Introduction

India's economy is one of the largest economies in the world.  You will learn more when you look at our web page about India's money and business. 

Overview of Economy

Most Indians are farmers.  People also earn a living through agriculture, crafts, support services, and other modern industries.  Major exports of India include:  chemicals, cotton, diamonds, jewelery, iron, steel, leather, and tea.  Major imports include:  chemicals, industrial machinery, pearls, gemstones.  The countries India trades with most are:  Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, England, and the United States.

Money

Money in India is known as rupees.  In American dollars, rupees are half of the amount of money you have.
For example, if you have $10.00 U.S., you have $5.00 in India. 

If you look at any Indian dollar, you will see that it is made with a kind of thin paper material.   Also, if you look on an Indian dollar, you will see a lion with three heads and I think that is a certain symbol like a cultural one, or it may stand for the Indian leader or something to do with that.

On every coin or dollar in the Indian money, there is a promise.  The promise is:  I promise to pay the bearer the sum of ____rupees.

The Caste System

The caste system started with 1500 warriors called the Ahmes.  They decided that people would see them if they just came in and warned the whole country, so they went through a mountain in Pakistan.  They divided their society into groups and each group had its own job.  Then the groups went around India and the people in that part had to do those jobs. 

India used the caste system for a long time.  There were five levels:  Brahma, Kishatriya, Vaisha, Shudra, and Harijans.  The caste system was broken in 1944.  Today the values of the caste system are still held strong.
 
 

Student Reflections I really learned a lot about India's money and business and I feel like I am encouraged and want to learn more about India and its culture.  India is also fun to learn about.  I really loved this project and I would love to do it again. -KS I learned that India has a bank and inside the bank there is a governor and he tells the people where to go and they go to get the money that they saved in the bank. -KL Wrting things in your own words was kind of hard.  I enjoyed learning about India.  I liked taking notes about India because I learned a lot while I was reading. -AL I liked how we got to find cool facts and look at pictures in the books.  The Caste System was really interesting to me and really easy for me to understand. -TM

Works Cited Author unknown. "CIA-The World Factbook 2002-India" CIA. 13. Jun. 2003. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html Author unknown. "India" World Book Online Americas Edition. World Book. 17 March 2003 http://www.worldbookonline.com/ Author unknown. "Yahooligans! Reference: World Factbook". April 2, 2003. http://www.yahooligans.com/reference/factbook/in/econom.html Callaham, Terrence, and Pavich, Roxanna. "India's Caste System." 05 April 2003. http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/india.htm Mr. Dowling. "India and the Himalayas: Electronic Passport to the Caste System." 21 March 2003. http://www.mrdowling.com/612-caste.html

Links www.google.com www.yahooligans.com www.kidsclick.org