roducts: rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea,
sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish

Exports: $44.5 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Exports - commodities: textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering
goods, chemicals, leather manufactures

Exports - partners: US 22.8%, Hong Kong 5.8%, Japan 5.3%, UK 5.3%,
Germany 4.6% (2000)

Imports: $53.8 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports - commodities: crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

Imports - partners: Benelux 8.5%, US 8%, UK 6.2%, Japan 5.7%, Saudi
Arabia 4.6% (2000)

Debt - external: $100.3 billion (end-March 2001)

Economic aid - recipient: $2.9 billion (FY98/99)

Currency: Indian rupee (INR)

Currency code: INR

Exchange rates: Indian rupees per US dollar - 48.336 (January 2002),
47.186 (2001), 44.942 (2000), 43.055 (1999), 41.259 (1998), 36.313 (1997)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

Communications India

Telephones - main lines in use: 27.7 million (October 2000)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 2.93 million (November 2000)

Telephone system: general assessment: mediocre service; local and long
distance service provided throughout all regions of the country, with
services primarily concentrated in the urban areas; major objective is
to continue to expand and modernize long-distance network to keep pace
with rapidly growing number of local subscriber lines; steady improvement
is taking place with the recent admission of private and private-public
investors, but, with telephone density at about two for each 100 persons
and a waiting list of over 2 million, demand for main line telephone
service will not be satisfied for a very long time domestic: local
service is provided by microwave radio relay and coaxial cable, with
open wire and obsolete electromechanical and manual switchboard systems
still in use in rural areas; starting in the 1980s, a substantial amount
of digital switch gear has been introduced for local and long-distance
service; long-distance traffic is carried mostly by coaxial cable and
low-capacity microwave radio relay; since 1985 significant trunk capacity
has been added in the form of fiber-optic cable and a domestic satellite
system with 254 earth stations; mobile cellular service is provided
in four metropolitan cities international: satellite earth stations -
8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region); nine
gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai (Bombay), Ne