Andhra_Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh abbreviated A.P., is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the country's southeastern coast. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the east, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west. On 30 July 2013 the Congress Working Committee adopted a resolution on the bifurcation of the state subject to Parliamentary approval. Once approved by parliament the state of Telangana will come in existence with 10 districts, remaining part (including Rayalaseema) will still be called the state of Andhra Pradesh which will have 13 districts in it. Hyderabad (Part of Telangana) will be the common capital for both of the states for 10 years. According to the Planning Commission of India, in the financial year 2011-12 the state was second in nominal GDP and in GDP per capital it ranks fourth. Andhra Pradesh GDP in financial year 2011 was 567636 crore (US $87 billion). It is historically called the "Rice Bowl of India". More than 77% of its crop is rice; Andhra Pradesh produced 17,796,000 tonnes (19,616,732 short tons) of rice in 2006. Two of the mega cities of the state - Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam - were listed among the top 15 cities contributing to India's overall Gross domestic product. Andhra Pradesh has the longest coastline of 972 km (604 mi) among all the states of India. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna, run across the state. The small enclave (30 square kilometres (12 sq mi) of Yanam, a district of Pondicherry, lies in the Godavari delta in the northeast of the state. The state comprises three regions: Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. The state's most populous cities,are Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam Guntur, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry,  Warangal and Nellore (2011 census). The primary official language of Andhra Pradesh is Telugu and the co-official language is Urdu. Other languages often spoken in the state include Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Oriya. On 1 November 1956, the States Reorganization Act formed Andhra Pradesh by merging the Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking areas of already existing Hyderabad State. The Marathi speaking areas of Hyderabad State merged with Bombay State and Kannada speaking areas were merged with Mysore State.