9) India

INDIA


 1) As the most important important colonial state of British Empire, India became one of the most important places for new economical roads between Europe and Asia.

There are important studies about the theme culture and industry in India (http://whc.unesco.org/archive/ind-study01.pdf;  

http://www.nios.ac.in/Secbuscour/cc02.pdf); particularly, a study of 2006 (http://www.ticcihcongress2006.net/paper/Paper%200/Af_Geijerstam.pdf)  indicates six important sites:

a) the Kumaon Iron Works;

b) the Mumbay Mill Lands;

c) the Burwai Iron Works;

d) the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbay;

e) the Nilgiri mountan rack railway;

f) the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

 Only an industrial heritage site is currently in the UNESCO official list: the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/944), and the UNESCO tentative list we find the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, or Victoria Terminus railway station of Mumbay (an impressive architecture), which could become a railway museum. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a museum narrow gauge railway in west of India, completed in 1881, with an unusual "loops" and "Z-reverses" of the rack (a system which probably survives only on the Andes) and regular service with steam locomotives (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railway). Then, the Nilgiri mountan railway was added in 2005; it is a separate museum railway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Mountain_Railway#Television_film), completed in 1908, and it has a rack-and-pinion section (Abt system), the only example of Asia. It was built with european technology (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/944) with special steam rack locomotives built by specialist swiss factory SLM of Winterthur, some of which are still in service. The railway is also known because it was the set of some scenes of the film A passage to India by David Lean (1984).

Museum tradition in India has a very high quality level; all partners of National Council of Science Museums of the Ministry of Culture; there are many important museums (http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/sciencemuseums.htm), we indicate: 

a) The Visvesvaraya industrial and technological museum at Bangalore (http://www.vismuseum.org.in/), with sections about engines and electrotechnology;

b) The Birla industrial and technological museum at South Kolkata (http://www.bitmcal.org/) about transport, metals and science;

c) The Nehru museum of Science and technology at Kharagpur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehru_Museum_of_Science_and_Technology ; http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/institute/nehru.php), which is part of the Nehru Science center;

d) The Science city at Kolkata (http://www.sciencecitykolkata.org.in/), with an important maritime exhibition;

e) The National Railway Museum at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi (http://railinindia.tripod.com/nrm.html), with many locomotives built in Europe.


There is no a museum of textile industry, but we have to indicate the exposition in the National Center for Textile Design (http://www.designdiary.nic.in/) at New Dehli.

2) India has the second largest workforce in the world, with 516.3 million people, 60% of whom are employed in agriculture and related industries, 28% in services and related industries, and 12% in the industrial real and precisely. The main crops include rice, wheat, oilseeds, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane and potatoes. [98] The agricultural sector represents 28% of GDP, service and industrial sectors make up 54% and 18% respectively. The major industries are active in the field of automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transport equipment and textiles. Hand in hand with rapid economic growth there is an increasing demand for energy. According to the Energy Information Administration, India is the sixth largest oil consumer and third largest consumer of coal. [99]
The booming Bollywood film industry.
In recent years India has been able to capitalize on the statement in English of many people, becoming a major outsourcing destination for multinational companies and a popular destination for medical tourism. India has also become a major exporter of software and finance, research and technology services. Its natural resources include arable land, bauxite, chromite, coal, diamonds, iron ore, limestone, manganese, mica, natural gas, oil, titanium.
In 2007, exports were estimated at $ 140 billion and imports totaled 224.9 billion dollars. Textiles, jewelery, engineering goods and software were the main export items, while the crude oil, machinery, fertilizers, chemicals were among the imports. The most important trading partners of India are the United States, the European Union and China.

3) Over the years agriculture has been the major source of livelihood of the Indian population.
 However, after Independence the founding fathers saw the nation progressing with a decent industrial base.
 This triggered the formulation of programs and strategies to construct a proper infrastructure for speedy industrialization.
India has been successful in achieving autonomy in producing different basic and capital products since independence.
The productivity of the major Indian industries incorporates aircraft, vessels, automobiles, steam engines, heavy electrical equipment, construction machinery, chemicals, precision equipments, communication instrument, power generation and transmission tools and computers.
The private sector, which was neglected by previous governments, contributes to two-thirds of India's GDP.
The shift of the state's responsibility from a chief investor to a catalyst of private enterprise has paved way to a new accord on liberalization.