India has 7 major religions. Hinduism is the dominant faith of India, serving about 80 percent of the population. Ten percent worship Islam, and 5 percent are Sikhs and Christians; the rest (a good 45 million) are Buddhists, Jains, Bahai, and more.
CLIMATE
The climate in India varies considerably, with average temperature ranging from 50oF to 86oF.
The northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Himalayan region will experience snowfall in winter with the temperature going below the freezing point while in southern part, the temperature can rise up to 114oF in summer.
The Thar Desert in the northwest region of India experiences less than 10 inches of rain where as the Shillong plateau in the northeast receives more than 450 inches of rain. The town of Chirapunji, in the northeast state of Assam has recorded the highest rainfall, in one year, in the world (1, 042 inches).
The climate in India is greatly dominated by the two monsoon winds - the Northeast monsoon wind and the Southwest monsoon wind. The most important of these is the Southwest monsoon wind.
The progress of this wind can be used to divide the year into six seasons: winter, spring, summer, summer monsoon, autumn, and the winter monsoon.
TRANSPORT
India is an enormous country and roads can be in a terrible condition outside urban centres. Getting from point A to point B for scouting or shooting takes time. On the other hand, the train transportation system traverses large swaths of the country fairly reliably. The country is also well serviced by domestic airlines, which fly to all major and many minor cities. No matter what transport you rely on, it's best to plan ahead.
AIR
INTERNATIONAL
The main international airports are Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram. Limited international flights operate to other cities. From London international carriers with direct flights to India are British Airways, Air India, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. All British Airways flights are direct non-stop and it is possible to land at one port and return from another. Air India has the next largest number of flights and also covers the four metro cities, in addition to some other cities including Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. The flights to Delhi and Bombay are direct while those to other destinations are indirect.
DOMESTIC
Travelling by air around the country is convenient and comfortable. Three large domestic airlines fly across the country. The government corporation, Indian Airlines and a number of other private well-maintained airlines such as Jet Airways & Sahara, operates domestic air services. Indian Airlines links 61 cities in India and 16 in neighbouring countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Oman, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and Singapore.
ROAD
A large network of National Highways, State Highways and subsidiary roads makes road transport the main means of travel after the railways. Although the road network is extensive, travelling by vehicle is time consuming and potentially hazardous at night because of poorly maintained roads. There is a wide selection of vehicles to satisfy the needs of each production. Rental vehicles are predominantly chauffeur driven.
RAIL
India has the largest rail network in Asia and the second largest in the world. Over 62,300 km of track lay between 7000 stations and over 11,000 locomotives.
COMMUNICATION
Recent deregulation and liberalization of telecommunications laws and policies have prompted rapid change in local and long distance service provided throughout all regions of the country, with services primarily concentrated in the urban areas
MAIN LINES
India has an extensive telephone network ranking six in the world for the number of main lines available (48.917 million, 2003). There has been an increase in competition and dramatic reductions in price recently due to the admission of private and private-public investors.
CELLULAR
India ranks 13th in the world with 26,154,400 million cellular phone users. Both CDMA and GSM were introduced in 1994 and organized nationwide into four metropolitan cities and 19 telecom circles each with about three private service providers and one state-owned service provider; in recent years significant trunk capacity has been added in the form of fibre-optic cable and one of the world's largest domestic satellite systems, the Indian National Satellite system (INSAT). Mobile cellular phones are highly available and coverage is excellent in cities and major centres, however service is limited in more remote areas. Prior to travel, mobile phone users should investigate connecting to a GSM international network to enable use within India. The Country code for India is: +91.
INTERNET CONNECTION
With the significant increase in the bandwidth available for both voice and data traffic a modest range of service providers offering dial-up and broadband services exists. India ranks number 10 in the world for number of Internet users - 18,481,000 (2003).
WALKIE TALKIE
The Indian Government regulates Walkie-Talkie communication and permits are easily granted for film crews. |
