Tourism

Andhra Pradesh is promoted by tourism department as "Koh-i-Noor of India."

Andhra Pradesh is the home of many religious pilgrim centres. Tirupati, the abode of Hindu god Venkateswara, is most visited religious center (of any faith) in the world.[citation needed] Srisailam, nestled in the Nallamala Hills is the abode of Mallikarjuna and is one of twelve Jyothirlingalu in India. Amaravati's Shiva temple is one of the Pancharamams, as is Yadagirigutta, the abode of an avatara of Vishnu, Lakshmi Narasimha. The Ramappa temple and Thousand Pillars temple in Warangal are famous for their temple carvings. The state has numerous Buddhist centres at Amaravati, Nagarjuna Konda, Bhattiprolu, Ghantasala, Nelakondapalli, Dhulikatta, Bavikonda, Thotlakonda, Shalihundam, Pavuralakonda, Sankaram, Phanigiri and Kolanpaka.

The Badami Chalukyas (Badami is in Karnataka) in 6th century built the 'Alampur Bhrama temples,[46] an excellent examples of Chalukya art and sculpture. The Vijayanagara Empire built number of monuments, the Srisailam temple and Lepakshi temples.

The golden beaches at Visakhapatnam, the one-million-year old limestone caves at Borra, picturesque Araku Valley, hill resorts of Horsley Hills, river Godavari racing through a narrow gorge at Papi Kondalu, waterfalls at Ettipotala, Kuntala and rich bio-diversity at Talakona, are some of the natural attractions of the state. Kailashagiri is near the sea in Visakhapatnam. A park is on the hill top of Kailashagiri. Visakhapatnam is home to many tourist attactions like INS Karasura Submarine museum (The only one of its kind in India), the longest Beach Road in India, Yarada Beach, Araku Valley, VUDA Park, and Indira Gandhi Zoological Gardens.

The Borra Caves are located in the Anatagiri Hills of Eastern Ghats, near Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh State in India. They are at a height of about 800 to 1300 metres above Mean Sea Level and are famous for million-year-old stalactite and stalagmite formations. They were discovered by William King George, the British geologist in the year 1807. The caves get their name from a formation inside the caves that looks like the human brain, which in the local language, Telugu, is known as burra. Similarly, the Belum caves were formed due to erosion in limestone deposits in the area by Chitravati River, millions of years ago. These limestone caves was formed due to action of carbonic acid — or weakly acidic groundwater formed due to reaction between limestone and water.

The Belum Caves are the second largest cave system in the Indian sub-continent. The Belum Caves derive their name from Bilum, the Sanskrit word for caves. In Telugu, the caves are known as Belum Guhalu. The Belum Caves have a length of 3229 meters, making them the second largest natural caves on the Indian subcontinent. The Belum Caves have long passages, spacious chambers, freshwater galleries and siphons. The caves' deepest point is 120 feet (37 m) from the entrance and is known as Patalganaga.

Horsley Hills Horsley Hills, elevation 1,265 m, is a famous summer hill resort in Andhra Pradesh, about 160 km from Bangalore and 144 km from Tirupati. The town of Madanapalle lies nearby. Major tourist attractions include the Mallamma temple and the Rishi valley school. Horsely Hills is the departure point for the Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary at a distance of 87 km. Nirmal is very famous for its handicrafts& nirmal paintings were well known all over the world. kuntala waterfalls is biggest(45mt) waterfall in the state which is verynear to nirmal in adilabad district. Charminar, Golconda Fort, Chandragiri Fort, Chowmahalla Palace and Falaknuma Palace are some of the monuments in the state.

Kanaka Durga Temple in Vijayawada in Krishna district, Venkateswara Temple in Dwarakatirumala, West Godavari District (it is also called Chinna Tirupathi), Surya temple in Arasavelli in Srikakulam District are also places to see in Andhra Pradesh. Annavaram Satayannarayana Swami temple is in East Godavari..

Newspapers and journals

Andhra Pradesh has several Telugu-language newspapers. Eenadu,Sakshi, Andhra Jyothy, Prajasakti, Vaartha, Andhra Bhoomi, Visalandra, Suryaa and Andhra Prabha are the main Telugu-language newspapers in the state.

Andhra Pradesh's Urdu-language newspapers include Siasat Daily, The Munsif Daily, Rehnuma-e-Deccan, Itimad Urdu Daily, Awam and The Milap Daily.

There are several English-language newspapers in Andhra Pradesh, including the The Times of India, The Hindu, The Deccan Chronicle, The New Indian Express, The Economic Times, The Business Line.

Andhra Pradesh is also home to several Hindi-language newspapers. Among these are Swatantra Vaartha, Vishakhapatanam Nizamabad, and Hindi Milap, one of the oldest Hindi newspapers published from Hyderabad. "islamic voice", Telugu Fortnightly, published from Hyderabad

Education

Andhra Pradesh is served by more than 20 institutes of higher education. All major arts, humanities, science, engineering, law, medicine, business and veterinary science are offered, leading to first degrees as well as postgraduate awards. Advanced research is conducted in all major areas.

Andhra Pradesh has 1330 arts, science and commerce colleges; 1000 MBA and MCA colleges; 500 engineering colleges; and 53 medical colleges. The student to teacher ratio is 19:1 in higher education. According to the 2001 census, Andhra Pradesh has an overall literacy rate of 60.5%. While the male literacy rate is at 70.3%, the female literacy rate is only at 50.4%, a cause for concern.

The state has recently made strides in setting up several institutes. Andhra Pradesh is home to the prestigious, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H),[44] National Institute of Technology NIT Warangal,[45], NALSAR University of Law, country's topmost law school, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, (BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus), University of Hyderabad (Hyderabad Central University) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) are gaining national attention for their standards. The National Institute of Fashion Technology and The Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition (NIFT) are also located in Hyderabad. The prestigious Osmania University is situated in Hyderabad.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh has the distinction of establishing the first University of Health Sciences fulfilling the recommendations of several committees.Thus the “Andhra Pradesh University of Health Sciences” was established by the Act.No. 6 of the Andhra Pradesh legislature and was inaugurated on 9-4-1986 by the late Sri N.T. Rama Rao, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.The University of Health Sciences started functioning at Vijayawada from 01-11-1986. After the death of its founder Sri N.T. Rama Rao the University was named after him as NTR University of Health Sciences, Andhra Pradesh with effect from 2.2.98 vide Act No.4 of 1998. In additiona, A few new universities have been established like Rayalaseema University.

Dance

Jayapa Senani (Jayapa Nayudu) is the first person who wrote about the dances prevalent in Andhra Pradesh.[38] Both Desi and Margi forms of dances have been included in his Sanskrit treatise 'Nrutya Ratnavali'. It contains eight chapters. Folk dance forms like Perani, Prenkhana, Suddha Nartana, Carcari, Rasaka, Danda Rasaka, Shiva Priya, Kanduka Nartana, Bhandika Nrityam, Carana Nrityam, Chindu, Gondali and Kolatam are described. In the first chapter the author deals with discussion of the differences between Marga and Desi, Tandava and lasya, Natya and Nritta. In the 2nd and 3rd chapters he deals with Angi-kabhinaya, Caris, Sthanakas and Mandalas. In the 4th Chapter Karnas, angaharas and recakas are described. In following chapters he described the local dance forms i.e. desi nrutya. In the last chapter he deals with art and practice of dance.

Classical dance in Andhra can be performed by both men and women; however women tend to learn it more often. Kuchipudi is the state's best-known classical dance form. The various dance forms that existed through the state's history are Chenchu Bhagotham, Kuchipudi, Bhamakalapam, Burrakatha, Veeranatyam, Butta bommalu, Dappu, Tappeta Gullu, Lambadi, Bonalu, Dhimsa, Kolattam and chindu .Jaanapadam is also one popular kind of folk dances available in Andhra Pradesh

Demographics

Telugu is the official language of the state, spoken by 80.5% of the population. Telugu is the third most widely spoken language in India, after Hindi and Bengali.[21] The major linguistic minority groups in the state include the speakers of Urdu (8.63%) and Hindi (1.63%), Kannada (1.8%) and Tamil (1.91%).The Indian government designated Telugu as a classical and ancient language on November 1, 2008.[23]

Other languages spoken in Andhra Pradesh by less than 1% each are Marathi (0.84%), Oriya (0.42%), Gondi (0.21%) and Malayalam (0.1%). Languages spoken by less than 0.1% are the states residents include Gujarati (0.09%), Savara (0.09%), Koya (0.08%), Jatapu (0.04%), Punjabi (0.04%), Kolami (0.03%), Konda (0.03%), Gadaba (0.02%), Sindhi (0.02%), Gorkhali/Nepali (0.01%) and Khond/Kondh (0.01%).

The main ethnic group of Andhra Pradesh is the Telugu people who primarily are Dravidians.

Andra Pradesh ranks tenth compared to all Indian States in the Human Development Index scores with a score of 0.416.

National Council of Applied Economic Research district-wise analysis in 2001 reveals that Khammam, Krishna, West Godavari, Chittoor and Medak are the five districts with highest Human Development Index scores in ascending order in rural AP. Mahbubnagar, East Godavari, Warangal, Visakhapatanam and Guntur are the districts with lowest Human Development Index. The data show that the poor make up 16.3 per cent of the total population in rural AP and expenditure on consumption is around 13.5 per cent of the total consumption expenditure. The female literacy rate is 0.66 compared to male literacy rate in rural AP. The district-wise variations for poverty ratio are high and low for ratio of female/male literacy rate

Literature

Nannayya,Tikkana, and Yerrapragada form the trinity who translated the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata into Telugu. BommeraPothana is another poet who composed the classic Sri Mad AndhraMahaBhagavatamu, a Telugu translation of Sri Bhagavatham authored by Veda Vyasa in Sanskrit. Nannayya is called Adikavi and was patronized by the king Rajarajanarendra who ruled from Rajamahendravaram (Rajahmundry). The Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya wrote Amuktamalyada. Telugu poet Vemana, a native of Kadapa, is also notable for his philosophical poems. Telugu literature after Kandukuri Veeresalingam is termed modern literature. Known as Gadya Tikkana, SatyavathiCharitam was the author Telugu-language social novel, Satyavathi Charitam. Other modern writers include the only person nominated from India for Nobel prize in literature after Rabindranath Tagore Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, Jnanpith Award winners Sri Viswanatha Satya Narayana and Dr. C. Narayana Reddy. The Andhra Pradesh native and revolutionary poet Sri Sri brought new forms of expressionism into Telugu literature.

Cultural institutions

Andhra Pradesh has many museums, including the Archaeological Museum at Amaravati near Guntur City that features relics of nearby ancient sites, the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, which features a varied collection of sculptures, paintings, and religious artifacts and the Visakha Museum in Visakhapatnam, which displays the history of the pre-Independence Madras Presidency in a rehabilitated Dutch bungalow.Victoria Jubilee Museum in Vijayawada has a good collection of ancient sculptures, paintings, idols, weapons, cutlery and inscriptions.

Economy

Agriculture has been the chief source of income for the state's economy. Four important rivers of India, the Godavari, Krishna, Penna and Thungabhadra flow through the state, providing irrigation. Rice, sugarcane, cotton, mirchi (chilli pepper), mango and tobacco are the local crops. Recently, crops used for vegetable oil production such as sunflower and peanuts have gained favour.The state has also started to focus on the fields of information technology and biotechnology. In 2004–2005, Andhra Pradesh was at the fifth position in the list of top IT exporting states of India. The IT exports from the State were Rs.82,700 million in 2004–2005 ($1.8 billion). The IT sector is expanding at a rate of 52.3% every year. The IT exports reached Rs.190,000 million ($4.5 billion) in 2006–2007, contributed to 14 per cent of total IT exports of the nation and ranked fourth in India. The service sector of the state already accounts for 43% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) and employs 20% of the work force. The state capital, Hyderabad is considered to be bulk drug capital of the country. 50% of the top 10 companies in Pharmaceutical field are from the state. The state also commands a very prominent place in the infrastructure space, with many companies from the state being up there at the fore-front.

Andhra Pradesh ranks second in India in terms of mineral wealth. The state has about one third of India's limestone reserves, estimated at about 30 billion tonnes. The Krishna Godavari Basin has huge reserves of natural gas, and petroleum. The state is also is blessed with a large amount of coal reserves. The state ranks first nationwide in hydro electricity generation with a national market share of over 11%.

AndhraPradesh's GSDP for 2005 was estimated at $62 billion in current prices. This is a chart of trend of GSDP of AndhraPradesh at market prices estimated by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees. Accordingly, the state ranks fourth in terms of overall GSDP,and fourth in per capita GSDP among the major states of India. According to another metric, the state ranks third in terms of Gross State Product among all the states of the Indian Union.

Symbols of Andhra

AndhraPradesh State Symbols

State language - Telugu
State symbol - Poorna Kumbham
State song - Maa Telugu Thalliki by Sankarambadi Sundarachari
State animal - Black Buck
State bird - Indian Roller
State tree - Neem
State sport - Kabaddi
State dance - Kuchipudi
State flower - Water lily..

Where is Andhra ?

AndhraPradesh a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad. The State has the second longest coastline (972 km) among all the States in India.

AndhraPradesh lies between 12°41' and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40'E longitude, and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the East, TamilNadu to the south and Karnataka to the west. Andhra Pradesh is historically called the "Rice Bowl of India". More than 77% of its crop is rice; AndhraPradesh produced 17,796,000 tonnes of rice in 2006. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna run across the state. The small enclave (12 sq mi (30 km²)) of the Yanam district of Puducherry(Pondicherry) state lies in the GodavariDelta in north-east of the state.