Raised on Raisina Hill, at the western end of Rajpath, The North Block and South Block are the two secretariats adjacent to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Also known as, British Secretariat Buildings, these two blocks are among the most impressive state office buildings of the world. Facing each other with a huge square or plaza known as "Vijay Chowk" in between, the North Block houses the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance while the South Block houses the Ministry of External Affairs.

"Abide in Me" is the famous Christian Hymn written by Henry Francis Lyte, and music by W. M. Monk and one of Mahatma Gandhi's personal hymns, and has remained part of the ceremony over the years when many other foreign tunes were phased out to make way for Indian tunes, especially during the 2011 ceremony.

Every free nation of the world has its own flag. It is a symbol of a free country. The National Flag of India was designed by Pingali Venkayyaand and adopted in its present form during the meeting of Constituent Assembly held on the 22 July 1947, a few days before India's independence from the British on 15 August, 1947. It served as the national flag of the Dominion of India between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950 and that of the Republic of India thereafter. In India, the term "tricolour" refers to the Indian national flag.

The National flag of India is a horizontal tricolor of deep saffron (kesari) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal proportion. The ratio of width of the flag to its length is two to three. In the centre of the white band is a navy blue wheel which represents the chakra. Its design is that of the wheel which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. Its diameter approximates to the width of the white band and it has 24 spokes.

Source: Wikipedia http://www.indiaprofile.com/tourist-attractions/delhi/north-and-south-block.html http://knowindia.gov.in/myindia/myindia_frame.php?id=4

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