State / UT
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand is the Republic's 27th state, carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000 as Uttaranchal and renamed in 2007. It is a small unit by federal weight — about 10.09 million people at the 2011 Census, a 70-seat unicameral Vidhan Sabha, five Lok Sabha seats and three in the Rajya Sabha — governing 53,483 sq km of Himalaya and Gangetic terai across 13 districts. Its distinctive feature is a state that has never settled where it is governed from: Dehradun remains the provisional capital while Bhararisain, near Gairsain in the hills, was notified as the summer capital in June 2020. It also holds an international frontier with China and Nepal, and in 2024 became the first Indian state to legislate a Uniform Civil Code.
Updated
- Capital
- Dehradun (provisional); Bhararisain, near Gairsain, notified summer capital 8 June 2020; Nainital is the seat of the High Court
- Formed
- 9 November 2000, under the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000; created as Uttaranchal, renamed Uttarakhand in 2007
- Legislature
- Unicameral — Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, 70 seats
- Lok Sabha seats
- 5
- Rajya Sabha seats
- 3
- Population (2011 Census)
- 10,086,292
- Area
- 53,483 sq km
- Districts
- 13, in two divisions — Garhwal (7) and Kumaon (6)
- Literacy (2011 Census)
- 78.82%
- GSDP (2025-26 budget estimate)
- Rs 4,29,308 crore at current prices
Role
Uttarakhand is a small state by every federal metric that allocates power. Its 70-member unicameral Vidhan Sabha is among the smaller state legislatures; its five Lok Sabha seats and three Rajya Sabha seats give it limited leverage in Parliament; and its budgeted GSDP of about Rs 4.29 lakh crore for 2025-26 places it well down the ranking of state economies. Yet the state exercises the full State List: it runs its own police and law and order, land revenue, agriculture, public health and school education across 13 districts organised into the two historic divisions of Garhwal and Kumaon. Its fiscal position is structurally dependent — 2025-26 receipts excluding borrowings were budgeted at Rs 62,565 crore against expenditure of Rs 75,170 crore, with the gap closed by borrowing at a targeted deficit of 2.9% of GSDP. What the state weighs in the Union is therefore less about seats than about terrain: it holds an international frontier with China and Nepal, the headwaters of the Ganga system, and the Char Dham pilgrimage, each of which draws Union ministries, Union forces and the Supreme Court into decisions a state would otherwise take alone.
The structurally distinctive fact about Uttarakhand is that it has not resolved its own seat of government. Created on 9 November 2000 with Dehradun as a provisional capital, the state has kept that provisional arrangement for over twenty-five years while building an assembly complex at Bhararisain, near Gairsain in the hills, which was notified as the summer capital in June 2020 and stands closed through the winter. The unsettled capital is the visible form of the state’s founding tension — between the hill districts whose movement produced statehood and the plains belt around Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar where most of the population and nearly all the industry sit. That tension has run alongside chronic executive instability: governments turned over repeatedly, President’s rule was imposed and revoked inside two months in 2016 after the High Court quashed the proclamation and the Supreme Court ordered a floor test, and no governing party was returned to office until 2022. Against that instability the state has legislated assertively in its own domain, becoming in 2024 the first state to enact a Uniform Civil Code under Article 44’s directive principle — a use of the Concurrent List that positions a small state as a legislative template for others. Meanwhile the recurring events that actually set its administrative agenda are geological and hydrological: the 2013 Kedarnath floods and the 2023 Joshimath subsidence were each answered by the state’s disaster machinery and each reopened the question of how much construction the terrain carries.
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Timeline since 1947
- official
Uttaranchal becomes the 27th state
The Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 separated the hill districts of Garhwal and Kumaon from Uttar Pradesh. Dehradun was designated the provisional capital — a status never superseded by a permanent one.
- reference
The state is renamed Uttarakhand
Parliament altered the state's name from Uttaranchal to Uttarakhand, adopting the name used by the statehood movement rather than the one assigned at creation.
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Kedarnath floods reset the state's disaster-administration posture
Extreme rainfall from 16 June 2013 caused floods and landslides across the Garhwal Himalaya, with roughly 4,550 villages affected and around 300,000 pilgrims and travellers stranded. The Char Dham yatra was suspended for two seasons. Reported death tolls vary by source and remain contested.
- reference
President's rule imposed under Article 356, then revoked in May
The Union imposed President's rule in March 2016 after a split in the governing party and a disputed appropriation-bill division in the Vidhan Sabha. The Uttarakhand High Court quashed the proclamation; the Supreme Court stayed that order and directed a floor test. The elected government was restored in May 2016. The episode is a reference point in litigation over the limits of Article 356.
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Bhararisain notified as the summer capital
Announced in the Vidhan Sabha on 4 March 2020 and notified on 8 June 2020 after the Governor's approval. The 47-acre assembly complex at Bhararisain, completed in 2014, first hosted a session in November 2016 and is closed through the winter. The state's permanent capital remains unsettled.
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First incumbent government returned since statehood
In the 14 February 2022 assembly election, results declared 10 March, the BJP won 47 of 70 seats on 44.30% of the vote and the Congress 19 on 37.9%. It was the first time a governing party was re-elected in Uttarakhand, interrupting a two-decade pattern of alternation and mid-term changes of Chief Minister.
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Joshimath subsidence forces a state response in a Char Dham gateway town
Cracking appeared in over 700 of roughly 4,400-4,600 structures. The administration zoned the town into danger, buffer and safe areas, evacuated residents and began demolitions from 9 January 2023. A two-year Indian Institute of Remote Sensing study published in 2023 measured subsidence of about 6.5 cm a year.
- reference
Uttarakhand enacts India's first state Uniform Civil Code
The Vidhan Sabha passed the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand Act, 2024 (Act 1 of 2024) with 70 votes for and none against. It sets uniform rules on marriage, divorce, succession and adoption irrespective of religion, prohibits polygamy, requires registration of marriages and of live-in relationships, and exempts Scheduled Tribes. The Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand Rules, 2025 govern its operation via a state registration portal.
- reference
Budget 2025-26 sets expenditure at Rs 75,170 crore
Expenditure excluding debt repayment was budgeted at Rs 75,170 crore, up 9% on the 2024-25 revised estimate. GSDP was projected at Rs 4,29,308 crore, and the fiscal deficit targeted at 2.9% of GSDP (Rs 12,605 crore) against a 2.5% revised estimate the previous year. Receipts excluding borrowings were estimated at Rs 62,565 crore.
Frequently asked
- What is Uttarakhand?
- Uttarakhand is the Republic's 27th state, carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000 as Uttaranchal and renamed in 2007. It is a small unit by federal weight — about 10.09 million people at the 2011 Census, a 70-seat unicameral Vidhan Sabha, five Lok Sabha seats and three in the Rajya Sabha — governing 53,483 sq km of Himalaya and Gangetic terai across 13 districts. Its distinctive feature is a state that has never settled where it is governed from: Dehradun remains the provisional capital while Bhararisain, near Gairsain in the hills, was notified as the summer capital in June 2020. It also holds an international frontier with China and Nepal, and in 2024 became the first Indian state to legislate a Uniform Civil Code.
- When was Uttarakhand established?
- Uttarakhand was established 2000-11-09.
- What does Uttarakhand do?
- Its remit covers State List subjects: law and order and the state police, land and land revenue, agriculture and horticulture, public health, school education, and local government across 13 districts, 107 tehsils and 7,950 gram panchayats, Forest, hydropower and river-basin administration in a state where most of the land area is mountain and forest, and where Union environmental clearance regimes bind state land use, Disaster management and pilgrimage administration — the Char Dham yatra and the settlements serving it are a recurring state administrative load, Personal law: the first state to enact and operate a Uniform Civil Code, exempting Scheduled Tribes, Border-adjacent civil administration along the frontier with Tibet/China and Nepal, where Union forces and state civil authority overlap.
- What is the latest on Uttarakhand?
- As of 2026-07-17: Budget 2025-26 sets expenditure at Rs 75,170 crore. Expenditure excluding debt repayment was budgeted at Rs 75,170 crore, up 9% on the 2024-25 revised estimate. GSDP was projected at Rs 4,29,308 crore, and the fiscal deficit targeted at 2.9% of GSDP (Rs 12,605 crore) against a 2.5% revised estimate the previous year. Receipts excluding borrowings were estimated at Rs 62,565 crore.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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State portal — administrative structure, districts, departments
uk.gov.in/
- Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha legislation
The 70-member unicameral legislature; sessions sit at Dehradun and at Bhararisain
ukvidhansabha.uk.gov.in/
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Electoral rolls, polling station lists, constituency-wise elector data
ceo.uk.gov.in/
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State Economic Survey, GSDP and district domestic product estimates, statistical abstracts
des.uk.gov.in/
- Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand portal department
Registration portal and the Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand Rules, 2025
ucc.uk.gov.in/
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Independent reading of state expenditure, deficit and GSDP
prsindia.org/budgets/states/uttarakhand-budget-analysis-2025