The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday hiked its indicative short term policy rates by 25 basis points to tame inflation and inflationary pressure.

The central bank raised the repo rate — the rate at which banks borrow money from the central bank — by 25 basis points from 6.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent and the reverse repo rate — the rate at which banks park their funds with the RBI — from 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

India's exports during November jumped by 26.8 per cent to $18.9 billion year-on-year. India's exports during April-September aggregated to $103.65 billion registering a year-on-year growth of 28 per cent.

India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production. The nation's industrial production grew at the fastest pace in three months at 10.8 per cent.Manufacturing grew 11.3 percent in October after a 4.6 percent gain in September.

Tourism is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23 per cent to the national GDP. The number of foreign tourists visiting the country during September this year is higher than that of the same month last year.Around 3.69 lakh (369,000) foreign tourists came to India in September this year as compared to 3.28 lakh (328,000) during the same month in 2009.

India is among the top 10 nations in terms of foreign exchange reserves.The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008 with an addition of $2.2 billion on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency. The nation's forex reserves currently stand at $296.40 billion.

India ranks second in farm output globally. India is one of the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper.

India owns over 18,000 tonnes of above ground gold stocks worth approximately $800 billion and representing at least 11 per cent of global stock, according to estimates of World Gold Council.India ranks 11th in the world with 557.7 tonnes of gold reserves.

India is the world's largest recipient of overseas remittances. The remittances grew from $49.6 billion in 2009 to $55 billion in 2010.It is also the country with the second largest number of emigrants after Mexico, according to the World Bank.

The Bombay Stock Exchange has been rated as the world's best performing stock market recently. With a 13 per cent gain, Sensex is among the world's 10 biggest markets, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

The Indian IT-BPO industry is expected to exceed $70 billion in fiscal 2011.The Indian IT-BPO exports are projected to grow by 13 per cent to 15 per cent while domestic IT-BPO will grow slightly more by 15 per cent to 17 per cent during fiscal 2010-11.