Asia — Countries, Capitals & Currencies

Why This Chapter Matters

Ask any SSC CGL or RRB NTPC topper which single chapter of world geography gives the most guaranteed marks, and Asia comes up first. Capital-currency questions from Asia appear in nearly every General Awareness paper, often two or three in one shift, because Asia is home to 48 countries and India's own neighbourhood sits right inside it. Miss this chapter and you are giving away marks that needed no reasoning at all, just memory.

Here is the shape of what's coming: we will walk sub-region by sub-region, South Asia first because it borders India directly, then Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia (the Middle East). Each has its own table of capital and currency, and each has its own personality once you notice the pattern. The single biggest mistake aspirants make with this topic is mixing up countries that sound alike or sit near each other, Kyrgyzstan with Tajikistan, Slovenia with Slovakia (that one is technically Europe, but the confusion habit starts here), or worse, mixing up two capitals that are famous for the wrong country, like assuming Yangon is Myanmar's capital when it was replaced by Naypyidaw years ago. You will see these traps flagged as we go. Read the tables actively; do not just scan them. Cover the currency column with your hand and test yourself before you check.

1. South Asia — India's Immediate Neighbourhood

South Asia is the region examiners love most because it touches India's borders and its history directly. Eight countries make up this region, and India shares a land or sea border with all but one (Afghanistan touches India only through the disputed Pakistan-administered Kashmir strip, so exams usually treat it as a "near neighbour" rather than a direct border).

Think of South Asia as a family dinner table. India sits in the middle, the biggest chair, and every other country is seated according to which side of India they sit on: Pakistan and Afghanistan to the west, Nepal and Bhutan to the north wedged against the Himalayas, Bangladesh to the east, and Sri Lanka and the Maldives out at sea to the south.

Country	Capital	Currency	India's Neighbour?
India	New Delhi	Indian Rupee	—
Pakistan	Islamabad	Pakistani Rupee	Yes (land)
Nepal	Kathmandu	Nepalese Rupee	Yes (land)
Bhutan	Thimphu	Ngultrum	Yes (land)
Bangladesh	Dhaka	Taka	Yes (land)
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (administrative); Colombo (commercial)	Sri Lankan Rupee	Yes (maritime)
Maldives	Male	Rufiyaa	Yes (maritime)
Afghanistan	Kabul	Afghani	No (near, not direct)

Exam trap: Sri Lanka's real administrative capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, not Colombo. Colombo is the commercial capital and the city everyone actually names by habit, so SSC papers love testing this exact gap. Remember it as "Kotte rules, Colombo trades."

Memory hook: For India's six land and maritime neighbours in South Asia, use "Pak Ne Bhutan Bangla Sri Mal" — Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives. Say it like a chant twice and the order sticks along with the count.

India shares a land border with Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan (via PoK), Myanmar, and China, seven countries in total, but in the South Asian grouping specifically, only Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh count. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are maritime neighbours across the Palk Strait and the Indian Ocean respectively. This distinction, land versus maritime neighbour, is exactly the kind of nuance SSC uses to separate a 90-percentile scorer from a 99-percentile one.

2. Southeast Asia — The ASEAN Belt

Eleven countries make up Southeast Asia, and all eleven now belong to ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the region's key economic and political grouping. Timor-Leste is the newest Southeast Asian nation, having gained independence from Indonesia only in 2002, and it became ASEAN's 11th member on 26 October 2025 after years as an observer.

Picture Southeast Asia as a market street in your own city where every third shop uses a different currency board because tourists come from everywhere. That is genuinely true here, more currency variety per square kilometre than almost anywhere else in Asia.

Country	Capital	Currency
Indonesia	Jakarta (capital shifting to Nusantara in progress)	Indonesian Rupiah
Thailand	Bangkok	Thai Baht
Vietnam	Hanoi	Vietnamese Dong
Philippines	Manila	Philippine Peso
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysian Ringgit
Myanmar	Naypyidaw	Kyat
Singapore	Singapore (city-state)	Singapore Dollar
Cambodia	Phnom Penh	Riel
Laos	Vientiane	Kip
Brunei	Bandar Seri Begawan	Brunei Dollar
Timor-Leste	Dili	US Dollar

Exam trap: Myanmar's capital was moved from Yangon to Naypyidaw back in 2005. Yangon remains the biggest city and the old commercial hub, exactly the same "biggest city is not the capital" pattern you just saw with Sri Lanka. This pairing shows up together in comparison-based MCQs, so lock both in your head at once.

Myanmar is also the only Southeast Asian country that shares a land border with India, along four northeastern states: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram. That single fact connects this whole sub-region back to India and is worth remembering on its own.

Indonesia's capital move deserves a note because it is actively happening as this book goes to print: the government has been relocating the capital from the congested, sinking city of Jakarta on Java island to a new planned city called Nusantara on Borneo. Exams in transition years sometimes accept either answer, but treat Jakarta as the safe default until the shift is formally complete and widely reported as such.

3. East Asia — Economic Powerhouses

East Asia has only a handful of countries, but each one is an economic heavyweight, so questions here are frequent and usually easy marks if you know the basics.

Country	Capital	Currency
China	Beijing	Renminbi / Yuan
Japan	Tokyo	Japanese Yen
South Korea	Seoul	South Korean Won
North Korea	Pyongyang	North Korean Won
Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	Mongolian Tugrik
Taiwan	Taipei	New Taiwan Dollar

Exam trap: China's official currency name is the Renminbi ("people's currency"), but the actual unit you count in is the Yuan. It works exactly like calling the currency "Indian Rupee" while the note in your pocket says "Rupee" too, so the two names describe the same thing at different levels, currency system versus unit. Both "Renminbi" and "Yuan" are accepted answers, but know that they are not two separate currencies, just two names for one.

China shares the longest land border with India of any neighbour, roughly 3,488 kilometres across Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, called the Line of Actual Control rather than a fully demarcated international border. This is why India-China border geography questions cluster so heavily around this chapter and the mountains chapter later in this book.

North and South Korea share one peninsula but function as two entirely separate nations since the 1950s division, each with its own capital and currency. Do not let the shared "Korea" name in the country names trick you into thinking they share anything else administratively.

4. Central Asia — The "Stan" Cluster

Five countries, all ending in "-stan" (meaning "land of" in Persian), all former Soviet republics that became independent in 1991 after the USSR broke up. This cluster confuses students more than any other in Asia simply because the names rhyme with each other.

Country	Capital	Currency
Kazakhstan	Astana	Tenge
Uzbekistan	Tashkent	Uzbekistani Som
Turkmenistan	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan Manat
Kyrgyzstan	Bishkek	Kyrgyzstani Som
Tajikistan	Dushanbe	Somoni

Memory hook: Notice that Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan both use a currency called "Som," just with the country name attached differently. That is a genuine, factual overlap, not a coincidence you need to invent, and it is exactly the kind of pairing SSC uses in "match the following" questions. Build your own mental flag around it: "Som goes with the two names ending closest to each other in the alphabet."

Exam trap: Kazakhstan changed its capital's name from Nur-Sultan back to Astana in 2022 after briefly renaming it in honour of a former president. If you see "Nur-Sultan" in an older source, know that it is now outdated; the current correct answer is Astana.

Kazakhstan is also the world's largest landlocked country by area, a superlative fact that belongs equally to this chapter and to Chapter 12 on geopolitical groupings; keep that cross-link in mind when you revise.

5. West Asia (The Middle East) — Oil, Geography, and Conflict Zones

West Asia, commonly called the Middle East in everyday English and in most news coverage, is the largest sub-region in this chapter by country count and carries heavy weight in current-affairs-linked GK because of its oil economies and ongoing geopolitics.

Country	Capital	Currency
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	Saudi Riyal
Iran	Tehran	Iranian Rial
Iraq	Baghdad	Iraqi Dinar
Israel	Jerusalem	Israeli New Shekel
Turkiye (Turkey)	Ankara	Turkish Lira
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	UAE Dirham
Yemen	Sanaa	Yemeni Rial
Syria	Damascus	Syrian Pound
Jordan	Amman	Jordanian Dinar
Lebanon	Beirut	Lebanese Pound
Oman	Muscat	Omani Rial
Kuwait	Kuwait City	Kuwaiti Dinar
Qatar	Doha	Qatari Riyal
Bahrain	Manama	Bahraini Dinar
Cyprus	Nicosia	Euro

Exam trap: Turkey's capital is Ankara, not Istanbul. This is possibly the single most-tested trap in the whole book. Istanbul is Turkey's largest city, its cultural and economic centre, and the city everyone has heard of because of its history as Constantinople, but it has never been the political capital in the modern republic. Ankara took that role in 1923. If you remember only one fact from this entire chapter, make it this one, because it appears in almost every SSC GA paper that touches Asia.

Exam trap: Dubai is not the capital of the UAE. Abu Dhabi is. Dubai is simply the most famous emirate because of its skyline and business hub status, but the seven-emirate federation's political capital sits in Abu Dhabi. This trap sits right next to the Istanbul one in difficulty, and papers sometimes ask both in the same set to see if students confuse "famous city" with "capital city" as a pattern.

Memory hook: For the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, all oil-rich Gulf monarchies, use "Saudi Uncle Quietly Owns Bahrain's Kuwait": Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait. This grouping matters because GCC-related current affairs (summits, currency-union talks, oil output cuts) reference these six as a bloc constantly.

Kuwaiti and Bahraini Dinars are worth flagging for a different reason: they are, by exchange value, consistently among the highest-valued currency units in the world, a genuinely useful trivia fact for "highest valued currency" style questions that examiners like to slot into the same paper as capital-currency questions.

Israel presents a genuine complication worth understanding rather than memorising blindly. Israel considers Jerusalem its capital, but this claim is disputed internationally and most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv instead. For SSC and RRB purposes, treat Jerusalem as the expected answer since that is how mainstream Indian exam material frames it, but understand why a "disputed" flag sometimes appears next to this fact in reference material.

Cyprus is geographically closer to Asia (it sits just south of Turkey) but is politically and culturally grouped with Europe, it is an EU member and uses the Euro. Exams occasionally test this "geographically Asia, politically Europe" quirk directly, so do not be surprised if Cyprus shows up in either chapter's question set.

6. The Russia Question — Why It Does Not Sit Fully in Either Chapter

You will notice Russia is missing from every table above. Russia is a transcontinental country, its landmass stretches across both Europe and Asia, split by the Ural Mountains, with roughly three-quarters of its territory lying in Asia but the vast majority of its population living in the European portion around Moscow. Because its capital, government, and cultural centre sit firmly on the European side, most Indian exam material and this book's own Chapter 4 treat Russia as a European country for capital-currency purposes. Just remember the underlying geography: Moscow is Russia's capital, Russian Ruble is its currency, and the country is genuinely transcontinental, not a trick, just a fact worth knowing so you are never caught off guard by which chapter a Russia question "belongs" to.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• New Delhi is the capital of India; currency is the Indian Rupee.
• Islamabad is Pakistan's capital; currency is the Pakistani Rupee.
• Kathmandu (Nepal) and Thimphu (Bhutan) are landlocked Himalayan neighbours of India.
• Dhaka is Bangladesh's capital; currency is the Taka.
• Sri Lanka's real capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, not Colombo.
• The Maldives' capital, Male, is one of the smallest national capitals in the world by area.
• Kabul (Afghanistan) uses the Afghani as its currency.
• All eleven Southeast Asian countries now belong to ASEAN; Timor-Leste, the newest nation, joined as the 11th member on 26 October 2025.
• Myanmar's capital was shifted from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2005.
• Myanmar is the only Southeast Asian country bordering India, touching four northeastern states.
• Indonesia is relocating its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara on Borneo.
• Singapore is a city-state, so its capital and country name are identical.
• China's currency system is the Renminbi; the unit counted is the Yuan.
• India-China share the Line of Actual Control, not a fully demarcated border, roughly 3,488 km long.
• North Korea and South Korea are separate nations with separate capitals (Pyongyang, Seoul) and currencies.
• All five Central Asian "-stan" countries became independent from the USSR in 1991.
• Kazakhstan's capital reverted from Nur-Sultan to Astana in 2022.
• Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan both use a currency literally called "Som."
• Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country.
• Turkey's capital is Ankara, not Istanbul, the most-tested capital trap in this chapter.
• Dubai is not UAE's capital; Abu Dhabi is.
• The six GCC nations are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
• Kuwaiti Dinar and Bahraini Dinar rank among the world's highest-valued currency units.
• Israel's claimed capital is Jerusalem, though most nations recognise Tel Aviv for diplomatic purposes.
• Cyprus sits geographically near Asia but is politically grouped with Europe and uses the Euro.
• Russia is transcontinental; its capital Moscow lies in the European portion, so it is studied under Europe.
• Afghanistan is treated as a "near neighbour" of India, not a direct one, since no undisputed shared border exists.
• Taiwan's capital is Taipei; its currency is the New Taiwan Dollar.
• Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, is the coldest national capital city in the world.
• Timor-Leste uses the US Dollar as its official currency, unusual for the region.
• The word "-stan" in Central Asian country names means "land of" in Persian.

Memory Tables

Table A — Capitals That Are Not the "Famous" City (High-Yield Trap List)

Country	Famous City (NOT capital)	Actual Capital
Sri Lanka	Colombo	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
Myanmar	Yangon	Naypyidaw
Turkiye	Istanbul	Ankara
UAE	Dubai	Abu Dhabi
Israel	Tel Aviv	Jerusalem (disputed)
China (regional trap)	Shanghai	Beijing

Table B — Full Sub-Region Snapshot: Country Count and Grouping

Sub-Region	Number of Countries Covered	Key Grouping	India Direct Neighbours
South Asia	8	SAARC	Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh (land); Sri Lanka, Maldives (maritime)
Southeast Asia	11	ASEAN (11 of 11)	Myanmar
East Asia	6	—	China
Central Asia	5	Former USSR (1991)	None direct, but historic/trade links
West Asia	15	GCC (6 of 15)	None direct, major trade & diaspora links

Table C — Currency Look-Alikes and Shared Names (Do Not Confuse)

Currency Name	Countries That Use It	Distinguishing Note
Som	Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan	Same name, two different Central Asian countries
Rial / Riyal (spelling varies)	Saudi Arabia (Riyal), Iran (Rial), Oman (Rial), Qatar (Riyal), Yemen (Rial)	Spelling and country pairing is the actual test
Dinar	Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain	Four separate West Asian currencies sharing one name
Rupee (India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Nepal)	South Asia	Same historical root, all now separate currencies with different values

Practice MCQs

Q1. What is the capital of Bangladesh? (a) Chittagong (b) Dhaka (c) Khulna (d) Sylhet

Q2. Which currency is used in Nepal? (a) Ngultrum (b) Nepalese Rupee (c) Taka (d) Afghani

Q3. What is the currency of Japan? (a) Won (b) Yuan (c) Yen (d) Ringgit

Q4. The Maldives' capital, Male, is located on which body of water? (a) Arabian Sea (b) Bay of Bengal (c) Indian Ocean (d) South China Sea

Q5. Which of these is a landlocked country in Central Asia? (a) Vietnam (b) Kazakhstan (c) Malaysia (d) Cyprus

Q6. What is the capital of Vietnam? (a) Ho Chi Minh City (b) Hanoi (c) Da Nang (d) Hue

Q7. Which country's capital was shifted from Yangon to Naypyidaw? (a) Thailand (b) Cambodia (c) Myanmar (d) Laos

Q8. Which of the following is NOT the capital of its country? (a) Ankara — Turkiye (b) Dubai — UAE (c) Beijing — China (d) Tokyo — Japan

Q9. Sri Lanka's official administrative capital is: (a) Colombo (b) Kandy (c) Jaffna (d) Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte

Q10. Which Central Asian country's capital name reverted from Nur-Sultan to Astana in 2022? (a) Uzbekistan (b) Kazakhstan (c) Turkmenistan (d) Tajikistan

Q11. Which currency name is shared by both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan? (a) Tenge (b) Manat (c) Som (d) Dinar

Q12. Which Southeast Asian country is the newest to gain independence and most recently joined ASEAN, becoming its 11th member? (a) Brunei (b) Laos (c) Timor-Leste (d) Cambodia

Q13. Israel's claimed capital, disputed internationally, is: (a) Tel Aviv (b) Haifa (c) Jerusalem (d) Eilat

Q14. Which of these countries is geographically near Asia but politically grouped with Europe, using the Euro? (a) Cyprus (b) Georgia (c) Armenia (d) Malta

Q15. China's currency system is officially called the Renminbi, while the unit counted in is called the: (a) Baht (b) Yuan (c) Dong (d) Won

Answer Key

Q	Answer	Reason
1	(b) Dhaka	Dhaka is Bangladesh's capital and largest city; Chittagong is the main port city, a common distractor.
2	(b) Nepalese Rupee	Nepal uses its own Rupee, distinct from India's, despite the shared name and historical link.
3	(c) Yen	Japan's currency is the Yen; Won belongs to Korea and Yuan to China, both common mix-ups.
4	(c) Indian Ocean	The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka.
5	(b) Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country; Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cyprus all have coastlines.
6	(b) Hanoi	Hanoi is Vietnam's political capital; Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city and economic hub, not the capital.
7	(c) Myanmar	Myanmar moved its capital from Yangon to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in 2005.
8	(b) Dubai — UAE	Dubai is UAE's most famous city but Abu Dhabi is the actual capital; this is the chapter's top trap pairing.
9	(d) Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Kotte is the administrative capital; Colombo is only the commercial capital, a frequently tested distinction.
10	(b) Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan's capital was briefly Nur-Sultan (named after a former president) before reverting to Astana in 2022.
11	(c) Som	Both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan call their currency the Som, a genuine overlap worth memorising directly.
12	(c) Timor-Leste	Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002 and was formally admitted as ASEAN's 11th member on 26 October 2025.
13	(c) Jerusalem	Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital, but most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv due to the international dispute.
14	(a) Cyprus	Cyprus sits near Turkey geographically but is an EU member using the Euro, classified with Europe politically.
15	(b) Yuan	Renminbi is the name of the currency system; Yuan is the actual unit used for counting, similar to "Rupee" in India.