India, state by state
States of India
A profile of each state: its people, economy, districts, and what makes it special, with an interactive district map. New states are added one by one. For the country picture, see India.
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Western India
Gujarat
India's most industrialised state and biggest exporter. Home to the world's diamond hub and the only wild Asiatic lions, across 33 districts.
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Eastern India
Bihar
The cradle of ancient India, with Bodh Gaya and Nalanda. India's most densely populated state, and its makhana and litchi heartland, across 38 districts.
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Eastern India
Jharkhand
India's mineral heartland — about 40% of the country's mineral wealth, Tata Steel's Jamshedpur, deep sal forests and a strong tribal culture, across 24 districts.
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North-East India
Sikkim
India's least populous state and its first fully organic one — a tiny Himalayan land of Kanchenjunga, Buddhist monasteries and the highest income per head in the country.
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Northern India
Uttar Pradesh
India's most populous state and its farm and dairy heartland. Home to the Taj Mahal, the ancient city of Varanasi and the pilgrim towns of Ayodhya, Mathura and Prayagraj, across 75 districts.
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Northern India
Uttarakhand
"Dev Bhoomi", the Land of the Gods — a young Himalayan state where the Ganga and Yamuna are born, home to the Char Dham shrines, the yoga ghats of Rishikesh and India's first national park, across 13 districts of Garhwal and Kumaon.
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Eastern India
West Bengal
The only Indian state from the Himalaya to the sea — Kolkata, the Sundarbans and the Bengal Renaissance. India's jute and tea heartland, home of Durga Puja, across 23 districts.
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Eastern India
Odisha
Land of Jagannath and the Konark Sun Temple — India's mineral powerhouse, home of Odissi and the chariot festival, and a world model for cyclone preparedness, across 30 districts.
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Western India
Maharashtra
India's largest economy and second most populous state. Home to Mumbai — the financial and film capital — Ajanta and Ellora, Shivaji's forts and the most UNESCO sites of any state, across 36 districts.
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Western India
Rajasthan
India's largest state by area — the land of forts, palaces and the Thar Desert. Home to Jaipur, the Pink City, India's top solar power and zinc, and a great heritage of Rajput history.
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Central India
Madhya Pradesh
The 'Heart of India' and its second-largest state — the Tiger State, with the most tigers and the largest forest cover in the country. Home to Khajuraho, Sanchi and Bhimbetka, the Narmada and the soybean fields of Malwa, across 55 districts.
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Southern India
Kerala
India's most literate state and the heart of the 'Kerala model' of development — 'God's Own Country' of backwaters and spice. The only state with more women than men, India's top natural-rubber producer, across 14 districts.
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Northern India
Haryana
The land of Kurukshetra and the Bhagavad Gita — India's sports and Olympic nursery, its automobile-manufacturing hub and the corporate powerhouse of Gurugram, wrapped around three sides of Delhi, across 22 districts.
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Northern India
Delhi
India's capital territory — the seat of the nation's government and a city rebuilt across a thousand years, from the Qutub Minar and the Red Fort to Lutyens' New Delhi, with three UNESCO sites across 11 districts.
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Northern India
Himachal Pradesh
"Dev Bhoomi", the Land of the Gods — a wholly Himalayan state of apple orchards and deodar forests, hydropower rivers and hill stations, from Shimla and Manali to the Dalai Lama's Dharamshala, across 12 mountain districts.
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Northern India
Punjab
The 'Granary of India' and the heart of the Green Revolution — the land of five rivers and the spiritual home of Sikhism. Home to the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the breadbasket that feeds the nation, across 23 districts.
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Central India
Chhattisgarh
India's 'rice bowl' and its steel-and-power heartland — Bhilai steel, Korba coal and Bailadila iron ore. A heavily forested, tribal land of Bastar, Chitrakote Falls and the Danteshwari temple, across 33 districts.
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Southern India
Andhra Pradesh
The 'Sunrise State' on the Bay of Bengal — India's rice bowl and its largest fish and shrimp producer. Home to Tirupati, the Sriharikota spaceport and the new capital of Amaravati, across 26 districts.
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Southern India
Telangana
India's newest state — the IT and pharma powerhouse of Hyderabad, the 'Cyberabad' tech hub and 'Vaccine Capital of India'. The Kakatiya land of Charminar, Golconda and the Ramappa temple, across 33 districts.
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Southern India
Karnataka
The 'Silicon Valley of India' — Bengaluru's tech and startup capital, and one of India's largest economies. The Kannada land of Hampi and the Hoysala temples, India's top coffee, silk and gold country, across 31 districts.
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Southern India
Tamil Nadu
India's second-largest economy and most industrialised state — the Dravidian heartland of Tamil, one of the world's oldest living languages. Home to the Chola temples, Chennai's auto and electronics industry and the most factories of any state, across 38 districts.
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Southern India
Puducherry
India's "Little France" — the former capital of French India and a Franco-Tamil heritage town of the French Quarter, the Promenade, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. A Union Territory of four scattered enclaves across three states.
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Western India
Goa
India's smallest state and one of its richest — sun, sand and 451 years of Portuguese history. Home to the Old Goa churches, a beach-tourism capital and the cashew spirit feni, across just 2 districts.
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Union Territory
Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
A Union Territory of three former Portuguese pockets — tribal Silvassa inland, and the beaches and old forts of Daman and Diu. A small but busy industrial belt, across 3 districts.
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Union Territory
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
A remote archipelago of hundreds of tropical islands in the Bay of Bengal — of turquoise reefs and rainforest, the Cellular Jail of the freedom struggle, and some of the world's oldest indigenous peoples. A directly-administered Union Territory across 3 districts.
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Union Territory
Chandigarh
"The City Beautiful" — independent India's first planned city, designed by Le Corbusier with a UNESCO-listed Capitol Complex. A green, affluent Union Territory that is the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana.
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North-East India
Assam
The heart of North-East India, in the Brahmaputra valley. It grows over half of India's tea, drilled Asia's first oil well, and shelters two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos at Kaziranga.
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North-East India
Meghalaya
The 'abode of clouds' — a matrilineal hill state of the Khasi, Garo and Jaintia. Home to the wettest places on Earth, living root bridges and Shillong, India's rock capital, across 12 districts.
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North-East India
Arunachal Pradesh
India's easternmost and least-crowded state — the 'land of the dawn-lit mountains.' Home to ~26 tribes, India's largest hydropower potential and Tawang, its largest Buddhist monastery, across ~28 districts.
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North-East India
Tripura
A small, green state almost wrapped by Bangladesh — once the princely Manikya kingdom. Among India's most literate states and its 2nd-largest rubber producer, with the carvings of Unakoti and the Neermahal water palace, across 8 districts.
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North-East India
Nagaland
The homeland of the Naga tribes in India's far north-east — English-speaking, overwhelmingly Christian, and famed for the Hornbill Festival, the 1944 Battle of Kohima and the fiery King Chilli, across 17 districts.
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North-East India
Mizoram
The 'land of the Mizo' in India's far south-east — among the country's most literate and most urbanised states, overwhelmingly Christian, famed for the Cheraw bamboo dance and a celebrated 1986 peace accord, across 11 districts.
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North-East India
Manipur
The 'land of jewels' in India's far north-east — a green valley ringed by hills, the birthplace of modern polo, home of the rare Sangai deer and the floating Loktak Lake, and the source of the Manipuri classical dance, across 16 districts.
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Union Territory
Jammu & Kashmir
A Himalayan Union Territory of India — the Kashmir Valley of Dal Lake, Mughal gardens and chinar trees, and the temples and plains of Jammu. India's largest apple producer and home of Kashmir saffron, across 20 districts.
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Union Territory
Ladakh
A high-altitude cold desert in India's far north — the 'land of high passes,' where the Himalaya meet the Karakoram. A Union Territory since 2019, home to Tibetan-Buddhist monasteries, turquoise lakes like Pangong, the world's finest pashmina and some of the highest roads on earth.
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Union Territory
Lakshadweep
India's smallest Union Territory — 36 coral islands in the Arabian Sea, ten of them inhabited. The country's only coral atolls, ringed by turquoise lagoons, with an economy of coconut, tuna and pole-and-line fishing and the smallest population of any state or UT.
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