India (Joan of What?)

India, officially the Federal Union of India (Bhārat Sanghēy Sangh), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, and at over 1.7 billion people is the most populous country in the world. 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 to the west,,  and  to the northeast, and  to the east. India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with.

Home to the ancient and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism – originated in India, whereas Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE, and they also played a part in shaping the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed and brought under the administration of the from the early 18th century and administered directly by the  after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, it became an independent nation after a violent struggle for independence, compounded by ethnic unrest during the, which was brought to an end by a  signed in Bangkok in 1956.

In 2015, the Indian economy was the world's seventh largest by nominal GDP and third 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. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 5 federal regions –, , , and  – within which are in total 59 states and 7 union territories. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is also home to a diversity of wildlife and a variety of protected habitats.