Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   Note: This section last updated 28th November 2020

   1,234.45

(where . indicates the decimal separator and , the thousands separator)

Note that the Indian numbering system is used, whereby digits are written grouped in twos apart from the final three before the decimal point. Thus, a lakh (one hundred thousand) is written 1,00,000.00 and a crore (ten million) is written 1,00,00,000.00.

   Note: This section last updated 30th April 2021

For religious purposes, the date is written:

   yyyy mm dd

This format is also used for south Indian languages, such as Tamil.

Northern Indian languages, such as Hindi, use the format:

   dd mm yyyy

This is also the usual written format:

   dd-mm-yyyy
   dd/mm/yyyy

Both the 12- and 24-hour time notations are used.

   14:32

In Assamese a full stop is used:

   14.32

India has 407 languages. 16 of these are national languages. These are: Assamese (14 604 000 speakers in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunchal Predesh), written in Bengali script; Bengali (67 200 000 speakers in West Bengal and neighbouring states, written in Bengali script); English ; Gujarati (43 312 000 speakers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh), written in Gujarati script; Hindi (180 000 000 speakers throughout northern India), written in Devanagari script; Kannada (33 663 000 speakers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra), written in Kannada script; Kashmiri (4 161 000 speakers in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Kashmir Valley), written in a Persian-based script; Malayalam (33 667 000 speakers in Karala, Laccadive Islands and neighbouring states), written in Mayalalam script; Maldivian (5 035 speakers on Minicoy Island in the Laccadive Islands), written in Tana script; Marathi (64 783 000 speakers in Maharachtra and neighbouring states), written in Devanagari script; Oriya (30 158 000 speakers in Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Andhra Pradesh), written in Oriya script; Panjabi (25 690 000 speakers in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir; Sindhi (2 678 000 speakers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nahu and Uttar Pradesh), written in Arabic and Gurumukhi scripts; Tamil (58 597 000 speakers in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states), written in Tamil script; Telugu (66 318 000 speakers in Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring states), written in Telugu script; Urdu (45 733 000 speakers in Jammu & Kashmir and by Muslims spread throughout India), written in Arabic script.

   Note: This section last updated 26th June 2019

The abbreviations S/O (son of), D/O (daughter of), H/O (husband of) and W/O (wife of) may be found with personal names in the address block.

Many of India’s ethnic and religious groups have different personal naming conventions, and these require some recognition and understanding to use them correctly. The naming conventions used by Muslims is described in the chapter Muslim personal names - a guide. Indian Muslims usually do not have family names.

Hindus

Name order is given name followed by family name. As the family name may denote caste, some people drop their family name and use the middle name instead. Women typically take their husband’s family name. Children typically take their fathers’ surname. In Gujarati women may take their husbands’ first given name and surname upon marriage.

Tamil Hindus

Tamils have very long names which may be found in abbreviated form. This makes matching between names rather difficult. For example,

   Subramaniam Damodara Pakirisamy

may also be found written

   Mr S.D.P. Samy

Each person may elect to shorten their names in different ways. For example:

   Gnaguru s/o Thamboo Mylvaganam
   M.G. Guru

   Kanapathi Pillai Nirumdan
   K.P. Niru

   Mangalam Rajahram
   Muru

and so on. The use of the shortened version is quite acceptable. Females do not have to take their husband’s name upon marriage, though she may choose to do so, and may choose which name or names to take.

Sikhs

Gender is easily determined from Sikh names. Every male has the name Singh (meaning “lion”) following his given name in this way:

   Bhai Ranjit Singh

Bhaimeans “brother” and Ranjit is the given name. Sardar may be used in place of Bhai.

Females have Kaur (meaning “princess”) after their given name, which may then be followed by a family name in this way:

   Ranjit Kaur Dhillon

She would be addressed as:

   Bibi Ranjit Kaur

where Bibi means “sister”. Sardarni may be used in place of Kaur.

The suffixes Singh and Kaur are given after baptism. Before that, an alternative “family name” exists. Some people retain their family name and add Singh or Kaur as middle names.

Given these naming conventions, a lot of people have the same names, and this makes database matching and de-duplication a major headache. The Sikhs themselves sometimes add a third name, for example that of the settlement from which they come, to distinguish themselves from others, for example:

   Jarnail Singh Calcutta

Equally, each person in a household is likely to have a different name, making householding nigh-on impossible.

The given names themselves are used by both genders without distinction.

   Tables of names can be acquired: given names , surnames/family names , family name prefixes , forms of address , job titles 

These company types make be found in India:

   Cooperative
   Family Owned Business
   Hindu Undivided Family (HUF)
   Limited
   Partnership
   Private Limited Company (Pvt. Ltd)
   Public Limited Company (PMC)
   Public Sector Enterprise (PSE)
   Public Sector Unit (PSU)
   Sole Proprietorship
   Unlimited Company

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 22nd July 2020

The postal code may also often be found written underneath the postal town name:

   NEW DELHI 
   110034 

and the address may contain multiple levels of administrative division names:

   8th Block 
   Jayanagar 
   Bangalore 
   Karnataka 

Addresses may often contain many descriptive elements.

Addresses written in a non-native language will be written in English.

The address may contain the state or union territory name. The common abbreviations for these administrative districts are (in this list, the union territories are indicated with an asterisk):

Andaman & Nicobar *	AN
Andhra Pradesh	AP
Arunāchal Pradesh	AR
Assam	AS
Bihār	BR
Chandīgarh *	CHD
Chhattīgarh
Dādra & Nagar Haveli & Damān & Diu *
Delhi *	DEL
Goa	GOA
Gujarāt	GUJ
Haryāna	HR
Himāchal Pradesh	HP
Jammu & Kashmīr	JK
Jharkhand
Karnātaka	KRN
Kerala	KER
Lakshadweep *	LKP
Madhya Pradesh	MP
Mahārāshtra	MAH
Manipur	MNP
Meghālaya	MEG
Mizoram	MIZ
Nāgāland	NLD
Orissa	OR
Pondicherry *	PDY
Punjab	PU
Rājasthān	RAJ
Sikkim	SKM
Tamil Nādu	TN
Telangana
Tripura	TRP
Uttar Pradesh	UP
Uttarakhand (previously Uttaranchal)
West Bengal	WB

   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired 

Thoroughfare types

   Note: This section last updated 24th January 2019

Post office box deliveries may be to P.O. Box or to Post Bag.

   Note: This section last updated 1st March 2020

Indian postal codes (PIN codes, introduced in 1972) consist of a block of 6 digits. There are estimated to be over 19100 PIN codes. The first digit cannot be 0. The first two indicate the state, the third the sorting centre and the last three a large town, a group of post offices or a delivery office. Postal codes are sometimes found written in the format

   NNN[ ]NNN 

or

   NNN-NNN

The following table indicates the fist digits of the postal codes per state or union territory. It should be noted that there may be overlaps in postal areas between states which are not shown here:

Postal codes commencing 9 are military addresses.

   This regions/postal code data can be acquired as a data file 

   Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired 

India - Postal code format graphic

India - Postal code format

India - Postal code specifics

India - Postal code regular expression

India - Postal code level of coverage

   Note: This section last updated 22nd July 2016

Indian cities are increasingly renaming themselves in local-language equivalents and dropping the English names used up to now.

Refer to Exonyms in India for full lists of place names in India in other languages.

   Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http:www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm 

   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm 

   Note: This section last updated  22nd July 2020

India has 28 states and 8 union territories, used in addresses. They are listed above in the “Example address format” section. In the year 2000, three new states were established: Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were created from parts of Bihar and Orissa; Uttaranchal was created from north Uttar Pradesh. Telangana was created from part of Andhra Pradesh on 2^nd June 2014. Ladakh was split from Jammu and Kashmir on 1^st November 2019. Dadra and Nagar Haveli merged with Daman and Diu on 26^th January 2020.

Administrative districts graphic

Indian telephone numbers have a full length of 10 digits when called from abroad, with area codes of 2-4 digits and subscriber numbers of 6-8 digits. Mobile number area codes commence with 9.

   Tables of telephone number information/formats can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/telephone.htm