Indian States & UTs

About 6 min · General Awareness · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 391 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

India's federal structure comprises 28 states and 8 union territories (UTs), each with distinct administrative, cultural, and linguistic identities.

Key ideas

28 States: Largest democratic federation; states have their own elected governments, governor appointed by President, full legislative and executive autonomy within constitutional limits.
8 Union Territories: Administered directly by the Central Government through Lieutenant Governors (LGs) or Administrators. Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu & Kashmir have elected assemblies; others do not.
Capital vs. Summer Capital: Some states have dual capitals. Jammu & Kashmir (now UT) has Srinagar (summer) and Jammu (winter). Ladakh has Leh (summer) and Kargil (winter administrative offices).
Formation Dates: States Reorganisation Act 1956 redrew boundaries on linguistic lines. Post-2000, smaller states carved for administrative convenience and regional identity (Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh). Telangana formed in 2014. J&K and Ladakh became UTs on 31 October 2019.
Official Languages: Hindi and English are union official languages. Each state designates its own official language(s) under Article 345. 22 scheduled languages include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, etc.

Watch out for

Confusing Capitals: Students often mix up Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) with Amravati (a city in Maharashtra), or Shimla with Shillong (Meghalaya). Fix: Link each capital to its state — Shimla = Himachal Pradesh; Shillong = Meghalaya.
Forgetting 2019 Changes: Many still list J&K as a state. Fix: J&K and Ladakh are UTs since 31 October 2019 following Article 370 abrogation. J&K retains a legislature; Ladakh does not.
Missing Merged UTs: Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu were separate until 2020. Fix: Remember the merger date 26 January 2020. Both are now one UT with Daman as capital.

Quick reference

28 states, 8 UTs — total 36 entities in the Indian Union.
2014: Telangana became the 29th state (later count adjusted after J&K reorganization).
2019: J&K bifurcated into two UTs — Jammu & Kashmir (with assembly) and Ladakh (without).
2020: Dadra & Nagar Haveli + Daman & Diu merged into one UT.
Chandigarh: shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, itself a UT.

Check yourself: 3 questions

1. Which of the following is the capital of Uttarakhand?
2. In which year were Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu merged into a single Union Territory?
3. Which state was formed on 1 November 1956 by reorganizing the princely state of Mysore along with other Kannada-speaking regions?

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 17 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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