Delhi, India

🇮🇳 Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Delhi's urban area is now considered to extend beyond the NCT boundaries, and include the neighbouring satellite cities of Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida in an area called the National Capital Region, the world's second-largest urban area according to the United Nations. Recent estimates of the metro economy of its urban area have ranked Delhi either the most or second-most productive metro area of India. Delhi is the second-wealthiest city in India after Mumbai and is home to 18 billionaires and 23,000 millionaires. Delhi ranks fifth among the Indian states and union territories in human development index. Delhi has the second-highest GDP per capita in India. Delhi is of great historical significance as an important commercial, transport, and cultural hub, as well as the political centre of India.

The topography of the medieval fort Purana Qila on the banks of the river Yamuna matches the literary description of the citadel Indraprastha in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata; however, excavations in the area have revealed no signs of an ancient built environment. From the early 13th-century until the mid-19th century, Delhi was the capital of two major empires, the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal Empire, which covered large parts of South Asia. All three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the city, the Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, and the Red Fort belong to this period. Delhi was the early centre of Sufism and Qawwali music. The names of Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau are prominently associated with it. The Khariboli dialect of Delhi was part of a linguistic development that gave rise to the literature of the Urdu language and then of Modern Standard Hindi. Major Urdu poets from Delhi are Mir Taqi Mir, and Mirza Ghalib. Delhi was a major centre of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In 1911, New Delhi, a southern region within Delhi, became the capital of the British Indian Empire. During the Partition of India in 1947, Delhi was transformed from a Mughal city to a Punjabi one, losing two-thirds of its Muslim residents, in part to the pressure brought to bear by arriving Hindu refugees from western Punjab. After independence in 1947, New Delhi continued as the capital of the Dominion of India, and after 1950 of the Republic of India.

Delhi is home to the second highest number of billionaires and millionaires of any city in India. Delhi ranks fifth among the Indian states and union territories in human development index. Delhi has the second-highest GDP per capita in India (after Goa). Although a union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi today more closely resembles that of a state of India, with its own legislature, high court and an executive council of ministers headed by a Chief Minister. New Delhi is jointly administered by the federal government of India and the local government of Delhi, and serves as the capital of the nation as well as the NCT of Delhi. Delhi is also the centre of the National Capital Region, which is a 'interstate regional planning' area created in 1985. Delhi hosted the inaugural 1951 Asian Games, 1982 Asian Games, 1983 NAM Summit, 2010 Men's Hockey World Cup, 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2012 BRICS Summit and was one of the major host cities of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Economy Delhi is the largest commercial centre in northern India. As of 2016 recent estimates of the economy of the Delhi urban area have been around $370 billion (PPP metro GDP) ranking it either the most or second-most productive metro area of India. The nominal GSDP of the NCT of Delhi for 2016–17 was estimated at ₹6,224 billion (US$82 billion), 13% higher than in 2015–16. As per the Economic survey of Delhi (2005–2006), the tertiary sector contributes 70.95% of Delhi's gross SDP followed by secondary and primary sectors with 25.20% and 3.85% contributions, respectively. Delhi's workforce constitutes 32.82% of the population, and increased by 52.52% between 1991 and 2001. Delhi's unemployment rate decreased from 12.57% in 1999–2000 to 4.63% in 2003. In December 2004, 636,000 people were registered with various employment exchange programmes in Delhi.

In 2001 the total workforce in national and state governments and the quasi-government sector was 620,000, and the private sector employed 219,000. Key service industries are information technology, telecommunications, hotels, banking, media and tourism. Construction, power, health and community services and real estate are also important to the city's economy. Delhi has one of India's largest and fastest growing retail industries. Manufacturing also grew considerably as consumer goods companies established manufacturing units and headquarters in the city. Delhi's large consumer market and the availability of skilled labour has also attracted foreign investment. In 2001, the manufacturing sector employed 1,440,000 workers and the city had 129,000 industrial units.

Education In 2006, Delhi had 165 colleges, five medical colleges and eight engineering colleges, seven major universities and nine deemed universities.

The premier management colleges of Delhi such as Faculty of Management Studies (Delhi) and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade rank the best in India. All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi is a premier medical school for treatment and research. National Law University, Delhi is a prominent law school and is affiliated with the Bar Council of India. The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi situated in Hauz Khas is a premier engineering college of India and ranks as one of the top institutes in South Asia.

Delhi Technological University (formerly Delhi College of Engineering), Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (formerly Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology), Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Netaji Subhas University of Technology (formerly Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology), Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and National Law University, Delhi are the only state universities. University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia are the central universities, and Indira Gandhi National Open University is for distance education. As of 2008, about 16% of all Delhi residents possessed at least a college graduate degree.

According to the Directorate of Education and GNCTD the following languages are taught in schools in Delhi under the three-language formula: • First language: Hindi, Urdu, English • Second language: English • Third language: Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic

Media As the capital of India, Delhi is the focus of political reportage, including regular television broadcasts of Parliament sessions. Many national media agencies, including the state-owned Press Trust of India, Media Trust of India and Doordarshan, are based in the city. Television programming includes two free terrestrial television channels offered by Doordarshan, and several Hindi, English, and regional-language cable channels offered by multi system operators. Satellite television has yet to gain a large number of subscribers in the city.

Print journalism remains a popular news medium in Delhi. The city's Hindi newspapers include Navbharat Times, Hindustan Dainik, Punjab Kesari, Pavitra Bharat, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala and Dainik Desbandhu. Amongst the English language newspapers, the Hindustan Times, with a daily circulation of over a million copies, is the single largest daily. Other major English newspapers include The Times of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Business Standard, The Pioneer, The Statesman, and The Asian Age. Regional language newspapers include the Malayalam daily Malayala Manorama and the Tamil dailies Dinamalar and Dinakaran.

Radio is a less popular mass medium in Delhi, although FM radio has gained popularity since the inauguration of several new stations in 2006. A number of state-owned and private radio stations broadcast from Delhi.

Sport Delhi hosted the first Asian Games in 1951 from 4 to 11 March. A total of 489 athletes representing 11 Asian National Olympic Committees participated in 57 events from eight sports and discipline. The Games was the successor of the Far Eastern Games and the revival of the Western Asiatic Games. On 13 February 1949, the Asian Games Federation was formally established in Delhi, with Delhi unanimously announced as the first host city of the Asian Games. National Stadium was the venue for all events. Over 40,000 spectators watched the opening ceremony of the Games in National Stadium.

Delhi hosted the ninth Asian Games for the second time in 1982 from 19 November to 4 December. This was the second time the city has hosted the Asian Games and was also the first Asian Games to be held under the aegis of the Olympic Council of Asia. A total of 3,411 athletes from 33 National Olympic Committees participated in these games, competing in 196 events in 21 sports and 23 disciplines. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which has a capacity of 60,000 people, was built purposely for the event and hosted its opening ceremony.

Delhi hosted the Nineteenth Commonwealth Games in 2010, which ran from 3 to 14 October and was the largest sporting event held in India. The opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main stadium of the event, in New Delhi at 7:00 pm Indian Standard Time on 3 October 2010. The ceremony featured over 8,000 performers and lasted for two and a half hours. It is estimated that ₹3.5 billion (US$44 million) were spent to produce the ceremony. Events took place at 12 competition venues. 20 training venues were used in the Games, including seven venues within Delhi University. The rugby stadium in Delhi University North Campus hosted rugby games for Commonwealth Games.

Cricket and football are the most popular sports in Delhi. There are several cricket grounds, or maidans, located across the city. The Arun Jaitley Stadium (known commonly as the Kotla) is one of the oldest cricket grounds in India and is a venue for international cricket matches. It is the home ground of Delhi cricket team and the Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals. The Delhi cricket team represents the city in the Indian domestic tournaments. It has produced several world-class international cricketers such as Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, Madan Lal, Chetan Chauhan, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar and Bishan Singh Bedi to name a few. The Railways and Services cricket teams of domestic circuit also play their home matches in Delhi, at the Karnail Singh Stadium and the Palam A Stadium, respectively.

Ambedkar Stadium, a football stadium in Delhi which holds 21,000 people, was the venue for the Indian football team's World Cup qualifier against UAE on 28 July 2012. Delhi hosted the Nehru Cup in 2007 and 2009, in both of which India defeated Syria 1–0. In the Elite Football League of India, Delhi's first professional American football franchise, the Delhi Defenders played its first season in Pune. Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, a suburb of Delhi, formerly hosted the Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix.

Transport: Air Indira Gandhi International Airport, situated to the south-west of Delhi, is the main gateway for the city's domestic and international civilian air traffic. In 2015–16, the airport handled more than 48 million passengers, making it the busiest airport in India and South Asia. Terminal 3, which cost ₹96.8 billion (US$1.2 billion) to construct between 2007 and 2010, handles an additional 37 million passengers annually. In 2010, IGIA was conferred the 4th best airport award in the world in the 15–25 million category, by Airports Council International. The airport was rated as the Best airport in the world in the 25–40 million passengers category in 2015, by Airports Council International. Delhi Airport was awarded The Best Airport in Central Asia and Best Airport Staff in Central Asia at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2015. Hindon Domestic Airport in Ghaziabad was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the second airport for the Delhi-NCR Region on 8 March 2019. A second international airport open for commercial flights has been suggested either by expansion of Meerut Airport or construction of a new airport in Greater Noida. The Taj International Airport project in Jewar has been approved by the Uttar Pradesh government.

The Delhi Flying Club, established in 1928 with two de Havilland Moth aircraft named Delhi and Roshanara, was based at Safdarjung Airport which started operations in 1929, when it was the Delhi's only airport and the second in India. The airport functioned until 2001; however, in January 2002 the government closed the airport for flying activities because of security concerns following the New York attacks in September 2001. Since then, the club only carries out aircraft maintenance courses and is used for helicopter rides to Indira Gandhi International Airport for VIP including the president and the prime minister.

Transport: Road Delhi has the highest road density of 2103 km/100 km² in India. It is connected to other parts of India by five National Highways: NH 1, NH 2, NH 8, NH 10 and NH 24. The Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Kolkata prongs of the Golden Quadrilateral start from the city. The city's road network is maintained by MCD, NDMC, Delhi Cantonment Board, Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Development Authority.

Buses are the most popular means of road transport catering to about 60% of Delhi's total demand. Delhi has one of India's largest bus transport systems. In 1998, the Supreme Court of India ruled that all public transport vehicles in Delhi must be fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG) to tackle increasing vehicular pollution. The state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is a major bus service provider which operates the world's largest fleet of CNG-fuelled buses. In addition, cluster scheme buses are operated by Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) with the participation of private concessionaires and DTC. In December 2017, the DTC and cluster buses carried over 4.19 million passengers per day. Kashmiri Gate ISBT, Anand Vihar ISBT and Sarai Kale Khan ISBT are the main bus terminals for outstation buses plying to neighbouring states. Delhi's rapid rate of economic development and population growth has resulted in an increasing demand for transport, creating excessive pressure on the city's transport infrastructure. To meet the transport demand, the State and Union government constructed a mass rapid transit system, including the Delhi Metro. Delhi Bus Rapid Transit System runs between Ambedkar Nagar and Delhi Gate.

Personal vehicles especially cars also form a major chunk of vehicles plying on Delhi roads. As of 2007, private vehicles account for 30% of the total demand for transport. Delhi has the highest number of registered cars compared to any other metropolitan city in India. Taxis, auto rickshaws, and cycle rickshaws also ply on Delhi roads in large numbers. As of 2008, the number of vehicles in the metropolitan region, Delhi NCR, was 11.2 million (11.2 million). In 2008, there were 85 cars in Delhi for every 1,000 of its residents. In 2017, the number of vehicles in Delhi city alone crossed the ten million mark with the transport department of Delhi Government putting the total number of registered vehicles at 10,567,712 until 25 May of the year.

Transport: Rail Delhi is a major junction in the Indian railway network and is the headquarters of the Northern Railway. The main railway stations are New Delhi, Old Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Anand Vihar, Delhi Sarai Rohilla and Delhi Cantt. The Delhi Metro, a mass rapid transit system built and operated by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), serves many parts of Delhi and the neighbouring cities Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida. As of December 2021, the metro consists of ten operational lines with a total length of 348.12 km (216.31 mi) and 254 stations, and several other lines are under construction. The Phase-I was built at a cost of US$2.3 billion and the Phase-II was expected to cost an additional ₹216 billion (US$2.7 billion). Phase-II has a total length of 128 km and was completed by 2010. Delhi Metro completed 10 years of operation on 25 December 2012. It carries millions of passengers every day. In addition to the Delhi Metro, a suburban railway, the Delhi Suburban Railway exists.

Transport: Metro The Delhi Metro is a rapid transit system serving Delhi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida in the National Capital Region of India. Delhi Metro is the world's tenth-largest metro system in terms of length. Delhi Metro was India's second modern public transportation system. The network consists of 10 colour-coded lines serving 255 stations with a total length of 348.12 km (216.31 mi). The system has a mix of underground, at-grade, and elevated stations using both broad-gauge and standard-gauge. All stations have escalators, lifts, and tactile tiles to guide the visually impaired from station entrances to trains. There are 18 designated parking sites at Metro stations to further encourage the use of the system. In March 2010, DMRC partnered with Google India to provide train schedule and route information to mobile devices with Google Maps. It has a combination of elevated, at-grade, and underground lines, and uses both broad gauge and standard gauge rolling stock. Four types of rolling stock are used: Mitsubishi–ROTEM Broad gauge, Bombardier MOVIA, Mitsubishi–ROTEM Standard gauge, and CAF Beasain Standard gauge. The Phase-I of Delhi Metro was built for US$2.3 billion and the Phase-II was expected to cost an additional ₹216 billion (US$2.7 billion). Phase-II has a total length of 128 km and was completed by 2010. Delhi Metro completed 10 years of operation on 25 December 2012. It carries millions of passengers every day.

Delhi Metro is being built and operated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC), a state-owned company with equal equity participation from the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. However, the organization is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. Besides the construction and operation of the Delhi Metro, DMRC is also involved in the planning and implementation of metro rail, monorail, and high-speed rail projects in India and providing consultancy services to other metro projects in the country as well as abroad. The Delhi Metro project was spearheaded by Padma Vibhushan E. Sreedharan, the managing director of DMRC and popularly known as the "Metro Man" of India. He famously resigned from DMRC taking moral responsibility for a metro bridge collapse, which took five lives. Sreedharan was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French Government for his contribution to Delhi Metro.