The Republic of India constitutes the major portion of the Indian subcontinent, which sits atop the Indian Plate and the north-westerly portion of the Indo-Australian Plate. India's northern and north-eastern states are partially situated in the Himalayan Range. The rest of northern, central, and eastern India consists of the fertile Indo-Gangetic Plain. In the west, bordering south-eastern Pakistan, lies the Thar Desert. Southern India is almost entirely composed of the peninsular Deccan plateau, which is flanked by two hilly coastal ranges, the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats.

Covering an area of 3.28 million sq kms, India is the seventh largest country in the world. The Indian peninsula tapers southward resulting in the division of the Indian Ocean into two expanses of water, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. There is a great diversity of landforms such as lofty mountains, deep valleys, extensive plains, wide plates and a number of islands. Broadly the physical features of India can be divided into five physical units - The Great Mountains of the North, The North Indian Plain, The Peninsular Plateau, The Coastal Plains, and The Islands.

India is home to several major rivers, including the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna. India has three archipelagos – Lakshadweep, which lies off the south-western coast; the volcanic Andaman and Nicobar Islands island chain to the south-east and the Sunderbans in the Ganges Delta of West Bengal.

The climate of India varies from tropical in the south to more temperate in the Himalayan north, where elevated regions receive sustained winter snowfall. India's climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert. The Himalayas, along with the Hindu Kush mountains, prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in. This keeps the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes. The Thar Desert is responsible for attracting the moisture-laden summer monsoon winds that, between June and September, provide most of India's rainfall.