India is one of the ancient civilizations in the world. It has achieved multi-faceted socio-economic progress during the last five decades. It has moved forward displaying remarkable progress in the field of agriculture,industry,technology and overall economic development. Indai has also contributed significantly to the making of world history.
Location
India is a vast country. Lying entirely in the Northern hemisphere the mainland extends between latitudes 8⁰4'N and 37⁰6'N and longitudes 68⁰7'E and 97⁰25'E. The Tropic of cancer (23⁰ 30'N) divides the country into almost two equal parts. To the southeast and southwest of the mainland, lie the Andaman and Nicobar islands in Bay of Bangal and Arabian Sea respectively. Find out the extent of these groups of islands from your atlas.
Do You Know ? • The southernmost point of the Indian union–'Indirapoint' got submerged under the sea water in 2004 during the Tsunami.
Size
The land mass of India has an area of 3.28 million square km. India's total area accounts for about 2.4 per cent of the total geographical area of the world. From it is clear that India is the seventh largest country of the world. India has a land boundary of about 15,200 km and the total length of the coastline of the mainland, including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, is 7,516.6 km.
India is bounded by the young fold mountains in the northwest, north and northeast. South of about 22⁰ northeast latitude, it begins to taper, and extends towards the Indian Ocean, dividing it into two seas, the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bangal on its east.
Look at and note that the latitudinal and longitudinal extent of the mainland is about 30⁰. Despite this fact, the east‐west extent appears to be smaller than the north-south extent.
From Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, there is a time lag of two hours. Hence, time along the standard Meridian of India (82⁰30'E) passing through Mirzapur (in Uttar Pradesh) is taken as the standard time for the whole country. The latitudinal extent influence the duration of day and night, as one moves frome south to north.
India And The World
The Indian landmass has a central location between the East and the West Asia. India is a southward extension of the Asian continent. The Trans Indian Ocean routes, which connect the countries of Europe in the West and the countries of East Asia, provide a strategic central location to India. Note that the Deccan Peninsula protrude into the Indian Ocean, thus helping India to establish close contact with West Asia, Africa and Europe from the western coast and with Southeast and East Asia from the eastern coast. No other country has a long coastline on the Indian Ocean as India has and indeed, it is india's eminent position in the Indian Ocean, which justifies the naming