Fiction:United Republic of South Asia

The United Republic of South Asia (URSA) was an intergalactic empire, and a Gigaquadrantic superpower, having territories in the Milky Way and Mirus Galaxies. It comprised of India (the founding member), Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar. In short, it comprised of all South Asian nations. It was a representational democracy.

It was in the year 2085, when the then Prime Minister of India, Aabida Khan saw dreams of uniting all South Asian nations under a single government after similar tasks of uniting nations were being undertaken by the Alliance of the Mashriq and POTATO.

The URSA played an important role in World War III and the Human Colonial Wars. It's role in the Human Colonial Wars soon got the URSA the status of colonial superpower, and the URSA soon rivalled France.

Development of India
India had become the fastest growing major economy among the major economies. But the country still had high levels of poverty, unemployment, corruption, crime, etc. Also, cities were not planned, which resulted in poor drainage systems and other facilities. Trash was thrown everywhere and water bodies were polluted. Villages had barely any facilities. Diseases were also common. Illiteracy was high. Some governments tried to bring about a change but were not very successful.

All this changed after the government led by a Gurmeet Singh, who became Prime Minister in the year 2029, brought about new reforms to develop the nation. Villages were rebuilt, with new facilities, such as hospitals having the latest facilities, schools having many facilities (such as a playground, labs, etc.) and many other things. Education and healthcare were taken care of. Connectivity within these villages and between two or more villages was improved. The extra workforce in the agricultural sector (which more than half the population was dependant on then), was moved mainly to the industrial sector. A modified Land Reform Act was passed, which forced many people having a lot of land and property to donate a large portion of their land to the landless labourers and farmers. Through these reforms not many people now depended on the agricultural sector, farmers now had larger land holdings and got access to modern technical inputs and were taught of organic farming. Hence food production increased, all farmers soon got higher incomes and rural poverty was soon eradicated.

When it came to urban lifestyle, cities were rebuilt, with tall skyscrapers, wide roads, good drainage systems, better public transport, wide footpaths, etc. All unemployed people and those working in the unorganised sector were given employment in the organised sector. All this lead to Gurmeet Singh's government winning a second term in 2034 and complete the remaining developmental projects.

In his second term, his government focused on cleaning up the water bodies and the cities and villages. Water treatment plants were set up, which took all wastes generated from industries and cleaned the water before leaving the clean water in the water bodies. Heavy penalties were introduced for littering or for throwing anything inside water bodies, for breaking rules, etc. Laws were made more strict to bring down crime and corruption.

These action gave many results. Unemployment and poverty were eradicated. Crime and corruption reduced drastically. The standard of living of the people increased. All water bodies were clean. No litter could be found anywhere. Forest cover increased. Life expectancy of the people increased. Through advancements in technology and medicine, diseases were soon kept in check. Malnutrition was eradicated. The Indian economy boomed, growing at very high rates (growth of economy and GDP reached 20% per annum, a figure which no other country had ever reached). Soon India got the status of economic superpower.

India was not affected much by the fossil fuel crisis since it had largely converted to green energy.

Formation of The United Republic of South Asia
In the year 2085, the then Prime Minister, Aabida Khan, hoped to unite the South Asian nations under one government. She was ready to use force, if needed, in order to achieve her goals. Hence, her government built up a large, modern and well-equipped military. The Indian armed forces soon became a power to be reckoned with. This lead India to get the status of military superpower. Aabida Khan first convinced Nepal and Bhutan to unite with India. This led to uprisings in both nations, which were suppressed. The two nations were soon made to believe that uniting with India would bring a solution to the problems they were facing. Hence, they united with India. The new nation was renamed the United Republic of South Asia (URSA). Maldives was the next to join, under the same belief as in the case of Nepal and Bhutan. After some hesitation, Sri Lanka joined the URSA, followed by Bangladesh, both nations believing that uniting with the URI would bring a solution to their problems. Soon these regions were also developed, bringing them in par with the rest of the URSA. Thus, the URSA elevated from a status of a developing nation to that of a developed nation.

Pakistan and Afghanistan had united to form the Union of Afghanistan in the year 2090. This was a setback to the URSA's efforts to unify of the whole of South Asia.

(to be continued)