The Constitution of India was drawn up by a Constituent Assembly (established in accordance with the Cabinet Mission Plan, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar) initially summoned on Dec. 9, 1946, under the president ship of Sachidananda Sinha, for undivided India. On July 1, 1947, the British parliament passed the 'Indian Independence Act', to divide in to India and Pakistan.
The continuing presence of terrorist and fundamentalist forces in its neighborhood has prompted India to maintain a high level of Defense vigilance and preparedness to face any challenge to its security. The country faces a series of low intensity conflicts characterized by tribal, ethnic and left wing movements and ideologies as also the proxy war conducted by Pakistan.
In the ancient times, democracy in the republic form had existed in India. This is evident from the writings of Rufus and Diodorus Siculus in their histories of Alexander, that mention a group of Indian people called the Sabarcae or Sambastai among whom "the form of government was democratic and not regal."
An National Educational Policy (NEP) is a comprehensive framework to guide the development of education in the country. A new NEP usually comes along every few decades. India has had three to date. The first came in 1968, 1986, and now 2020. The NEP proposes sweeping changes including opening up of Indian higher education to foreign universities and introduction of a four-year multidisciplinary undergraduate programme with multiple exit options.
India possesses a distinct identity, not only because of its geography, history and culture but also because of the great diversity of its natural ecosystems. The panorama of Indian forests ranges from evergreen tropical rain forests in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Western Ghats, and the north-eastern states, to dry alpine scrub high in the Himalaya to the north.
India is a modern civilization of nuclear capability that continues to nurture its roots that go back to a time before the written record of history. In the words of Linda Johnson, “if you had been around in the third millennium B.C.E, India is where you would have wanted to be" whre "the towns of North India in 2600 B.C.E. were more comfortable and technologically advanced than most European cities till nearly the time of the Renaissance!"
The Constitution of India is one of the most rights-based constitutions in the world. Drafted around the same time as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Indian Constitution captures the essence of human rights in its Preamble, and the sections on Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy.
Indo-U.S. relations are undergoing a qualitative transformation. Cooperation and consultations have broadened and diversified considerably. Both the countries have recognized that closer Indo-US relations would be an important and a positive factor both for stability of the region as well as in the global affairs. There has been a significant progress in defense and security relationship where the two countries have conducted mutually beneficial exercises and training exchanges.
The North Eastern States of India consist of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. Most of these states were part of former Assam. Geographically Assam has been reduced to one-third of its original size in 30 years. Assam, known in ancient lore as Kamarupa, originally included most of the north-eastern region, parts of modern Bengal and Bangladesh.
Indo-Pak relations have been characterized by mistrust, suspicion, and conflict from the day the two countries emerged as independent and separate nation states in August 1947. Over the last five-and-a-half decades, the two countries have tried to get a durable peace process going and resolve their differences, peacefully, and in a civilized manner. None of these efforts have yielded much.
The Constitution of India does not recognize political parties. Parliament too, has not enacted any law with regard to their formation and functioning. In view of that, the Election Commission has evolved its own procedure for recognition of political parties for the limited purpose of regulating the allotment of exclusive election symbols to them. There are national and regional political parties and their status change by electroal performance.
India is the second most populous country in the world, after China. The population which at the turn of the twentieth century was around 238.4 million, increased to reach 1,027 million in March, 2001 (531.3 m. males and 495.7 m. females). India accounts for a meagre 2.4 percent of the world surface area of 135.79 million sq.km. but it supports 16.7 per cent of the world population.
Poverty line is drawn on the basis of a barest minimum desirable nutritional standards of calorie intake. Nearly half of India's population is estimate to be deprived of this basic minimum standards. People below the poverty line comprise largely those whose consumption is very low and who have little physical resources of production. Although the Human Development Index of India has grown by 50% since 1990, in 2020 ranks India 131 out of 189 countries-- the Indian government has rejected this study blaming its methodology.
Among the major religions in India, Hinduism is the largest, followed by Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism are native to India and by law considered part of Hinduism. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam came to India when they were persecuted one of the other. Zorastrianism came to India when their adherents were persecuted by Muslims-- their descendants are called Parsis.
Even from ancient times, India consistently emphasised on the development of science and technology as a major instrument for achieving national goals of self-reliance and socio-economic development. There are about 200 research laboratories within the purview of major scientific departments carrying out research in different areas. Major contribution comes from universities such as the world-renowned Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). India has the world’s third biggest reservoir of scientific and technical manpower.
India has been a victim of terrorism for many decades. The terrorist menace in Jammu and Kashmir has its roots in Pakistan and is supported financially and materially by the government and institutions of that country. Despite the assurances of the Pakistani Government, infiltration continues across the border. The Indian Armed Forces have dealt with the problem of cross-border terrorism with a multi-pronged strategy that includes psychological warfare, innovative military tactics, and counter intelligence methods. Because of these successes, terror deaths have been falling over the years.
India has the largest number of tourist spots than almost all the countries combined. Unfortunately, it has a terribly developed infrastructure till recently. Even though India has more of everything that other country sells -- forests, hills, beaches, deserts, cultural sites, activity centers, etc, it accounts for about 1% of global tourism. The share of Tourism in the country's GDP is expected to double by 2028.
India has an active participation in the UN Security Council on key issues such on specific global situations as well as on thematic issues such as threats to international peace and international security. India has been an active participant in eleven out of fifteen ongoing UN Peace Keeping Operations. Despite being the world's third largest economy and home to 20% of the world's population, India is still not accepted as a veto-bearing permanent member of the Security Council because of China's opposition. Interestingly, it was India which got China a seat in the UNSC.
Over the years, female literacy and education have increased making India has the second highest number of female scientists in the world. India had the second female Prime Minister and also a President. The dowry system, an import from the British, required women to pay large amounts of money and gifts to the groom--in the past decades, these have decreased dramatically.