India, officially the Republic of India is a country in South Asia, consisting of 28 states and eight union territories. [1] All Indian states and some of the union territories have their own elected government and the union territories come under the jurisdiction of the Central Government. India has its own national symbols. [2] Apart from the national symbols, the states and union territories have adopted their own seals and symbols including trees listed below.
Chandigarh is a union territory and planned city in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the surrounding states, namely Punjab to the north, west and the south, and Haryana to the east. Chandigarh constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which also includes the adjacent satellite cities of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab. It is situated near the foothills of the Himalayas, 260 km north of New Delhi and 229 km southeast of Amritsar.
Tourism in India is 4.6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Unlike other sectors, tourism is not a priority sector for the Government of India. Forbes magazine ranked India as the 7th most beautiful country in 'The 50 Most Beautiful Countries In The World' rankings. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated ₹13.2 lakh crore (US$160 billion) or 5.8% of India's GDP and supported 32.1 million jobs in 2021. Even though, these numbers were lower than the pre-pandemic figures; the country's economy witnessed a significant growth in 2021 after the massive downturn during 2020. The sector is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 7.8% to ₹33.8 lakh crore (US$400 billion) by 2031. India has established itself as the 5th largest global travel healthcare destination with an estimated market size of around $9 billion in 2019, out of the total global travel healthcare industry of $44.8 billion(2019). In 2014, 184,298 foreign patients travelled to India to seek medical treatment.
Ladakh is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959. Ladakh is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the north to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end, consisting of the uninhabited Aksai Chin plains, is claimed by the Indian Government as part of Ladakh, but has been under Chinese control.
India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 785 districts and smaller administrative divisions.
North India, also called Northern India, is a geographical and broad cultural region comprising the northern part of India. It extends from the Himalayan mountain range in the north to the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Thar Desert, the Central Highlands and the northwestern part of the Deccan plateau. It occupies nearly three-quarters of the area and population of India and includes all of the three mega cities of India: Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In a more specific and administrative sense, North India can also be used to denote the Indo-Gangetic Plain within this broader expanse, stretching from the Ganga-Yamuna Doab to the Thar Desert.
Lakshadweep is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands divided into three island subgroups: the Laccadive Islands in the middle with the Amindivi Islands in the north separated roughly by the 11th parallel north and the atoll of Minicoy to the south separated by the Nine Degree Channel along the 9th parallel north. The islands are sandwiched between the Arabian Sea to the west and the Laccadive Sea to the east with the islands located about 220–440 km (140–270 mi) off the Malabar Coast of mainland India.
The administrative divisions of India are subnational administrative units of India; they are composed of a nested hierarchy of administrative divisions.
The constitutional power to create new states and union territories in India is solely reserved with the Parliament of India, which can do so by announcing new states/union territories, separating territory from an existing state or merging two or more states/union territories or parts of them. As of 2024, there are 28 states and eight union territories in India.
The Government of India has designated official national symbols that represent the Republic of India.
A union territory is a type of administrative division in the Republic of India. Unlike the states of India, which have their own governments, union territories are federal territories governed, in part or in whole, by the Union Government of India. There are currently eight union territories in India: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi (NCT), Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
Chandigarh is a city and a union territory in the northern part of India that serves as the capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. As a union territory, the city is ruled directly by the Union Government of India and is not part of either state.
Jammu and Kashmir is a region administered by India as a union territory and consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and between India and China since 1959. The Line of Control separates Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west and north. It lies to the north of the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and to the west of Ladakh which is administered by India as a union territory.
The Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh(sic) is the governing authority of the Indian union territory of Ladakh and its two districts. The Administration is led by a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the President of India who acts on behalf of the central Government of India. Ladakh does not have an elected legislative assembly. The two districts of Ladakh both elect their own autonomous district council-the Leh Autonomous Hill development council and the Kargil Autonomous Hill development Council, which have competence over a range of domestic affairs.
| By type |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By states | |||||
