Country profilesIndia

Humanitarian profile

Nuclear-armed India has a rapidly growing and strong economy but faces some huge problems. These including helping the poor, who make up most of its population – the world’s second-biggest after China – and keeping the lid on historic enmity towards Pakistan as well as on friction between Muslims and Hindus. Droughts, floods and epidemics are the main natural disasters India faces.

Country snapshot

India has the second largest population in the world and is the world's most populous democracy. A nuclear-armed state, India's economy has grown rapidly in the past two decades and is now the world's twelfth largest. But despite impressive economic growth, poverty is widespread. Mainly due to the lack of development and a feeling of marginalization, the country has several separatist insurgency struggles in the northeast, Kashmir as well the central part of the country where Maoist rebels are waging war. Tension remains between India and neighbouring Pakistan, which India accuses of not doing enough to stop cross border terrorism, and there are reports of near-daily border skirmishes, but military conflict remains only a very slim possibility. India's influence on the world's political, cultural and religious affairs has been immense.

Government

India is a federal state with a parliamentary form of government. The president, the head of state, is elected for a five year term by the federal and state parliaments and has a largely ceremonial role. The head of government is the prime minister who is the head of the majority party in the federal parliament and is appointed by the president. The parliament consists of an upper house, the Council of States or the Rajya Sabha, whose members are elected by state parliaments; and a lower house, the Lok Sabha, whose members are elected by the people every five years. Ministers are members of parliament and responsible to the Lok Sabha. The 28 states are responsible for public order, agriculture, education and health. Their governors are appointed by the president for five year terms.

Economy

Market oriented reforms that were first introduced in 1991 have given India one of the fastest growth rates in the world; more than 7 percent in the decade to 2007. Nevertheless, inadequate infrastructure, a cumbersome bureaucracy, corruption, labour market rigidities and controls on foreign investment are still a hindrance.

The economy is often said to have two separate parts; the village-based agricultural sector which accounts for about 18 percent of GDP and where more than half the population live on $2 a day or less, and the urban, rapidly industrialised part with an increasingly wealthy middle class.

In the countryside, rice is grown wherever the land is level and water available and India is the second largest global rice producer after China. Other food crops are wheat, sugar cane, pulses and corn. Cotton, tobacco, oilseeds, tea and jute are the main non-food crops.

The services sector accounts for over 50 percent of GDP. The computer software industry is one of the largest in the world; software exports were more than $28 billion in 2006/07. International call centres provide an increasing number of jobs and significant export revenue. Industry accounts for about 30 percent of GDP and employs about 12 percent of the workforce. There are large textile and steel industries and significant electronics, automobile, chemicals and armaments sectors. India's cut diamond industry is the largest in the world.

Cautious banking policies and a relatively low dependence on exports for growth prevented the global recession from doing too much damage; the economy grew 7.9 percent in the year to the third quarter of 2009. But rising inflation remains a threat.

History

British colonial rule in India ended in 1947 after a long independence campaign led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress party. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in 1948. India's first prime minister was Jawaharlal Nehru, a leader of the Congress party, which has been the main governing party since independence. Its main tenets in the 1950s and 1960s were secularism, economic policies based on socialism and centrally planning and a foreign policy aligned neither to the communist bloc nor to western nations.

In 1962 China launched a massive, but brief, offensive aimed at recovering disputed territory, while a border dispute with Pakistan in Kashmir led to two months of fighting in 1965. Nehru died in 1964 and in 1966 his daughter, Indira Gandhi, became Congress leader and prime minister. War broke out with Pakistan on two fronts in 1971; in Kashmir and in East Pakistan, which became the independent state of Bangladesh. Mrs Gandhi declared a state of emergency in 1975. Her suspension of many civil liberties cost her the elections in 1977. She returned to power in 1980 but was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

Her son Rajiv succeeded her as prime minister but was himself assassinated in 1991 by Tamils opposed to Indian's military intervention in Sri Lanka's civil war. In 1996 the Congress party had its worst ever election result when it came in third. The Hindu nationalist BJP party led a series of coalition governments until 2004 when a Congress-led coalition took power with Manmohan Singh as prime minister. Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv's widow, declined to become prime minister.

India conducted its first underground nuclear test in 1974 as a result of which Pakistan developed its own bomb; its first test was conducted in 1998. Tensions prompted by Muslim terrorist attacks nearly led to war with Pakistan in May 2002. Further attacks were made on Mumbai in 2006 and 2008. Pakistan acknowledged the 2008 attack was partly planned and launched from within Pakistan. The Congress-led coalition won an increased majority in 2009 and Manmohan Singh remains the prime minister.

Legal snapshot

The legal system is based on English common law; separate codes of personal law apply to Muslims, Christians and Hindus. The judicial system consists of the Supreme Court, made up of a chief justice and 25 judges appointed by the president, 21 high courts and a large number of local courts.

The Supreme Court is constitutionally independent, has the power to strike down laws which contravene the constitution and has appellate jurisdiction over high courts. Judicial corruption is rife, particularly at the lower levels, and most citizens have great difficulty in obtaining justice through the courts, says U.S. based Freedomhouse.

Transparency International says the overwhelming number of citizens say the police are corrupt and have direct experience of being asked to pay bribes. The police are often accused of torture or abuse of suspects to extract confessions. The Asian Centre for Human Rights reported that in 2008, 7,468 people died in custody in the previous five years, nearly all the result of torture. The security forces are periodically implicated in extrajudicial killings and torture in Kashmir and several northeastern states where various separatist insurgencies exist.