This is just the XML Name Space declaration. We use this Name Space in order to specify that the attributes listed below, belongs to Android. Thus they starts with "android:"
You can actually create your own custom attributes. So to prevent the name conflicts where 2 attributes are named the same thing, but behave differently, we add the prefix "android:" to signify that these are Android attributes.
Thus, this Name Space declaration must be included in the opening tag of the root view of your XML file.