History of the Republic of India economists, military analysts and think tanks expect India to become a superpower in the near future. Independent India's first years were marked with turbulent events – a massive exchange of population with Pakistan, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 and the integration of over 500 princely states to form a united nation. Credit for the political integration of India is largely attributed to Vallabhbhai Patel (deputy Prime Minister of India at the time), who post-independence and before the death of Mahatma Gandhi teamed up with Jawaharlal Nehru and the Mahatma to ensure that the constitution of independent India would be secular.
Prime Minister of India or AIC001), and maintained by the Indian Air Force—are used. The Special Protection Group (SPG) is charged with protecting the sitting prime minister and his/her family. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) acts as the principal workplace of the prime minister. The office is located at South Block, and is a 20-room complex, and has the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs adjacent to it. The office is headed by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, generally a former civil servant, mostly from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and rarely from the