Question

India has _____ states and ______ Union Territories.
A. 29, 7
B. 28, 7
C. 29, 8
D. 28, 8

Answer 1

Hint: India is a country located in southern Asia. It is the largest democracy in the world principally federal in structure. It is a union of states with a parliamentary system.

Complete answer: The Union of India became a socialist secular democratic republic through adopting the Constitution of India on 26th November1949. The Union of India consisted of the State territories and the Union territories listed in the First Schedule of Indian Constitution.
The integration of various states was an important task at hand so they were either merged into provinces or centrally administered areas. Later in 1956, State Reorganization Act was passed in both the parliament houses which led to restructuring of boundaries and 14 states and 6 union territories were formed in India. This was followed by Bombay Reorganization Act of 1960 further dividing Bombay into Maharashtra and Gujarat. Gradually Punjab was also divided and Haryana was carved out of it.
Most of the North-Eastern states were formed through the acts in the 1970's and 80’s. Mizoram, Arunachal and Himachal Pradesh were all Union territories that were later transformed into states. Others such as Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were formed as late as 2000.
Recently in 2015, Andhra Pradesh was divided into two states and Telangana was carved out of it. Later in 2019, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status by doing away with article 370 of Indian Constitution and turned into a Union Territory. The same was done with a part of it, Ladakh forming it as a separate Union Territory.
In January 2020, a new proposal came into effect which merged the union territories Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu into one single union territory.
Hence, India has 28 states and 8 union territories.

So, the correct answer is option D.

Note: The major difference between a state and a union territory is linked to administration where states have a separate legislative assembly for its governance. The union territories are administered by the central government with appointment of Governors. Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Pondicherry are exceptions with state legislature but they are restrained to make laws in certain areas.