Describe the three tiers of government in India and explain how they were established.

India has three tiers of government. Originally, the Constitution provided only two levels: the Union Government for the entire country and State governments for each state. Local governments were not separate constitutional levels initially. In the early 1990s, the Constitution was amended to create the panchayati raj system for villages and the system of municipalities for towns and cities. This made local governments the third tier of India's democracy. This was done to strengthen democracy at the grassroots level and enable people to participate directly in decision-making about local matters.