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The so called climate change energy crisis is political not based on science as massive number of research papers debunk human emissions of minute amounts of CO2 is irrelevant to the climate.“Over 400 Scientific Papers Published In 2020 Support A Skeptical Position On Climate AlarmBy Kenneth Richard on 29. January 2021In 2020, more than 400 scientific papers were published that cast doubt on the position that anthropogenic CO2 emissions function as the climate’s fundamental control knob…or that otherwise serve to question the efficacy of climate models or the related “consensus” positions commonly endorsed by policymakers and mainstream media sources.Over 400 scientific papers published in 2020 affirm the position that there are significant limitations and uncertainties inherent in our understanding of climate and climate changes, emphasizing that climate science is not settled.More specifically, the papers in this compilation support these four main skeptical positions — categorized here as N(1) – N(4) — which question the climate alarm popularized in today’s headlines.N(1) Natural mechanisms play well more than a negligible role (as claimed by the IPCC) in the net changes in the climate system, which includes temperature variations, precipitation patterns, weather events, etc., and the influence of increased CO2 concentrations on climatic changes are less pronounced than currently imagined.N(2) The warming/sea levels/glacier and sea ice retreat/precipitation extremes…experienced during the modern era are neither unprecedented or remarkable, nor do they fall outside the range of natural variability.N(3) The computer climate models are neither reliable or consistently accurate, the uncertainty and error ranges are irreducible, and projections of future climate states (i.e., an intensification of the hydrological cycle) are not supported by observations and/or are little more than speculation.N(4) Current emissions-mitigation policies, especially related to the advocacy for renewables, are often ineffective and even harmful to the environment, whereas elevated CO2 and a warmer climate provide unheralded benefits to the biosphere (i.e., a greener planet and enhanced crop yields, lower mortality with warming).”An energy crisis can be natural caused by severe storms knocking our electrical power or man made by poor choices in government energy policy evident in the UK from harmful subsidies to renewables causing mortal heat poverty. Research shows more seniors die of fuel poverty than road accidents.“The UK Government's 2015 Fuel Poverty Report showed that 4.5 million households, or 17% of UK households, were in fuel poverty.[6]“A survey of families on Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit in October 2020 found that 26% are already cutting back on heating and electricity. The survey further found that 60% had gone into debt, and families borrowed over £1,700 in the last two months alone. The COVID-19 pandemic had caused 38% of families worse off than before.[7]”Another longer term energy crisis happens when governments fail to prepare for increasing future demand thinking somehow renewable will magically fill the gap.Biden cancelling the Keystone XL’s pipeline and the oil gas and coal leases on federal land is an example of short sited thinking because demand for oil is rising as wind and solar renewables are failing due to intermittency.Sources: Biden to halt all oil, gas & coal leasing on Federal lands & watersGuest “we told you so” by David MiddletonThis is not related to the 60-day procedural mortarium currently in place.While this is based on anonymous sources, I did hear rumors of something even worse than this on Friday, and it’s inline with what we were expecting… (For readers who don’t know, I am a petroleum geologist/geophysicist and have been working the Federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico since 1988).Biden prepares to end new oil and coal leases on federal landBy JENNIFER A. DLOUHY AND ARI NATTER on 1/21/2021WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) –President Joe Biden is poised to suspend the sale of oil and gas leases on federal land, which accounts for about a tenth of U.S. supplies, according to four people familiar with the matter.The moratorium, which would also freeze coal leasing, is set to be unveiled along with a raft of other climate policies next week, according to the people, who asked for anonymity to discuss plans not yet public. The moratorium is separate from a 60-day leasing and permitting pause ordered Wednesday, two people said.The move would block the sale of new mining and drilling rights across some 700 million acres of federal land. It could also block offshore oil and gas leasing, though details are still being developed, some of the people said.Spokesmen for the White House and Interior Department, which overseas leasing on federal land, declined to comment.[…]Oil industry leaders and politicians from the Western U.S. have warned the move could harm some local economies where drilling and mining flourishes — while crippling U.S. energy production to the detriment of American consumers. The Western Energy Alliance, which battled Obama-era rules targeting oil drilling, has vowed to immediately go to court to challenge any leasing ban.“Blocking American companies from accessing our country’s natural resources is bad for American jobs, bad for state budgets and bad for national security. It also raises serious legal concerns,” said Anne Bradbury, chief executive of the American Exploration and Production Council.Federal lands and waters together accounted for 22% of total U.S. oil production and 12% of U.S. natural gas production in 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration. Onshore federal lands provide about 8% of the nation’s oil and 9% of its natural gas, according to the Bureau of Land Management. Data for 2020 are not yet available.[…]Oil industry advocates argue that drilling blockades do nothing to stifle emissions — just shift that crude production elsewhere. “The world is still going to need natural gas and oil under any scenario for a long time,” said Dan Naatz, senior vice president with the Independent Petroleum Association of America. “A leasing ban is just going to ship that production to Saudi Arabia, to Russia, where there are far less stringent environmental controls.”[…]World OilWhile idiotic, such a move might actually be legal and would be far less damaging than a totally illegal refusal to approve permits for existing leases. It would simply result in the US importing about 1 million bbl/d more from Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran by the end of this decade.NOIAIt would also kill about 500,000 jobs on top of the up to 70,000 jobs Biden killed the day he was installed into office.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) confronted Secretary of Transportation nominee Pete Buttigieg over the Keystone XL decision on Thursday morning, during Buttigieg’s confirmation hearing. If the administration was serious about infrastructure, Cruz asked, why was it killing an infrastructure project with “good, paying union jobs”?When Buttigieg said the idea was that “net” jobs created in more climate-friendly industries would be positive, Cruz retorted that that was little comfort to the Keystone XL workers who were being laid off: “So for those workers, the answer is somebody else will get a job?”BreitbartSources: Biden to halt all oil, gas & coal leasing on Federal lands & watersWhat is an energy crisis? How can it be prevented?Natural energy crisis are a function of where you live with SEVERE WEATHER EITHER IN THE SUMMER OR THE WINTER causing devastation. When storms wreck havoc with grid electricity the effect can be life and or health threatening. Too much heavy snowfall causes power lines to break for example.“3 hours ago December 17, 2020.Deadly snowstorm to be followed by freezing temperatures in Northeast: LatestA deadly snowstorm is slamming the Northeast, closing schools and leaving nearly 4 feet of snow in some areas.Weather News & Videos - ABC News”In the UK research shows seniors are dying in the thousands from heat poverty, more than road accidents because of the 50% increase in electricity rates due to the cost doubling from wind and solar renewables. In India and China millions are dying or suffering ill health because they lack grid electricity forcing cooling with solid fuels like cattle dung. Also the Paris Accord is preventing sensible investment in grid electricity using coal and fossil fuels because of the unfounded view that trace amount of CO2 plant food emissions from industry at 3% of 0.04% or 0.012 % molecules of CO2 threatens unprecedented heating of the planet.The alarmist campaign by the UN getting governments around the world to sign the PARIS ACCORD and reduce fossil fuel energy and coal in particular because of the pseudo-science that carbon dioxide emissions from industry are making the climate DANGEROUSLY HOT. This agreement is the major and devastating energy crisis of our time. Yet, there is abundant evidence that solar radiation is the driver of temperature and it is in decline.Coal is an abundant and cheap source of energy particularly in developing nations like India and Africa. Demonizing coal by developed nations for effete advantage has a terrible impact on the lives of the poor.Living in the dark off the electricity grid.THE SOCIAL INJUSTICE OF ENERGY POVERTYEnergy Poverty is devastatingEnergy poverty is devastating for more than 2 billion impoverished peoples living without electricity for light and heat. Cooking happens the way it has for centuries before – over smoky indoor fires that do no favors for lungs or life expectancies. I witnessed the tragedy first hand working in the China countryside in the winter where peasants are forced to live with their animals in a vain attempt to keep warm. Their weathered faces from the harsh life in the dark without heat is very sad.Once upon a time, social justice was synonymous with equal access to modern amenities — electric lighting so poor children could read at night, refrigerators so milk could be kept on hand, and washing machines to save the hands and backs of women. Malthus was rightly denounced by generations of socialists as a cruel aristocrat who cloaked his elitism in pseudo-science, and claimed that Nature couldn't possibly feed any more hungry months.Now, at the very moment modern energy arrives for global poor — something a prior generation of socialists would have celebrated and, indeed, demanded — today's leading left-wing leaders advocate a return to energy penury. The loudest advocates of cheap energy for the poor are on the libertarian Right, while The Nation dresses up neo-Malthusianism as revolutionary socialism.Left-wing politics was once about destabilizing power relations between the West and the Rest. Now, under the sign of climate justice, it's about sustaining them.Left-wing politicians like Al Gore, Obama and Naomi Klein crusading against cheap coal and efficient fossil fuels represents the greatest progressive reversal in history.http://***http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/voices/michael-shellenberger-and-ted-nordhaus/its-not-about-the-climate***This is immoral.Climate movement’s immoral spendingBy Tom HarrisThe consequence of overconfidence about climate science is tragic. According to the San Francisco-based Climate Policy Initiative, of the $1 billion spent worldwide each day on climate finance, 94 percent goes to mitigation, trying to control future climate. Only 6 percent of global climate finance is dedicated to helping vulnerable people cope with climate change today. In developing countries, even less, an abysmal 5 percent, goes to adaptation. Based on a theory about climate, we are letting people die today so as to possibly help those in the distant future."Providing the world’s most deprived countries with solar panels instead of better health care or education is inexcusable self-indulgence. Green energy sources may be good to keep on a single light or to charge a cellphone. But three billion people suffer from the effects of indoor air pollution because they burn wood, coal or dung to cook. These people need access to affordable, reliable electricity today. Too often clean alternatives, because they aren’t considered “renewable,” aren’t receiving the funding they deserve.We all know how well its access could help lift those without it out of poverty.The UN is more interested in chasing the chimera of “global warming” and its unproven science. The reason, of course, is power. Money and control equal power."Is the focus on "global warming" immoral?Tom Harris: Climate movement's immoral spendingIntroduction – Coal IndiaCoal India is the largest coal manufacturer in the world with total production of 567 MT in FY2018. Coal India produces 84% of the coal produced in India with a market share of 60% to 65%. The estimated geological resource of India coal stood at ~315 Billion tons as of 1st April 2017. Coal India has total coal reserves of ~88.4 Billion tons (68.6 BT resources + 19.8 BT reserves) as of 1st April 2013. Coal India operates 369 mines via 8 coal producing subsidiaries.From the Office for National Statistics. (UK)“Excess winter deaths, England and Wales, 1999/2000–2009/2010In the winter period (December to March) of 2009/10 there were an estimated 25,400 more deaths in England and Wales, compared with the average for the non-winter period (see definition below). This was a decrease of 30 per cent compared with the number in the previous winter, but is slightly higher than the level seen in 2007/08.Females experience greater excess winter mortality than males: in 2009/10 there were 10,600 excess winter deaths in males and 14,800 excess winter deaths in females. The greatest increase in deaths each winter is in the elderly population. In the winter of 2009/10 there were 20,600 more deaths among those aged 75 and over, compared with levels in the non-winter period. In contrast, there were 4,900 excess winter deaths among those under the age of 75.The number of extra deaths occurring in winter varies depending on temperature, the level of disease in the population, and other factors. Increases in deaths from respiratory and circulatory diseases cause most of the excess winter mortality. Influenza is often implicated in winter deaths as it can cause complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia, especially in the elderly. However, relatively few death certificates actually mention influenza. The winter of 2009/10 was the coldest since 1995/96 (The Met Office, 2010), but levels of influenza were relatively low for most of the winter season (Health Protection Agency, 2010).”Excess deaths hover around the 25000 mark in most years. In 1999-2000 it was 48000 and in 2008-2009 it was 36000. Between 1999 and 2009 over 314000 excess deaths are recorded.We all understand the reality – fuel poverty caused by increasing costs causes old people to die. More women die because there are more elderly women than men since they live longer.Cold homes and energy povertySUMMARYElectricity available from a national grid is a boon to civilization enabling economic, social and educational progress.Energy for grid power around the world from fossil fuels with coal being the major provider is at 99.2% after trillions wasted in subsidies of renewables.Wind and solar fail as a source of grid electricity with less than 1% use world wide.Renewables fail because they are intermittent when the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine.Vainly introducing wind and solar to the grid increases the cost because of the need for double back up with fossil fuels to kick in when the renewables fail.The earth is in the Holocene interglacial of the Quaternary Ice Age and at the peak of warming.Warm is never too warm based on past evidence and is always more beneficial than cold.We can expect falling into a cooling period like the Little Ice Age soon from the evidence of the decline of solar activity of Cycle 24-25.Further the greatest fear is the next cycle of glaciation not global warming as we are at the peak of the current interglacial.During the last glaciation most of the USA and Canada became inhospitable covered in ice > 1 mile thick.There is no evidence that Co2 including our emissions from fossil fuels has any effect on the climate.Solar cycles and activity correlates well with temperature not Co2.The sun has gone blank with few sunspots leading to the earth cooling.Most of earth’s history has been tropical with robust growth of plants and animals and not like the current ice age.Humans are a tropical specie and thrive in warmer weather.Fear of global warming is bad science and terrible public policy.REFERENCESThese two graphs illustrate a fundamental dilemma about the energy crisis. Electricity costs increase significantly because of increased renewables. Germany and Denmark have the most renewables and highest electricity cost. The reason is the intermittency requires a double fossil fuel back up constantly ready to kick in when the wind does not blow (at the coldest and hottest weather) and when the sun does not shine (during cold cloudy weather increasing abound).“Fact 1: We are in an ice age, the Quaternary to name it, and have been for 2.58 million years. Given that the previous four ice ages lasted for right at 30 my, we likely have more than 27 my to go (the two ice ages that kicked things off were of snowball-Earth proportions and lasted much longer. Ice ages occur every 155 my, and we don’t know why. That’s a much longer cycle than Milankovitch cycles can account for. Those tell us things like why North Africa has been a desert for 5 ky when before that it was a populated savanna.“Fact 2: We are in an interglacial, the Holocene epoch to give it its name, a respite from glaciation. During an ice age, interglacials occur at 90 to 125 ky intervals and last approximately 7 to 14 ky. The Holocene is 11.7 ky old, but there is new evidence that the Allerød oscillation 13.9 ky ago was the actual start with a meteor strike 1 ky in producing the Younger Dryas cooling.* If we are actually, 13.9 ky into our interglacial, then natural cycles tell us we will be rapidly descending back into glaciation in 5… 4… 3…[Charles Tips QUORA writer and former Science Editor organized these facts.]“The combination of glacials and interglacials looks like this:THE sun continues to be very quiet and it has been without sunspots this year 62% of the time as we approach what is likely to be one of the deepest solar minimums in a long, long time.Daily observations of the number of sunspots since 1 January 1977 according to Solar Influences Data Analysis CenterNew research shows fear of global warming is bad science.Marine species evolved, thrived, and diversified in 35 to 40°C ocean temperatures and CO2 concentrations “5-10x higher than present-day values” (Voosen, 2019 and Henkes et al., 2018).Image Source: Wunsch, 2018In the near-surface layer of the ocean (0-20 m), temperatures rose more than 5 times faster from 1900 to 1945 (~1.2°C, 0.27°C/decade) than they did during 1945 to 2010 (~0.3°C, 0.046°C/decade), which is the opposite of what would be expected if CO2 emissions were driving thermal changes in the ocean (Gouretski et al., 2012).Image Source: Gouretski et al., 2012II. The astounding warmth of the distant past – when marine species thrivedA year ago, Henkes et al. (2018) determined marine animals “thrived” in water temperatures that averaged 35-40°C in “widespread regions of the oceans,” which is more than 20°C warmer than today’s average ocean surface temperature (~16°C).The authors note that today’s tropical temperatures (25-30°C) can be equated to the “icehouse” conditions of the Carboniferous.Further, when marine animals thrived in waters >20°C warmer than today, this warmth was accompanied by CO2 levels “5-10x higher than present-day values” – about 2000 to 4000 ppm.Image Source: Henkes et al., 2018In a new paper published in Science, Voosen, 2019 uses the data compiled by Henkes et al. (2018) to further reiterate“Some 450 million years ago, ocean waters averaged 35°C to 40°C, more than 20°C warmer than today. Yet marine life thrived, even diversified and to construct a graphical representation of global ocean temperatures from the Paleozoic onwards. Voosen affirms “marine life diversified in extreme heat” and “mammals evolved during a warm period.”Image Source: Voosen, 2019In sum, coupling the 1) insignificant thermal ocean changes during modern times and the 2) extreme warmth (and high CO2 levels) of the distant past would seem to support the contention that marine animals are not currently in any sort of obvious danger from either rapid warming or high CO2 levels.https://notrickszone.com/2019/07...NO, global warming has not happened and is not happening now.The evidence shows temperatures have hardly increased over the past 140 years at 0.8 ‘ C and are now falling at 0.4 ‘ C. This small increase is easily explained by solar activity and natural variability. Measuring global temperatures at this level of precision is not credible and it is certainly not cause for concern as climate always seesaws hot and cold everywhere so the range of statistical error must be very high.Figure 1: The world's surface air temperature change ("anomaly"), relative to the world's mean temperature of 58° F or 14.5° C, averaged over land and oceans from 1975 to 20082. Inset are two periods of no warming or cooling within this overall warming trend.Just as important is when there was truly global warming in the past marine and other life thrived and this is when Co2 levels were 5 X HIGHER THAN TODYAY!We are in the Holocene interglacial warmer period of our Quaternary Ice Age of the past 2.5 million years. What is happening as to warming is no different and in fact cooler than temperatures of the Medieval Warm period where humans, plants and animals thrived.Holocene climatic optimum - WikipediaThis graph is taken from Wikipedia. It shows eight different reconstructions of Holocene temperature. The thick black line is the average of these. Time progresses from left to right.On this graph the Stone Age is shown only about one degree warmer than present day, but most sources mention that Scandinavian Stone Age was about 2-3 degrees warmer than the present; this need not to be mutually excluding statements, because the curve reconstructs the entire Earth's temperature, and on higher latitudes the temperature variations were greater than about equator.Some reconstructions show a vertical dramatic increase in temperature around the year 2000, but it seems not reasonable to the author, since that kind of graphs cannot possibly show temperature in specific years, it must necessarily be smoothed by a kind of mathematical rolling average, perhaps with periods of hundred years, and then a high temperature in a single year, for example, 2004 will be much less visible.The trend seems to be that Holocene's highest temperature was reached in the Hunter Stone Age about 8,000 years before present, thereafter the temperature has generally been steadily falling, however, superimposed by many cold and warm periods, including the modern warm period.However, generally speaking, the Holocene represents an amazing stable climate, where the cooling through the period has been limited to a few degrees.History of Earth's ClimateThis chart shows the seesaw hot and cold blips over 100 + years but ending where the temperature started and now returning to the colder temperatures from 1950 to 1980.Big data finds the Medieval Warm Period – no denial hereJennifer MarohasyJennifer Marohasy22 August 20177:49 AMAccording to author Leo Tolstoy, born at the very end of the Little Ice Age, in quite a cold country:The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he already knows, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him.So, our new technical paper in GeoResJ (vol. 14, pages 36-46) will likely be ignored. Because after applying the latest big data technique to six 2,000 year-long proxy-temperature series we cannot confirm that recent warming is anything but natural – what might have occurred anyway, even if there was no industrial revolution.Over the last few years, I’ve worked with Dr John Abbot using artificial neural networks (ANN) to forecast monthly rainfall. We now have a bunch of papers in international climate science journals showing these forecasts to be more skilful than output from general circulation models.During the past year, we’ve extended this work to estimating what global temperatures would have been during the twentieth century in the absence of human-emission of carbon dioxide.We began by deconstructing the six-proxy series from different geographic regions – series already published in the mainstream climate science literature. One of these, the Northern Hemisphere composite series begins in 50 AD, ends in the year 2000, and is derived from studies of pollen, lake sediments, stalagmites and boreholes.Typical of most such temperature series, it zigzags up and down while showing two rising trends: the first peaks about 1200 AD and corresponds with a period known as the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), while the second peaks in 1980 and then shows decline. In between, is the Little Ice Age (LIA), which according to the Northern Hemisphere composite bottomed-out in 1650 AD. (Of course, the MWP corresponded with a period of generally good harvests in England – when men dressed in tunics and built grand cathedrals with tall spires. It preceded the LIA when there was famine and the Great Plague of London.)Ignoring for the moment the MWP and LIA, you might want to simply dismiss this temperature series on the basis it peaks in 1980: it doesn’t continue to rise to the very end of the record: to the year 2000?In fact, this decline is typical of most such proxy reconstructions – derived from pollen, stalagmites, boreholes, coral cores and especially tree rings. Within mainstream climate science the decline after 1980 is referred to as “the divergence problem”, and then hidden.In denial of this problem, leading climate scientists have been known to even graft temperature measurements from thermometers onto the proxy record after 1980 to literally ‘hide the decline’. Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, aptly described the technique as a ‘trick’.Grafting thermometer data onto the end of the proxy record generally ‘fixes’ the problem after 1980, while remodelling effectively flattens the Medieval Warm Period.There are, however, multiple lines of evidence indicating it was about a degree warmer across Europe during the MWP – corresponding with the 1200 AD rise in our Northern Hemisphere composite. In fact, there are oodles of published technical papers based on proxy records that provide a relatively warm temperature profile for this period. This was before the Little Ice Age when it was too cold to inhabit Greenland.The modern inhabitation of Upernavik, in north west Greenland, only began in 1826, which corresponds with the beginning of the industrial age. So, the end of the Little Ice Age corresponds with the beginning of industrialisation. But did industrialisation cause the global warming? Tolstoy’s ‘intelligent man’ would immediately reply: But yes!In our new paper in GeoResJ, we make the assumption that an artificial neural network – remember our big data/machine learning technique – trained on proxy temperatures up until 1830, would be able to forecast the combined effect of natural climate cycles through the twentieth century.Using the proxy record from the Northern Hemisphere composite, decomposing this through signal analysis and then using the resulting component sine waves as input into an ANN, John Abbot and I generated forecasts for the period from 1830 to 2000.Our results show up to 1°C of warming. The average divergence between the proxy temperature record and our ANN projection is just 0.09 degree Celsius. This suggests that even if there had been no industrial revolution and burning of fossil fuels, there would have still been warming through the twentieth century – to at least 1980, and of almost 1°C.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, relying on General Circulation Models, and giving us the Paris Accord, also estimates warming of approximately 1°C, but claims this is all our fault (human caused).For more information, including charts and a link to the full paper read Jennifer Marohasy’s latest blog post.Illustration: Detail from Peasants before an Inn, Jan Steen, The Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague.The greatest concern about the climate is the risk we are returning to the devastation of seesaw glaciation of the LITTLE ICE AGE. An abrupt return of falling temperatures is very concerning. NASA Goddard Institute finds warming of 0.8* Celsius (1.4* Fahrenheit) since 1880. This means an average of only 0.0175 degree Celsius temperature increase annually. This minute amount is within the statistical error of data or natural variability of climate.The earth is cooling not warming!It is not disputed that we are in an ice age from 2.5 million years ago so have temperatures changed upward enough that we break out into the nest global warming period?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ic...An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar icesheets and alpine glaciers. ... By this definition, we are in an interglacial period—the Holocene.Earth is currently in the Quaternary glaciation, known in popular terminology as the Ice Age.Individual pulses of cold climate are termed "glacial periods" (or, alternatively, "glacials", "glaciations", "glacial stages", "stadials", "stades", or colloquially, "ice ages"), and intermittent warm periods are called "interglacials" or "interstadials" with both climatic pulses part of the Quaternary or other periods in Earth's history.In the terminology of glaciology, ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres.The earth is cooling as temperatures declineLikely coldest April since 1895 – U.S. farmers delay planting cropsAnthony Watts / 1 day ago April 26, 2018Farmers are suffering as the cold, wet spring has put a stunning halt to agriculture. Ice Age Farmer Report – 19 Apr 2018Soil temperatures are below normal, and not conducive to planting yet.Ice Age Farmer highly recommends putting in your own greenhouse.“According to Mike Tannura of T-Storm Weather, there’s a strong correlation between historically cold April months and below trend yields. On Monday, Tannura told AgriTalk After The Bell host Chip Flory that April 2018 will go down as one of the three coldest Aprils since 1895.“Based on the data we’re looking at today, there’s a chance it could be the coldest of the entire period going back to 1895,” he said.Here are some of the Ice Age Farmer’s warnings:· Folks in Ohio are not able to start planting.· Folks in Nebraska are not able to start planting.· Folks in Illinois are not able to start planting.· Folks in North Dakota are not able to start planting.· Folks in South Dakota are not able to start planting.· None of Iowa’s farmland is ready for plantingClimate Scam Collapsing: ‘Reality Is Cooling…MORE Snowfall’Published on November 19, 2018Written by Tony HellerThe global warming scam is beginning to collapse. Even CBS News Boston is starting to understand.BOSTON (CBS) — Despite the snow blitz of 2015, many baby boomers still insist that, overall, we don’t get the harsh bitter cold and deep snowy winters like we did in the good ole days.Weather records prove that just isn’t the case and despite the ongoing claims that snows are becoming rare and hurting winter sports, this millennium has been a blessing to snow lovers and winter sports enthusiasts.The last decade stands out like a sore thumb! It has had 29 major impact northeast winter storms with NO previous 10-year period with more than 10 storms! In Boston, 7 out of the last 10 years have produced snowfall above the average 43.7 inches.2008-09: 65.9″2009-10: 35.7″2010-11: 81.0″2011-12: 9.3″2012-13: 63.4″2013-14: 58.9″2014-15: 110.6″ Greatest On Record Back To 18722015-16: 36.1″2016-17: 47.6″2017-18: 59.9″https://principia-scientific.org...Monday, 01 October 2018THE SUN DRIVES THE CLIMATE NOT MINUTE AMOUNTS NEAR ZERO OF HUMAN EMISSIONS OF CO2. SOLAR CYCLES MATTER MOST TO TEMPERATURE CHANGE.THE ABOVE CHART SHOWS VERY STRONG CORRELATION BETWEEN SOLAR CYCLES AND TEMPERATURE.This solar evidence destroys the unproven human made climate change idea.Recent in depth academic research supports the robustness of the 11 year solar cycle to explain natural variability not Co2.GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 38, L14809, doi:10.1029/2011GL047964, 2011On the robustness of the solar cycle signal in the Pacific regionS. Bal,1,2 S. Schimanke,1,3 T. Spangehl,1 and U. Cubasch1Received 6 May 2011; revised 9 June 2011; accepted 10 June 2011; published 27 July 2011.[1] The potential role of the stratosphere for the 11‐year solar cycle signal in the Pacific region is investigated by idealized simulations using a coupled atmosphere‐ocean general circulation model. The model includes a detailed representation of the stratosphere and accounts for changes in stratospheric heating rates from prescribed time dependent variations of ozone and spectrally high resolved solar irradiance. Three transient simulations are performed spanning 21 solar cycles each. The simulations use slightly different ozone perturbations representing uncertainties of solar induced ozone variations. The model reproduces the main features of the 20th century observed solar response. A persistent mean sea level pressure response to solar forcing is found for the eastern North Pacific extending over North America. Moreover, there is evidence for a La Niña‐like response assigned to solar maximum conditions with below normal SSTs in the equatorial eastern Pacific, reduced equatorial precipitation, enhanced off‐equatorial precipita- tion and an El Niño‐like response a couple of years later, thus confirming the response to solar forcing at the surface seen in earlier studies. The amplitude of the solar signal in the Pacific region depends to a great extent on the choice of the centennial period averaged. Citation: Bal, S., S. Schimanke, T. Spangehl, and U. Cubasch (2011), On the robustness of the solar cycle signal in the Pacific region, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L14809, doi:10.1029/2011GL047964.1. Introduction[2] It has been suggested that large scale near surface climate variability during the 20th century is related to the 11‐year cycle of the sun [White and Tourree, 2003]. The quasi decadal oscillation (QDO) reveals similar spatial characteristics as the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is similarly governed by a delayed action oscillator mechanism in the tropical Pacific [White and Tourree, 2003; White et al., 2003]. While ENSO associated with 3‐to 7‐year period variability is an internally generated mode of the coupled ocean‐atmosphere system, model studies indicate that solar forcing is necessary to generate the QDO of 9‐to 13‐year period [White and Liu, 2008a]. Moreover, there is evidence for a phase lock between QDO, ENSO type vari- ability and the 11‐year solar cycle resulting in a distinct temporal evolution of the solar signal [White and Liu, 2008a, 2008b]. Based on observations spanning the period from the late 19th century to present, van Loon et al. [2004, 2007] find1Institut fu ̈ r Meteorologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 2Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. 3Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping,Sweden.Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union. 0094‐8276/11/2011GL047964a La Niña like response with lower sea surface temperatures (SST) in the eastern equatorial Pacific mainly for solar maximum peak years. Meehl et al. [2008] confirmed a pro- posed mechanism on the basis of ensemble experiments with two different ocean‐atmosphere general circulation models (AO‐GCM). The resulting ensemble mean response patterns are similar to the observations in the Pacific region but the amplitude is only about half the magnitude of the observed response. A possible explanation for this underestimation is the neglect of stratospheric forcing and coupling mechanisms [e.g., Shindell et al., 2006].[3] Coupledchemistry‐climatemodels(CCM)havesofar been able to simulate important features of the stratospheric solar signal [e.g., Marsh et al., 2007]. In a recent study Meehl et al. [2009] successfully reproduce the strength of the observed response in the tropical Pacific region when employing a CCM coupled to a deep ocean model. However, their simulation reveals some discrepancies with respect to the exact shape and temporal evolution of the response. As their conclusions solely rely on a single realization with only one model, important aspects that need to be addressed are the role of (i) internal variability and (ii) ozone related sen- sitivities for the simulated/observed signals. In the present study we assess the associated uncertainties based on an ensemble of idealized simulations performed with a strato- sphere resolving AO‐GCM.The whole global warming saga is a group think movement using fear and prejudice to sell more newspapers and buy more votes. When you see the true non-science motives behind the radical claims of media and alarmists then you understand the fudged data and wrong hypothesis about the climate and how it really works.Dr. Endenhofer reveals the real climate agenda of the UN and other lefty alarmists.As to global warming Mother Nature has let the sun go to sleep resulting in cooling temperatures and weather that is reminiscent of the Little Ice Age.Monday, 01 October 2018NASA Sees Climate Cooling Trend Thanks to Low Sun ActivityWritten by James MurphyThe climate alarmists just can’t catch a break. NASA is reporting that the sun is entering one of the deepest Solar Minima of the Space Age; and Earth’s atmosphere is responding in kind.So, start pumping out that CO2, everyone. We’re going to need all the greenhouse gases we can get.“We see a cooling trend,” said Martin Mlynczak of NASA’s Langley Research Center. “High above Earth’s surface, near the edge of space, our atmosphere is losing heat energy. If current trends continue, it could soon set a Space Age record for cold.”The new data is coming from NASA’s Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry or SABER instrument, which is onboard the space agency’s Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite. SABER monitors infrared radiation from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a vital role in the energy output of our thermosphere, the very top level of our atmosphere.“The thermosphere always cools off during Solar Minimum. It’s one of the most important ways the solar cycle affects our planet,” said Mlynczak, who is the associate principal investigator for SABER.Who knew that that big yellow ball of light in the sky had such a big influence on our climate?There’s a bit of good news in all of this. When the thermosphere cools, it literally shrinks, therefore reducing aerodynamic drag on satellites in low Earth orbit. In effect, the shrinking thermosphere increases a satellite’s lifetime.But that appears to be where the good news ends, unless you prefer cold weather and increased space junk. “The bad news,” according to Dr. Tony Phillips, editor of SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids, is: “It also delays the natural decay of space junk, resulting in a more cluttered environment around Earth.”Mlynczak and his colleagues have created the Thermosphere Climate Index (TCI), which measures how much NO is dumped from the Thermosphere into outer space. During Solar Maximum the TCI number is very high. At times of Solar Minimum, TCI is low.“Right now, (TCI) is very low indeed,” said Mlynczak. “SABER is currently measuring 33 billion Watts of infrared power from NO. That’s ten times smaller than we see during more active phases of the solar cycle."SABER has been in orbit for only 17 years, but Mlynczak and the scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center have been able to recreate TCI measurements back to the 1940s. “SABER taught us how to do this by revealing how TCI depends on other variables such as geomagnetic activity and the sun’s UV output — things that have been measured for decades,” said Mlynczak.In fact, TCI numbers now, in the closing months of 2018, are very close to setting record lows since measurements began. “We’re not quite there yet,” Mlynczak reports. “but it could happen in a matter of months.”The new NASA findings are in line with studies released by UC-San Diego and Northumbria University in Great Britain last year, both of which predict a Grand Solar Minimum in coming decades due to low sunspot activity. Both studies predicted sun activity similar to the Maunder Minimum of the mid-17th to early 18th centuries, which coincided to a time known as the Little Ice Age, during which temperatures were much lower than those of today.If all of this seems as if NASA is contradicting itself, you’re right — sort of. After all, NASA also reported last week that Arctic sea ice was at its sixth lowest level since measuring began. Isn’t that a sure sign of global warming?All any of this “proves” is that we have, at best, a cursory understanding of Earth’s incredibly complex climate system. So when mainstream media and carbon-credit salesman Al Gore breathlessly warn you that we must do something about climate change, it’s all right to step back, take a deep breath, and realize that we don’t have the knowledge, skill or resources to have much effect on the Earth’s climate. God — and that big yellow ball of light in the sky — have much more impact on our climate than we ever could.COMMENTJames Matkin •The earth is actually cooling and NASA grudgingly begins to admit reality over the fiction of failed computer modelling by the iPCC. So much waste and damage from the futile attempt to reduce our Co2 emissions for a colder climate. The climate alarmists have ignored solar natural variability not because of the science but because of their left wing economic agenda. They have ignored leading science papers like the 400 page study THE NEGLECTED SUN Why the Sun Precludes Climate Catastrophe, by Professor Fritz Vahreholt and Dr. Sebastian Luning. This study demonstrates that "the critical cause of global temperature change has been, and continues to be, the sun's activity." As NASA admits the sun is in a cooling phase and the solar cycles make impossible "the catastrophic prospects put forward by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the alarmist agenda dominant in contemporary Western politics."https://www.thenewamerican.com/t...Rise in temperatures and CO2 follow each other closely in climate changeby University of CopenhagenAn ice core from the deep drilling through the ice sheet at Law Dome in Antarctica.The greatest climate change the world has seen in the last 100,000 years was the transition from the ice age to the warm interglacial period. New research from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen indicates that, contrary to previous opinion, the rise in temperature and the rise in the atmospheric CO2follow each other closely in terms of time. The results have been published in the scientific journal, Climate of the Past.In the warmer climate the atmospheric content of CO2is naturally higher. The gas CO2(carbon dioxide) is a green-house gas that absorbs heat radiation from the Earth and thus keeps the Earth warm. In the shift between ice ages and interglacial periods the atmospheric content of CO2helps to intensify the natural climate variations.It had previously been thought that as the temperature began to rise at the end of the ice age approximately 19,000 years ago, an increase in the amount of CO2in the atmosphere followed with a delay of up to 1,000 years."Our analyses of ice cores from the ice sheet in Antarctica shows that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere follows the rise in Antarctic temperatures very closely and is staggered by a few hundred years at most," explains Sune Olander Rasmussen, Associate Professor and centre coordinator at the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of CopenhagenCo2 has no effect on the climate as it follows rise in temperatures that is the result of solar cycles.No Empirical Evidence forCO2 Causing Global WarmingSome say historically, that increased CO2levels in the atmosphere have created periods of global warming throughout our history. They cite the Vostok, Antarctica ice core data (1) as proof of this seeFigure 1. However, the problem is that whoever came up with that analysis had thecause and effect reversed. If you look closely at the graph, it is obvious that global warming always comes first. At temperature (blue line) spike always comes before the CO2concentration (red line) spike. After a temperature spike from the sun, the oceans start to warm and eventually liberate more CO2 due to its reduced solubility in seawater at higher temperature. Another relevant question is, what other mechanism could possibly cause CO2 concentrations to increase other than a solar spike from the sun? Where else could the CO2come from, especially during those times before the industrial age?Figure 1. Vostok Antarctica Ice Core Data (420,000years Back from Present)Recent empirical data (2) show that atmospheric CO2concentrations have no discernible effect on global temperature, see Figure 2.The temperature plots shown are from two sources; the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration's (NASA) Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) and the United Kingdom's (UK) Hadley Climate Research Unit. The CO2 plot is from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.Figure 2. Earth temperature and CO2concentration 1998-2008While CO2levels increased some 20 ppmv over the past 10 years, global temperatures did not increase as predicted by the IPCC models - they fell! The earth's temperature from 1998 to 2008 dropped by 0.65 - 0.78 o C depending on which temperature set is chosen.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237135591_CFC_Destruction_of_Ozone_-_Major_Cause_of_Recent_Global_WarmingAfter record breaking temperatures, some cooler weather hits parts of EuropeBut the reprieve was not universal, with Germany measuring a record high temperature for June.Sun 5:36 PM 22,125 Views 8 CommentsShare11 Tweet EmailPeople watch the sunrise this morning on the mountain Brocken in Schiere, Germany,Image: Matthias Bein/dpa via APA WELCOME TEMPERATURE drop has hit western parts of Europe today bringing relief to areas that have sweltered through a widespread, deadly heatwave for almost a week.But the reprieve was not universal, with Germany measuring a record high temperature for June and Spanish firefighters battling three major blazes with the help of more than 700 soldiers and water bombing planes.In Rome, Pope Francis told pilgrims on Saint Peter’s Square:“I pray for those who have suffered the most from the heat in recent days; the sick, the elderly, those who work outside, on construction sites… let no one be abandoned or exploited.”Six days of intense heat fuelled huge blazes and spikes in pollution in many countries, and officially claimed four lives in France, two in Italy and another two in Spain.The victims included a 17-year-old harvest worker, a 33-year-old roofer and a 72-year-old homeless man.Today, in northern and western France, hot-weather warnings were lifted days after the country posted successive record temperatures as it sizzled alongside Italy, Spain and some central European nations.The mercury was predicted to drop by as much as 10 degrees Celsius in Paris today but to continue rising in central and eastern Germany and in Italy before rainstorms cool things down by Tuesday.On Sunday, a record 38.9 Celsius was measured in Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate state, according to data from the national weather service, wiping out the previous high of 38.6 degrees recorded Wednesday in two other towns.Following on from high temperatures of the last few days, things were a bit cooler across the country today. Some showers and moderate winds kep temperatures a bit lower.The week ahead is looking mostly dry with a mix of sunshine and cloudy spells, and temperatures ranging from 15 to 22 degrees in some areas.Runners collapseIn Frankfurt, Germany, the blazing heat took its toll on US athlete Sarah True, who had been leading the Ironman European championships but lost the race as she collapsed a kilometre before the finish line.The firefighter service in Hamburg reported that “many runners collapsed during a half-marathon which took place under a heat that reached 33 degrees. Twenty-four runners had to be brought to clinics for treatment”.Police used water cannons to help cool down the crowd at a summer street festival in Soemmerda in Thuringia state.In central Spain, temperatures close to 42 degrees hammered firefighting crews yesterday, notably near Almorox where at least 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) have burnt while flames crept towards Madrid, forcing the evacuation of a village and 200 people from a campsite, emergency services said.Another major fire burned near Toledo, while in northeastern Catalonia, an inferno that had begun on Wednesday was being brought under control, regional authorities said.Four Spanish weather stations have reported June records from 38.8 Celsius to 41.9 Celsius.In France, fires razed about 600 hectares (1,480 acres) and dozens of houses in the southern Gard department.- © AFP 2019 with reporting from Cormac FitzgeraldShort URL·MY PUBLISHED COMMENTJim MatkinNo one living or dead has witnessed climate change if they are true to science, because climate change is only a statistic that measures weather over centuries or millennia. The statistic comes from weather, but it is not the weather hot or cold.“Climate change is any significant long-term change in the expected patterns of average weather of a region (or the whole Earth) over a significant period of time. W” .The alarmists media ignore science by portraying the recent heat wave in France as linked to climate change. This is impossible to know and in fact after a short 4 days France is now facing unusually colder weather for this time of year. The alarmists fooled again by ignoring the fact we are in the e ice cores from the two bores at Siple Dome (red) and Byrd Holocene warming of the inter-glaciation of the Quaternary Ice Age for the past 2.5 million years and temperatures are swinging from hot (Medieval Warming) to cold (Little Ice Ag) in a chaotic and random fashion. This is not global warming.https://www.thejournal.ie/heatwave-europe-3-4704121-Jun2019/#comment-8146603

BackgroundThe Indus Valley civilization, one of the world's oldest, flourished during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India. Aryan tribes from the northwest infiltrated the Indian subcontinent about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. The Maurya Empire of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. - which reached its zenith under ASHOKA - united much of South Asia. The Golden Age ushered in by the Gupta dynasty (4th to 6th centuries A.D.) saw a flowering of Indian science, art, and culture. Islam spread across the subcontinent over a period of 700 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded India and established the Delhi Sultanate. In the early 16th century, the Emperor BABUR established the Mughal Dynasty, which ruled India for more than three centuries. European explorers began establishing footholds in India during the 16th century.By the 19th century, Great Britain had become the dominant political power on the subcontinent and India was seen as the "Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire. The British Indian Army played a vital role in both World Wars. Years of nonviolent resistance to British rule, led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU, eventually resulted in Indian independence in 1947. Large-scale communal violence took place before and after the subcontinent partition into two separate states - India and Pakistan. The neighboring countries have fought three wars since independence, the last of which was in 1971 and resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. India's nuclear weapons tests in 1998 emboldened Pakistan to conduct its own tests that same year. In November 2008, terrorists originating from Pakistan conducted a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai, India's financial capital. India's economic growth following the launch of economic reforms in 1991, a massive youthful population, and a strategic geographic location have contributed to India's emergence as a regional and global power. However, India still faces pressing problems such as environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and widespread corruption, and its restrictive business climate is dampening economic growth expectations.The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world and dating back at least 5,000 years, spread over much of what is presently Pakistan. During the second millennium B.C., remnants of this culture fused with the migrating Indo-Aryan peoples. The area underwent successive invasions in subsequent centuries from the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, Arabs (who brought Islam), Afghans, and Turks. The Mughal Empire flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries; the British came to dominate the region in the 18th century. The separation in 1947 of British India into the Muslim state of Pakistan (with West and East sections) and largely Hindu India was never satisfactorily resolved, and India and Pakistan fought two wars and a limited conflict - in 1947-48, 1965, and 1999 respectively - over the disputed Kashmir territory. A third war between these countries in 1971 - in which India assisted an indigenous movement reacting to the marginalization of Bengalis in Pakistani politics - resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh.In response to Indian nuclear weapons testing, Pakistan conducted its own tests in mid-1998. India-Pakistan relations improved in the mid-2000s but have been rocky since the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and have been further strained by attacks in India by militants believed to be based in Pakistan. Imran KHAN took office as prime minister in 2018 after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party won a plurality of seats in the July 2018 general elections. Pakistan has been engaged in a decades-long armed conflict with militant groups that target government institutions and civilians, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant networksGeographyIndiaPakistanLocationSouthern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and PakistanSouthern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea, between India on the east and Iran and Afghanistan on the west and China in the northGeographic coordinates20 00 N, 77 00 E30 00 N, 70 00 EMap referencesAsiaAsiaAreatotal: 3,287,263 sq kmland: 2,973,193 sq kmwater: 314,070 sq kmtotal: 796,095 sq kmland: 770,875 sq kmwater: 25,220 sq kmArea - comparativeslightly more than one-third the size of the USslightly more than five times the size of Georgia; slightly less than twice the size of CaliforniaLand boundariestotal: 13,888 kmborder countries (6): Bangladesh 4142 km, Bhutan 659 km, Burma 1468 km, China 2659 km, Nepal 1770 km, Pakistan 3190 kmtotal: 7,257 kmborder countries (4): Afghanistan 2670 km, China 438 km, India 3190 km, Iran 959 kmCoastline7,000 km1,046 kmMaritime claimsterritorial sea: 12 nmexclusive economic zone: 200 nmcontiguous zone: 24 nmcontinental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental marginterritorial sea: 12 nmexclusive economic zone: 200 nmcontiguous zone: 24 nmcontinental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental marginClimatevaries from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in northmostly hot, dry desert; temperate in northwest; arctic in northTerrainupland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along the Ganges, deserts in west, Himalayas in northdivided into three major geographic areas: the northern highlands, the Indus River plain in the center and east, and the Balochistan Plateau in the south and westElevation extremesmean elevation: 160 mlowest point: Indian Ocean 0 mhighest point: Kanchenjunga 8,586 mmean elevation: 900 mlowest point: Arabian Sea 0 mhighest point: K2 (Mt. Godwin-Austen) 8,611 mNatural resourcescoal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), antimony, iron ore, lead, manganese, mica, bauxite, rare earth elements, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable landarable land, extensive natural gas reserves, limited petroleum, poor quality coal, iron ore, copper, salt, limestoneLand useagricultural land: 60.5%(2011 est.)arable land: 52.8% (2011 est.) / permanent crops: 4.2% (2011 est.) / permanent pasture: 3.5% (2011 est.)forest: 23.1%(2011 est.)other: 16.4%(2011 est.)agricultural land: 35.2%(2011 est.)arable land: 27.6% (2011 est.) / permanent crops: 1.1% (2011 est.) / permanent pasture: 6.5% (2011 est.)forest: 2.1%(2011 est.)other: 62.7%(2011 est.)Irrigated land667,000 sq km(2012)202,000 sq km(2012)Natural hazardsdroughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakesvolcanism: Barren Island (354 m) in the Andaman Sea has been active in recent yearsfrequent earthquakes, occasionally severe especially in north and west; flooding along the Indus after heavy rains (July and August)Environment - current issuesdeforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing population is overstraining natural resources; preservation and quality of forests; biodiversity losswater pollution from raw sewage, industrial wastes, and agricultural runoff; limited natural freshwater resources; most of the population does not have access to potable water; deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air pollution and noise pollution in urban areasEnvironment - international agreementsparty to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whalingsigned, but not ratified: none of the selected agreementsparty to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlandssigned, but not ratified: Marine Life ConservationGeography - notedominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean trade routes; Kanchenjunga, third tallest mountain in the world, lies on the border with Nepalcontrols Khyber Pass and Bolan Pass, traditional invasion routes between Central Asia and the Indian SubcontinentPopulation distributionwith the notable exception of the deserts in the northwest, including the Thar Desert, and the mountain fringe in the north, a very high population density exists throughout most of the country; the core of the population is in the north along the banks of the Ganges, with other river valleys and southern coastal areas also having large population concentrationsthe Indus River and its tributaries attract most of the settlement, with Punjab province the most densely populatedDemographicsIndiaPakistanPopulation1,326,093,247(July 2020 est.)233,500,636(July 2020 est.)note: provisional results of Pakistan's 2017 national census estimate the country's total population to be 207,774,000Age structure0-14 years: 26.31% (male 185,017,089/female 163,844,572)15-24 years: 17.51% (male 123,423,531/female 108,739,780)25-54 years: 41.56% (male 285,275,667/female 265,842,319)55-64 years: 7.91% (male 52,444,817/female 52,447,038)65 years and over: 6.72% (male 42,054,459/female 47,003,975) (2020 est.)0-14 years: 36.01% (male 42,923,925/female 41,149,694)15-24 years: 19.3% (male 23,119,205/female 21,952,976)25-54 years: 34.7% (male 41,589,381/female 39,442,046)55-64 years: 5.55% (male 6,526,656/female 6,423,993)65 years and over: 4.44% (male 4,802,165/female 5,570,595) (2020 est.)Median agetotal: 28.7 yearsmale: 28 yearsfemale: 29.5 years(2020 est.)total: 22 yearsmale: 21.9 yearsfemale: 22.1 years(2020 est.)Population growth rate1.1%(2020 est.)2.07%(2020 est.)Birth rate18.2 births/1,000 population(2020 est.)27.4 births/1,000 population(2020 est.)Death rate7.3 deaths/1,000 population(2020 est.)6.2 deaths/1,000 population(2020 est.)Net migration rate0 migrant(s)/1,000 population(2020 est.)-0.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population(2020 est.)Sex ratioat birth: 1.11 male(s)/female0-14 years: 1.13 male(s)/female15-24 years: 1.14 male(s)/female25-54 years: 1.07 male(s)/female55-64 years: 1 male(s)/female65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/femaletotal population: 107.9 male(s)/female(2020 est.)at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female0-14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female15-24 years: 1.05 male(s)/female25-54 years: 1.05 male(s)/female55-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/femaletotal population: 103.9 male(s)/female(2020 est.)Infant mortality ratetotal: 35.4 deaths/1,000 live birthsmale: 34.4 deaths/1,000 live birthsfemale: 36.5 deaths/1,000 live births(2020 est.)total: 52.3 deaths/1,000 live birthsmale: 55.9 deaths/1,000 live birthsfemale: 48.5 deaths/1,000 live births(2020 est.)Life expectancy at birthtotal population: 69.7 yearsmale: 68.4 yearsfemale: 71.2 years(2020 est.)total population: 69.2 yearsmale: 67.2 yearsfemale: 71.3 years(2020 est.)Total fertility rate2.35 children born/woman(2020 est.)3.6 children born/woman(2020 est.)HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate0.2%(2017 est.)0.1%(2019 est.)Nationalitynoun: Indian(s)adjective: Indiannoun: Pakistani(s)adjective: PakistaniEthnic groupsIndo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)Punjabi 44.7%, Pashtun (Pathan) 15.4%, Sindhi 14.1%, Saraiki 8.4%, Muhajirs 7.6%, Balochi 3.6%, other 6.3%HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS2.1 million(2017 est.)190,000(2019 est.)ReligionsHindu 79.8%, Muslim 14.2%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.7%, other and unspecified 2% (2011 est.)Muslim (official) 96.4% (Sunni 85-90%, Shia 10-15%), other (includes Christian and Hindu) 3.6% (2010 est.)HIV/AIDS - deaths69,000(2017 est.)6,800(2019 est.)LanguagesHindi 43.6%, Bengali 8%, Marathi 6.9%, Telugu 6.7%, Tamil 5.7%, Gujarati 4.6%, Urdu 4.2%, Kannada 3.6%, Odia 3.1%, Malayalam 2.9%, Punjabi 2.7%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.1%, other 5.6% (2011 est.)note: English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; there are 22 other officially recognized languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official languagePunjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Saraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashto (alternate name, Pashtu) 8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, English (official; lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries), Burushaski, and other 8%Literacydefinition: age 15 and over can read and writetotal population: 74.4%male: 82.4%female: 65.8%(2018)definition: age 15 and over can read and writetotal population: 59.1%male: 71.1%female: 46.5%(2015)Major infectious diseasesdegree of risk: very high (2020)food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fevervectorborne diseases: dengue fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malariawater contact diseases: leptospirosisanimal contact diseases: rabiesnote: clusters of cases of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are being reported across 27 States and Union Territories in India; as of 10 November 2020, India has reported a total of 8,507,754 cases of COVID-19 or 6,165 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 1 million population with 91 cumulative deaths per 1 million population; on 16 March 2020, the government proposed extensive social distancing measures, including closure of all schools, museums, and cultural and social centers; prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people; and called on the public to avoid all non-essential travel; international commercial passenger flights remain suspendeddegree of risk: high (2020)food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fevervectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malariaanimal contact diseases: rabiesnote: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout Pakistan; as of 10 November 2020, Pakistan has reported a total of 341,753 cases of COVID-19 or 1,547 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 1 million population with 31 cumulative deaths per 1 million population; the Government of Pakistan will permit commercial outbound passenger flights from all international airports except Gwadar and Turbat effective 30 May 2020, but inbound passenger flights remain suspended; limited domestic flight operations from five major airports – Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta are available; on 7 May 2020, the Government of Pakistan announced an ease in some of the nationwide lockdown restrictions; additionally, the Islamabad Capital Territory and Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces have varying degrees of lockdownsSchool life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)total: 12 yearsmale: 11 yearsfemale: 12 years(2019)total: 8 yearsmale: 9 yearsfemale: 8 years(2018)Education expenditures3.8% of GDP(2013)2.9% of GDP(2017)Urbanizationurban population: 34.9% of total population (2020)rate of urbanization: 2.37% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)urban population: 37.2% of total population (2020)rate of urbanization: 2.53% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)Drinking water sourceimproved: urban: 96% of populationrural: 91% of populationtotal: 92.7% of populationunimproved: urban: 4% of populationrural: 9% of populationtotal: 7.2% of population (2017 est.)improved: urban: 94.2% of populationrural: 89.9% of populationtotal: 91.5% of populationunimproved: urban: 5.8% of populationrural: 10.1% of populationtotal: 8.5% of population (2017 est.)Sanitation facility accessimproved: urban: 93.7% of populationrural: 61.1% of populationtotal: 72% of populationunimproved: urban: 6.3% of populationrural: 38.9% of populationtotal: 28% of population (2017 est.)improved: urban: 82.5% of populationrural: 62.9% of populationtotal: 70.1% of populationunimproved: urban: 17.5% of populationrural: 37.1% of populationtotal: 29.9% of population (2017 est.)Major cities - population30.291 million NEW DELHI (capital), 20.411 million Mumbai, 14.850 million Kolkata, 1.237 million Bangalore, 10.971 million Chennai, 10.004 million Hyderabad (2020)16.094 million Karachi, 12.642 million Lahore, 3.462 million Faisalabad, 2.237 million Rawalpindi, 2.229 million Gujranwala, 1.129 million ISLAMABAD (capital) (2020)Maternal mortality rate145 deaths/100,000 live births(2017 est.)140 deaths/100,000 live births(2017 est.)Children under the age of 5 years underweight33.4%(2016/18)23.1%(2018)Health expenditures3.5%(2017)2.9%(2017)Physicians density0.78 physicians/1,000 population(2017)1 physicians/1,000 population(2017)Hospital bed density0.5 beds/1,000 population(2017)0.6 beds/1,000 population(2017)Obesity - adult prevalence rate3.9%(2016)8.6%(2016)Contraceptive prevalence rate53.5%(2015/16)34.2%(2017/18)Dependency ratiostotal dependency ratio: 48.7youth dependency ratio: 38.9elderly dependency ratio: 9.8potential support ratio: 10.2(2020 est.)total dependency ratio: 64.4youth dependency ratio: 57.2elderly dependency ratio: 7.1potential support ratio: 14(2020 est.)GovernmentIndiaPakistanCountry nameconventional long form: Republic of Indiaconventional short form: Indialocal long form: Republic of India/Bharatiya Ganarajyalocal short form: India/Bharatetymology: the English name derives from the Indus River; the Indian name "Bharat" may derive from the "Bharatas" tribe mentioned in the Vedas of the second millennium B.C.; the name is also associated with Emperor Bharata, the legendary conqueror of all of Indiaconventional long form: Islamic Republic of Pakistanconventional short form: Pakistanlocal long form: Jamhuryat Islami Pakistanlocal short form: Pakistanformer: West Pakistanetymology: the word "pak" means "pure" in Persian or Pashto, while the Persian suffix "-stan" means "place of" or "country," so the word Pakistan literally means "Land of the Pure"Government typefederal parliamentary republicfederal parliamentary republicCapitalname: New Delhigeographic coordinates: 28 36 N, 77 12 Etime difference: UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)etymology: the city's name is associated with various myths and legends; the original name for the city may have been Dhilli or Dhillika; alternatively, the name could be a corruption of the Hindustani words "dehleez" or "dehali" - both terms meaning "threshold" or "gateway" - and indicative of the city as a gateway to the Gangetic Plain; after the British decided to move the capital of their Indian Empire from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, they created a new governmental district south of the latter designated as New Delhi; the new capital was not formally inaugurated until 1931name: Islamabadgeographic coordinates: 33 41 N, 73 03 Etime difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)etymology: derived from two words: "Islam," an Urdu word referring to the religion of Islam, and "-abad," a Persian suffix indicating an "inhabited place" or "city," to render the meaning "City of Islam"Administrative divisions28 states and 8 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh*, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu*, Delhi*, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir*, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh*, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry*, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengalnote: although its status is that of a union territory, the official name of Delhi is National Capital Territory of Delhi4 provinces, 2 Pakistan-administered areas*, and 1 capital territory**; Azad Kashmir*, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan*, Islamabad Capital Territory**, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, SindhIndependence15 August 1947 (from the UK)14 August 1947 (from British India)National holidayRepublic Day, 26 January (1950)Pakistan Day (also referred to as Pakistan Resolution Day or Republic Day), 23 March (1940); note - commemorates both the adoption of the Lahore Resolution by the All-India Muslim League during its 22-24 March 1940 session, which called for the creation of independent Muslim states, and the adoption of the first constitution of Pakistan on 23 March 1956 during the transition to the Islamic Republic of PakistanConstitutionhistory: previous 1935 (preindependence); latest draft completed 4 November 1949, adopted 26 November 1949, effective 26 January 1950amendments: proposed by either the Council of States or the House of the People; passage requires majority participation of the total membership in each house and at least two-thirds majority of voting members of each house, followed by assent of the president of India; proposed amendments to the constitutional amendment procedures also must be ratified by at least one half of the India state legislatures before presidential assent; amended many times, last in 2019history: several previous; latest endorsed 12 April 1973, passed 19 April 1973, entered into force 14 August 1973 (suspended and restored several times)amendments: proposed by the Senate or by the National Assembly; passage requires at least two-thirds majority vote of both houses; amended many times, last in 2018Legal systemcommon law system based on the English model; separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus; judicial review of legislative acts; note - in late 2019 the Government of India began discussions to overhaul its penal code, which dates to the British colonial periodcommon law system with Islamic law influenceSuffrage18 years of age; universal18 years of age; universal; note - there are joint electorates and reserved parliamentary seats for women and non-MuslimsExecutive branchchief of state: President Ram Nath KOVIND (since 25 July 2017); Vice President M. Venkaiah NAIDU (since 11 August 2017)head of government: Prime Minister Narendra MODI (since 26 May 2014)cabinet: Union Council of Ministers recommended by the prime minister, appointed by the presidentelections/appointments: president indirectly elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament for a 5-year term (no term limits); election last held on 17 July 2017 (next to be held in July 2022); vice president indirectly elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament for a 5-year term (no term limits); election last held on 5 August 2017 (next to be held in August 2022); following legislative elections, the prime minister is elected by Lok Sabha members of the majority partyelection results: Ram Nath KOVIND elected president; percent of electoral college vote - Ram Nath KOVIND (BJP) 65.7% Meira KUMAR (INC) 34.3%; M. Venkaiah NAIDU elected vice president; electoral college vote - M. Venkaiah NAIDU (BJP) 516, Gopalkrishna GANDHI (independent) 244chief of state: President Arif ALVI (since 9 September 2018)head of government: Prime Minister Imran KHAN (since 18 August 2018)cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president upon the advice of the prime ministerelections/appointments: president indirectly elected by the Electoral College consisting of members of the Senate, National Assembly, and provincial assemblies for a 5-year term (limited to 2 consecutive terms); election last held on 4 September 2018 (next to be held in 2023); prime minister elected by the National Assembly on 17 August 2018election results: Arif ALVI elected president; Electoral College vote - Arif ALVI (PTI) 352, Fazl-ur-REHMAN (MMA) 184, Aitzaz AHSAN (PPP) 124; Imran KHAN elected prime minister; National Assembly vote - Imran KHAN (PTI) 176, Shehbaz SHARIF (PML-N) 96Legislative branchdescription: bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of:Council of States or Rajya Sabha (245 seats; 233 members indirectly elected by state and territorial assemblies by proportional representation vote and 12 members appointed by the president; members serve 6-year terms)House of the People or Lok Sabha (545 seats; 543 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote and 2 appointed by the president; members serve 5-year terms)elections: Council of States - last held by state and territorial assemblies at various dates in 2019 (next originally scheduled for March, June, and November 2020 but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic)House of the People - last held April-May 2019 in 7 phases (next to be held in 2024)election results: Council of States - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - BJP 83, INC 46, AITC 13, DMK 11, SP, other 77, independent 6; composition - men 220, women 25, percent of women 10.2%House of the People - percent of vote by party - BJP 55.8%, INC 9.6%, AITC 4.4%, YSRC 4.4%, DMK 4.2%, SS 3.3%, JDU 2.9%, BJD 2.2%, BSP 1.8%, TRS 1.7%, LJP 1.1%, NCP 0.9%, SP 0.9%, other 6.4%, independent 0.7%; seats by party - BJP 303, INC 52, DMK 24, AITC 22, YSRC 22, SS 18, JDU 16, BJD 12, BSP 10, TRS 9, LJP 6, NCP 5, SP 5, other 35, independent 4, vacant 2; composition - men 465, women 78, percent of women 14.3%; note - total Parliament percent of women 11.3%description: bicameral Parliament or Majlis-e-Shoora consists of:Senate (104 seats; members indirectly elected by the 4 provincial assemblies and the territories' representatives by proportional representation vote; members serve 6-year terms with one-half of the membership renewed every 3 years); note - the byelection scheduled for 15 April 2020 has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemicNational Assembly (342 seats; 272 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote and 70 members - 60 women and 10 non-Muslims - directly elected by proportional representation vote; all members serve 5-year terms)elections:Senate - last held on 3 March 2018 (next to be held in March 2021)National Assembly - last held on 25 July 2018 (next to be held on 25 July 2023)election results:Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party as of December 2019 - PPP 19, PML-N 16, PTI 14, MQM-P 5, JUI-F 4, BAP 2, JI 2, PkMAP 2, ANP 1, BNP 1, PML-F 1, other 7, independent 30National Assembly - percent of votes by party NA; seats by party as of December 2019 - PTI 156, PML-N 84, PPP 55, MMA 16, MQM-P 7, BAP 5, PML-Q 5, BNP 4, GDA 3, AML 1, ANP 1, JWP 1, independent 4Judicial branchhighest courts: Supreme Court (consists of 28 judges, including the chief justice)judge selection and term of office: justices appointed by the president to serve until age 65subordinate courts: High Courts; District Courts; Labour Courtnote: in mid-2011, India’s Cabinet approved the "National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reform" to eliminate judicial corruption and reduce the backlog of caseshighest courts: Supreme Court of Pakistan (consists of the chief justice and 16 judges)judge selection and term of office: justices nominated by an 8-member parliamentary committee upon the recommendation of the Judicial Commission, a 9-member body of judges and other judicial professionals, and appointed by the president; justices can serve until age 65subordinate courts: High Courts; Federal Shariat Court; provincial and district civil and criminal courts; specialized courts for issues, such as taxation, banking, and customsPolitical parties and leadersAam Aadmi Party or AAP [Arvind KEJRIWAL]All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or AIADMK [Edappadi PALANISWAMY, Occhaathevar PANNEERSELVAM]All India Trinamool Congress or AITC [Mamata BANERJEE]Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI]Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [Amit SHAH]Biju Janata Dal or BJD [Naveen PATNAIK]Communist Party of India-Marxist or CPI(M) [Sitaram YECHURY]Indian National Congress or INCLok Janshakti Party (LJP) [Ram Vilas PASWAN]Nationalist Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR]Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Lalu Prasad YADAV]Samajwadi Party or SP [Akhilesh YADAV]Shiromani Akali Dal or SAD [Sukhbir Singh BADAL]Shiv Sena or SS [Uddhav THACKERAY]Telegana Rashtra Samithi or TRS [K. Chandrashekar RAO]Telugu Desam Party or TDP [Chandrababu NAIDU]YSR Congress or YSRC [Jagan Mohan REDDY]note: India has dozens of national and regional political partiesAwami National Party or ANP [Asfandyar Wali KHAN]Awami Muslim League or AML [Sheikh Rashid AHMED]Balochistan National Party-Awami or BNP-A [Mir Israr Ullah ZEHRI]Balochistan National Party-Mengal or BNP-M [Sardar Akhtar Jan MENGAL]Grand Democratic Alliance or GDA (alliance of several parties)Jamhoori Wattan Party or JWP [Shahzain BUGTI]Jamaat-i Islami or JI [Sirajul HAQ]Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam Fazl-ur Rehman or JUI-F [Fazlur REHMAN]Muttahida Quami Movement-London or MQM-L [Altaf HUSSAIN] (MQM split into two factions in 2016)Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan or MQM-P [Dr. Khalid Maqbool SIDDIQUI] (MQM split into two factions in 2016)Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA [Fazl-ur- REHMAN] (alliance of several parties)National Party or NP [Mir Hasil Khan BIZENJO]Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party or PMAP or PkMAP [Mahmood Khan ACHAKZAI]Pakistan Muslim League-Functional or PML-F [Pir PAGARO or Syed Shah Mardan SHAH-II]Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz or PML-N [Shehbaz SHARIF]Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam Group or PML-Q [Chaudhry Shujaat HUSSAIN]Pakistan Peoples Party or PPP [Bilawal BHUTTO ZARDARI, Asif Ali ZARDARI]Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaaf or PTI (Pakistan Movement for Justice) [Imran KHAN]Pak Sarzameen Party or PSP [Mustafa KAMAL]Quami Watan Party or QWP [Aftab Ahmed Khan SHERPAO]note: political alliances in Pakistan shift frequentlyInternational organization participationADB, AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIMSTEC, BIS, BRICS, C, CD, CERN (observer), CICA, CP, EAS, FAO, FATF, G-15, G-20, G-24, G-5, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAS (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUSCO, NAM, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, Pacific Alliance (observer), PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC, SACEP, SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNISFA, UNITAR, UNMISS, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTOADB, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), C, CICA, CP, D-8, ECO, FAO, G-11, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUSCO, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, PCA, SAARC, SACEP, SCO (observer), UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTODiplomatic representation in the USAmbassador Taranjit Singh SANDHU (since 6 February 2020)chancery: 2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008; Consular Wing located at 2536 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008telephone: [1] (202) 939-7000FAX: [1] (202) 265-4351consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, San FranciscoAmbassador Asad Majeed KHAN (since 11 January 2019)chancery: 3517 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008telephone: [1] (202) 243-6500FAX: [1] (202) 686-1534consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Yorkconsulate(s): Louisville (KY), San FranciscoDiplomatic representation from the USchief of mission: Ambassador Kenneth I. JUSTER (since 23 November 2017)telephone: [91] (11) 2419-8000embassy: Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021mailing address: use embassy street addressFAX: [91] (11) 2419-0017consulate(s) general: Chennai (Madras), Hyderabad, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay)chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Ambassador Paul W. JONES (since 24 September 2018)telephone: [92] 51-201-4000embassy: Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5, Islamabadmailing address: 8100 Islamabad Place, Washington, DC 20521-8100FAX: [92] 51-227-6427consulate(s) general: Karachi, Lahore, PeshawarFlag descriptionthree equal horizontal bands of saffron (subdued orange) (top), white, and green, with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band; saffron represents courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation; white signifies purity and truth; green stands for faith and fertility; the blue chakra symbolizes the wheel of life in movement and death in stagnationnote: similar to the flag of Niger, which has a small orange disk centered in the white bandgreen with a vertical white band (symbolizing the role of religious minorities) on the hoist side; a large white crescent and star are centered in the green field; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of IslamNational anthemname: "Jana-Gana-Mana" (Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People)lyrics/music: Rabindranath TAGOREnote: adopted 1950; Rabindranath TAGORE, a Nobel laureate, also wrote Bangladesh's national anthemname: "Qaumi Tarana" (National Anthem)lyrics/music: Abu-Al-Asar Hafeez JULLANDHURI/Ahmed Ghulamali CHAGLAnote: adopted 1954; also known as "Pak sarzamin shad bad" (Blessed Be the Sacred Land)International law organization participationaccepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; non-party state to the ICCtaccepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; non-party state to the ICCtNational symbol(s)the Lion Capital of Ashoka, which depicts four Asiatic lions standing back to back mounted on a circular abacus, is the official emblem; Bengal tiger; lotus flower; national colors: saffron, white, greenfive-pointed star between the horns of a waxing crescent moon, jasmine; national colors: green, whiteCitizenshipcitizenship by birth: nocitizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of Indiadual citizenship recognized: noresidency requirement for naturalization: 5 yearscitizenship by birth: yescitizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of Pakistandual citizenship recognized: yes, but limited to select countriesresidency requirement for naturalization: 4 out of the previous 7 years and including the 12 months preceding applicationEconomyIndiaPakistanEconomy - overviewIndia's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Slightly less than half of the workforce is in agriculture, but services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for nearly two-thirds of India's output but employing less than one-third of its labor force. India has capitalized on its large educated English-speaking population to become a major exporter of information technology services, business outsourcing services, and software workers. Nevertheless, per capita income remains below the world average. India is developing into an open-market economy, yet traces of its past autarkic policies remain. Economic liberalization measures, including industrial deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and served to accelerate the country's growth, which averaged nearly 7% per year from 1997 to 2017.India's economic growth slowed in 2011 because of a decline in investment caused by high interest rates, rising inflation, and investor pessimism about the government's commitment to further economic reforms and about slow world growth. Investors’ perceptions of India improved in early 2014, due to a reduction of the current account deficit and expectations of post-election economic reform, resulting in a surge of inbound capital flows and stabilization of the rupee. Growth rebounded in 2014 through 2016. Despite a high growth rate compared to the rest of the world, India’s government-owned banks faced mounting bad debt, resulting in low credit growth. Rising macroeconomic imbalances in India and improving economic conditions in Western countries led investors to shift capital away from India, prompting a sharp depreciation of the rupee through 2016.The economy slowed again in 2017, due to shocks of "demonetizaton" in 2016 and introduction of GST in 2017. Since the election, the government has passed an important goods and services tax bill and raised foreign direct investment caps in some sectors, but most economic reforms have focused on administrative and governance changes, largely because the ruling party remains a minority in India’s upper house of Parliament, which must approve most bills.India has a young population and corresponding low dependency ratio, healthy savings and investment rates, and is increasing integration into the global economy. However, long-term challenges remain significant, including: India's discrimination against women and girls, an inefficient power generation and distribution system, ineffective enforcement of intellectual property rights, decades-long civil litigation dockets, inadequate transport and agricultural infrastructure, limited non-agricultural employment opportunities, high spending and poorly targeted subsidies, inadequate availability of quality basic and higher education, and accommodating rural-to-urban migration.Decades of internal political disputes and low levels of foreign investment have led to underdevelopment in Pakistan. Pakistan has a large English-speaking population, with English-language skills less prevalent outside urban centers. Despite some progress in recent years in both security and energy, a challenging security environment, electricity shortages, and a burdensome investment climate have traditionally deterred investors. Agriculture accounts for one-fifth of output and two-fifths of employment. Textiles and apparel account for more than half of Pakistan's export earnings; Pakistan's failure to diversify its exports has left the country vulnerable to shifts in world demand. Pakistan’s GDP growth has gradually increased since 2012, and was 5.3% in 2017. Official unemployment was 6% in 2017, but this fails to capture the true picture, because much of the economy is informal and underemployment remains high. Human development continues to lag behind most of the region.In 2013, Pakistan embarked on a $6.3 billion IMF Extended Fund Facility, which focused on reducing energy shortages, stabilizing public finances, increasing revenue collection, and improving its balance of payments position. The program concluded in September 2016. Although Pakistan missed several structural reform criteria, it restored macroeconomic stability, improved its credit rating, and boosted growth. The Pakistani rupee has remained relatively stable against the US dollar since 2015, though it declined about 10% between November 2017 and March 2018. Balance of payments concerns have reemerged, however, as a result of a significant increase in imports and weak export and remittance growth.Pakistan must continue to address several longstanding issues, including expanding investment in education, healthcare, and sanitation; adapting to the effects of climate change and natural disasters; improving the country’s business environment; and widening the country’s tax base. Given demographic challenges, Pakistan’s leadership will be pressed to implement economic reforms, promote further development of the energy sector, and attract foreign investment to support sufficient economic growth necessary to employ its growing and rapidly urbanizing population, much of which is under the age of 25.In an effort to boost development, Pakistan and China are implementing the "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" (CPEC) with $60 billion in investments targeted towards energy and other infrastructure projects. Pakistan believes CPEC investments will enable growth rates of over 6% of GDP by laying the groundwork for increased exports. CPEC-related obligations, however, have raised IMF concern about Pakistan’s capital outflows and external financing needs over the medium term.GDP (purchasing power parity)$9.474 trillion(2017 est.)$8.88 trillion(2016 est.)$8.291 trillion(2015 est.)note: data are in 2017 dollars$1.061 trillion(2017 est.)$1.007 trillion(2016 est.)$962.8 billion(2015 est.)note: data are in 2017 dollarsdata are for fiscal yearsGDP - real growth rate4.86%(2019 est.)6.78%(2018 est.)6.55%(2017 est.)5.4%(2017 est.)4.6%(2016 est.)4.1%(2015 est.)note: data are for fiscal yearsGDP - per capita (PPP)$7,200(2017 est.)$6,800(2016 est.)$6,500(2015 est.)note: data are in 2017 dollars$5,400(2017 est.)$5,200(2016 est.)$5,100(2015 est.)note: data are in 2017 dollarsdata are for fiscal yearsGDP - composition by sectoragriculture: 15.4%(2016 est.)industry: 23%(2016 est.)services: 61.5%(2016 est.)agriculture: 24.4%(2016 est.)industry: 19.1%(2016 est.)services: 56.5%(2017 est.)Population below poverty line21.9%(2011 est.)29.5%(FY2013 est.)Household income or consumption by percentage sharelowest 10%: 3.6%highest 10%: 29.8%(2011)lowest 10%: 4%highest 10%: 26.1%(FY2013)Inflation rate (consumer prices)3.6%(2017 est.)4.5%(2016 est.)4.1%(2017 est.)2.9%(2016 est.)Labor force521.9 million(2017 est.)61.71 million(2017 est.)note: extensive export of labor, mostly to the Middle East, and use of child laborLabor force - by occupationagriculture: 47%industry: 22%services: 31%(FY 2014 est.)agriculture: 42.3%industry: 22.6%services: 35.1%(FY2015 est.)Unemployment rate8.5%(2017 est.)8.5%(2016 est.)6%(2017 est.)6%(2016 est.)note: Pakistan has substantial underemploymentDistribution of family income - Gini index35.2(2011)37.8(1997)30.7(FY2013)30.9(FY2011)Budgetrevenues: 238.2 billion(2017 est.)expenditures: 329 billion(2017 est.)revenues: 46.81 billion(2017 est.)expenditures: 64.49 billion(2017 est.)note: data are for fiscal yearsIndustriestextiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software, pharmaceuticalstextiles and apparel, food processing, pharmaceuticals, surgical instruments, construction materials, paper products, fertilizer, shrimpIndustrial production growth rate5.5%(2017 est.)5.4%(2017 est.)Agriculture - productsrice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, lentils, onions, potatoes; dairy products, sheep, goats, poultry; fishcotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; milk, beef, mutton, eggsExports$304.1 billion(2017 est.)$268.6 billion(2016 est.)$32.88 billion(2017 est.)$21.97 billion(2016 est.)Exports - commoditiespetroleum products, precious stones, vehicles, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, cereals, appareltextiles (garments, bed linen, cotton cloth, yarn), rice, leather goods, sporting goods, chemicals, manufactures, surgical instruments, carpets and rugsExports - partnersUS 15.6%, UAE 10.2%, Hong Kong 4.9%, China 4.3% (2017)US 17.7%, UK 7.7%, China 6%, Germany 5.8%, Afghanistan 5.2%, UAE 4.5%, Spain 4.1% (2017)Imports$452.2 billion(2017 est.)$376.1 billion(2016 est.)$53.11 billion(2017 est.)$42.69 billion(2016 est.)Imports - commoditiescrude oil, precious stones, machinery, chemicals, fertilizer, plastics, iron and steelpetroleum, petroleum products, machinery, plastics, transportation equipment, edible oils, paper and paperboard, iron and steel, teaImports - partnersChina 16.3%, US 5.5%, UAE 5.2%, Saudi Arabia 4.8%, Switzerland 4.7% (2017)China 27.4%, UAE 13.7%, US 4.9%, Indonesia 4.3%, Saudi Arabia 4.2% (2017)Debt - external$501.6 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$456.4 billion(31 December 2016 est.)$82.19 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$70.45 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Exchange ratesIndian rupees (INR) per US dollar -65.17(2017 est.)67.195(2016 est.)67.195(2015 est.)64.152(2014 est.)61.03(2013 est.)Pakistani rupees (PKR) per US dollar -105.1(2017 est.)104.769(2016 est.)104.769(2015 est.)102.769(2014 est.)101.1(2013 est.)Fiscal year1 April - 31 March1 July - 30 JunePublic debt71.2% of GDP(2017 est.)69.5% of GDP(2016 est.)note: data cover central government debt, and exclude debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data exclude debt issued by subnational entities, as well as intragovernmental debt; intragovernmental debt consists of treasury borrowings from surpluses in the social funds, such as for retirement, medical care, and unemployment; debt instruments for the social funds are not sold at public auctions67% of GDP(2017 est.)67.6% of GDP(2016 est.)Reserves of foreign exchange and gold$409.8 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$359.7 billion(31 December 2016 est.)$18.46 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$22.05 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Current Account Balance-$29.748 billion(2019 est.)-$65.939 billion(2018 est.)-$7.143 billion(2019 est.)-$19.482 billion(2018 est.)GDP (official exchange rate)$2.602 trillion(2017 est.)$305 billion(2017 est.)Stock of direct foreign investment - at home$377.5 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$318.5 billion(31 December 2016 est.)$43.21 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$39.06 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad$155.2 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$144.1 billion(31 December 2016 est.)$1.983 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$2.094 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Market value of publicly traded shares$1.516 trillion(31 December 2015 est.)$1.558 trillion(31 December 2014 est.)$1.139 trillion(31 December 2013 est.)$43.68 billion(31 December 2012 est.)$32.76 billion(31 December 2011 est.)$38.17 billion(31 December 2010 est.)Central bank discount rate6%(31 December 2017)6.25%(31 December 2016)note: this is the Indian central bank's policy rate - the repurchase rate5.75%(15 November 2016)6%(15 November 2015)Commercial bank prime lending rate9.51%(31 December 2017 est.)9.67%(31 December 2016 est.)6.98%(31 December 2017 est.)6.94%(31 December 2016 est.)Stock of domestic credit$1.927 trillion(31 December 2017 est.)$1.684 trillion(31 December 2016 est.)$155.9 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$145.2 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Stock of narrow money$451.5 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$293.5 billion(31 December 2016 est.)$109.9 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$103.5 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Stock of broad money$451.5 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$293.5 billion(31 December 2016 est.)$109.9 billion(31 December 2017 est.)$103.5 billion(31 December 2016 est.)Taxes and other revenues9.2% (of GDP)(2017 est.)15.4% (of GDP)(2017 est.)Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-)-3.5% (of GDP)(2017 est.)-5.8% (of GDP)(2017 est.)Unemployment, youth ages 15-24total: 22.5%male: 22.2%female: 24.2%(2018 est.)total: 7.8%male: 8.2%female: 6.8%(2018 est.)GDP - composition, by end usehousehold consumption: 59.1%(2017 est.)government consumption: 11.5%(2017 est.)investment in fixed capital: 28.5%(2017 est.)investment in inventories: 3.9%(2017 est.)exports of goods and services: 19.1%(2017 est.)imports of goods and services: -22%(2017 est.)household consumption: 82%(2017 est.)government consumption: 11.3%(2017 est.)investment in fixed capital: 14.5%(2017 est.)investment in inventories: 1.6%(2017 est.)exports of goods and services: 8.2%(2017 est.)imports of goods and services: -17.6%(2017 est.)Gross national saving28.8% of GDP(2017 est.)29.7% of GDP(2016 est.)30.7% of GDP(2015 est.)12% of GDP(2017 est.)13.9% of GDP(2016 est.)14.7% of GDP(2015 est.)note: data are for fiscal yearsEnergyIndiaPakistanElectricity - production1.386 trillion kWh(2016 est.)109.7 billion kWh(2016 est.)Electricity - consumption1.137 trillion kWh(2016 est.)92.33 billion kWh(2016 est.)Electricity - exports5.15 billion kWh(2015 est.)0 kWh(2016 est.)Electricity - imports5.617 billion kWh(2016 est.)490 million kWh(2016 est.)Oil - production709,000 bbl/day(2018 est.)90,000 bbl/day(2018 est.)Oil - imports4.057 million bbl/day(2015 est.)168,200 bbl/day(2015 est.)Oil - exports0 bbl/day(2015 est.)13,150 bbl/day(2015 est.)Oil - proved reserves4.495 billion bbl(1 January 2018 est.)332.2 million bbl(1 January 2018 est.)Natural gas - proved reserves1.29 trillion cu m(1 January 2018 est.)588.8 billion cu m(1 January 2018 est.)Natural gas - production31.54 billion cu m(2017 est.)39.05 billion cu m(2017 est.)Natural gas - consumption55.43 billion cu m(2017 est.)45.05 billion cu m(2017 est.)Natural gas - exports76.45 million cu m(2017 est.)0 cu m(2017 est.)Natural gas - imports23.96 billion cu m(2017 est.)6.003 billion cu m(2017 est.)Electricity - installed generating capacity367.8 million kW(2016 est.)26.9 million kW(2016 est.)Electricity - from fossil fuels71% of total installed capacity(2016 est.)62% of total installed capacity(2016 est.)Electricity - from hydroelectric plants12% of total installed capacity(2017 est.)27% of total installed capacity(2017 est.)Electricity - from nuclear fuels2% of total installed capacity(2017 est.)5% of total installed capacity(2017 est.)Electricity - from other renewable sources16% of total installed capacity(2017 est.)7% of total installed capacity(2017 est.)Refined petroleum products - production4.897 million bbl/day(2015 est.)291,200 bbl/day(2015 est.)Refined petroleum products - consumption4.521 million bbl/day(2016 est.)557,000 bbl/day(2016 est.)Refined petroleum products - exports1.305 million bbl/day(2015 est.)25,510 bbl/day(2015 est.)Refined petroleum products - imports653,300 bbl/day(2015 est.)264,500 bbl/day(2015 est.)Carbon dioxide emissions from consumption of energy2.383 billion Mt(2017 est.)179.5 million Mt(2017 est.)Electricity accesspopulation without electricity: 6 million(2019)electrification - total population: 99%(2019)electrification - urban areas: 99%(2019)electrification - rural areas: 99%(2019)population without electricity: 45 million(2019)electrification - total population: 79%(2019)electrification - urban areas: 91%(2019)electrification - rural areas: 72%(2019)TelecommunicationsIndiaPakistanTelephones - main lines in usetotal subscriptions: 20,198,012subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 1.54(2019 est.)total subscriptions: 2,607,495subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 1.14(2019 est.)Telephones - mobile cellulartotal subscriptions: 1,105,250,941subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 84.27(2019 est.)total subscriptions: 174,702,132subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 76.38(2019 est.)Internet country code.in.pkInternet userstotal: 446,759,327percent of population: 34.45%(July 2018 est.)total: 34,734,689percent of population: 15.51%(July 2018 est.)Telecommunication systemsgeneral assessment: supported by deregulation and liberalization of telecommunication laws and policies, India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing telecom markets in the world; implementation of 4G/LTE services shift to data services across the country; highly competitive mobile market with price wars and value-added-services of mobile data; potential to become one of the largest five data center markets globally; steps taken towards 5G services; fixed broadband penetration is expected to grow at a moderate rate over the next five years to 2023 (2020)domestic: fixed-line subscriptions stands at 2 per 100 and mobile-cellular at 84 per 100; mobile cellular service introduced in 1994 and organized nationwide into four metropolitan areas and 19 telecom circles, each with multiple private service providers and one or more state-owned service providers; in recent years significant trunk capacity added in the form of fiber-optic cable and one of the world's largest domestic satellite systems, the Indian National Satellite system (INSAT), with 6 satellites supporting 33,000 (very small aperture terminals) VSAT (2019)international: country code - 91; a number of major international submarine cable systems, including SEA-ME-WE-3 & 4, AAE-1, BBG, EIG, FALCON, FEA, GBICS, MENA, IMEWE, SEACOM/ Tata TGN-Eurasia, SAFE, WARF, Bharat Lanka Cable System, IOX, Chennai-Andaman & Nicobar Island Cable, SAEx2, Tata TGN-Tata Indicom and i2icn that provide connectivity to Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South East Asia, numerous Indian Ocean islands including Australia ; satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region (2019)note: the COVID-19 outbreak is negatively impacting telecommunications production and supply chains globally; consumer spending on telecom devices and services has also slowed due to the pandemic's effect on economies worldwide; overall progress towards improvements in all facets of the telecom industry - mobile, fixed-line, broadband, submarine cable and satellite - has moderatedgeneral assessment: the telecommunications infrastructure is improving, with investments in mobile-cellular networks increasing, fixed-line subscriptions declining; system consists of microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, cellular, and satellite networks; 4G mobile services broadly available; 5G not before 2030; mobile platform and mobile broadband doing well and dominate over fixed broadband sector (2020)domestic: mobile-cellular subscribership has skyrocketed; more than 90% of Pakistanis live within areas that have cell phone coverage; fiber-optic networks are being constructed throughout the country to increase broadband access, though broadband penetration in Pakistan is still relatively low; fixed-line 1 per 100 and mobile-cellular 76 per 100 persons (2019)international: country code - 92; landing points for the SEA-ME-WE-3, -4, -5, AAE-1, IMEWE, Orient Express, PEACE Cable, and TW1 submarine cable systems that provide links to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean); 3 operational international gateway exchanges (1 at Karachi and 2 at Islamabad); microwave radio relay to neighboring countries (2019)note: the COVID-19 outbreak is negatively impacting telecommunications production and supply chains globally; consumer spending on telecom devices and services has also slowed due to the pandemic's effect on economies worldwide; overall progress towards improvements in all facets of the telecom industry - mobile, fixed-line, broadband, submarine cable and satellite - has moderatedBroadband - fixed subscriptionstotal: 18.17 millionsubscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 1(2018 est.)total: 1,811,365subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 1(2018 est.)Broadcast mediaDoordarshan, India's public TV network, has a monopoly on terrestrial broadcasting and operates about 20 national, regional, and local services; a large and increasing number of privately owned TV stations are distributed by cable and satellite service providers; in 2015, more than 230 million homes had access to cable and satellite TV offering more than 700 TV channels; government controls AM radio with All India Radio operating domestic and external networks; news broadcasts via radio are limited to the All India Radio Network; since 2000, privately owned FM stations have been permitted and their numbers have increased rapidlymedia is government regulated; 1 dominant state-owned TV broadcaster, Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV), operates a network consisting of 8 channels; private TV broadcasters are permitted; to date 69 foreign satellite channels are operational; the state-owned radio network operates more than 30 stations; nearly 200 commercially licensed, privately owned radio stations provide programming mostly limited to music and talk shows (2019)TransportationIndiaPakistanRailwaystotal: 68,525 km(2014)narrow gauge: 9,499 km 1.000-m gauge (2014)broad gauge: 58,404 km 1.676-m gauge (23,654 electrified) (2014)622 0.762-m gaugetotal: 11,881 km(2019)narrow gauge: 389 km 1.000-m gauge (2019)broad gauge: 11,492 km 1.676-m gauge (293 km electrified) (2019)Roadwaystotal: 4,699,024 km(2015)note: includes 96,214 km of national highways and expressways, 147,800 km of state highways, and 4,455,010 km of other roadstotal: 263,775 km(2019)paved: 185,063 km (includes 708 km of expressways) (2019)unpaved: 78,712 km(2019)Pipelines9 km condensate/gas, 13581 km gas, 2054 km liquid petroleum gas, 8943 km oil, 20 km oil/gas/water, 11069 km refined products (2013)12,984 km gas, 3,470 km oil, 1,170 km refined products (2019)Ports and terminalsmajor seaport(s): Chennai, Jawaharal Nehru Port, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), Sikka, Vishakhapatnamcontainer port(s) (TEUs): Chennai (1,549,457), Jawaharal Nehru Port (4,833,397), Mundra (4,240,260) (2017)LNG terminal(s) (import): Dabhol, Dahej, Haziramajor seaport(s): Karachi, Port Muhammad Bin Qasimcontainer port(s) (TEUs): Karachi (2,224,000) (2017)LNG terminal(s) (import): Port QasimMerchant marinetotal: 1,731by type: bulk carrier 67, container ship 25, general cargo 579, oil tanker 128, other 932 (2019)total: 54by type: bulk carrier 5, oil tanker 5, other 44 (2019)Airportstotal: 346(2013)total: 151(2013)Airports - with paved runwaystotal: 253(2017)over 3,047 m: 22(2017)2,438 to 3,047 m: 59(2017)1,524 to 2,437 m: 76(2017)914 to 1,523 m: 82(2017)under 914 m: 14(2017)total: 108(2017)over 3,047 m: 15(2017)2,438 to 3,047 m: 20(2017)1,524 to 2,437 m: 43(2017)914 to 1,523 m: 20(2017)under 914 m: 10(2017)Airports - with unpaved runwaystotal: 93(2013)over 3,047 m: 1(2013)2,438 to 3,047 m: 3(2013)1,524 to 2,437 m: 6(2013)914 to 1,523 m: 38(2013)under 914 m: 45(2013)total: 43(2013)2,438 to 3,047 m: 1(2013)1,524 to 2,437 m: 9(2013)914 to 1,523 m: 9(2013)under 914 m: 24(2013)Heliports45(2013)23(2013)National air transport systemnumber of registered air carriers: 14(2020)inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 485annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers: 164,035,637(2018)annual freight traffic on registered air carriers: 2,703,960,000 mt-km (2018)number of registered air carriers: 5(2020)inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 52annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers: 6,880,637(2018)annual freight traffic on registered air carriers: 217.53 million mt-km (2018)Civil aircraft registration country code prefixVT (2016)AP (2016)MilitaryIndiaPakistanMilitary branchesIndian Armed Forces: Army, Navy (includes marines), Air Force, Coast Guard; Defense Security Corps (paramilitary forces); Ministry of Home Affairs paramilitary forces: Central Armed Police Force (includes Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guards, Sashastra Seema Bal) (2019)Pakistan Army (includes National Guard), Pakistan Navy (includes marines, Maritime Security Agency), Pakistan Air Force (Pakistan Fizaia); Ministry of Interior paramilitary forces: Frontier Corps, Pakistan Rangers (2019)note: the National Guard is a paramilitary force and one of the Army's reserve forces, along with the Pakistan Army Reserve, the Frontier Corps, and the Pakistan RangersMilitary service age and obligation16-18 years of age for voluntary military service (Army 17 1/2, Air Force 17, Navy 16 1/2); no conscription; women may join as officers, currently serve in combat roles as pilots, and under consideration for Army combat roles (2019)16-23 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be deployed for combat until age 18; women serve in all three armed forces; reserve obligation to age 45 for enlisted men, age 50 for officers (2019)Military expenditures - percent of GDP2.4% of GDP(2019)2.4% of GDP(2018)2.5% of GDP(2017)2.5% of GDP(2016)2.4% of GDP(2015)4% of GDP(2019)4.1% of GDP(2018)3.8% of GDP(2017)3.6% of GDP(2016)3.6% of GDP(2015)Transnational IssuesIndiaPakistanDisputes - internationalsince China and India launched a security and foreign policy dialogue in 2005, consolidated discussions related to the dispute over most of their rugged, militarized boundary, regional nuclear proliferation, Indian claims that China transferred missiles to Pakistan, and other matters continue; Kashmir remains the site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India and Pakistan resumed bilateral dialogue in February 2011 after a two-year hiatus, have maintained the 2003 cease-fire in Kashmir, and continue to have disputes over water sharing of the Indus River and its tributaries; UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan has maintained a small group of peacekeepers since 1949; India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964; to defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on a maritime boundary, India and Pakistan seek technical resolution of the disputed boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch in the Arabian Sea; Pakistani maps continue to show its Junagadh claim in Indian Gujarat State; Prime Minister Singh's September 2011 visit to Bangladesh resulted in the signing of a Protocol to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh, which had called for the settlement of longstanding boundary disputes over undemarcated areas and the exchange of territorial enclaves, but which had never been implemented; Bangladesh referred its maritime boundary claims with Burma and India to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea; Joint Border Committee with Nepal continues to examine contested boundary sections, including the 400 sq km dispute over the source of the Kalapani River; India maintains a strict border regime to keep out Maoist insurgents and control illegal cross-border activities from Nepalvarious talks and confidence-building measures cautiously have begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the October 2005 earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains the site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan has maintained a small group of peacekeepers since 1949; India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964; India and Pakistan have maintained their 2004 cease-fire in Kashmir and initiated discussions on defusing the armed standoff in the Siachen glacier region; Pakistan protests India's fencing the highly militarized Line of Control and construction of the Baglihar Dam on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir, which is part of the larger dispute on water sharing of the Indus River and its tributaries; to defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on a maritime boundary, India and Pakistan seek technical resolution of the disputed boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch in the Arabian Sea; Pakistani maps continue to show the Junagadh claim in India's Gujarat State; since 2002, with UN assistance, Pakistan has repatriated 3.8 million Afghan refugees, leaving about 2.6 million; Pakistan has sent troops across and built fences along some remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line border with Afghanistan, which serve as bases for foreign terrorists and other illegal activities; Afghan, Coalition, and Pakistan military meet periodically to clarify the alignment of the boundary on the ground and on mapsIllicit drugsworld's largest producer of licit opium for the pharmaceutical trade, but an undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit international drug markets; transit point for illicit narcotics produced in neighboring countries and throughout Southwest Asia; illicit producer of methaqualone; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through the hawala system; licit ketamine and precursor productionsignificant transit area for Afghan drugs, including heroin, opium, morphine, and hashish, bound for Iran, Western markets, the Gulf States, Africa, and Asia; financial crimes related to drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption, and smuggling remain problems; opium poppy cultivation estimated to be 930 hectares in 2015; federal and provincial authorities continue to conduct anti-poppy campaigns that utilizes forced eradication, fines, and arrestsRefugees and internally displaced personsrefugees (country of origin): 108,008 (Tibet/China), 59,428 (Sri Lanka), 18,813 (Burma), 7,470 (Afghanistan) (2019)IDPs: 470,000 (armed conflict and intercommunal violence) (2019)stateless persons: 17,730 (2019)refugees (country of origin): 2.58-2.68 million (1.4 million registered, 1.18-1.28 million undocumented) (Afghanistan) (2017)IDPs: 106,000 (primarily those who remain displaced by counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations and violent conflict between armed non-state groups in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber-Paktunkwa Province; more than 1 million displaced in northern Waziristan in 2014; individuals also have been displaced by repeated monsoon floods) (2019)TerrorismIndiaPakistanTerrorist groups - foreign basedal-Qa'ida (AQ):aim(s): overthrow the Indian Government and, ultimately, establish a pan-Islamic caliphate under a strict Salafi Muslim interpretation of shariaarea(s) of operation: maintains an operational presence as al-Qa'ida in the Indian Subcontinent (2018)al-Qa'ida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS): aim(s): establish an Islamic caliphate in the Indian subcontinentarea(s) of operation: targets primarily military and security personnel, especially in the states of Assam, Gujarat, and Jammu and Kashmir; present in large cities, including Delhi (2018)Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM): aim(s): enhance its networks and paramilitary training in India and, ultimately, annex Kashmir into Pakistan and establish an Islamic state in Kashmirarea(s) of operation: conducts attacks against Indian troops and civilians in Kashmir (2018)Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HUJI): aim(s): enhance its networks and operational capabilities in Indiaarea(s) of operation: maintains an operational presence, especially in the south, including in Bangalore and Hubli (2018)Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B): aim(s): enhance its networks in India and, ultimately, install an Islamic state in Bangladesharea(s) of operation: maintains a low-profile presence (2018)Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham-Khorasan (ISIS-K): aim(s): spread the ISIS caliphate by eliminating the Indian Government and, ultimately, unite Kashmir with Pakistanarea(s) of operation: maintains a recruitment presence in major cities (2018)Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM): aim(s): annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistanarea(s) of operation: operates primarily in Jammu and Kashmir State (2018)Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LT): aim(s): annex Jammu and Kashmir State to Pakistan and, ultimately, install Islamic rule throughout South Asiaarea(s) of operation: operational throughout India, especially in the north in Jammu and Kashmir State, since at least 1993note: continues to be one of the largest and most deadly of the anti-India-focused armed groups (2018)Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE): aim(s): enhance its networks in India and, ultimately, revive the movement to establish a Tamil homelandarea(s) of operation: maintains safe havens, transit routes, human trafficking, and an operational presence in an effort to revive the movement and conduct attacks (2018)Indian Mujahedeen (IM): aim(s): stated goal is to carry out terrorist attacks against Indians for perceived atrocities against Indian Muslims following the 2002 Gujarat riotsarea(s) of operation: Punjab and Sindh Provinces and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (2018)Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham-Khorasan (ISIS-K): aim(s): establish an Islamic caliphate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region; oppose Pakistan Government and Westerners; oppose Shia Muslim populationarea(s) of operation: maintains an operational and recruitment presence throughout the country, primarily along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to stage attacks inside Afghanistan and Pakistannote: recruits from among the local population and other militant groups such as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (2018)Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP): aim(s): remove Pakistani forces from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region; overthrow the Pakistan Government to implement TTP's strict interpretation of shariaarea(s) of operation: maintains a large presence in Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province; trains and deploys fighters in the tribal belt in the Pashtun areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, especially in Kunar and Paktika provinces where TTP has established sanctuaries; operationally active in the North Waziristan, South Waziristan, and Balochistan regions; targets Pakistan Government officials and military, security, and police personnel, as well as Westerners, pro-government tribal elders, Shia Muslims, and education figures and advocates (2018)Terrorist groups - home basedHizbul Mujahideen (HM): aim(s): annex the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistanarea(s) of operation: HM is an indigenous Kashmiri militant group that operates in Jammu and Kashmir (2018)Indian Mujahedeen (IM): aim(s): establish Islamic rule in India and, ultimately, convert all non-Muslims to Islam; stated goal is to carry out terrorist attacks against Indians for perceived atrocities against Indian Muslimsarea(s) of operation: formerly based in the western state of Maharashtra, India's third-largest and second-most populous state, and now probably operates mostly outside India, particularly Nepal (2018)al-Qa'ida (AQ): aim(s): eject Western influence from the Islamic world, unite the worldwide Muslim community, overthrow governments perceived as un-Islamic and, ultimately, establish a pan-Islamic caliphate under a strict Salafi Muslim interpretation of shariaarea(s) of operation: presence in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border (2018)al-Qa'ida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS): aim(s): establish an Islamic caliphate in the Indian subcontinentarea(s) of operation: operational throughout the country, targeting military and security personnel; responsible for numerous attacks in Karachi; stages attacks in Afghanistan, India, and Bangladesh, where the group is the most active (2018)Haqqani Network (HQN): aim(s): enhance its operational networks and capabilities for staging cross-border attacks in Afghanistan; replace the Afghan Government with an Islamic state operating according to a strict Salafi Muslim interpretation of shariaarea(s) of operation: headquartered in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region located across from Afghanistan's southeastern border; fighters have staged numerous cross-border operations from Kurram and North Waziristan Agency in the FATA into Afghanistan, targeting Afghan, US, and NATO forces and other Afghan Government personnel and Westerners for attack or kidnappings for ransom (2018)Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HUJI): aim(s): overthrow the Pakistan Government and implement sharia throughout the countryarea(s) of operation: headquartered in Pakistan, where the group operates several camps; remains heavily active in the southern area of Azad Kashmir (2018)Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM): aim(s): annex Kashmir to Pakistan and establish an Islamic state in Kashmirarea(s) of operation: headquartered in Islamabad, with an operational presence in Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir, where operatives stage attacks against India; maintains training and paramilitary camps in the country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region (2018)Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM): aim(s): unite Kashmir with Pakistan, install sharia in Pakistan, and drive foreign forces from Afghanistanarea(s) of operation: headquartered in Punjab Province; stages attacks against Indian forces, primarily in Jammu and Kashmir State (2018)Jaysh al Adl: aim(s): seeks greater autonomy for Balochis in Pakistan and Iranarea(s) of operation: headquartered in Balochistan Province, where operatives stage attacks inside Iran against Shia Muslims, primarily targets Iranian soldiers and security personnelnote: formerly known as Jundallah (2018)Lashkar i Jhangvi (LJ): aim(s): exterminate Shia Muslims, rid the region of Western influence and, ultimately, establish an Islamic state in Pakistan under shariaarea(s) of operation: has a growing presence in Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province; loosely coordinated cells are spread across the country, primarily in Punjab and Balochistan provinces, Karachi, and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region; majority of attacks are against local and foreign Shia Muslims and government personnel and facilities (2018)Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LT):aim(s): return the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and foment Islamic insurgency in India; enhance its recruitment networks and paramilitary training in South Asia; and, ultimately, implement Islamic rule throughout South Asiaarea(s) of operation: headquartered in Lahore, Punjab Province, with an operational presence throughout the country; active in both the Pakistan-administered and India-administered Kashmir regionsnote: does not conduct attacks within Pakistan; often operates under the guise of its charitable affiliates, including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (2018)