INDIA

Geography: India is a large, triangular-shaped Asian country between the Himalayas in the north and the Indian Ocean in the south. Bordered by Pakistan to the north-west, China, Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. Sri Lanka is off its southern tip.

Climate: Varies greatly, from arid deserts to cool wet highlands. Basically there is a three-season year - the hot, the wet and the cool. The heat starts on the northern plains around February. By April it becomes unbearable. Monsoons start in May with high humidity, short rainstorms and violent electrical storms. The rains begin down south about 1st June and sweep north to cover the whole country by early July. Monsoons don't really cool things, but give relief - especially to farmers. The main monsoon ends around October and India's northern cities become crisp at night in December. The south-eastern coast is affected by the short and very wet north-eastern monsoon, from mid-October to the end of December. In the far south, it never gets cool, but temperatures are comfortably warm rather than hot at this time.

Languages: There's no ”Indian” language, so English is widely spoken, but with only about 3% of Indians having a good knowledge of the language. Eighteen other languages are officially recognised and over 1600 minor languages and dialects are listed.

Currency: Indian rupee.