IndianBureaucracy.com Greets all people of Uttar Pradesh on its Formation Day today | Uttar Pradesh is a state in northern India with roughly 200 million inhabitants, and is the most-populous state in India as well as the most-populous country subdivision in the world. It was created in 1937 as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh during British rule, and was renamed Uttar Pradesh in 1950, giving it the acronym UP. The state is divided into 18 divisions and 75 districts, with the capital being Lucknow. On 9 November 2000, a new state, Uttarakhand, was carved from the state’s Himalayan hill region. The two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and Yamuna joins at Triveni Sangam in Allahabad and flow further east as Ganges. Other prominent rivers are Gomti and Saryu and the forest cover in the state is 6.09% of the state’s geographical area.
The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the west, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to the northwest, Uttarakhand and an international border with Nepal to the north, Bihar to the east, Madhya Pradesh to the south, and touches the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to the southeast. It covers 240,928 km2 (93,023 sq mi), equal to 7.34% of the total area of India, and is the 4th largest Indian state by area. Though long known for sugar production, the state’s economy is now dominated by the services industry. The service sector comprises travel and tourism, hotel industry, real estate, insurance and financial consultancies. The economy of Uttar Pradesh is the 5th largest state economy in India with ₹17.94 lakh crore (US$250 billion) in gross domestic product and a per capita NSDP of ₹70,000 (US$980). The state ranks 35th among Indian states in human development index.
Inhabitants of the state are called either Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Braji, Bundeli, Kannauji, or Rohilkhandi depending upon their region of origin. Hinduism is practised by more than three-fourths of the population, with Islam being the next largest religious group. Hindi is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state, along with Urdu. Uttar Pradesh was home to most of mainstream political entity that has existed in ancient and medieval India including Maurya Empire, Harsha Empire, Mughal Empire, Delhi Sultanate, Gupta Empire as well as many other empires. At the time of Indian independence movement in the early 20th century, there were three major princely states in Uttar Pradesh – Ramgadi, Rampur and Benares. The state houses several holy Hindu temples and pilgrimage centres. Uttar Pradesh has 3 World Heritage sites and has several historical, natural, and religious tourist destinations, such as Kushinagar, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Vrindavan, Mathura, Varanasi, Allahabad, Lucknow, Jaunpur, Noida, Meerut, Bareilly, Faizabad, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Rampur, Raebareli, Saharanpur, and Gorakhpur.
Know Your State : Uttar Pradesh