Administrative divisions of India

The administrative divisions of India are subnational administrative units of India; they are composed of a nested hierarchy of administrative divisions.
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.
The diagram below outlines the six tiers of administrative divisions:
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:
Each zone has a zonal headquarters where a zonal cultural center has been established. Several states have membership in multiple zones, but no state subdivisions are utilized in the zonal divisions. In addition to promoting the culture of the zones they are responsible for, each zonal center also works to cross-promote and create exposure to other cultural zones of India by organizing functions and inviting artistes from other zones.
India is composed of 28 states and eight union territories (including a national capital territory).
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.
Presently, 10 Autonomous Councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura are formed by virtue of the Sixth Schedule with the rest being formed as a result of other legislation.
There are 10 Autonomous District Councils created by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India:
Some states have created autonomous councils by an Act of their state legislatures. The two autonomous councils in the union territory of Ladakh was created by the state of Jammu and Kashmir (1952 – 2019).
Many of the Indian states are subdivided into divisions, which have official administrative governmental status, and each division is headed by a senior IAS officer called Divisional Commissioner.
States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, etc. don't have separate divisions or regions. Instead, they're directly split into districts for administrative purposes.
As of September 2022, divisions exist in 18 of the 28 states and 3 of the 8 union territories. As of September 2022, there are a total of 102 divisions in India.
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.
States and territories (or divisions) are further subdivided into districts (zilla), of which there are 797 (as of Nov 2023). A district in India, officially referred to as a revenue district, is a basic administrative unit under a state or union territory. Each District is headed by an IAS officer called District Collector/District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner.
The district's police administration is under the purview of the Superintendent of Police (SP), an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS). Police districts are generally coterminous with revenue districts or subdivisions thereof, facilitating administrative efficiency. Concurrently, the management of forest and wildlife resources within the district falls under the jurisdiction of the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), an officer of the Indian Forest Service (IFS).
Sectoral development is looked after by the district head of each development department such as Public Works, Health, Education, Agriculture, Animal husbandry, Panchayat, Rural Development etc. These officers belong to the various state services.
A sub-division is an administrative division of a district in India. In some states (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala) they are called Revenue Divisions. It is headed by a sub-divisional magistrate (also known as assistant collector or assistant commissioner). In some states, the post is designated as Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) or Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil).
Subdivisions, also known as revenue divisions in some states, are designed primarily for land revenue administration and related purposes. These subdivisions serve as an intermediate tier between the district and the tehsil/taluk/subdistrict levels, encompassing multiple of these smaller administrative units. Their core functions revolve around the management of land records, the collection of land taxes, and the implementation of land-related policies, facilitating efficient governance and resource management at the local level.
A district may have multiple sub-divisions, and each of those sub-divisions may contain multiple sub-districts (tehsils/C.D. Blocks) and municipalities. For example, in West Bengal, the Murshidabad district contains five sub-divisions (mahakumas)
In some instances, tehsils (sub-districts) overlap with "blocks" (panchayat union blocks or community development blocks) and come under the land and revenue department, headed by tehsildar; and blocks come under the rural development department, headed by the block development officer and serve different government administrative functions over the same or similar geographical area.
States use varying names for their sub-districts. Detailed information is as follows (as of 2018):
Census of India (2011) states the following criteria in defining towns. They are:
All areas under statutory urban administrative units like Municipal Corporation, #India, Cantonment Board, Notified Town Area Committee, Town Panchayat, etc., are known as Statutory Towns.
Census towns are areas in India that have urban characteristics but are not defined as towns by state governments. They are governed by rural local bodies like gram panchayats, unlike statutory towns.
The Community Development Block also known as CD Block or just block, is often the next level of administrative division (for development purposes, whereas tehsil is next to the district for revenue purposes).
Blocks are district sub-divisions primarily for the purpose of Rural Development departments and Panchayati Raj institutions. Cities have similar arrangements under the Urban Development department. Tehsils (also called Taluks) are common across urban and rural areas for the administration of land and revenue departments, primarily to track land ownership and levy land tax.
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.
Certain governmental functions and activities - including clean water availability, rural development, and education - are tracked at a sub-village level. These hamlets are termed "habitations". India is composed of 1,714,556 habitations In some states, most villages have a single habitation; in others (notably Kerala and Tripura) there is a high ratio of habitations to villages.
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 (more commonly called Tier-1 cities) are: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.