India

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**India,** also called the **Republic of India**, is a country in South Asia. It is the most populous country in the world (with over 1.6 billion people). It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west: China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Nagaland and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of its protectorate, Sri Lanka. India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

In 2039, the Indian economy was the world's third largest by nominal GDP and second largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public healthcare, particularly within the Protectorate of Bangladesh.

A nuclear weapons state, permanent member of the UN Security Council and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks third in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 24 states and 7 union territories, 1 autonomous republic and 1 integrated protectorate. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

## History

For pre 2018 see History of India and History of the Republic of India

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## Geography

India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, and part of the Indo-Australian Plate.

## Politics and Government

### Politics

India is the world's most populous democracy. A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system, it has six recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India and Bangladesh (CPIB), as well as more than 40 regional parties. The Congress is considered centre in Indian political culture, the CPI left and the BJP right-wing. For most of the period between 1950 and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with both the BJP and CPI, as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the centre.

### Government

India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.

It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which "majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the Union, or Central, government and the states. The government abides by constitutional checks and balances.

The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weak states, has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.

The Union government comprises three branches:

* Executive: The President of India is the head of state and is elected indirectly by a national electoral college for a five-year term. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power.  Appointed by the president, the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. The executive branch of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Council of Ministers—the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament  In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and his council are directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. The civil servants are permanent executives and all executive decisions are implemented by them.
* Legislature: The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. It operates under a Westminster-style parliamentary system and comprises the upper house called the Rajya Sabha ("Council of States") and the lower called the Lok Sabha ("House of the People"). The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that has 270 members who serve in staggered six-year terms. Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state's share of the national population. All but two of the Lok Sabha's 607 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent individual constituencies via five-year terms. The remaining two members are nominated by the president from among the Anglo-Indian community, in case the president decides that they are not adequately represented.
* Judiciary: India has a unitary three-tier independent judiciary that comprises the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 24 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre; it has appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts. It has the power both to declare the law and to strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution, as well as to invalidate any government action it deems unconstitutional.

### Subdivisions

India is a federation composed of 24 states, 7 union territories, 1 autonomous republic and 1 integrated protectorate. All states, as well as the union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Assam autonomous republic, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts. The districts, in turn, are further divided into tehsils and ultimately into villages.

* Bihar
* Chhattisgarh
* Goa
* Gujarat
* Haryana
* Jammu and Kashmir
* Jharkhand
* Karnataka
* Kerala
* Madhya Pradesh
* Manipur
* Mizoram
* Odisha
* Punjab
* Rajasthan
* Telangana
* Tripura
* Uttar Pradesh
* Uttarakhand
* Chandigarh
* Dadra and Nagar Haveli
* Daman
* Lakshadweep
* National Capital Territory of Delhi
* Puducherry
* Protectorate of Bangladesh

### Foreign Relations

India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war five times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, 1999 and 2038. Four of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India's support for the independence of Bangladesh. With the entry of both to the Shanghai Cooperate Organisation in 2017 and later the Shanghai Pact in 2025 Indo-Pakistani relations saw a temporary improvement before renewed hostility over the Indian invasion of Bangladesh.

India has also had tense relationships with its neighbour China, who has often backed India's rivals and enemies such as Pakistan, the CPI and the NSCN. Sino-Indian relations reached an all time low during the Sino-Indian Proxy War with the exit of India from the Shanghai Pact. Since then both countries have sought to reduce tensions along the frontier by ending all official claims on each other, expand trade and cultural ties, and normalise relations, even offering aid to each other to repair regions damaged during the conflict.

India's ties with Eurasia are based on continuity, trust and mutual understanding. While Eurasia chose to back its close ally China during the Sino-Indian Proxy war it still retained somewhat healthy relations with India after the war, suggesting India's re-entry to the Shanghai Pact after the conflict. While Pakistan blocked full membership India returned as an observer to the Shanghai Pact in early 2040.

During the Sino-Indian Proxy War India has increased its economic, strategic, and military co-operation with various members of the Coalition. In recent years, it has played key roles in the World Trade Organisation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). India became a permanent member of the UN security council in 2040.

## Military

The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with 3.0 million active troops, they compose the world's second-largest military. It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Coast Guard. The official Indian defence budget for 2040 was $1.23 trillion, or 2.83% of GDP (PPP) making it the third highest defence budget in the world, behind China and the United States. Many speculate however that India is unlikely to maintain this high budget for very long due to the de-escalation of tensions in the aftermath of the Himalayan War.