India : Size and Location

India lies in the Asia continent, entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is the seventh largest country in the world in terms of its area that is 3.28
million sq. km. It is 2.4% of the total geographical area of the world. It has
29 states and 7 Union Territories.
Its East West length is 2933 km and North South breadth is 3214km.
Though Indias latitudinal and longitudinal extension is almost the same but
its breadth is more than its length, this is due to the fact that that distance
between two longitudes decreases as one goes away from the equator but
remains the same between two latitudes.
To the southeast of the mainland lie the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the
Bay of Bengal and to the southwest lie the Lakshadweep Islands in the
Arabian Sea.
Its latitudinal extent is 84 N to 376 N.
Its longitudinal extent is 687E to 9725E.
Tropic of Cancer divides India into almost two equal parts. Due to this India
has two types of climatic conditions, to the south of Tropic of Cancer we
have tropical climate and to its north we have sub-tropical climatic
conditions.
India has a land boundary of 15200 km and total length of its coastline is
7516.6km.
The Arabian sea lies to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east of it. The
Indian ocean is lies in the south of it.
Its longitudinal extension is of about 30 due to which there is a time
difference of two hours between Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh.
To avoid confusion and to maintain uniformity in timing throughout the
country time along the meridian 8230 E has been taken as the standard
time.
8230E is called the standard meridian of India. It passes through Naini near
Allahabad and Mirzapur. It has been chosen for this purpose as it is almost
midway of the longitudinal extent of India.
The Indian landmass has a central location between the East and The West
Asia. India is a southward extension of the Asia continent.
The Trans- Indian Ocean routes which connect the countries of Europe in the
west and the countries of the East Asia provide a strategic central location
to India.
Indias contacts with the world have continued through the ages but her
relationship through the land routes is much older than her maritime
contacts. The various passes across the mountains in the north have
provided passages to the ancient travelers. These routes have contributed
in the exchange of ideas and commodities since ancient times.
India shares its land boundaries with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the
northwest, china(Tibet), Nepal and Bhutan in the north and Mayanmar and
Bangladesh in the east.

 Sri Lanka and Maldives are the two island countries which lie in south across
the sea.