HOME > GUIDES > INDIA

India

GUIDES AVAILABLE

	ANDAMAN ISLANDS
	BANGALORE
	CALCUTTA
	COCHIN

	DELHI
	GOA
	HIMALAYAS
	JAISALMER

LUCKNOW

MUMBAI

THE FACTS ABOUT INDIA

MAPS

PRINTABLE PAGE

EMAIL TO A FRIEND

CAPITAL	New Delhi

AREA	3,287,000 sq km (though it has several disputed international borders)

POPULATION	1 billion

LANGUAGE	Hindi and English

CURRENCY	Indian rupee

TIME	GMT +5.5 hours

TELEPHONE CODES	00 91

ELECTRICITY	230-240V, 50 HZ



Lucknow

Visas: Most visitors will need a visa and they are available for different lengths of stay from one month, six months or multiple entry visas. NB check to see if your visas is valid from the date of entry of the date of issue.

Public holidays: New Year's Day (some states); Republic Day (26 Jan); 1 May (some states); 30 June; Independence Day (15 Aug); Parsi New Year (Aug - some states); Mahatma Ghandi's Birthday (2 Oct); Christmas; New Year's Eve

Good buys: Pottery, jewellery, silks, crafts and antiques.

Local dishes: In the north, meat dishes are popular and the cuisine is often 'Mughal style', which is closer to food of the Middle East and Central Asia. The emphasis is more on spices and less on chilli, while grains and breads are more popular than rice. However in the south, more rice is eaten, there is more vegetarian food, and the curries tend to be hotter.

Funny fact: India is the only country which has a bill of rights for cows.

Good reading:
Colonial literature includes Rudyard Kipling's Kim and Plain Tales from the Hills, and EM Forster's A Passage to India. Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy depict post-colonial India. In the past decade, a swag of Indian authors writing in English have achieved international recognition, while good travelogues include Eric Newby's Slowly Down the Ganges, Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar, Alexander Frater's Chasing the Monsoon, William Dalrymple?s City of Djinns and Geoffrey Moorhouse?s Calcutta - A City Revealed.

Special features: Click here to read our guide to the best Indian Palace Hotels, published in Condé Nast Traveller in January 1998.