INDIA INTRODUCTION

INDIA INTRODUCTION

Area: 32, 87, 263 sq. km, 2.4 % of the total land area of the world.

Latitude: 8˚ 4’ to 37˚ 6’ N

Land frontier: about 15,200 km

Length of coastline: 7,516.6 km (mainland including Lakshadweep and Andaman Nicobar Island).

North – south extent: 3, 214 km

East – west extent: 2, 93 km

Standard meridian: 82 ½ ˚east longitude

Southernmost point: Indira point (Nicobar Island)

Southernmost point of mainland: ‘Cape comorin’

Neighboring countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, china, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar

Rank according to size: Seventh largest; country of the world after Russia, Canada, China, U.S.A., Brazil and Australia.

Situation and Spatial Relationship: India is situated on the Western fringe of the Indian Ocean. It lies midway between South East Asia and the South West Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan in the west and Northwest, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan in the north and northeast, Myanmar and Bangladesh in the east. Its tree sides are guarded by Oceans, I.e., Bay of Bengal in the Southeast, Indian Ocean in the south and Arabian Sea in the south west. The Tropic of Cancer runs almost through the Centre of the country and divides it into two halves – tropical zone and sub – tropical zone. The southern part of Indian peninsula divides the northern part of Indian Ocean into two – the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

The Republic of India is made up of 28 states with the inclusion of three new state which have been created recently namely Chhattisgarh (26^th state); Uttaranchal (27^th state); and Jharkhand (28^th state), carved out of M.P., U.P., and Bihar, respectively and 6 Union territories. Delhi is National Capital Territory of India.