India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by land area, and the most populous democracy in the world. India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia.
Tourism in India is important for the country’s economy and is growing rapidly. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated US$ 240 billion or 9.2% of India’s GDP in 2018. Over 10.93 million foreign tourists arrived in India in 2019 compared to 10.56 million in 2018. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were the most popular states for tourists. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Agra and Jaipur were the five most visited cities of India by foreign tourists.
The Indian music industry is largely dominated by Bollywood soundtracks, which account for nearly 80% of the country’s music revenue. India has one of the world’s largest collections of songs, music, dance, theatre, folk traditions, performing arts, rites and rituals, paintings and writings that are known, as the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (ICH) of humanity. The first song recorded in India by Gauhar Jaan in 1902 and the first Bollywood film Alam Ara 1931 were under Saregama, India’s oldest music label owned by RPSanjiv Goenka Group.
