The republic of India comprises the union (federal) government, 28 state governments, 7 union territories and about 6, 45,000 local governments. The local governments are known as panchayats in rural areas and municipal corporations, municipalities and nagar panchayats in urban areas. India has a long tradition of panchayats, i.e. village councils, which administered the affairs of villages. When India became independent in 1947, the Constitution of India mandated that "Organisation of village panchayats - The state shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government." (Directive Principles of State Policy, Art. 40) There were many experiments with panchayati raj (rural self-governance system) before 1993, when the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendments accorded constitutional status to village and city councils and created a national framework for local governments by stipulating - fixed five-year term, regular elections and State Finance Commissions to review and augment their finances. In most states, panchayats have a three-tier system - village, block (a group of villages, treated as a development unit) and district, whereas cities and towns have municipal bodies. Women (33.3 per cent) and members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, etc. (in proportion to their population in a state) enjoy reservation in all seats and posts.

This website - The Resource Centre for Local Government in India is dedicated to present the complete evolving picture of local government system in India - its history, laws, reports, elections, functions, finances successes and road blocks statistics, analysis research finding, and latest events.

The website is managed by a team of professionals at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India.