India, officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation 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 here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also shaped the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
The Cabinet of Albania, also known as Council of Ministers (Albanian: Këshilli i Ministrave) is the executive branch of Albania. The Chairman of the Council (Prime Minister) is appointed by the President; ministers are nominated by the President on the basis of the Prime Minister's recommendation. The Assembly of Albania must give final approval of the composition of the Council. The Council is responsible for carrying out both foreign and domestic policies. It directs and controls the activities of the ministries and other state organs.
The Council is responsible to the Parliament of Albania. The Parliament may choose to pass a motion of censure forcing the Council of Ministers to resign. This has the effect of forcing the Government to be composed of members from the majority political party in the Assembly or to be allied to the majority in a coalition. Ministers are required to answer written or oral questions put to them by members of Parliament, known as Government questions. In addition, ministers attend sessions of the Parliament when laws concerning their assigned sectors and departmental portfolios are under consideration.
The Cabinet of Niger (officially referred to as the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Niger) is made up of the appointed heads of Niger's government Ministries. Ministers are chosen from the elected members of the National Assembly of Niger. According to the Constitution of 18 July 1999 (the Fifth Republic) the Prime Minister of Niger proposes the membership of the Council of Ministers, and the President of Niger appoints the Ministers, which is then authorized by the National Assembly. The Council of ministers meets at the discretion of the President, advises him on policy, and carries out the policies he orders. The Council of Ministers is headed by the Prime Minister of Niger, who is put forward by the National Assembly, and accepted by the President. The Assembly may remove the Prime minister by a vote of no confidence.
Following the 2004 parliamentary election, no single party had a majority in the National Assembly. The MNSD-Nassara, with 47 of the 113 seats—as well as the Presidency—formed a coalition government headed by Prime Minister Hama Amadou. To support this government, some seats in the Council of Ministers were held by other parties. When Hama Amadou was forced from office in June 2007, much of the personnel in the Council changed, although the same parties were represented. Minor changes were made in 2008, but in May 2009, in response to their parties' opposition to a proposed referendum to allow the President to seek a third term, the three members of RDP-Jama'a and ANDP-Zaman Lahiya were replaced with ministers drawn from the MNSD-Nassara. With the continued support of the CDS-Rahama, the MNSD maintained a working majority of 67 seats in the 113 seat National Assembly.
The Council of Ministers is the executive branch of the government of Iraq.
The Council of Representatives of Iraq elects a President of the Republic who appoints the Prime Minister who in turn appoints the Council of Ministers, all of whom must be approved by the Assembly.
India (Syriac: Beth Hindaye) was an ecclesiastical province of the Church of the East, from the seventh to the sixteenth century. The Malabar Coast of India had long been home to a thriving East Syrian (Nestorian) Christian community, known as the St. Thomas Christians. The community traces its origins to the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Indian Christian community were initially part of the metropolitan province of Fars, but were detached from that province in the 7th century, and again in the 8th, and given their own metropolitan bishop.
Due to the distance between India and the seat of the Patriarch of the Church of the East, communication with the church's heartland was often spotty, and the province was frequently without a bishop. As such, the Indian church was largely autonomous in operation, though the authority of the Patriarch was always respected. In the 16th century, the Portuguese arrived in India and tried to bring the community under the authority of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. The Portuguese ascendancy was formalised at the Synod of Diamper in 1599, which effectively abolished the historic Nestorian metropolitan province of India. Angamaly, the former seat of the Nestorian metropolitans, was downgraded to a suffragan diocese of the Latin Archdiocese of Goa.
India was a battle honour awarded to the following regiments of the British Army for their service during the conquest of British India between 1787 and 1826:
Norman, C.B.: Battle Honours Of The British Army, From Tangier, 1662, To The Commencement Of The Reign Of King Edward VII. John Murray 1911.
The Indian subcontinent or the subcontinent is a southern region of Asia, mostly situated on the Indian Plate and projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Definitions of the extent of the Indian subcontinent differ but it usually includes the core lands of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh;Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, and the Maldives are often included as well. The region is also called by a number of other names including South Asia, a name that is increasingly popular.
The region has been variously labelled as "India" (in its pre-modern sense), the Indian subcontinent (a term in particularly common use in the British Empire and its successors) and South Asia. Though the terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are sometimes used interchangeably, some academics hold that the term "South Asia" is the more common usage in Europe and North America. According to historians Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, the Indian subcontinent has come to be known as South Asia "in more recent and neutral parlance."Indologist Ronald B. Inden argues that the usage of the term "South Asia" is becoming more widespread since it clearly distinguishes the region from East Asia.