India India, Officially the Republic of India, Has a Size of 3.3 Million Sq Km and an Approximate Population of 1.3 Billion People in 2019
India India, officially the Republic of India, has a size of 3.3 million sq km and an approximate population of 1.3 billion people in 2019. India is bordered by Pakistan in the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan in the north-east, Burma and Bangladesh to the east, the Arabian Sea in the South- West, and the Indian Ocean in the South. It is currently organized into five intermediate tiers: states; divisions; districts; subdistricts (or blocks) and municipal corporations/municipalities; and villages or wards. The highest tier consists of 28 states (some with asymmetry in shared rule) plus 5 standard union territories, 2 non-standard union territories, and one special autonomous region (the state of Jammu and Kashmir). In August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir lost special autonomy, and from November 2019, it has been partitioned into two union territories: Jammu & Kashmir, with decentralized authority, and Ladakh, governed directly from Delhi. A second tier of 103 divisions exists currently in twenty states (not in Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram). The third tier has 722 districts (Zilā), including 15 autonomous districts with special autonomy (https://knowindia.gov.in/districts/). A fourth intermediate tier consists of about 5500 subdivisions/ subdistricts (variously named Tehsils, Taluka, Mandal, Kshettra …). These are further divided in community blocks in rural areas. In urban areas, municipal corporations (Mahanahar-Palika)/municipalities (Nagar-Palika)/city councils (Nagar-Panchayat) constitute the fourth tier. We code the municipal corporations in 28 states or territories (225 as of 2019), and we code subdistricts for states where they meet our population criteria.
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