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when all of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh became part of the larger British Empire. India won independence in 1947, promptly began fighting several of its neighbors, instituted a vast number of government offices to manage the huge population, and emerged in the twenty-first century as perhaps the most powerful nation in the Southern Hemisphere. India today earns headlines primarily for its economic growth. It is in the midst of a major economic boom, enjoying annual growth of 5 to 10 percent, far higher than any Western nation. India’s economy has grown fivefold since 1970, and today India is the sixth-largest economy in the entire world according to the World Bank, reflecting the adoption of new technologies and the impact of India’s growing industries. Industrialization in India has made rapid progress, and economists agree that India will be one of the wealthiest nations in the world in the immediate future. India has followed the track of China as first amanufacturing power and then an information-technology power. It is clear that these two nations will be the dominant power players in Asia, although it is not yet clear whether they can peacefully cooperate or whether friction between them will create future conflict. India’s newwealth has increased the quality of life for many, yet it has not spread across the nation like the annual monsoon winds. The growth of the Indianmiddle class is steady but slow.Half of the population of India still works on farms as their ancestors might have done thousands of years ago; all but a few percent work in the unorganized sector, where they may earn as little as two dollars per day in tasks ranging from street sweeping to street peddling. Hundreds of millions of Indians live in rural areas without access to electricity or fresh water, and millions more live in such desper- ate poverty that they are chronically hungry, reduced to begging or stealing to get by. India is not a wealthy nation in most natural resources, lack- ing enough oil and natural gas for national self-sufficiency. It does feature an abundance of both coal and iron, yet these two resources are considered relatively low quality, and India must import both coal briquettes and finished steel for use in its

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