The Second Most populous country in Southern Asia - India

India is the second most populous country in Southern Asia. It has a federal form of government run
through a parliamentary system. It has 29 states and seven union territories with New Delhi as its
capital. The supreme document in India is the Constitution of India and its preamble states that India is a
socialist, sovereign, democratic and secular republic. Govt. of India comprises of three institutions-
legislative, executive and judiciary (Britannica.com. 2019). The legislative comprises of two houses –
Rajya Sabha & Lok Sabha with elected representatives from all over the country. It is responsible for
making new laws and passing amendments in Indian constitution. Executive consists of the President,
Vice President and the union council of ministers (also known as the Cabinet) headed by the Prime
Minister and is responsible for executing the constitution in the country. The President of India is the
head of the state while the Prime Minister has the most executive powers being the head of the
Government (Indiatoday.in. 2016). The Prime Minister is chosen from the political party having majority
in the Lok Sabha. Judiciary is meant to safeguard the constitution. India has a three tier unitary style
judiciary with apex Supreme Court in the center followed by High Courts in federal states and various
trial courts.
India has various political parties recognised at national and regional levels. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
& Indian National Congress (INC) are the two mainstream national level political parties which have
enjoyed majority in the parliament post the transfer of power in 1947. However the emergence of
powerful regional parties have often led to the creation of multiparty coalition governments namely
NDA (National Democratic Alliance) supporting BJP & UPA (United Progressive Alliance) supporting INC.
Since 2014 general elections, BJP has been the ruling party with Narendra Damodardas Modi as the
incumbent Prime Minister. Rahul Gandhi is the leader of opposition from Indian National Congress
(NCERT 2015). The Lok Sabha elections have already started and will be complete by March, 2019. The
party in majority will make the Prime Minister for the next term.
India is one of the fastest growing economy with 7.6% growth rate and a GDP worth US$2116239 billion
as per UN Statistics (Data.un.org. 2019). The service sector makes up more than 50% of India’s GDP.
India followed protectionist economic policies influenced by socialist economic ideas with state
intervention and regulation of market SINCE 1947 (Siteresources.worldbank.org. 2006). But post 1991, it
has been implementing LPG (Liberalisation Privatisation & Globalization) policies, steering the country
towards a free market economy.
The country has witnessed dynamic changes in the recent years on the hands of major domestic
changes. The most notable being the demonetisation on November 8, 2016 that led to the death of a
100 people nationwide while the GDP growth lost 1.5 % (Dutta 2018). It also changed its indirect
taxation system from a Value Added Tax (VAT) system to a more centralised Goods & Services Tax (GST)
system that witnessed huge protests. However, these steps also led to a more digitized and organised
Indian economy with a unified market (In.one.un.org. 2019).
India is one of the 17 mega diverse countries with 21.2 % of its land under forest cover (Fsi.nic.in. 2019).
It has 172 IUCN designated threatened animal species like Bengal Tiger, snow leopard, Asiatic lion etc.
Wildlife Protection Act & Project Tiger have been initiated and many wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere
reserves have been made by the Indian Govt. to protect its rich biodiversity (Mace 1993).
Despite being the fastest growing economy, one of the biggest challenges that India is facing today is
widespread poverty as it has the largest number of people living below US$1.25/ day
(Globalslaveryindex.org. 2018). The evils like child labour, malnutrition, unemployment, bonded labour,