Some of India’s popular monuments have reopened for the first time in more than three months, but its most famous – the Taj Mahal – and others in the city of Agra remain closed. The number of coronavirus cases in India has continued to rise, and the area around the Taj Mahal is under quarantine. India has surpassed Russia as the third-worst affected country, with nearly 700,000 cases and 20,000 deaths.
Al Jazeera’s Elizabeth Puranam reports from New Delhi.
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by land area, and the most populous democracy in the world. New Delhi is the capital.
It has an exceptionally diverse population, with Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and other religions speaking over 21 recognised languages.
New Delhi is the capital of India and an administrative district of NCT Delhi. New Delhi is also the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House, and the Supreme Court of India. Delhi itself is often considered as a hub for international trade.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.