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== Culture ==
== Culture ==
[[Image:Delhi Auto Show.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Auto Expo]], Asia's largest [[auto show]],<ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/09/stories/2008010953071500.htm |title=The Hindu : Front Page : Asia’s largest auto carnival begins in Delhi tomorrow |publisher=Thehindu.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-03}}</ref> is held annually at Pragati Maidan]]
[[Image:Delhi Auto Show.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Auto Expo]], Asia's largest [[auto show]],<ref
New Delhi is a cosmopolitan city due to the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural presence of the vast Indian bureaucracy and political system. The city's capital status has amplified the importance of national events and holidays. National events such as [[Republic Day (India)|Republic Day]], [[Independence Day (India)|Independence Day]] and ''[[Gandhi Jayanti]]'' (Gandhi's birthday) are celebrated with great enthusiasm in New Delhi and the rest of India. On India's Independence Day (15 August) the Prime Minister of India addresses the nation from the [[Red Fort]]. Most Delhiites celebrate the day by flying kites, which are considered a symbol of freedom.<ref name=freedom>{{cite web|work=123independenceday.com|publisher=Compare Infobase Limited|url=http://123independenceday.com/indian/gift_of/freedom/ |title=Independence Day|accessdate=2007-01-04}}</ref> The [[Republic Day Parade]] is a large cultural and military parade showcasing India's cultural diversity and military might.<ref name=repmil>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2002/01/28/stories/2002012800060800.htm
|title= R-Day parade, an anachronism?|accessdate=2007-01-13|last=Ray Choudhury|first=Ray Choudhury|date=January 28, 2002|publisher=The Hindu Business Line}}</ref><ref name=repcul>{{cite web
|url=http://www.india-tourism.org/delhi-travel-info/delhi-fairs-festivals.html
|title=Fairs & Festivals of Delhi|accessdate=2007-01-13|work=Delhi Travel|publisher=India Tourism.org}}</ref>

Religious festivals include [[Divali]] (the festival of light), [[Durga Puja]], [[Holi]], [[Lohri]], [[Maha Shivaratri]], [[Eid ul-Fitr]], [[Eid ul-Adha]], Christmas and [[Buddha Jayanti]].<ref name=repcul/> The [[Qutub Festival]] is a cultural event during which performances of musicians and dancers from all over India are showcased at night, with the Qutub Minar as the chosen backdrop of the event.<ref name=qutubfest>{{cite news
|first=Madhur |last=Tankha |title= It's Sufi and rock at Qutub Fest |url=http://www.thehindu.com/2005/12/15/stories/2005121503090200.htm |work=New Delhi |publisher=The Hindu |date=15 December 2005 |accessdate=2007-01-13}}</ref> Other events such as Kite Flying Festival, [[International Mango Festival, Delhi|International Mango Festival]] and ''[[Vasant Panchami]]'' (the Spring Festival) are held every year in Delhi.


==Economy==
==Economy==

Revision as of 21:03, 22 January 2009

New Delhi
New Delhi
capd
Government
 • Chief MinisterSheila Dikshit
Population
 (2001)
 • Total302,363
Websitewww.ndmc.gov.in
This article is about the capital city of India. For the greater metropolis, see Delhi.

New Delhi (Hindi: नई दिल्ली, Punjabi: ਨਵੀਂ ਦਿੱਲੀ, Urdu: نئی دلی) is the capital city of India. With a total area of 42.7 km2, New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT).

Planned by Edwin Lutyens, a leading 20th century British architect, New Delhi is known for its wide, tree-lined boulevards and houses numerous national institutions and landmarks as well.

History

Main article: History of Delhi
Completed in 1734 A.D. under the orders of Maharaja Jai Singh II, Jantar Mantar is an astronomical observatory.

Calcutta was the capital of India until December 1911 during the British Raj. However, Delhi had served as the political and financial centre of several empires of ancient and medieval India, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1799 to 1849. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the Indian Empire from Calcutta to Delhi. Unlike Calcutta, which was located on the eastern coast of India, Delhi was located in northern India and the Government of British India felt that it would be easier to administer India from Delhi rather than from Calcutta. George V, the then Emperor of India, made the announcement the capital of the Raj was to be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.[1]

New Delhi was laid out to the south of the Old City which was constructed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. However, New Delhi overlays the site of seven ancient cities and hence includes many historic monuments like the Jantar Mantar and the Lodhi Gardens.

The India Gate commemorates Indian soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and the Afghan Wars

Much of New Delhi was planned by Edwin Lutyens and contracted to Sir Sobha Singh, a leading 20th century British architect and it has been dubbed "Lutyens' Delhi". Lutyens laid out the central administrative area of the city as a testament to Britain's imperial aspirations. At the heart of the city was the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhawan (then known as Viceroy's House) which sat atop Raisina Hill, formerly Raisina Pind a Sikh village. The Rajpath, also known as King's Way, stretched from the India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The Secretariat which houses various ministries of the Government of India, flanked out of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The Parliament House, designed by Herbert Baker, is located at the Sansad Marg, which runs parallel to the Rajpath.

After India gained independence in 1947, a limited autonomy was conferred to New Delhi and was administered by a Chief Commissioner appointed by the Government of India. In 1956, Delhi was converted into a union territory and eventually the Chief Commissioner was replaced by a Lieutenant Governor. The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 declared the Union Territory of Delhi to be formally known as National Capital Territory of Delhi.[2] A system of diarchy was introduced under which the elected Government was given wide powers, excluding law and order which remained with the Central Government. The actual enforcement of the legislation came in 1993.

Geography and climate

See also: Climate of Delhi
File:Yamun.jpg
The Yamuna River lies east of New Delhi.

With a total area of 42.7 km2, New Delhi forms a small part of the Delhi metropolitan area[3] and is located in the Indo-Gangetic Plain because of which there is little difference in the city's altitude. New Delhi and surrounding areas were once a part of the Aravali Range, but all that is left now is the Delhi ridge. The second feature is the Yamuna floodplains; New Delhi lies west of the Yamuna river, although for the most part, New Delhi is a landlocked city. East of the river is the urban area of Shahdara. New Delhi falls under the seismic zone-IV, making it vulnerable to major earthquakes.[4]

New Delhi and its vicinity have a somewhat exaggerated continental climate due to its distance from the coasts and location with respect to mountain ranges. The temperature varies from 40 degrees Celsius in summers to around 4 degrees Celsius in winters.[5] Delhi has a semi-arid climate with high variation between summer and winter temperatures. Summers are long, from early April to October, with the monsoon season in between. Winter starts in November and peaks in January. The annual mean temperature is 25 °C (77 °F); monthly mean temperatures range from 14 °C to 33 °C (58 °F to 92 °F).[6] The average annual rainfall is approximately 714 mm (28.1 inches), most of which is during the monsoons in July and August.[7]

Climate data for New Delhi, India
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Source: www.wunderground.com[8]

Government

As of 2005, the government structure of the New Delhi Municipal Council includes a chairperson, three members of New Delhi's Legislative Assembly, two members nominated by the Chief Minister of National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) and five members nominated by the central government. The current Chief Minister of the NCT is Sheila Dikshit. According to the Indian constitution, if a law passed by Delhi's legislative assembly is repugnant to any law passed by the Parliament of India, then the law enacted by the parliament shall prevail over the law enacted by the assembly.[9]

New Delhi is governed by its own municipal government, known as the New Delhi Municipal Council. Other urban areas of the metropolis of Delhi are administered by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and are hence not considered a part of the capital city. However, the entire metropolis of Delhi is commonly known as New Delhi in contrast to Old Delhi.

Urban structure

File:New Delhi map.svg
Street map of New Delhi
New Delhi is situated in the center of Delhi

Much of New Delhi was planned by Edwin Lutyens, a leading 20th century British architect and has been dubbed "Lutyens' Delhi". Lutyens laid out the central administrative area of the city as a testament to Britain's imperial pretensions. New Delhi is structured around two central promenades called the Rajpath and the Janpath. The Rajpath, or King's Way, stretches from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate. The Janpath, formerly Queen's Way, begins at Connaught Circus and cuts the Shantipath at right angles. 19 foreign embassies are located on Shantipath (Hindi: "Path of Peace"), making it the largest diplomatic enclave in India.[10]

At the heart of the city is the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan (formerly known as Viceroy's House) which sits atop Raisina Hill. The Secretariat, which houses various ministries of the Government of India, flanks out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Parliament House, designed by Herbert Baker, is located at the Sansad Marg, which runs parallel to the Rajpath. The Connaught Place is a large, circular commercial area in New Delhi, modeled after the Royal Crescent in England. Twelve separate roads lead out of the outer ring of Connaught Place, one of them being the Janpath.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Delhi
Bus Lane in New Delhi. The new buses are manufactured by Tata Marcopolo
The Delhi Metro at a station[citation needed]

Being a planned city, New Delhi has numerous arterial roads, some of which have an iconic status associated with them such as Rajpath, Janpath and Akbar Road. In 2005, private vehicles accounted for 30% of total transportation demand for the Delhi metropolitan area.[11] However, this figure could be higher for New Delhi because bus service is restricted in most parts of the capital city due to security concerns. Road construction and maintenance is primarily the responsibility of NDMC's Civil Engineering Department.[12] Underground subways are a common feature across New Delhi. As of 2008, 15 subways were operational.[13] In 1971, the administrative responsibility of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) was transferred from Municipal Corporation of Delhi to Government of India following which DTC extended its operations to New Delhi. In 2007, there were 2700 bus stops in New Delhi, of which 200 were built and maintained by NDMC and the rest by DTC.[14]

The Delhi Metro, constructed and operated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), connects the city with the rest of the metropolis of Delhi. Under an agreement with NDMC, DMRC can acquire land for the construction of metro rail and stations in New Delhi without any financial implications.[15] NDMC is also constructing multi-level parking systems in collaboration with DMRC at various Delhi metro stations across New Delhi to increase parking space.[16]

Demographics

The Laxminarayan Temple,is a famous Vaishnavite temple in New Delhi

In 2001, New Delhi had a population of 302,363 while the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) had a population of 9.81 million.[17], making it the second largest metropolitan area in India after Mumbai.[18] There are 925 women per 1000 men in NCT, and the literacy rate is 81.67%.[19]

Hinduism is the religion of 82% of Delhi's population, of which New Delhi is a part. There are also large communities of Muslims (11.7%), Sikhs (4.0%), Jains (1.1%) and Christians (0.9%) in Delhi.[20] Other minorities include Parsis, Buddhists and Jews.[21]

Hindi is the principal spoken language while English is the principal written language of the city. Other languages commonly spoken in the city are Punjabi and Urdu. Linguistic groups from all over India are well represented in the city; among them are Maithili, Haryanvi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil.

Culture

[[Image:Delhi Auto Show.jpg|thumb|left|The Auto Expo, Asia's largest auto show,Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). and a per capita income of Rs. 53,976.[22] The tertiary sector contributes 78.4% of Delhi's gross SDP followed by secondary and primary sectors with 20.2% and 1.4% contribution respectively.[22]

References

  1. ^ Hall, P (2002). Cities of Tomorrow. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 198–206. ISBN 0631232524.
  2. ^ "THE CONSTITUTION (SIXTY-NINTH AMENDMENT) ACT, 1991". THE CONSTITUTION (AMENDMENT) ACTS, THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA. National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. Retrieved 2007-01-08.
  3. ^ "NDMC Act". Ndmc.gov.in. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  4. ^ "Hazard profiles of Indian districts" (PDF). National Capacity Building Project in Disaster Management. UNDP. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 2006-05-19 suggested (help)
  5. ^ "Delhi Tourism - Climate". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
  6. ^ "Weatherbase entry for Delhi". Canty and Associates LLC. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  7. ^ "Chapter 1: Introduction" (PDF). Economic Survey of Delhi, 2005–2006. Planning Department, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. pp. pp1–7. Retrieved 2006-12-21. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  8. ^ "New Delhi weather". Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  9. ^ "The Constitution (Amendment)". Indiacode.nic.in. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  10. ^ "Embassies in Delhi, Embassies Address, Contacts, E-Mail, Delhi Embassies". Delhionline.in. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  11. ^ http://delhiplanning.nic.in/Economic%20Survey/ES%202005-06/Chpt/12.pdf
  12. ^ ::::NDMC Main Screen::::
  13. ^ ::::Ndmc -Civil -Subways :::
  14. ^ "CITIES". Cities.expressindia.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  15. ^ http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:6DhdlpoNvg8J:www.ndmc.gov.in/Resolutions%25202007/CIVIL/civil%2520engineering%252018.07.07/ITEM%2520NO.%252030%2520(A-27).doc+NDMC+DMRC+delhi&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
  16. ^ "The Hindu : New Delhi News : Two-level parking for Palika Place". Hindu.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  17. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=5ZBaVhmRvCkC&pg=PA436&lpg=PA436&dq=new+delhi+295,000&source=web&ots=2xyvTNerag&sig=O8LPSYYheYo8yEEyPNBhdI1nkFs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result
  18. ^ "World Urbanization Prospects The 2003 Revision" ([PDF). United Nations. pp. p7. Retrieved 2006-04-29. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  19. ^ National Literacy Missions Report,
    "Economic Survey of India, Chapter 15 Education" (PDF). pp. p1. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  20. ^ Indian Census
  21. ^ "Data on Religion". Census of India 2001. p. 1. Retrieved 2006-05-16.
  22. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ecosurv2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

External links

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