NEW DELHI: Where are the most millionaires? Which city is set to open 46 shopping malls? Which state makes more motorcycles than anywhere else in the world? And where's the launch pad for India's mission to the moon? A reality check puts modern India on the map.

State: Andrha Pradesh

Capital: Hyderabad The 'rice bowl' and biotechnology capital of India -- rice exports reached 5.1m tons last year.

*An estimated 25,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide since GM seeds were introduced in 1997. In 2004, the local BJP party was voted out as punishment for its pro-GM stance.

State: Bihar

Capital: Patna

India's poorest state is studded with Buddhist monuments, including Bodh Gaya, where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment 2,500 years ago. Dalits -- the untouchable caste -- make up 15 per cent of the population.

*There are 14 murders a day here, the majority being Dalits killed by landlords' private militias.

State: Chhattisgarh

Capital: Raipur

The richest state in mineral wealth: from coal and iron ore to gold and diamonds.

*The state has a large number of armed insurgent communists (Naxalites) who this year have blown up and beheaded dozens of civilians and even police.

*With a higher proportion of women than in any other states (in a country where female babies are still often seen as a weak investment, and killed), they command more power than elsewhere -- to the extent that women can choose and even terminate a marriage at will.

State: Delhi

Capital: New Delhi

The nation's capital city and the seat of central government boasts 60,000 monuments from the numerous empires -- Gupta, Mughal, British -- that have made it their capital over the past two millennia.

*Delhi's workforce increased by 50 per cent during the Nineties.

*Metropolitan Delhi's infrastructure hasn't coped with the phenomenally rapid urbanisation of the past decade. Its population now stands at more than 20 million.

State: Goa

Capital: Panaji

The beaches and jungles of India's richest state attract 12 per cent of all foreign tourist arrivals to the country.

State: Gujarat

Capital: Gandhinagar

Gandhi's home state, Gujarat is the second most industrialised

(with 20 per cent of the nation's industrial output -- agriculture, petrol, cement, diamonds) as well as the most fundamentalist.

· In 2002, an estimated 2,000-2,500 people (mainly Muslims) were killed in Hindu/Muslim violence sparked over the Ayodhya shrine, where a temple and mosque both existed. According to Human Rights Watch: “Communal violence against Muslims in Gujarat is intimately connected to a rise of Hindu nationalism in the country and the state.”

State: Haryana

Capital: Chandigarh

An agricultural state, home to Maruti Udyog, India's largest automobile manufacturer, and Hero Honda Ltd, the world's largest producer of two-wheelers.

State: Himachal Pradesh

Capital: Shimla

Home to the Dalai Lama, who fled here from neighbouring Tibet in 1959, and now a focal point for Buddhists all over the world.

State: Karnataka

Capital: Bangalore

Famous for its ancient temples and mosques and now home to the IT/call-centre capital of India, Bangalore: the heart of the country's hi-tech revolution. The average IT wage in Bangalore (renamed Bengaluru this month) grew 13.5 per cent in 2003.

*Twenty of the 27 districts in Karnataka have a 'high-risk' prevalence of HIV/Aids. India has between 5 million and 10 million infected, and the world's second-highest infection rate after South Africa. A 2002 report for the CIA warned that unless India tackles the problem on a war footing, there could be around 20 million cases of HIV by 2010.

*India's space programme, based in Bangalore, will launch an unmanned mission to the moon in 2008.

State: Kerala

Capital: Trivandrum

A Marxist state with a 91 per cent literacy rate, compared with a national average of only 65 per cent. The state is also ranked best for health and law and order.

State: Maharashtra

Capital: Mumbai

The most industrialised state in India. Mumbai is the world's fifth-most populous metropolitan area, and India's capital of commerce, corruption, cricket, and the Hindi film industry.

*India had 13,000 new millionaires in 2005 -- Mumbai is home to more than all the other Indian cities put together.

*Bajaj Auto, in Pune, is India's largest rickshaw manufacturer, producing more than 1 million vehicles a year.

State: Uttar Pradesh

Capital: Lucknow

It is the most populous state with 166 million people. The Ganges, sacred river of Hindus, runs through it, and four of the religion's seven holy towns are here, including the holiest, Varanasi. Often referred to as the 'cow belt' or 'Hindi belt', it has dominated Indian politics since independence, producing more than half of India's prime ministers.

*The largest concentration (30.7 million) of India's Muslims live here. There are 180 million Muslims in India -- the third-largest number after Indonesia and Pakistan. Muslims have the highest growth rate of any religious population in India (an estimated 36 per cent in the Nineties).

State: West Bengal

Capital: Kolkata

West Bengal has the highest population density of India, with 767 people per square kilometre. The cultural centre of India, its capital Kolkata is the intellectual heartbeat of the nation, famous for its writers, poets, artists, spiritualists, social reformers, freedom fighters and revolutionaries.

*In Kolkata, 46 new shopping malls will be built by 2010.—Dawn/The Observer News Service