Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

I seem to be stuck in the “is.” Reason at the end of this post. Still, it is totally coincidental, I assure you.

I thought next it might be interesting to take a look at India as I continue on my journey to investigate the countries on this list of countries in Asia. BTW, how many countries are there in Asia?

What do we know about India?

1. India is the 7th largest country by area and 2nd largest by population. The country is about 1/3rd the physical size of the lower 48 states. India is twice the size of Alaska.

2. India has 1.15 billion people, (one in six people of the world and almost 4 times that of the States). India also has more people under 14 years old (360 million) than all of the U.S. (300 million).

3. India has an average age of 25.1 years. The U.S. is 37 years.

4. India’s neighbors are Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463 km, China 3,380 km, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km. (1.61 km = 1 mile)

5. India’s lowest point is the Indian Ocean, the highest point is Kanchenjunga 8,598 m(#3 in the world and 866′ shorter than Everest.)

6. India faces droughts; flash floods, flooding from monsoonal rains (June-Oct); severe thunderstorms; earthquakes

7. India suffers from deforestation, erosion, overgrazing, pollution, not potable tap water.

8.  About 1% of India’s population has AIDS -5.1 million. That is equal to the population of Rhode Island + Montana + Delaware + South Dakota + North Dakota + Alaska.

9. 80.5% of Indians are Hindu, 13.4% are Muslim (150 million) and 2.4% are Christians. Somebody, please write and ask me about my visit to a Hindu temple devoted to sex for pleasing God. The caste system still exists in India. India is the birthplace of many religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The Dalai Lama runs his government from Northern India.

10. Hindi is spoken by about 41% of the people. Yet, there are 14 other official languages in India.

“Okay, let’s have this business meeting in the official language.”

“Uh, which one?”

11. Two in five people in India over 15 in cannot read and write. More than half of all women over 15 cannot read or write (53%).

12. New Delhi is the capital of India. And there are still elephants roaming the streets. January 26th is the day India became a republic. India became independent of U.K. governance on August 15th.

13. India’s economy is still growing at better than 7%. 17% of business is in agriculture, 29% is industry, 54% is services, including that Sprint dude who answers the phone.

14. India has a labor force of 523 million = the entire population of the U.S. + Japan + Korea + Taiwan. China’s labor force is 800 million.

15. India has an unemployment rate of 7%ish. Inflation is about the same figure.

16. India’s best export partners are the US 15%, China 8.7%, UAE 8.7%, UK 4.4%. Her import partners are China 10.6%, US 7.8%, Germany 4.4%, Singapore 4.4%. India exports software to 90 countries and growing.

17. There is one mobile phone for every 4-5 Indians. There is only one land line for every 30 people.

18. One in 15 people is online in India.

19. India has 346 airports and 36,000 miles of railways, enough to go back and forth across the U.S. 6 times. The country has about 65,000Km (40,000 miles) of highways.

20. Mumbai (Bombay) is the economic capital of the country with RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and the Stock Exchange located here. Bollywood (the world’s most prolific film industry) is there, too. Kind of like NYC and LA mixed together. Hyderabad is the country’s modern hub of Information technology, ITES, and biotechnology.  Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore are India’s A-1 cities.

21. Chess was invented in India, as were algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. (now you know who to hate for those classes.)

22. India’s official national sport is NOT cricket…It’s field hockey.

You can read about India at:

• The Hindu – Madras-based daily
• The Hindustan Times – New Delhi-based daily
• The Statesman – Calcutta-based daily
• The Times of India – Mumbai-based daily

So, what did I miss? What do you think should be on the list? What doesn’t belong here?

Let me know.

Please Sign My India Guestbook

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source, source, source, source, source, and source

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.