India: Location, Size, Extent and Divisions

1. Latitudinal and longitudinal extent: where India lies on the globe

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• Latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India: the mainland runs from 8°4'N to 37°6'N and from 68°7'E to 97°25'E. That is about 30 degrees each way. It stretches from Kashmir to Kanniyakumari and from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat (Class 11, India - Location). Prelims trap: 8°4'N–37°6'N is the mainland extent.
• Indira Point (6°45'N, Great Nicobar) is India's southernmost point. It was partly drowned by the 2004 tsunami. It lies about 150 km from Indonesia's Sumatra.
• Extreme points of India:

Direction	Point	Where
North	Indira Col	Siachen area (as claimed by India)
South (territory)	Indira Point	Great Nicobar
South (mainland)	Kanniyakumari	Tamil Nadu
East	Kibithu	Anjaw district, Arunachal Pradesh
West	Guhar Moti	Kachchh, Gujarat

• North-south and east-west distance of India: the north-south distance is 3,214 km, but the east-west distance is only 2,933 km. The reason is that one degree of latitude is always about 111 km, while meridians (lines of longitude) come closer together towards the poles. At about 23.5°N, one degree of longitude is about 102 km.
• Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N, the farthest north the noon sun is overhead, around 21 June): it crosses 8 states, west to east: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram.
• South of it is tropical and north of it is sub-tropical or warm temperate. This causes large differences in landforms, climate, soils and vegetation.

2. The Standard Meridian and Indian Standard Time

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• Why a time gap exists: 97°25' − 68°7' = 29°18'. At 4 minutes per degree, that is about 1 hour 57 minutes. The sun rises about two hours earlier in the North-East than in Jaisalmer. Yet clocks in Dibrugarh, Imphal, Jaisalmer, Bhopal and Chennai show the same time.
• Standard meridian of India: 82°30'E. Countries pick standard meridians in multiples of 7°30', which equals half an hour of time. It passes near Mirzapur (and Naini, Prayagraj) and crosses 5 states: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. It reaches the sea near Kakinada and Yanam.
• Indian Standard Time (IST): the local time of 82°30'E. It is GMT + 5 hours 30 minutes. It dates from 1906. Bombay and Calcutta times lasted into the 1950s. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, keeps IST. Assam's tea gardens long kept an informal "chai bagan" time one hour ahead.
• Other countries: the USA has several time zones (Class 11 says seven, counting its territories), and Russia has eleven.
• The two-time-zone debate:
• For: in the North-East, early sunrise wastes daylight, raises evening power demand and upsets body clocks. A CSIR-NPL study (2018) proposed UTC + 6:30 for the North-East.
• Against: confusion at the zone border, train and flight timetables, and national unity.
• The government has kept a single IST. Legal Metrology (IST) Rules were drafted in 2024 to make IST compulsory (verify current).

3. Size and the Indian subcontinent

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• Size of India: about 3.28 million sq km (32,87,263 sq km). That is 2.4% of the world's land, making India the seventh largest country after Russia, Canada, the USA, China, Brazil and Australia.
• Land share vs people share: India holds about 17–18% of the world's population (verify current) on only 2.4% of its land. This contrast is a common Mains point.
• Size brings diversity: high northern mountains; large rivers (Ganga, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri); forested hills in the North-East and south; and the sandy Marusthali (Thar). Class 7 NCERT calls India a "mini-continent".
• Indian subcontinent: a distinct part of Asia walled off by:
• the Himalayas in the north;
• the Hindukush and Sulaiman ranges in the north-west;
• the Purvachal hills in the north-east;

• the Indian Ocean in the south.

• Countries in it: Class 11 lists India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Class 7 also adds Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

• Barrier with gaps: the mountain wall was hard to cross except through passes such as the Khyber, Bolan, Shipki La, Nathu La and Bomdi La. This isolation helped the region build its own identity.
• Map drill: going from Kashmir to Kanniyakumari you cross the Himalaya, the alluvial plain, the Vindhya-Satpura, the Deccan, the Nilgiri and the Kerala coast.

4. Coastline and the island territories

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• Coastline of India:

Source	Figure
Class 11 NCERT	6,100 km mainland; 7,516.6 km (≈7,517 km) with islands
Survey of India remeasurement (2023–24, released 2025)	11,098.81 km (verify current)

• Why the figure jumped about 48%: the old figure came from coarse small-scale maps of the 1970s. The new count used finer 1:250,000 digital maps that trace bays, creeks, estuaries and more islands. India's territory did not change. This is the coastline paradox: the finer the map scale, the longer the measured coast.
• Books disagree: one Class 7 NCERT book says "over 7,500 km" and the newer one says "approximately 11,100 km".
• 9 coastal states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal. 4 coastal UTs: Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Longest coastline: Gujarat, about 2,340 km after the recount (verify current). Among UTs, Andaman and Nicobar.
• What a long coast brings:
• Gains: ports and trade, fisheries, a large EEZ, offshore oil and gas, a milder coastal climate, tourism.

• Risks: cyclones, tsunamis and sea-level rise.

• The island groups:

• Andaman and Nicobar: about 572 islands, 6°–14°N and 92°–94°E, in the Bay of Bengal.
• Lakshadweep: about 36 coral islands, 8°–12°N and 71°–74°E, in the Arabian Sea.
• Both greatly enlarge India's EEZ.

5. Strategic location: India at the head of the Indian Ocean

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• Strategic location of India: India lies in south-central Asia at the head of the Indian Ocean, between its two arms, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Its peninsula sits midway on the sea routes joining Europe, Africa and West Asia with East and Southeast Asia. No other country has so long a coast on this ocean.
• Class 7 NCERT (new edition) facts: the Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean. It carries about half of the world's container ships, one-third of bulk cargo and two-thirds of oil shipments. About 2.7 billion people live around its rim. India often acts as the first helper in disasters.
• The Suez Canal (opened 1869) cut India's sea distance from Europe by about 7,000 km.
• Policy: SAGAR ("Security and Growth for All in the Region", 2015) was restated as MAHASAGAR in 2025 (verify current).
• Bay of Bengal: the world's largest bay, bounded by India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It receives the Ganga, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri. It holds the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and breeds frequent cyclones.
• Coco Channel: the channel between North Andaman and Myanmar's Coco Islands, where Chinese help with facilities is reported (verify current). It matters for India's eastern sea border.
• Island outposts: the Andamans lie near the approaches to the Malacca Strait. The Andaman and Nicobar Command at Port Blair (2001) is India's only tri-service command, meaning Army, Navy and Air Force together.

6. Maritime zones: territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ and continental shelf

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• Class 11 NCERT: India's territorial limit reaches 12 nautical miles from the coast. NCERT gives this as about 21.9 km; the correct figure is about 22.2 km.
• A statute mile is 63,360 inches (about 1.6 km).

• A nautical mile is 72,960 inches (about 1.852 km) and equals one minute of latitude. That is why ships and aircraft use it.

• UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea): the treaty that sets the rules for using the oceans. It was adopted in 1982 at Montego Bay, came into force in 1994, and was ratified by India in 1995. India's own Maritime Zones Act 1976 came earlier.

• Maritime zones of India are all measured from the baseline (the official coastline used for measuring):

Zone	Distance from baseline	India's rights
Territorial sea	12 nm	Full sovereignty over water, seabed and airspace; foreign ships may still make "innocent passage"
Contiguous zone	24 nm	Control for customs, tax, immigration, health and security
Exclusive economic zone (EEZ)	200 nm	Sole rights over fish, oil, gas and minerals; other countries may still sail and fly
Continental shelf	200 nm, or up to 350 nm at the margin's edge	Seabed resources; India filed an extended-shelf claim in 2009 (verify current)

• Size of India's EEZ: about 23.7 lakh sq km. Some sources give about 20.2 lakh (verify current). The island groups add a large share.
• Uses:
• fisheries and Mumbai High oil;
• the Deep Ocean Mission (2021);

• polymetallic nodule exploration rights in the Central Indian Ocean Basin, held under the International Seabed Authority.

• Sea border settled: the India–Bangladesh maritime boundary was fixed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration award (2014).

7. Administrative divisions: states, Union Territories and capitals

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• Current map: 28 states and 8 UTs (verify current). Class 11 NCERT's Figure 1.1 predates the 2019–20 changes.
• The 8 UTs:
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Chandigarh
• Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (merged 26 January 2020)
• Delhi (NCT)
• Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (both created 31 October 2019 by the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019)
• Lakshadweep

• Puducherry

• UTs with their own legislatures: Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.

• Newest state: Telangana (2 June 2014).
• Rankings:
• Largest states by area: Rajasthan, then Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Smallest: Goa.
• Most populous state: Uttar Pradesh (Census 2011).

• Largest UT: Ladakh. Smallest: Lakshadweep.

• 19 landlocked states, roughly west to east: Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Sikkim, and all seven North-eastern states. No part of the North-East touches the sea.

• Capitals in the news: Amaravati for Andhra Pradesh (verify current); Gairsain is Uttarakhand's summer capital.
• NCT Delhi vs Andaman and Nicobar: Delhi is a tiny, crowded city-region and Andaman and Nicobar is a large, thinly peopled island chain. Area and population do not always match.
• Map practice: use School Bhuvan NCERT, a map-learning portal run by NRSC/ISRO.

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Exam angles

Prelims — high-yield facts and traps

• Extent: 8°4'N–37°6'N and 68°7'E–97°25'E (mainland). Indira Point is at 6°45'N. North-south is 3,214 km and east-west is 2,933 km because meridians converge towards the poles.
• Tropic of Cancer states, west to east: Gujarat → Rajasthan → Madhya Pradesh → Chhattisgarh → Jharkhand → West Bengal → Tripura → Mizoram. Trap: "Odisha and Manipur lie on the Tropic" is FALSE.
• Standard meridian: 82°30'E, near Mirzapur, a multiple of 7°30'. It crosses UP, MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. IST = GMT + 5:30. The sun-time gap is about 2 hours.
• Size: 3.28 million sq km, 2.4% of world land, 7th largest. The six larger countries are Russia, Canada, USA, China, Brazil and Australia. Trap: "Iran or Egypt is larger than India" is FALSE.
• Coastline: 7,516.6 km (NCERT) vs 11,098.81 km (2025 recount; verify current). 9 coastal states and 4 coastal UTs. Gujarat has the longest coast.
• Maritime zones: territorial sea 12 nm, contiguous zone 24 nm, EEZ 200 nm, continental shelf up to 350 nm. 1 nm = 1.852 km. UNCLOS was adopted in 1982, came into force in 1994, and India ratified it in 1995.
• Extreme points: Indira Col (N), Indira Point (S), Kibithu (E), Guhar Moti (W).
• Political map: 28 states and 8 UTs. Ladakh and J&K became separate UTs in 2019. DNH and Daman and Diu merged in 2020.
• Channels: the Coco Channel lies between North Andaman and Myanmar's Coco Islands. The Six Degree Channel lies between Indira Point and Sumatra.

Mains — GS-I themes

1. How India's latitude and longitude have shaped its climate, vegetation and daily life.
2. Should India adopt two time zones? Weigh the North-East's daylight and energy savings against administrative confusion and national unity.
3. Why India's peninsular location and island territories matter for its sea strategy and blue economy (the economy based on ocean resources).
4. The coastline recount: what changed, why coast length depends on map scale, and what it means for coastal zone management.
5. India's EEZ as a resource frontier (fisheries, hydrocarbons, deep-sea minerals) and the difficulty of guarding it.

Current-affairs hooks

• Official use of the 11,098 km coastline figure and the state-wise revisions (verify current).
• Two-time-zone demands and the IST Legal Metrology Rules (verify current).
• The Great Nicobar development project near Indira Point.
• UNCLOS issues: India's extended continental shelf claim, the BBNJ (High Seas) Agreement (2023), and deep-sea mining at the International Seabed Authority (verify current).
• Political map changes: new districts, state capitals and UT status (verify current).