Saturday, July 31, 2010

ECONOMY AT A GLANCE

Enactment Of Budget:

In the Indian Constitution, nowhere the founding fathers have mentioned the word " Budget". The word which they have used for budget is "Annual Financial Statement". The Art-112 of Constitution provides for all the provisions to enact a Annual Financial Statement.

The Annual Financial Statement is the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India in a financial year, which begins on 1st April and ends on 31 st March of the following year.

The Budget has the following elements included.,

1. Estimates of Revenue and Capital receipts

2. ways and Means to raise revenue.

3. Details of Estimates of expenditure.

4. Details of the actual receipts and expenditure of the closing financial year and the reason for any deficit or surplus in that year, and

5. Economic and Financial policy of the coming year, that is taxation proposals, prospects of revenue, spending programme and introduction of new schemes/ Projects.

Separation of Railways Budget:

The central Government of India maintains the Railway Budget and the General Budget separately. The Railway Budget consists of estimates of receipts and expenditure of Ministry of Railway only. But the Union budget consists of the estimates of receipts and expenditure of all the Ministries of the Government of India.

The Railway Budget was separated from the General Budget in 1921 on the recommendations of the Acworth Committee. The reasons are as follows.,

1. To introduce flexibility in railway finance

2. To facilitate a business approach to the railway policy

3. To secure stability of the general revenues by providing an assured annual contribution from railway revenues.

4. To enable the railways to keep their profits a fixed annual contribution to the general revenues.

Stages In Enactment:

1. Presentation Of Budget:

The Annual Financial Statement is presented on the last working day of February. The finance Minister presents the General Budget with a speech known as the " Budget Speech". At the end of the speech in Lok Sabha, the budget is laid before the Rajya sabha in which the members can only discuss it but has no power to vote on the demands for grants or resend the Bill for reconsideration of the President.

2. General Discussion:

The general discussion on Budget begins a few days after its presentation. It takes places in both the houses of Parliament and lasts for three to four days. In this stage, the Lok Sabha can discuss the budget as a whole or on any question of principle involved therein but no cut motion can be moved nor can the budget be submitted to the vote of the House. The finance minister has the general right of reply at the end of the discussion.

3. Scrutiny by the Departmental Standing Committees:

After the general discussion on the annual financial statement is over, the House are adjourned for about three to four weeks. During this period of time, 17 standing committees of Parliament thoroughly examines and discuss in detail about the demands for grants of the related Ministries. Then it prepares reports on them. These reports are submitted to both the houses of Parliament for consideration. It is a inbound financial control over the administration in the country.

4. Voting on Demands for Grants:

After the report is submitted by the Standing Committees, the Lok Sabha takes up the voting process of demands for grants proposed on the scrutinized light of the report. The demands are presented ministry wise . The demands become a grant after it has been duly voted. The sole power to vote on grants are vested in the hands of Lok sabha only. More, the voting is confined to the votable part of the budget. It means , the expenditure charged on the consolidated fund of India is not submitted to the vote but rather it is only discussed.

When the Budget is voted, the members can even discuss the details of the budget. They can also move motions to reduce any demand for grant. Such motions are called as "Cut Motion".

i) Cut Motion: By using this the members can disapprove the policy underlying the demands. It states that the amount of the demand be reduced to Re.1. The members can also advocated an alternative policy.

ii) Economy Cut Motion: It shows the Eco0nomy that can be affected in the proposed expenditure. It states that the amount of the demand be reduced by a specified amount. This could be a lumpsum reduction in the demand or ommission or reduction of an item in the demand.

iii) Token Cut Motion: It mirrors a specific grievances that is within the sphere of responsibility of the Government of the demand be reduced by Rs.100. This motion represents two purposes., 1. Facilitating the initiation of concerned discussion on a specific demand for grant and 2. Upholding the principle of responsible government by probing the activities of the government.

Totally, there are 26 days are allocated for the voting of demands. On the last days the speaker puts all the remaining demands to vote and disposes those demands whether they have been discussed or not . This process is know as " Guillotine". This is also criticized as the Erosion on the Constitution of India.

5. Passing Of Appropriate Bill:

As per the Constitution of India, No Money can be withdrawn from the Consolidated fund of India except under "Appropriation Made By Law". In order to appropriate the fund from the Consolidated Fund Of India, the Appropriation Bill is introduced in the session to meet the required money of 1) Grants voted by Lok Sabha and 2) Expenditure charged on the consolidated fund of India.

In fact, no any amendments can be proposed to the appropriation bill in either house of the parliament that will have the effect of varying the amount or altering the destination of any grants voted or varying the amount of any expenditure charged on the consolidated fund of India. The appropriation bill becomes Appropriation Act after it is assented by the President. Now only the payment is authorized or legalized to withdraw money from the Consolidated fund.

6. Passing Of Finance Bill:

The finance bill as a finance proposal of the Government of India for the following year, it is subjected to all the conditions of a money bill(Art-110). Unlike in Appropriation Bill, the amendments that seeks to reject or reduce a tax) can be moved in the case of finance bill. According to the Collection of Taxes Act of 1931, the Finance Bill must be enacted within 75 days. Now, the Finance Bill of that year legalizes the income side of the budget and complete the process of enacting the Budget.

Finance Commission Of India:

Finance Commission of India is formed by the Art-280 of Indian Constitutional as a quasi judicial body of planning or staff agency. This is formed by the President of India once in 5 years or at such earlier time as he/she considers necessary for the purpose of devolution of non-plan resources.

Composition Of Finance Commission:


The Commission consists of One Chairman and Four other members who are appointed by the President Of India. The parliament is given the power to determine the qualifications of the Members.

Functions of Finance Commission Of India:

1. The Distribution of the net proceeds of Taxes to be shared between the center and states and the allocation between the states of the respective shares of such proceeds.

2. The Principles that should govern the grants in aid to the states by the Center.

3. The measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and the municipalities in the states on the basis of the recommendations made by the state finance commission.

4. Any other matter referred to it by the president in the interests of sound finance.

5. The Commission submits its report to the president. He lays it before both the houses of Parliament along with an explanatory memorandum as to the action taken on its recommendations.

6. The advise made by the Commission are advisory only in nature but not binding on the government. It is up to the Union Government to implement its recommendations on granting money to the states.

Qualifications of the Members:

The Chairman shall be a person with experience in public affairs, and the four other members shall be selected as follows.,

1.Have been, or are qualified to be appointed as Judges of a High Court or

2.Have special knowledge of the finances and accounts of Government or

3.Have wide experience in financial matters and in administration or

4.Have special knowledge of economics

On the Following Basis a member is disqualified:

1.Unsound mind

2.Undischarged debts

3.Convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude

4.Financial or other interest as is likely to be prejudicial to his functions

The Finance Commissions Of India Formed so far and so far appointed Chairmans:



What is Measuring National Income:

Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate total economic activity in a country or region, including gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), and net national income (NNI). In nutshell it is a measure how much output, spending and income has been generated in a given time period.

Methods:

1. Output Method:
The total value of the output of goods and services produced in India. It is finding the total output of a nation by directly finding the total value of all goods and services a nation produces. In this method only the final value of a good or service is included in total output.


2. Income Method: The total income generated through production of goods and services. It is finding the total output of a nation by finding the total income received by the factors of production owned by that nation.

3. Expenditure Method:The total amount of expenditure taking place in the economy. It is finding the total output of a nation by finding the total amount of money spent.
GDP = C + I + G + (X - M).
National Income:

" A National Income estimate measures the volume of commodities and services turned out during a given period counted without duplication." Thus National Income measures the net value of goods and services in the country.The following are the importance of Calculating National Income.,

  • To see the economic development of the country.
  • To assess the developmental objectives.
  • To know the contribution of the various sectors to National Income.

Concept Of National Income:

The following are the various concepts of National Income.,

1. Cross National Product(GDP):

It refers to the money value of total output or production of final goods and services produced by the nation of a country during a given period of time say for example 1 Year. From this definition let us find the calculation of GNP.,

GNP = Money Value of total output or production of final goods and services produced.

= GDP + (X-M) where GDP = Total money value of all Goods and services produced
within the boundaries of the nation(C+I+G).

so, = Consumer spending(C) + Investments on Assets(I) + Government Spending(G) +(
X(Income earned and received by nationals within boundaries) - M(Money paid by
India or Income received by Other nationals from the country))

= GNP

As GNP stands for Gross figure of national income in must include all the capital investments(GDP) and also revenue incomes(X) and the relevant revenue payments too to be deducted out of the total figure of GDP and X. Now the Gross figure of national income is derived.

Net National Product:


Net National Product is a mostly Revenue nature of Income which will show the net income after the expenses and losses on the capital goods.

NNP = GNP - Depreciation on Capital Stock Consumption

National Income:

Now, let us calculate National Income.,

National Income = NNP - Net Indirect Taxes

= NNP - (Indirect Taxes - Subsidies)

= National Income.

The National Income above derived is nothing but NNP only, but after the above calculation the NNP is at its Factor cost. Before the calculation it is at Market Cost. When NNP is derived at Factor Cost then it becomes National Income.
Public Debt:

It is an instrument of resource mobilization by the modern government. It simply denotes the "Borrowing of Government from People, RBI, Financial Institutions and so on". The following are the classification of Public Debt.,

1. Internal Debt:

When government borrows within the country, it is called internal debt such as borrowings from individuals, business establishments, financial institutions, commercial banks and central bank. Internal debt also includes Loans raised by the government in the open market through treasury bills and special securities issued to the RBI, Rupee securities(non-interest bearing) issued to international such as the IMF and the world Bank and most importantly various bonds like the oil bonds and fertilizer bonds ect.,

2. External Debt:

When government borrows the money from out side the country it is known as External Debt such as borrowings from Foreigners, foreign Banks, Foreign governments and international institutions. Unless the internal debt, the External debt has material loss to the debt country. The following are the some of examples.,

* Long term external debt which is the bulk part
* NRI deposit and multilateral loans
* Commercial borrowings
* Bilateral loans and
* Negligible amount from Export Credit

3. Voluntary and Compulsory:

When the Government borrows by issuing securities to which people are free to subscribe, it is called voluntary debt. When the government on the other hand, enforces borrowing through legal contexts or compulsions , then it is Compulsory debt.

4. Productive and Unproductive:

Productive debt is one which is incurred for those projects which yields income to the government. For example the debt incurred to meet expenditure on power projects, irrigation, public enterprises an railways. Whereas Unproductive debt neither yields any income not creates any assets. Debts incurred for Budgetary deficit, war, natural calamities ect.,

5. Funded and Non-Funded:

Funded debt is a long term debt payable after a year, while unfunded debt is a short term debt, payable within one year.

6. Redeemable and Irredeemable:

When the government borrows the money with a promise to pay off in future at a specified date then it is Redeemable debt. Whereas the government has no such agreement to redeem the money in future then it is irredeemable debt.
Zero Based Budgeting - An Introduction:

ZBB originated and developed in the USA. It was created by Peter A.Phyrr, a management private industry. The then President Jimmy Carter introduced this Budgeting system in USA.

ZBB is a rational system of Budgeting. Under this system, every schemes should be reviewed critically and readjusted totally from Zero)or scratch) before being included in budget. Thus the ZBB involves a total reexamination of all schemes afresh (from base Zero) instead of following the incremental approach to budgeting which begins with the estimation of current expenditure.

Advantages of ZBB:

1. It eliminates the low or lesser prioritized programs.

2. Improves the program effectiveness dramatically.

3. Makes the high impact programs to obtain more finances.

4. reduces the Tax increase.

5. It facilitates critical review of schemes in terms of their cost-effectiveness and cost benefits.

6. It provides for quick budget adjustments during the year.

7. Allocates the scarce resources rationally

8. It increases the participation of line hierarchy bureaucrats in the preparation of budget.

9. It detects Inflated Budget

10. It increases the responsibility in financial decision making in a greater extent.

11. Identifies the absolute source for outsourcing.

12. In India it was introduced in the Department of Science and Technology in 1983 and in all other departments in 1986-87.

13. It is also regarded as a greater legislative control over the executives.

14. Maharashtra government renamed and used it as Development based budget.


What is Fiscal Policy:

It is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection that directly and indirectly influences the economy of the nation. The following are the features of the Fiscal Policy.,

1. It can be contrasted with the other main types of economic policy, monetary policy, which attempts to stabilize the economy by controlling interest rates and supply of money.

2. The Two main instruments used in Fiscal Policy is i) Government spending and ii) Taxation.

3. It refers to the over all effect if the budget outcome on economic activity. In regards with this following are the three stances of Fiscal Policy.,









Fiscal system deals not only with the quantity but the quality of public finance as well. In other words, not merely how much is raised and spent but how has it been raised in the form of

i) Taxes -- Within Direct and Indirect Taxes
ii) Disinvestment proceeds.
iii) Borrowing from market and RBI
The Following are the Instruments are traded in Indian Money Market:

1.Call Money:
The money market is a market for short-term financial assets that are close substitutes of money. The most important feature of a money market instrument is that it is liquid and can be turned over quickly at low cost and provides an avenue for equilibrating the short-term surplus funds of lenders and the requirements of borrowers. The call/notice money market forms an important segment of the Indian money market.

2. Commercial Papers:Commercial Paper is short-term loan that is issued by a corporation use for financing accounts receivable and inventories. Commercial Papers have higher denominations as compared to the Treasury Bills and the Certificate of Deposit. The maturity period of Commercial Papers are a maximum of 9 months.

3. Treasury Bills: The Treasury bills are short-term money market instrument that mature in a year or less than that. The purchase price is less than the face value.
They have 3-month, 6-month and 1-year maturity periods.The security attached to the treasury bills comes at the cost of very low returns. Treasury bills began being issued by the Indian government in 1917.

4. Commercial Bills: It enhances he liability to make payment in a fixed date when goods are bought on credit through a short term, negotiable, and self-liquidating instrument with low risk.
It may be a demand bill or a usance bill. A demand bill is payable on demand, that is immediately at sight or on presentation by the drawee. A usance bill is payable after a specified time.

5. Certificate Of Deposit: The certificates of deposit are basically time deposits that are issued by the commercial banks with maturity periods ranging from 3 months to five years.The bearer of a certificate of deposit receives interest. The maturity date, fixed rate of interest and a fixed value - are the three components of a certificate of deposit.
It was in 1989 that the certificate of deposit was first brought into the Indian money market.

6. Repo Instrument: The Repo or the repurchase agreement is used by the government security holder when he sells the security to a lender and promises to repurchase from him overnight. Repo transactions are allowed only among RBI-approved securities like state and central government securities, T-bills, PSU bonds, FI bonds and corporate bonds.

7. Banker Acceptance: It is a short-term credit investment. It is guaranteed by a bank to make payments. The Banker's Acceptance is traded in the Secondary market. 90 days is the usual term for these instruments. The term for these instruments can also vary between 30 and 180 days.

Structure Of Indian Money Market:

The Main Classification Of Indian Money Market:









1.Organized Sector Of Indian Money Market:


















2.Unorganized Sector:









3. Cooperative Sector:


1. Call Money Market:

* The rate in this market is "Call money Rate"
* The market for extreme short period of loans
* Money at call and short notice is primary tool.

* rate is determined by Demand and supply
* Money is lent to Money Brokers and stock exchange dealers.

The most important feature of a money market instrument is that it is liquid and can be turned over quickly at low cost and provides an avenue for equilibrating the short-term surplus funds of lenders and the requirements of borrowers. The call/notice money market forms an important segment of the Indian money market. Under call money market, funds are transacted on overnight basis and under notice money market, funds are transacted for the period between 2 days and 14 days.

2. Acceptance Market:

*Conditional transactions in which a good or service satisfies the needs and demands of a sufficiently large number of customers to continue or increase its production or availability.
* Acceptance of Trade Bills are main theme.
* The main operators are " Acceptance Houses and Commercial Banks"
* Promotes the operations of Discount Bills.

3. The Bill Market:


* The market where the commercial papers are transacted into money or notional money transactions.
* Market that deals for short term papers or bills., say for 6 months or extended.
* Main activity is buying and selling Short term papers and bill that have commercial transactions already done.
* It also includes the Commercial money market transactions and Treasury Bill market which are directly and indirectly connected with Commercial Banks and Acceptance houses.

4. Collateral Loan Market:

* The market where
the asset which can be pledged as a security to the creditor by the borrower.
* All the assets to be made securities are transacted in the terms of monetary papers.
* It is very important section of money market in which the capital money and money value of the assets are brought into account. So, it fetches a heavy cash bunch and heavy cash picture both in monetary flow.
* It takes the form of loans over draft, cash credits ect.,
* The loans and advances are covered by collaborates like government securities, gold silver, stock and merchandises.


Money Market - Meaning by RBI:

" Money Market is the center for dealing mainly of short term character, in money assets, it meets short term requirements of borrowers and provide liquidity or cash to the lenders".

The Followings are the Components of Money Market(money channel that distributes the Money):

1. Central Bank : By regulating all the money flows in all the channels and institutions.
2. Commercial Banks: main nodal points for distributing and redistributing the money through various rates of transactions(CRR, SLR, Repo, Reverse Repo and ect.,)
3. Discount House : the institutions that rediscount all the Bills of Exchange.
4. Acceptance House:They are merchant bankers who accept the Bills of Exchange. They act as a second signatory of the bills of exchange.
5. Bill Brokers: They know their customers and act as intermediaries between the sellers and buyers of bill for a small commission.

Credit Control of RBI(briefly)

Need:

1.To encourage the priority sectors for overall growth
2.Fecilitate the flow of adequate volume of bank credit to its industry, agriculture and trade
3.To keep Inflation pressure under check
4.To ensure that Credit is not diverted to undesirable purposes
5.To fecilitate the Development of Indian economic growth

Types of credit control :

1)Quantitative Method

1.Bank rate policy: by controlling the ways and means advances to the govt.
2.Open Market operation: by controling Short term liquidity in the market.
3.variation of cash reserve ratio: by increasing or reducing CRR or SLR.
4.fixation of lending rate: control by Increasing or reducing the rate of primary or secondary lending rates
5.Credit sequeenze: by controlling the amount of bank credit at a certain limit and fixing maximum limit for commercial borrowings.

2)Qualitative Method

1.Fixation of Margin Requirement
2.Regulation of consumer credit
3.Rationing of credit
4.Prior authorisation of schemes
5.Moral sausion
6.Direct Action
RBI - Reserve Bank Of India:

Establishment:

The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

The Central Office of the Reserve Bank was initially established in Calcutta but was permanently moved to Mumbai in 1937. The Central Office is where the Governor sits and where policies are formulated.

Though originally privately owned, since nationalisation in 1949, the Reserve Bank is fully owned by the Government of India.

Functions Of RBI in brief:

Fuctions:

The fuctions are classified into three heads,viz.,

A) Traditional functions
B) Promotional functions and
C) Supervisory functions. lets see the detailed accont in these heads.,

A) Traditional functions

1.Monopoly of currency notes issue

2.Banker to the Government(both the central and state)

3.Agent and advisor to the Government

4.Banker to the bankers

5.Acts as the clearing house of the country

6.Lender of the last resort

7.Custodian of the foreign exchange reserves

8.Maintaining the external value of domestic currency

9.Controller of forex and credit

10.Ensures the internal value of the currency

11.Publishes the Economic statistical data

12.Fight against economic crisis and ensures stability of Indian economy.

B) Promotional functions

1.Promotion of banking habit and expansion of banking systems.

2.Provides refinance for export promotion

3.Expansion of the facilities for the provision of the agricultural credit through NABARD

4.Extension of the facilities for the small scale industries

5.Helping the Co-operative sectors.

6.Prescribe the minimum statutory requirement.

7.Innovating the new banking business transactions.

C) Supervisory functions

1.Granting licence to Banks.

2.Inspects and makes enquiry or determine position in respect of matters under various sections of RBI
and Banking regulations

3.Implements Deposit insurence scheme

4.Periodical review of the work of the commercial banks

5.Giving directives to commercial banks

6.Control the non-banking finance corporation

7.Ensuring the health of financial system through on-site and off-site verification.

These are all the functions which are protective to the Indian Economy, thats why RBI is considered as the head of all banks.

Structure Of Indian Banking:

1.Scheduled Banks:

Scheduled banks in India constitute those banks which have been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Act, 1934. RBI in turn includes only those banks in this schedule which satisfy the criteria laid down vide section 42 (6) (a) of the Act. In 1999, there were 300 scheduled banks in India having a total network of 64,918 branches. The scheduled commercial banks in India comprise of State bank of India and its associates, nationalised banks , foreign banks , private sector banks , co-operative banks and regional rural banks.

2. Non-Scheduled Banks:

Non-scheduled bank in India" means a banking company as defined in clause (c) of section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949), which is not a scheduled bank.

3. Regional Rural Bank(RRBs):

State Bank Of India has the directive control over the RRBs which has spread in 13 states across the country. Till date in rural banking in India, there are 14,475 rural banks in the country of which 2126 (91%) are located in remote rural areas. The main purpose of the RRBs is to develop the rural growth and employment. The Following are the main RRBs presently located in some states.,

1) Andhra Pradesh:

*Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank
*Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank
*Deccan Grameena Bank
*Chaitanya Godavari Grameena Bank
*Saptagiri Grameena Bank

2) Bihar:

*Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank
*Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Uttar Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Kosi Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Samastipur Kshetriya Gramin Bank

3) Chattisgarh:

*Chhattisgarh Gramin Bank
*Surguja Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Durg-Rajnandgaon Gramin Bank

4) Gujarat:

*Dena Gujarat Gramin Bank
*Baroda Gujarat Gramin Bank
*Saurashtra Gramin Bank

5) Haryana:

*Harayana Gramin Bank
*Gurgaon Gramin Bank

6) Himachal Pradesh:

*Himachal Gramin Bank
*Parvatiya Gramin Bank

7) Jammu and Kashmir:

*Jammu Rural Bank
*Ellaquai Dehati Bank
*Kamraz Rural Bank

8) Punjab:

*Punjab Gramin Bank
*Faridkot-Bhatinda Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Malwa Gramin Bank

9) Assam:

*Assam Gramin Vikash Bank
*Langpi Dehangi Rural Bank

10) kerala:

*Narmada Malwa Gramin Bank
*North Malabar Gramin Bank

11) Jharkand:

*Jharkhand Gramin Bank
*Vananchal Gramin Bank

12) Tamil Nadu:

*Pandyan Grama Bank
*Pallavan Grama Bank

13) Mahdya Pradesh:

*Narmada Malwa Gramin Bank
*Satpura Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Madhya Bharath Gramin Bank
*Chambal-Gwalior Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Rewa-Sidhi Gramin Bank
*Sharda Gramin Bank
*Ratlam- Mandsaur Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Vidisha Bhopal Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Mahakaushal Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Jhabua Dhar Kshetriya Gramin Bank

14) Maharashtra:

*Marathwada Gramin Bank
*Aurangabad -Jalna Gramin Bank
*Wainganga Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Vidharbha Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Solapur Gramin Bank
*Thane Gramin Bank
*Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Gramin Bank

15) Karnataka:

*Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank
*Pragathi Gramin Bank
*Cauvery Kalpatharu Grameena Bank
*Krishna Grameena Bank
*Chikmagalur-Kodagu Grameena Bank
*Visveshvaraya Gramin Bank

16) Rajasthan:

*Baroda Rajasthan Gramin Bank
*Marwar Ganganagar Bikaner Gramin Bank
*Rajasthan Gramin Bank
*Jaipur Thar Gramin Bank
*Hodoti Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Mewar Anchalik Gramin Bank

17) Orissa:

*Kalinga Gramya Bank
*Utkal Gramya Bank
*Baitarani Gramya Bank
*Neelachal Gramya Bank
*Rushikulya Gramya Bank

18) West Bengal:

*Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank
*Paschim Banga Gramin Bank
*Uttar Banga Kshetriya Gramin Bank

19) Meghalaya:

Ka Bank Nogkyndong Ri Khasi- Jaintia

20) Arunachal Pradesh:

Arunachal Pradesh Rural Bank

21) Nagaland:

Nagaland Rural Bank

22) Manipur:

Manipur Rural Bank

23) Tripura:

Tripura Gramin Bank

24) Mizoram:

Mizoram Rural Bank

25) Uttar Pradesh:

*Purvanchal Gramin Bank
*Kashi Gomti Samyut Gramin Bank
*Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank
*Shreyas Gramin Bank
*Lucknow Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Ballia Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Triveni Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Aryavart Gramin Bank
*Kisan Gramin Bank
*Kshetriya Kisan Gramin Bank
*Etawah Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Rani Laxmi Bai Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Baroda Western Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank
*Devipatan Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Prathama Bank
*Baroda Eastern Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank

26) Uttaranchal :

*Uttaranchal Gramin Bank
*Nainital Almora Kshetriya Gramin Bank











Banks In India
:

Nationalization Of Banks:

Nationalization of Banks in 1969 has been one of the significant economic, political and social events of Post Independent India. Apart from the fact that it had the imprint of the personality of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, it has several significances which merit attention. The Indian banking industry had become an important tool to facilitate the development of the Indian economy during this time. Jayaprakash Narayan, a national leader of India, described the step as a "masterstroke of political sagacity." Within two weeks of the issue of the ordinance, the Parliament passed the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking) Bill, and it received the presidential approval on 9 August 1969.
Reasons for Nationalization:

1. Reasons by the then PM Smt.Indira Gandhi:

1. The removal of unnecessary control over money flow
2. For adequate credit facilities to agriculture, small industry and exports
3. Professional bent to Bank Management
4. Encourage Entrepreneurial Development
5. Adequate training and terms for banking staff.

2. Monetization of government transactions for the purpose of welfare state.

3. Overall Monetary Integrations.

4. Socialization of issues of Government for the purpose of welfare activities.

5. Preventing concentration of economic powers.

6. Giving social control over monetary behaviors.

7. Channeling for planning and priority sectors.

8. Greater mobilization of funds.

9. Greater agricultural concentration.

10. balanced regional development.

11. Greater control by central Bank(RBI).

12. Small stake of shareholders.

13. Greater stability of Banking structure.

14. Greater socialism activities.

15. Better service conditions to staffs.

16. New schemes to be implemented easily.

The Nationalized Banks in India:

*Nationalised Banks
* Allahabad Bank
* Andhra Bank
* Bank of Baroda
* Bank of India
* Bank of Maharashtra
* Canara Bank
* Central Bank of India
* Corporation Bank
* Dena Bank
* Indian Bank
* Indian Overseas Bank
* Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC)
* Punjab and Sind Bank
* Punjab National Bank (PNB)
* Syndicate Bank
* UCO Bank
* Union Bank of India
* United Bank of India (UBI)
* Vijaya Bank

State Bank of India and Associates

* State Bank of India (SBI)
* State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ)
* State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH)
* State Bank of Indore (SBIR)
* State Bank of Mysore (SBM)
* State Bank of Patiala (SBP)
* State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS)
* State Bank of Travancore (SBT)

Other Public Sector Bank

* IDBI Ltd.

Various Committees On Taxation Reforms In India:

1. Taxation Enquiry Committee:

i) It was established in 1953 chaired by Dr.John Mathal.

ii) To examine the incidents of Central, State and Local taxation on various classes of people.

iii) To examine the suitability of tax system to remove inequalities.

iv) To examine the effect of taxation on income and capital formation.

v) To explore fresh avenues of taxation

2. Indian Tax Reforms Committee:

i) Made in 1956

ii) Chaired by Prof.Kaldor

iii) Measures to widen the basis of Taxation on the following items.,

* Wealth Tax
* Capital Gains Tax
* Gift Tax
* Expenditure Tax
* Reforming
* Commercial Tax
* Tax Evasion

3. Boothalingam Committee:

i) main report was on " Rationalization and Simplification of Direct Taxation in India.

ii) Recommended 10% advalorem on all products.

iii) Simplification of Customs rates.

iv) Raising of exemption limit to the Income tax.

v) Abolition of Dividend Tax.

4. Direct Taxes Enquiry Committee:

i) Made in 1970 and Chaired by Mr.K.N.Wanchoo.

ii) Main concern of the committee was on Black Money.

iii) Extent of Black Money

iv) Causes of Tax Evasion

v) Measures to unearth Black Money

vi) Fighting Tax Evasion.
Value Added Tax:

The VAT belongs to the family of Sales Tax(one of the Indirect Taxes). It can be defined as " A Tax to be paid by the manufacturers or traders of goods and services on the basis of value added by them". It is not on the total manufactured or sold products but on the Value added by the manufacturers and producers.

VAT = Tax Base(Value Added by the manufacturers) * rate of tax

Highlights Of VAT:

1. Recommended by Empowered Committee of state Finance Ministers, in its meeting in 2004.

2. Now, all the states have agreed upon VAt and the last state which added VAT was Uttar Pradesh

3. The states level VAT being implemented presently has replaced the Sales tax.

4. Central Government acts as a facilitator to successful implementation of VAT.

5. Rate of Tax mainly is 4% on declared goods or goods commonly used and 10%-12% on goods called revenue neutral rates.

6. Two special rates imposed - 1% on silver or Gold and 20% on liquor.

7. Tax on Petrol, diesel or aviation turbine fuel are proposed to be kept out of from VAT system as they would be continued to be taxed as presently applicable by the CST Act.

8. With out the rate discrimination, VAT provides the Uniform Rates which helps to reduces the tax evasion and black money.

9. Tax concession to new industries is done away with in the VAT system.

10. All the tax paid on the goods purchased within the states would be adjusted against the tax, payable on the sales, whether within the state or in the course of interstate.

11. This helps to avoid the Trade Diversion of any states that has trade transaction with some other states which may have different tax system that may discourage the neighbor states to avoid or deviate such trades with those states.

12. As VAT levies tax on the value added by the producers, it completely avoids the Cascading effect(the tax is levied on the total amount that includes the amount of tax alreday paid in some other different stages of VAT.

Advantages:

1. Easy to Administer
2. Effective and Efficiency
3. Neutrality
4. Reduce Tax Evasion
5. Possibility of Cross Checking
6. Less Tax Burden
7. Encourage Exports.
8. Improved Productivity
9. Burden of Tax is shared by all Factors.
10. Major Source of revenue is possible due to encouraged tax payers.

Disadvantages :

1. Not as simple system to adopt in under developed country
2. Requires an advanced and wide economic structure
3. Possibility of Tax avoidance
4. High cost of maintaining
5. May cause to inflation
6. Regressive nature of operation.
Tax:

Tax is a particular rate of amount or portion of income of the above average income people which will help the functioning of the government for the nation's welfare development. Tax is an important source of Government that plays a vital role in budget corpus and financial management.

Tax System In India:

India has two types of Taxes., namely i) Direct Taxes and ii) Indirect Taxes. India as a semi federal government, all the state governments too have been permitted to levy tax. But the states are restricted in the the sphere of Indirect taxes like Sales Tax, VAT or MODVAT ect., BUT THE SOLE POWER TO LEVY AND COLLECT THE DIRECT TAXES IS FETCHED IN THE HANDS OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT ONLY. As the quasi federal, Central shares the Direct Taxes collected, with the state governments as "GRANDS IN AID". Apart from that, States and Central governments are allowed to levy and collect Taxes in some classified regards by the Constitution of India. But there are no taxes which are levied by both the Governments after 80th Constitutional amendments.

Tax Income Sharing between Center and States:

1. Art-268A - Service Taxes levied by Union and collected and appropriated by Union and states.

2. Art-269 - Taxes levied and collected by Union but assigned to the States.

3. Art-270 - Taxes levied and distributed between Union and States.

4. Art-271 - Surcharges on certain duties and taxes for purpose of the Union

5. Art-272 - Taxes levied and collected by Union and may be distributed between Union and States.

6. Art-273 - Grands in lieu of export duty on jute and jute products.

Direct Taxation In India:

Direct Taxation in India is based on proportional rate system which will be progressive base levied on the Income slab that shows the gradual and relevant progress of the income of the tax payers which gets such progress in accordance with progress of the Indian Economy.

The 2010 and 2011 Tax proposal is an best example for this.,

Up to 1,60,000
Up to 1,90,000 (for women)
Up to 2,40,000 (for resident individual of 65 years or above) - Nil

1,60,001 – 5,00,000 - 10%

5,00,001 – 8,00,000 - 20%

8,00,001 upwards - 30%

Let us see the Types of Direct Taxes one by one.,

1. Tax on Income or Personal Tax:

Personal Tax is levied on the Personal Income gained by the above average income earner which is fixed by the finance ministry. This tax is levied on the income of the individuals , Hindu families, unregistered firms and others associations of peoples. The marginal rate for income tax in India was 97.75% which was the highest in the world. On the direction of the DIRECT TAX ENQUIRY COMMITTEE the marginal rate of tax was reduced to 77%.

2. Corporate Tax:

It is levied on the Income of registered companies and corporations. As the companies are regarded as the separate legal entity, the income of the companies and corporates are also taken as individual income. Like the individual tax provisions, parliament also establishes Corporate Tax too separately.

In India, Zero Tax companies requires handling. This has done by levying a Minimum Alternate Tax(MAT). The current base of MAT is book profits. This is easily manipulates by various companies to generate zero tax.

3. Wealth Tax:

*It is levied on excess of net wealth of an individual or corporate, Joint Hindu Family. For the purpose of assessing the net value of the wealth , the market value is taken as base value.

* Certain wealths like Agricultural lands, Agri assets, Balance of Provident Fund, Life insurance are exempted from the wealth tax .

* Productive assets like share bonds and bank deposits are exempted from wealth tax after the recommendations of Raja Chellaiah committeee.

4. Estate Duty:

It was levied on total property passing on the death of a person. It was abolished in 1985 by Indian Government.

5. Gift Tax:

It was leviable on all donations except the ones given by Charitable institutions, government companies and private companies. It was abolished in 1998.

The world's 10 fastest supercomputers


1.

The world's first fastest supercomputer is Cray XT5, also known as “Jaguar”. Located at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for achieving another supercomputing milestone. With a peak speed of 2.33 petaflops (over two thousand trillion calculations per second),

The new 1.64-petaflop Cray XT Jaguar features more than 180,000 processing cores, each with 2 gigabytes of local memory. The resources of the ORNL computing complex provide scientists with a total performance of 2.5 petaflops. Which beating IBM's Roadrunner, who has been holding the top crown since past 18 months.


2.


Roadrunner is a supercomputer built by IBM at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA.

Currently the world's second fastest computer. The supercomputer was designed and developed for the DOE and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under the DOE/LANL project name "Roadrunner."

In November 2008, it reached a top performance of 1.456 petaflops, retaining its top spot in the TOP500 list.


3.


Cray XT5 system, also known as "Kraken" was ranked as world's 3rd fastest supercomputer. Located at the National Institute for Computational Sciences (University of Tennessee), Kraken supercomputer achieved a speed of 832 teraflop/s. A teraflop/s is a trillion calculions per second. Both Kraken and Jaguar are Cray XT5 supercomputers.


4.


IBM's BlueGene/P was ranked as world's 4th fastest supercomputer. Located at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany. The BlueGene/P is the fastest computer outside United States. It achieved 825.5 teraflop/s.


5.


Tianhe-1 supercomputer, and was ranked as world's 5th fastest supercomputer. Tianhe-1, which means River in Sky, is located at the National Super Computer Center in Tianjin, China. The system is used for research in petroleum exploration and simulation of large aircraft designs.

Tianhe-1 achieved a speed of 563 teraflops in the tests, but it is capable of 1.042 petaflops, and is a hybrid design with Intel Xeon and AMD graphics processors used as accelerators. Each node consists of two AMD GPUs attached to two Intel Xeon chips. Tianhe-1 runs an operating system based on the Linux kernel.


6.


SGI Altix supercomputer known as Pleiades, was ranked as world's 6th fastest supercomputer. The supercomputer is located at NASA's Ames Research Center (NAS).


7.


The seventh fastest supercomputer in the world is again from IBM, BlueGene/L. The supercomputer is located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Terascale Simulation Facility. After an upgrade in 2007 the performance increased to 478.2 trillion floating operations per second (teraFLOPS) on Linpack.
BlueGene/L had been used widely for materials science calculations such as assessing materials at extreme temperatures and pressures.


8.


IBM BlueGene/P was ranked as world's 8th fastest supercomputer. The supercomputer was installed in 2007 in US-based Argonne National Laboratory.


9.


Sun Microsystem's Ranger was ranked as world's 9th fastest supercomputer. The Ranger supercomputer belongs to Sun's Blade System family. The supercomputer is located at Texas Advanced Computing Center. Running on AMD x86_64 Opteron Quad Core 2300 MHz processor, Rangers main memory is a mammoth 125952 GB


10.


Juropa was ranked as world's 10th fastest supercomputer. Companies from Europe and the United States have joined hands with Forschungszentrum Jlich research centre in Germany, to enter the future of high-performance cluster computing.

The system was designed by experts of the Jülich Supercomputing Center and implemented in conjunction with partner companies Bull, Sun, Intel, Mellanox and ParTec. Es besteht aus 2208 Rechenknoten mit einer Gesamtrechenleistung von 207 Teraflop/s. It consists of 2208 compute nodes with a total computing performance of 207 teraflop / s.

FACTS OF GEOGRAPHY

Coldest Place in India

Drass in western Ladakh is the coldest place in India. It is also the second coldest place in the world after Siberia. Temperatures drop down to about -40 degrees Celsius in winters. However, summers in Drass are balmy and many trekkers and campers visit Drass during the summer time. Drass has an altitude of 3230 m and lies 60 km west of Kargil on the road to Srinagar. The Drass valley starts from the base of the Zojila pass, the Himalayan gateway to Ladakh. Drass is a convenient base camp for treks to Suru valley. Inhabitants of Drass are of Dard descent, an Indo-Aryan race believed to have originally migrated to Ladakh from Central Asia.

Easternmost Point of India

Kibithu is the easternmost point of India. Kibithu is a tiny village located at an altitude of 11,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh's Lohit District, bordering China's Tibet region. Kibithoo is nestled on the right bank of the mighty Lohit River. It is the first settlement along the banks of Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh after the river enters the Indian Territory from China. The climate of Kibithu is cool and salubrious. The whispering pine forests, wild rash berries, beautiful flowers and majestic waterfalls set against tall blue hills add to the abundant natural beauty of Kibithu.

Kibithu witnessed some of the fiercest fights by Indian Soldiers against the Chinese in 1962. But with the passage of time, after Nathu La, Kibithu is fast emerging to be a new melting point of Indo-China friendship. It offers relatively easy travel up to Chinese side.

Geographical Area of India

India has an area of 3,287,240 sq. km. It is the seventh largest country of the world after Russia (1,70,75,000 sq. km), Canada (99,76,132 sq. km), China (99,76,132 sq. km), the U.S.A. (90,72,340 sq. km), Brazil (85,11,965 sq. km) and Australia (76,82,300 sq. km). India accounts for about 2.4 per cent of the total surface area of the world. India is nearly twenty times as large as Great Britain. Many of the Indian states are larger than several countries of the world.

Highest Mountain Peak in India

Kanchenjunga is the highest mountain peak in India. Kanchenjunga has an altitude of 8,586 metres (28,169 feet). It is engirdled by three territories: Sikkim in the south and east, Nepal in the west, and Tibet in the north. The name Kanchenjunga is derived from the Tibetan words, 'Kanchen' and 'Dzonga', meaning 'Five Treasuries of the Great Snow', as it contains five peaks. The treasures represent the five repositories of god, which are gold, silver, gems, grain, and holy books. The five ridges are named according to their respective directions with reference to the main peak to which they are attached.

The five peaks of Kanchenjunga are:
  • Kanchenjunga Main: 8,586 m
  • Kanchenjunga West: 8,505 m
  • Kangchenjunga Central: 8,482m
  • Kangchenjunga South: 8,494m
  • Kangbachen: 7,903m
  • Largest Alluvial Plain of the World

    The Great Plain of North India also known as Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra Plain is the largest alluvial plain of the world. This arcuate plain extends for a length of 3200 km from the mouth of the Indus to the mouth of the Ganga. The plain lies partly in Pakistan and partly in India. The length of the plain in India is around 2400 km. The average width of the plain varies from 150 to 300 km. It is widest in the west where it stretches for about 500 km. Its width decreases in the east. It is about 280 km wide near Allahabad and 160 km near Rajmahal Hills. The plain widens to about 460 km in Bengal but narrows down in Assam where it is only 60-100 km wide. The plain covers a total area of 7.8 lakh sq km. The northern boundary of the plain is well defined by the foothills of the Shiwaliks but its southern boundary is a wavy irregular line along the northern edge of the Peninsular India.
  • Largest Delta in India

    Sundarban is the largest delta in India. The Sundarbans are a part of the world's largest delta formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. They are vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp forming the lower part of the Ganges Delta, extending about 260 km along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary in India to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. Sunderban covers an area of 4262 sq. km in India.

    Sunderban is a unique ecosystem dominated by mangrove forests and gets its name from the Sundari trees. Sunderban is spread over 54 islands and two countries. It is one of the last preserves of the Bengal tiger and the site of a tiger preservation project.
  • Largest District in India

    Kachchh (also spelled as Kutch) in Gujarat, with an area of 45,652 sq km is the largest District in India. The administrative headquarters of Kachchh is in Bhuj. The district's five main towns are Gandhidham, Bhuj, Anjaar, Mandavi and Mundra. There are 966 smaller villages in the area.

    Kachchh literally means something which intermittently becomes wet and dry. Rann of Kachchh, a significant region of Kachchh district is shallow wet-land which submerges in water during the rainy season and becomes dry during other seasons. Kachchhi and Gujarati are the dominant languages of the area. Kachchhi draws heavily from its neighbouring language groups: Sindhi, Punjabi and Gujarati.

Largest Glacier in India

Siachen Glacier is the largest glacier in India. In fact, it has the distinction of being the largest glacier outside the polar and the sub-polar regions. Siachen glacier is 75.6 km long and 2.8 km wide. It is the source for the 80km-long Nubra River, a tributary of the Shyok, which is part of the Indus River system.

The Siachen Glacier lies south of the great watershed that separates China from the Indian subcontinent in the extensively glaciated portion of the Karakoram. The word 'Siachen' means "the place of wild roses". Siachen also has the dubious distinction of being the highest battleground on earth. India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since April 13, 1984. The volume of the glacier has been reduced by 35 percent over the last twenty years. Global warming and military activity have been cited as the main reasons for the receding of the glacier.

Largest Physiographic Unit of India

India is divided into five physiographic divisions. These are:
  • The Himalayan Mountains
  • The Great Plains of North India
  • The Peninsular Plateau
  • The Coastal Plains
  • The Islands
Among these five physiographic units, The Peninsular Plateau is the largest physiographic unit of India. The entire plateau measures about 1,600 km in the north-south and 1400 km in east-west direction. It covers a total area of about 16 lakh sq km which is about half of the total land area of the country. The Peninsular Plateau is roughly triangular in shape with base coinciding with the southern edge of the great plain of North India and its apex is formed by Kanyakumari in the southern extremity.

Largest River Island in India

Majuli Island in Assam is the largest river Island in India. Majuli is in the Brahmaputra River, and is about 200 kilometres east from Guwahati, the capital of Assam. Majuli was formed due to course changes by the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries, mainly the Lohit. The total area of the island was 1250 sq.km but due to erosion its present area is 557 sq km.

Majuli is inhabited mainly by tribals. Major tribes are: Mishing, Deori, and Sonowal Kacharis. Major languages spoken in Majuli are Assamese, Mishing, and Deori. The island has twenty-three villages with a population of 150,000 and a density of 300 persons per square km.

Largest State in India

Rajasthan with an area of 342,239 sq km is the largest state in India. Before the formation of Chattisgarh as a separate state in the year 2000, Madhya Pradesh was the largest Indian state in terms of area. Rajasthan is located in the western part of India and has two distinct geographical regions with desert on one side and thick forest on the other. Aravalli the oldest mountain chain is the dividing line between the two climatic zones of the State. Western Rajasthan encompasses most of the area of the Great Indian Desert (also known as Thar Desert). The eastern region of the State has thick vegetation of Sal, Axlewood, Dhak and Mesquite.

Largest Union Territory in India

Andaman & Nicobar Islands with an area of 8,249 sq km is the largest union territory in India. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands are situated between 6o and 14o North Latitude and 92o and 94o East Longitude. The group of 572 islands / islets is located in the Bay of Bengal, 1,255 km from Kolkata and 1190 km from Chennai. The entire chain of island consists of two distinct groups of islands. The Great Andaman group of islands in the north is separated by the Ten Degree Channel from the Nicobar group in the south. The Andaman group of islands is divided into three main groups viz., North Andaman, Middle Andaman and South Andaman. Little Andaman is separated from the Great Andamans by 50 km wide Duncan Passage. The Nicobar group of islands consists of 7 big and 12 small islands together with several tiny islands. The Great Nicobar is the largest of all the islands.

Length of Coastline of India

Length of coastline of India including the coastlines of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshwadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea is 7517 km. Length of Coastline of Indian mainland is 6100 km. Coastline of Indian mainland is surrounded by Arabian Sea in the west, Bay of Bengal in the east, and Indian Ocean in the south. length of total coastline of India. The long coast line of India is dotted with several major ports such as Kandla, Mumbai, Navasheva, Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Tuticorin, Vishakapatnam, and Paradip. For the effective defence of Indian Coastline, a separate force known as Indian Coast Guard was formed on February 1, 1977.

Longest River of India

Ganga is the longest river of India. The total length of the Ganga river from its source to its mouth (measured along the Hughli) is 2525 km of which 1450 km is in the Uttar Pradesh, 445 km in Bihar and 520 km in West Bengal. The remaining 110 km stretch of the Ganga forms the boundary between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The Ganga originates as Bhagirathi from the Gangotri glacier in Uttar Kashi District. It is joined by the Alaknanda at Devaprayag and the combined flow of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda is known as Ganga. After traveling 280 km from its source, Ganga enters plains at Haridwar. At Allahabad, about 770 km south-east of Haridwar, Ganga is joined by Yamuna, which is its most important tributary. After Farraka in West Bengal, the river ceases to be known as the Ganga. It bifurcates itself into Bhagirathi-Hughli in West Bengal and Padma-Meghna in Bangladesh. After traversing 220 km further down in Bangladesh, the Brahmaputra joins it at Goalundo and after meeting Meghna 100 km downstream the Ganga joins the Bay of Bengal.

Longitudinal & Latitudinal Extents of India

India lies wholly in the northern and eastern hemispheres. The main land of India extends from 8o 4' 28" N to 37o 17' 53" N latitudes and from 68o 7' 53" E to 97o 24' 47" E longitudes. The latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India is approximately the same i.e. 30o. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands extend further southwards and add to the latitudinal extent of India. The southernmost point known as the Indira Point in the Great Nicobar Island is at 6o 45' N. The latitudinal extent of India from Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south is 3,214 km. India's longitudinal extent from the Rann of Kutch in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east is 2,933 km.

Northernmost Point of India

Northernmost Point of India is disputed. The Siachen Glacier in the State of Jammu & Kashmir is the northern most point under Indian control. India claims the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of Instrument of Accession signed in 1947, which inter alia includes Gilgit, Baltistan, and Kanjut. Gilgit, Baltistan, and Kanjut are presently under the control of Pakistan. The northern most point if we take the whole state of J&K in consideration is Dafdar in the Taghdumbash Pamir near Beyik Pass in Kanjut.

Smallest District in India

Mahe is the smallest district in India. It has an area of 9 sq. km. Mahe is geographically located in the state of Kerala, where as administratively it comes under the control of Union Territory of Pondicherry. Mahe has the official name of Mayyazhi in the local Malayalam language.

Mahe has a population of about 36,000 according to the 2001 census. The population density of the town is 4091 per sq. km. Males constitute 47% of the population and females 53%. Mahe has an average literacy rate of 85%. Mahe has two members in the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly, representing Mahe and Palloor.

Smallest State in India

Goa with an area of 3702 sq. km is the smallest State in India. Goa was a Portuguese colony and was liberated from Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961. After its independence Goa along with Daman & Diu was accorded the status of Union Territory. On May 30, 1987, the Union Territory was split, and Goa was elevated as India's 25th state, with Daman and Diu remaining Union Territories. Goa is one of the most developed states of India. Tourism is the mainstay of Goa. Panaji is the capital of Goa and Vasco is its largest town. The main language of Goa is Konkani.

Smallest Union Territory in India

Lakshadweep with an area of 32 sq km is the smallest Union Territory in India. Lakshadweep islands lie in the Arabian Sea and extend from 8o N to 12o 20' N and 71o 45' E to 74o E. The islands north of 11o N are known as Amindivi Islands while those south of this latitude are called Cannanore Islands. In the extreme south is the Minicoy Island. The Laccadives, Minicoy and Amindivi group of islands were renamed as Lakshadweep in 1973. All the islands are of coral origin. The islands consist of 12 atolls, three reefs and submerged sand banks. Of the 27 islands, only 11 are inhabited.

Southernmost Point of India

Indira Point, the southernmost tip of the Great Nicobar island is the southernmost point of land in the territory of India. It is at 6o 45' N latitude. Indira Point was formerly known as Pygmalion Point and it was so named by the late Rajiv Gandhi after his mother on a visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. A large part of the Indira point was submerged under the sea due to the tsunami generated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The sea is now slowly retreating back to its original position. Indira Point is also a favourite nesting site for exotic sea animals.

Southernmost Point of Indian Mainland

Kanyakumari is the southernmost Point of Indian Mainland. Kanyakumari, also known as Cape Comorin, is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. Kanyakumari has great geographical significance as it is the confluence of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet. The place is famous for its spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Kanyakumari has been associated with great men such as Swami Vivekanada and Mahatma Gandhi. Swamy Vivekananda visited Kanyakumari during 24th, 25th and 26th December 1892 for deep meditation and enlightenment. To commemorate the visit, a monument known as Vivekananda Rock Memorial, has been built which attracts a large number of tourists. Mahatma Gandhi visited Kanyakumari twice in 1925 and 1937.

Westernmost Point of India

West of Ghuar Mota in Gujarat is the westernmost point of India. Its Latitude/Longitide is 23.67 N/ 68.52 E. Ghuar Mota is in the Kutch region of Gujarat. Other cities located near Ghuar Mota are: Koteshwar, Mudia, Panadra, Pipar, Ber Mota, Ber, Lakhpat, and Lakhpal.

Kutch was one of the princely states of India during the British rule. During the monsoon season the region becomes virtually an island resembling a tortoise "Katchua", surrounded by seawater. Kutch has an extreme climate and the temperature ranges from 20o C in winter to 45o C in summers.

Wettest Place in India

Wettest Place in India is Cherrapunji. In fact, Cherrapunji is the wettest place on the earth. The place receives an annual rainfall of over 1200 cm. Cherrapunji is situated at 56 kms from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, in one of the heaviest rain-belts in the world. However, off late, a ding-dong battle has been on between Cherrapunji and the neighbouring village of Mawsynram for the crown of "Wettest Place in the World". Sometimes, it is Cherrapunji which records highest annual rainfall in the world and sometimes it is Mawsynram. However, meteorologists question the genuineness of the data obtained from Mawsynram. Unlike Cherrapunji, there is no meteorological office at Mawsynram and the readings there are taken by a peon of the Meghalaya Public Works Department posted there.

State with Least Number of Districts in India

Goa is the state with least number of districts in India. It has two districts: North Goa & South Goa.

The North Goa District has an area of 1736 sq. Km. Geographical position of Goa is marked by 15o 48' 00" N to 14o 53' 54" N latitudes and 73o E to 75o E longitudes. North Goa shares its boundaries with the Sawantwadi & Dodamarg, of Ratnagiri District and Kolhapur District of Maharastra state and with South Goa District shares the southern boundary.

South Goa is situated between the latitudinal paralles of 15o 29' 32" N and 14o 53' 57" N and longitudinal parallels of 73o 46' 21" E and 74o 20' 11" E. Arabian Sea is to the west of district, North Goa district to the North and Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka in the East and South. The total geographical area of the district is 1966 sq km.

State with Maximum Number of Districts in India

Uttar Pradesh is the state with maximum number of districts in India. It has a total of 70 districts. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous and fifth largest state of India. Only five countries of the world, China, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and India itself have populations larger than that of Uttar Pradesh. Kanpur is the largest city of Uttar Pradesh and as per the 2001 census six cities of Uttar Pradesh, namely, Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi have population of over million.

The 70 districts are as follows:

Agra
Aligarh
Allahabad
Ambedkar Nagar
Auraiya
Azamgarh
Baghpat
Bahraich
Ballia
Balrampur
Banda
Barabanki
Bareilly
Basti
Bijnor
Budaun
Bulandshahar
Chandauli
Chitrakoot
Deoria
Etah
Faizabad
Farukkhabad
Fatehpur
Firozabad
Gautam Buddha Nagar
Ghaziabad
Ghazipur
Gonda
Gorakhpur
Hamirpur
Hardoi
Hathras
Jalaun
Kannauj Website
Kanpur Dehat
Kanpur Nagar
Kaushambi
Kushi Nagar
Lakhimpur Kheri
Lalitpur
Lucknow
Maharajganj
Mahoba Jaunpur
Jyotiba Phoole Nagar
Mainpuri
Mau
Mathura
Meerut
Mirzapur
Moradabad
Muzaffar Nagar
Pilibhit
Pratapgarh
Raebareli
Rampur
Saharanpur
Sant Kabir Nagar
Sant Ravidas Nagar
Shahjahanpur
Shravasti
Siddharth Nagar
Sitapur
Sonbhadra
Sultanpur
Unnao
Varanasi