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).

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

The diagram below outlines the six tiers of government:

Zones and regions

Zones

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. The present composition of each of these Zonal Councils is as under:

• 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.
• 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. However, they are presently special invitees to the Southern Zonal Council

Regions

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

India is composed of 28 states and 8 union territories (including a national capital territory). 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

Union territories

Autonomous administrative divisions

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. 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.

Divisions

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 18 of the 28 states and 3 of the 8 union territories. The states of Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Goa, and the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands do not have divisions. Currently, there are a total of 102 divisions in India.