing some of the available tonnage figures for the years 1969/70 are: Calcutta 9,257,152, Bombay 17,761,023, Madras 9,402,094, Cochin 8,331,091, Visakhaptatnam, Kandla (Gujarat), Marmagoa and Paradip. The principal shipping lines are: Shipping Corporation of India and Scindia Steam Navigation Company. The main airports are: Palam (Delhi), Bombay, Calcutta, Madras. The main airlines are: Indian Airlines (internal) and Air India (International). Main runway lengths are: Palam, 10,000 ft., Santa Cruz, 10,925 ft.; Dum Dum, 10,500 ft.; and St Thomas' Mount, 10,050 ft. In 1969 road Kilometreage outside towns was over 964,515. There are 59,684 kilometres of railway, of which 28,350 kilometres are of broad gauge (1.67 metres). Broadcasting service is provided for the entire country by All India Radio but the television service of All India Radio is at present confined to Delhi only. However, new television stations are planned in several localities.

India's main crops are rice, wheat and other cereals (jowar, bajra, maize etc.), gram, tur and other pulses, sugarcane, jute, cotton and tea. Other agricultural products include oil seeds, spices, groundnuts, tobacco, rubber and coffee. Among principal manufactures are textiles, jute goods, sugar, cement, paper and industrial and consumer goods. Industries include iron and steel, heavy and light engineering, drugs and chemicals, fertilisers, oil and petroleum and their products, coal and lignite. Among other minerals produced are iron, manganese, copper, gold, limestone mica and salt. The revised budget estimates for 1971/72 give Government revenue as Rs 5,023 crores (£2,645 million) including states' share of central revenues (Rs 945 crores) and expenditure as Rs 4,107 crores (£2,160 million). There are also substantial receipts and expenditure on capital account. Gross aid receipts in 1971/2 were estimated at over $750 million but external debt service amounted to about $260 million. The third Five Year Development Plan, completed in 1965-66, cost £5,953,000,000. For three years, 1966/67 to 1968/69, annual plans were in force. The Fourth Five Year Plan, covering the period 1969/70-1973/74, is the basic document on the Government's

economic strategy. But a mid-term appraisal published in 1971 showed that many of the targets in the Plan must be revised. The Plan envisages expenditure over the five years of Rs 24,882 crores (£13,500 million), of which Rs 8,980 crores (£499 million) represents private sector investment. Food grain production in 1971/72 was of £108 million tonnes, a record figure. In 1972/73 it is expected to increase further to 119 million tonnes. The achievement of this total is largely due to the use of high yielding varieties of wheat and certain other crops. Irrigation and power projects include the Rajasthan Canal and the Bhakra-Nangal Project. The former will be 425 miles long, from Harika in the Punjab to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and will irrigate some 3 million acres of land. In about 18 years, 10,000 square miles of the area served by the canal will be transformed from desert into a settled and productive region. The latter project, in the Punjab, is now nearing completion. It will be one of the largest multi-purpose river valley schemes in Asia and will eventually irrigate some 10 million acres of land and build up an ultimate power potential of 1,204 Mw. The expansion of the steel industry is playing a fundamental part in India's industrial development. Ingot steel production increased from under 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 6.5 million tonnes in the financial year 1970. Hindustan Steel Limited, a Government undertaking set up in 1954 to augment the country's steel production, has three plants in production. These are at Durgapur, Rourkela and Bhilai. A fourth steel plant is under construction at Bokaro. The Government of India has announced that three new steel plants will be established in Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Mysore. The plant in Tamilnadu will produce special steels and have a capacity of 250,000 tonnes, the other two will be conventional 2 m. tonne mills.

The production of oil is also playing an important part in India's programme of industrial development and reached about 6.81 million tonnes of crude oil and 28.75 million of refined products in 1970. Exploration is carried out mainly by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission who have discovered promising fields in Gujarat and a recent survey suggests major deposits also in the Gulf of Cambay : offshore exploration has now begun. In association with E.N.I. of Italy and Philips Petroleum of U.S.A., the Commission has offshore drilling rights in the Persian Gulf. India is also increasing her refinery capacity in order to save foreign exchange on imported petroleum products and broaden her industrial base. In addition to the four oil refineries maintained by private firms, a Government undertaking, the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, is now operating refineries at Barauni, Gauhati, Koyali and Cochin. One more is under construction, at Madras, and a sixth is planned at Haldia. In the engineering industry machine tool production is being developed. In 1953 a public sector company, Hindustan Machine Tools Limited, was set up in Bangalore. Production started in 1956 and the firm now has three more factories in production, at Pinjore (Haryana), Kalamassery (Kerala), and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). The manufacture of heavy electrical equipment is also being undertaken. At Bhopal the Heavy Electrical Industries (India) Ltd, a British-aided project, is manufacturing turbines, switchgear and generating equipment. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (a Public Sector undertaking) have three manufacturing units at Tiruchirappalli (Madras), Ramachandrapuram (Andhra Pradesh) and Hardwar (Uttar Pradesh). The manufacturing programme includes steam turbo sets, hydro turbo sets, and medium A.C. and D.C. electric motors, heavy boilers, steam turbines heavy and turbo-alternators.

India's National Day is 26th January (Republic Day).