[1][2] It was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, and it became the official flag of the Union of India on 15 August 1947.

The right to manufacture the flag is held by the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission, which allocates it to regional groups.

Subsequently, all the Indian princely states received flags with symbols based on the heraldic criteria of Europe including the right to fly defaced British red ensigns.

[5][6][7] In the early twentieth century, around the coronation of Edward VII, a discussion started on the need for a heraldic symbol that was representative of the Indian empire.

William Coldstream, a British member of the Indian Civil Service, campaigned the government to change the heraldic symbol from a star, which he considered to be a common choice, to something more appropriate.

[10] In Europe, in 1579, during the Eighty Years' War, which established the independence of the Dutch Republic from the Spanish Empire, newly formed Netherlands adopted the first tricolour in the world, known as Prinsenvlag, an orange-white-blue flag.

During the French Revolution, in 1790, Le Tricolore, a blue, white and red flag was adopted to symbolise republicanism (overthrow of monarchy).

The partition of Bengal (1905) resulted in the introduction of a new flag representing the Indian independence movement that sought to unite the multitude of castes and races within the country.

The Vande Mataram flag, part of the nationalist Swadeshi movement, comprised Indian religious symbols represented in western heraldic fashion.

In 1909, Lord Ampthill, former Governor of the Madras Presidency, wrote to The Times of London in the run-up to Empire Day pointing out that there existed "no flag representative of India as a whole or any Indian province...

"[13] In 1916, Pingali Venkayya submitted thirty new designs, in the form of a booklet funded by members of the High Court of Madras.

The same year, Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopted a new flag as part of the Home Rule Movement.

[14] In the early 1920s, national flag discussions gained prominence across most British dominions following the peace treaty between Britain and Ireland.

Finally, owing to the religious-political sensibilities, in 1929, Gandhi moved towards a more secular interpretation of the flag colours, stating that red stood for the sacrifices of the people, white for purity, and green for hope.

[17] On 13 April 1923, during a procession by local Congress volunteers in Nagpur commemorating the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Swaraj flag with the spinning wheel, designed by Pingali Venkayya, was hoisted.

The satyagraha, promoted nationally by the Congress, started creating cracks within the organisation in which the Gandhians were highly enthused while the other group, the Swarajists, called it inconsequential.

The Bombay Chronicle reported that the movement drew from diverse groups of society including farmers, students, merchants, labourers and "national servants".

[18] While the flag agitation got its impetus from Gandhi's writings and discourses, the movement received political acceptance following the Nagpur incident.

News reports, editorials and letters to editors published in various journals and newspapers of the time attest to the subsequent development of a bond between the flag and the nation.

To select a flag for independent India, on 23 June 1947, the assembly set up an ad hoc committee headed by Rajendra Prasad and including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari, K. M. Munshi and B. R. Ambedkar as its members.

However, Jawaharlal Nehru explained that the change was more practical in nature, as unlike the flag with the spinning wheel, this design would appear symmetrical.

[30] Pantone values closest to this are 165 C, White, 2258 C and 2735 C. The current Indian flag with Ashok Chakra was designed by Badruddin Tyabji in 1947.

However, to avoid sectarian associations with the colour scheme, the three bands were later reassigned new meanings: courage and sacrifice, peace and truth, and faith and chivalry respectively.

[27] Whenever the flag is displayed indoors in halls at public meetings or gatherings of any kind, it should always be on the right (observers' left), as this is the position of authority.

If hung vertically on the wall behind the podium, the saffron stripe should be to the left of the onlookers facing the flag with the hoist cord at the top.

It is flown half-mast in New Delhi and the state of origin for the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Union Ministers.

Observances of State mourning on the death of foreign dignitaries are governed by special instructions issued from the Ministry of Home Affairs in individual cases.

[27] The design and manufacturing process for the national flag is regulated by three documents issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

[21] The specifications cover all the essential requirements of the manufacture of the Indian flag including sizes, dye colour, chromatic values, brightness, thread count and hemp cordage.

The guidelines are covered under civil and criminal laws and defects in the manufacturing process can result in punishments that include fines or jail terms.