Administrative divisions of India

The administrative divisions of India are subnational administrative units of India; they are composed of a nested hierarchy of country subdivisions.

Indian states and territories frequently use different local titles for the same level of subdivision (e.g., the mandals of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana correspond to tehsils of Uttar Pradesh and other Hindi-speaking states but to talukas of Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu).^[1]

The smaller subdivisions (villages and blocks) exist only in rural areas. In urban areas, urban local bodies exist instead of these rural subdivisions.

Tiers of India[edit]

The diagram below outlines the six tiers of government:

Zones and regions[edit]

Zones[edit]

The states of India have been grouped into six zones having an Advisory Council “to develop the habit of cooperative working” among these States. Zonal Councils were set up vide Part-III of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. The North Eastern States’ special problems are addressed by another statutory body – The North Eastern Council, created by the North Eastern Council Act, 1971.^[2] The present composition of each of these Zonal Councils is as under:^[3]

• Northern Zonal Council, comprising Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, and Rajasthan;
• North Eastern Council, comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura; The State of Sikkim has also been included in the North Eastern Council vide North Eastern Council (Amendment) Act, 2002 notified on 23 December 2002.^[4]
• Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh;
• Eastern Zonal Council, comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal;
• Western Zonal Council, comprising Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, and Maharashtra;
• Southern Zonal Council, comprising Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep are not members of any of the Zonal Councils.^[5] However, they are presently special invitees to the Southern Zonal Council^[6]

Regions[edit]

This is a list of unofficial, or quasi-official, regions of India. Some are geographic regions, others ethnic, linguistic, dialect, or cultural regions, and some correspond to historic countries, states or provinces.

States and union territories[edit]

India is composed of 28 states and 8 union territories (including a national capital territory).^[7] The union territories are governed by administrators, appointed by the President of India. Three of these territories (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry) have been given partial statehood, with elected legislatures and executive councils of ministers, with reduced powers.

States[edit]

Union territories[edit]

Autonomous administrative divisions[edit]

The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India allows for the formation of autonomous administrative divisions which have been given autonomy within their respective states.^[10] Most of these autonomous areas are located in North East India.

Autonomous district councils operating under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India are shown like this.^{[clarification needed]}

Divisions[edit]

Many of the Indian states are subdivided into divisions which have official administrative governmental status and each division is headed by senior IAS officer called Divisional Commissioner. Currently, superdistrict administrative divisions exist in 17 of the 28 states. The states of Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands do not have superdistrict divisions.

Regions within states[edit]

Some states consist of regions, which have no official administrative governmental status. They are purely geographic regions; some correspond to historic countries, states or provinces. A region may comprise one or more divisions, averaging about three divisions per region. However, the boundaries of the regions and the boundaries of the divisions do not always coincide exactly. So far there has been no movement to give the regions official administrative status. If this was to be done, it would presumably require that the boundaries of the regions be slightly modified so that they correspond exactly with their constituent districts.

• Regions of Assam
• Regions of Gujarat

Districts[edit]

States and territories (or divisions) are further subdivided into districts (zilla), of which there are 739 (as of 2020). Each District is headed by an IAS officer called District Magistrate.

Subdistricts[edit]

Tehsils, talukas, subdivisions, mandals, circles, headed by a Tehsildar or Talukdar or MRO, comprise several villages or village clusters. The governmental / elected bodies at the tehsil level are called the Panchayat samiti.

States use varying names for their subdistricts.^[12]

Rural level[edit]

Blocks[edit]

The Community Development Block also known as CD Block or just block, is often the next level of administrative division (for development purpose, whereas tehsil is next to district for revenue purpose).

Villages[edit]

Villages are often the lowest level of subdivisions in India. The governmental bodies at the village level are called Gram Panchayat, of which there were an estimated 256,000 in 2002. Each Gram Panchayat covers a large village or a cluster of smaller villages with a combined population exceeding 500 Gram Sabha. Clusters of villages are also sometimes called Hobli or Patti.

Habitations[edit]

Certain governmental functions and activities – including clean water availability, rural development, and education – are tracked at a sub-village level.^[16] These hamlets are termed “habitations”. India is composed of 1,714,556 habitations ^[17] In some states, most villages have a single habitation; in others (notably Kerala and Tripura) there is a high ratio of habitations to villages.^[18]

Metropolitan area[edit]

A metro area usually comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighbourhoods, townships, cities, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts, states, and even nations like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. Metropolitan areas include one or more urban areas, as well as satellite cities, towns and intervening rural areas that are socio-economically tied to the urban core, typically measured by commuting patterns The metropolitan cities of India are: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Pune.