INDIA

The “Republic of India”, commonly known as India, is a sovereign country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world.

Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of over 7500 kilometres. It borders Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia.

Despite significant economic progress, a quarter of the nation’s population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of $0.40/day. In addition, India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.

Over 800 million Indians, or about 80.5% of the country’s population, are Hindu. The next-largest religious group are Muslims, who make up 13.4%; due to India’s large size, this is among the world’s largest Muslim populations. Other religious groups include Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá’ís and others.

Murli & Usha Menon are founders of Impact International. They are involved in equipping students to be church planters through their Bible School, and teaching in many different parts of the world. Murli and Usha have a heart for evangelism and church planting in unreached regions of India. They are also involved in empowering children and rescuing baby girls from the heinous crime of female infanticide.

Christ The Rock Community Church sends teams to India to work with Murli and Usah in their teaching ministry, and to help in orphanages, and various other ministries to children, women and men.