Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is a state in southern India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. The state is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language—one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world—is widely spoken in the state and serves as its official language.
Lying in the southern-most part of the Indian peninsula, Tamil Nadu is bordered by the Indian union territory of Puducherry and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, as well as an international maritime border with Sri Lanka. The state is bounded by the Western Ghats in the west, the Eastern Ghats in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait to the south-east, and the Indian Ocean in the south. Tamil Nadu is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population.
The region containing Tamil Nadu was ruled by several regimes, including the Sangam era rulers of the Chera, Chola and Pandya clans, the Pallava dynasty, and the later Vijayanagara Empire, all of which shaped the state's cuisine, culture, and architecture. After the fall of the Kingdom of Mysore, the British colonised the region and administered it as part of the Madras Presidency, headquartered at the city of Madras, now known as Chennai. After India's Independence in 1947, the Madras State came into existence, whose borders were linguistically redrawn by the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, losing territory to Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The state was renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1969. It is home to a number of historic buildings, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, hill stations and three World Heritage Sites.
The economy of Tamil Nadu is the second-largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹17.16 lakh crore (US$230 billion) and has the country's 11th-highest GSDP per capita of ₹225,106 (US$3,000). It ranks 11th among all Indian states in human development index.[5] Tamil Nadu is the most urbanised state in India, and one of the most industrialised states; the manufacturing sector accounts for more than one-third of the state's GDP. Its tourism industry is the largest among the Indian states. The Tamil film industry plays an influential role in the state's popular culture.
Geography
Tamil Nadu covers an area of 130,058 km2 (50,216 sq mi) , and is the tenth-largest state in India. The bordering states are Kerala to the west, Karnataka to the north-west and Andhra Pradesh to the north. To the east is the Bay of Bengal and the state encircles the union territory of Puducherry. The southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula is Kanyakumari which is the meeting point of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean.
The western, southern, and the northwestern parts are hilly and rich in vegetation. The Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats meet at the Nilgiri Hills. The Western Ghats traverse the entire western border with Kerala, effectively blocking much of the rain-bearing clouds of the south-west monsoon from entering the state. The eastern parts are fertile coastal plains and the northern parts are a mix of hills and plains. The central and the south-central regions are arid plains and receive less rainfall than the other regions.
Tamil Nadu has the country's third-longest coastline at about 906.9 km (563.5 mi). Pamban Island and a group of smaller limestone shoals make up the northern portion of Ram Setu, which was formerly a natural bridge linking India with Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu's coastline bore the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami when it hit India, which caused 7,793 direct deaths in the state. Tamil Nadu falls mostly in a region of low seismic hazard with the exception of the western border areas that lie in a low to moderate hazard zone; as per the 2002 Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) map, Tamil Nadu falls in Zones II and III. Historically, parts of this region have experienced seismic activity in the M5.0 range.
Languages
Tamil is the sole official language of Tamil Nadu while English is declared an additional official language for communication purposes. When India adopted national standards Tamil was the first language to be recognised as a classical language of India. As of 2011 census report, Tamil is spoken as the first language by 88.37 percentage of the state's population followed by Telugu (5.87%), Kannada (1.78%), Urdu (1.75%), Malayalam (1%) and other languages (1.23%).