The Government of India (GoI), formally the Union Government, is the national authority of the Republic of India, established as an institution by the Constitution of India. It is a parliamentary republic, modeled on the Westminster system, with a quasi-federal structure that divides power between the Union and the states.
The current form of the GoI was established on January 26, 1950, when the Constitution of India came into effect, solving the problem of governance for a newly independent nation by creating a sovereign, democratic republic. The Constitution itself drew heavily from the administrative provisions of the British Parliament's Government of India Act, 1935.
The GoI operates through three main branches: the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. Executive power is formally vested in the President of India under Article 53(1), but the real executive authority lies with the Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers, who aid and advise the President as per Article 74. Legislative power is vested in the bicameral Parliament, which consists of the President, the Rajya Sabha, and the Lok Sabha, as defined in Article 79. The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court of India.
The GoI's powers are defined by the Constitution of India, which is the supreme legal document. Its federal nature is evident in the division of legislative subjects into three lists (Union, State, and Concurrent) detailed in the Seventh Schedule. The system also connects to local governance through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, which established Panchayats and Municipalities. While the core structure remains, the Constitution has been frequently amended, with the 106th Amendment being the most recent as of September 28, 2023.