India is the seventh largest country in the world and lies on the Indian Plate, the northern portion of the Indo-Australian Plate. To the north it borders six countries, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma and Bhutan. To the south, India is boarded by the Indian Ocean.

India can be divided into five regions.

• The Northern Mountains consisting of the Himalaya, Hindu Kush, and Patkai ranges
• The Indo Gangetic Plains running parallel to the Himalayas and dominated by three main rivers, the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra.
• The Thar Desert of Western India mostly situated in Rajasthan
• The Highlands comprising of three main plateaus — the Malwa Plateau in the west, the Deccan Plateau in the south (covering most of the Indian peninsula) and the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the east.
• The Coastal Plains

The Indian climate ranges from desert in the west to glacial in the north and through to sub-tropical in the south west.

India is a country rich in minerals, diamonds, thorium, coal and iron ore as well as possessing oil and natural gas reserves.