India shining - 20 facts that you should know about India’s growth!

1. The Indian economy is the eleventh largest in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).
2. India is poised to achieve 9 per cent economic growth in the current financial year itself, driven by robust performance by the agriculture and industry sectors. The economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal.
3. India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production. The nation's industrial production grew at the fastest pace in three months at 10.8 per cent. Manufacturing grew 11.3 percent in October after a 4.6 percent gain in September.
4. India is one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world, expanding at 35 per cent on average in the first four months of the current financial year.
5. The Bombay Stock Exchange has been rated as the world's best performing stock market recently. With a 13 per cent gain, Sensex is among the world's 10 biggest markets, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
6. Indian companies have become bigger and stronger in the last ten years with the average revenue of a company on the Fortune India 500 list standing at Rs 7,632.5 crore (Rs 76.32 billion).The total revenue of the Fortune India 500 companies stands at Rs 38,16,239.40 crore.
7. India is the world's largest recipient of overseas remittances. The remittances grew from $49.6 billion in 2009 to $55 billion in 2010. It is also the country with the second largest number of emigrants after Mexico, according to the World Bank.
8. India owns over 18,000 tones of above ground gold stocks worth approximately $800 billion and representing at least 11 per cent of global stock, according to estimates of World Gold Council. India ranks 11th in the world with 557.7 tons of gold reserves.
9. India is among the top 10 nations in terms of foreign exchange reserves. The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008 with an addition of $2.2 billion on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency. The nation's forex reserves currently stand at $296.40 billion.
10. India's services sector, backed by the IT revolution, remains the biggest contributor to the country's GDP, with a contribution of 58.4 per cent. The industry sector contributed 24.1 per cent and the agriculture sector contributed 17.5 per cent to the GDP.
11. India's civil aviation sector will be among the top five in the world in the next five years. Indian domestic air traffic is expected to reach 160-180 million passengers per year, while international traffic will exceed 80 million.
12. India's exports during November jumped by 26.8 per cent to $18.9 billion year-on-year. India's exports during April-September aggregated to $103.65 billion registering a year-on-year growth of 28 per cent.
13. India, China and Brazil are the top three target countries for foreign direct investment until the end of 2012 with the United States, for years number one, now in fourth place, according to the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD.
14. The Indian telecommunications industry is the world's fastest growing telecommunication industry, 723.28 million telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers and 687.71 million mobile phone connections as of September 30, 2010.
15. The number of Internet users in India is estimated at 81 million. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India pegs the number of broadband subscribers at 10.08 million in August 2010.
16. The Indian IT-BPO industry is expected to exceed $70 billion in fiscal 2011.The Indian IT-BPO exports are projected to grow by 13 per cent to 15 per cent while domestic IT-BPO will grow slightly more by 15 per cent to 17 per cent during fiscal 2010-11.
17. India has the largest number of post offices in the world. The world's highest post office, Hikkim is located at 15,500 feet in the Lahaul Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.
18. The largest employer in India is the Indian Railways, employing over 1.6 million people. Indian Railways started operations on April 16, 1853.
19. India ranks second in farm output globally. India is one of the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper.
20. Tourism is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23 per cent to the national GDP. The number of foreign tourists visiting the country during September this year is higher than that of the same month last year. Around 3.69 lakh (369,000) foreign tourists came to India in September this year as compared to 3.28 lakh (328,000) during the same month in 2009.

Source : Rediff Business