Rajasthan State Guide: History, Government, Elections, Exams

Overview

Rajasthan is a state in north-western India and the largest state in the country by area. It covers 342,239 square kilometres, about 10.4 per cent of India. The capital and largest city is Jaipur. The state shares an international border with Pakistan to the west and north-west, and borders five Indian states: Punjab and Haryana to the north, Uttar Pradesh to the east, Madhya Pradesh to the south-east and Gujarat to the south-west. Its present shape dates from 1 November 1956, the last of seven stages by which the old princely states of Rajputana were joined together between 1948 and 1956.

The state is usually pictured as a desert, but that is only half the story. The Aravalli Range, one of the oldest fold-mountain belts in the world, runs diagonally from the south-west to the north-east and cuts the state into two unequal parts. About three-fifths of the area lies north-west of the range and holds the Thar Desert; the remaining two-fifths to the east and south holds the plains of the Banas and Chambal rivers, the Hadoti plateau and the tribal hills of the south. The only large river system that belongs wholly to the desert side is the Luni, which ends in the Rann of Kutch.

The name means "land of the rulers". For about a thousand years the region was a patchwork of Rajput kingdoms such as Mewar, Marwar, Amber (later Jaipur) and Bikaner, whose forts, palaces and temples are the base of the state's tourism today. Its human history is far older. Kalibangan, in the north, is a major Indus Valley site, and the Ahar and Ganeshwar cultures show copper-using communities in the Aravalli country in the third millennium BCE.

Census 2011 counted 68,548,437 people, making Rajasthan the seventh most populous state, with a density of 200 per square kilometre, which is low because so much of the land is arid. Hindi is the official language, and the Rajasthani group of speech forms is spoken by tens of millions. As on 4 October 2026 the state has 41 districts grouped into 7 divisions, after a 2023 expansion to 50 districts and 10 divisions was partly reversed in December 2024.

This guide is the first part of a longer reference on the state. It covers history, geography, administration and demography. If you also follow neighbouring states, the guides for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh cover two of its neighbours to the east and south-east, and the Chhattisgarh and Bihar guides follow the same format if you want to compare states.

For exam preparation

• Rajasthan is the largest Indian state by area: 342,239 sq km, about 10.4 per cent of the country.
• Its capital is Jaipur; Jaipur has been the capital since the 1949 merger.
• It has an international border with Pakistan and interstate borders with Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
• Census 2011 population is 68,548,437; the state ranks seventh in population.
• As on October 2026 there are 41 districts in 7 divisions.
• The final stage of integration was 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.

History

Rajasthan's history runs from stone-age camps and Indus Valley towns through the Matsya kingdom, the Rajput kingdoms of the early medieval period, the long contest with the Delhi sultans and the Mughals, the treaties of 1818 with the British, and the merger of the princely states into one state between 1948 and 1956. The sections below follow that order.

Prehistory and the Indus Valley

Early human settlement is known across the Aravalli foothills and the river valleys, and several sites are used as reference points in archaeology. Bagor in the Kothari valley is associated with early herding communities. Ahar near Udaipur gives its name to the Ahar-Banas culture, a copper-using farming tradition of about 3000 to 1500 BCE spread along the Ahar, Banas and Berach rivers in south-eastern Rajasthan. More than ninety sites are known. The culture is marked by black-and-red pottery with white painted designs, and its people used copper from the Aravallis for axes and tools and grew wheat and barley. Gilund and Balathal are other key sites. Seal impressions found at Gilund in 2003 suggest links with Indus-type material.

Ganeshwar, in Sikar district, belongs to the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture, with more than eighty related sites. It was excavated in the 1970s and is known above all for copper work: nearly a thousand copper objects, including arrowheads, spearheads, fish-hooks, bangles and chisels, were found. The residents partly farmed and largely hunted and never formed a city. Published dates for its phases vary between sources, so this guide places the culture only in the third millennium BCE.

Kalibangan, on the left bank of the Ghaggar in Hanumangarh district, is the best-known Indus Valley site in the state. The Archaeological Survey of India excavated it from 1960 to 1970 under B. B. Lal and colleagues, and the full report came out in 2003. It has two main layers: an Early Harappan phase and a mature Harappan phase with a citadel, a lower town and regular street grids. It is famous for a ploughed field with a crossed furrow pattern, dated to about 2800 BCE and described as the earliest attested ploughed field in the world, and for fire altars in the citadel and the lower town. The mature settlement was abandoned, and the usual explanation is the drying up of the Ghaggar-Sarasvati channel. The name Kalibangan means "black bangles", a reference to the many bangle fragments found there.

Early historic period

By about the 6th century BCE the region of the Aravalli east was the territory of the Matsya kingdom, one of the sixteen mahajanapadas of Buddhist texts. Its capital was Viratnagar (Bairat), now in Kotputli-Behror district. Bairat has Mauryan-period Buddhist remains, including a circular temple platform on the hill known as Bijak-ki-Pahari, and a rock edict of Ashoka of about 250 BCE. Other early groups known from tradition and coins are debated in their dates and territories, so this guide does not rely on them.

The Rajput kingdoms

From about the 6th century a series of clans took shape that gave the land its later identity. The Gurjara-Pratiharas (about 550 to 1036 CE) ruled a large area of north India and are credited with checking Arab advances beyond Sindh. The Guhila line of Mewar is dated from the 6th century and continued as the Sisodia dynasty, which ruled Mewar until 1948. Other major lines were the Chauhans (Chahamanas) of Sakambhari (Sambhar) and Ajmer, the Rathores of Marwar (Jodhpur, and later Bikaner), the Kachwahas of Amber, and the Bhatis of Jaisalmer.

The Chauhan king Prithviraj defeated Muhammad of Ghor at the First Battle of Tarain in 1191 and lost to him at the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192, a defeat that opened north India to the Delhi Sultanate. In 1303 the Khalji ruler Alauddin took Chittorgarh from the Guhilas. Mewar recovered under the Sisodia line founded by Hammir in the 14th century, and under Rana Kumbha in the 15th century it built a string of forts, including Kumbhalgarh. The Mewar ruler Rana Sanga led a Rajput confederacy against Babur at the Battle of Khanwa in 1527 and lost. In 1576, at Haldighati, Maharana Pratap fought a Mughal army and, though the field went to the Mughals, he kept up resistance from the hills for the rest of his life and has been a symbol of Rajput independence since.

Most other Rajput houses reached terms with the Mughals. The Kachwahas of Amber, in particular, held high posts in the empire and married into the imperial family, and their capital Amber was succeeded by the planned city of Jaipur, founded on 18 November 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II and laid out with the help of the architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. Marwar and Bikaner also served in imperial armies and their chiefs held mansabs. After the decline of the Mughals in the 18th century the Rajput states were weakened by quarrels over succession and by repeated Maratha raids.

The Bishnoi and Khejarli

One event from the 18th century has become the best-known episode of the state's environmental history. In September 1730, officials of the Marwar ruler (a past Maharaja of Jodhpur) came to the village of Khejarli near Jodhpur to cut khejri trees, reportedly for wood for a building or for burning lime. The Bishnoi community, whose faith forbids felling green trees and killing animals, refused. By tradition a woman named Amrita Devi embraced a tree and was killed, and 363 Bishnois in all are reported to have died protecting the trees. The tradition adds that the ruler afterwards issued an order protecting trees and animals in Bishnoi villages. The number and the details come from later accounts and oral memory, and are best given as "reported". The incident is often cited as an inspiration for the later Chipko movement. The Bishnoi sect is traced to the saint Jambheshwar in the late 15th century and is known for 29 rules of conduct, which are the origin of its name (bis, twenty, and nau, nine).

British period and the Rajputana Agency

In 1817 and 1818 the rulers of the Rajput states signed treaties of protection with the East India Company, giving up their foreign policy and paying tribute in return for protection against the Marathas and Pindaris. The British grouped these states into the Rajputana Agency, set up in 1832 with its capital first at Ajmer and later at Mount Abu from 1845. The agency covered about 330,875 sq km and had roughly 20 princely states in 1901, with the large states of Udaipur (Mewar), Jodhpur (Marwar), Jaipur, Bikaner, Alwar, Bharatpur, Kota and Jaisalmer as the principal ones; counts of states and chiefships differ by source, so this guide does not give one figure as final. The city of Ajmer and its surrounding tract, Ajmer-Merwara, was a small British-administered province in the middle of the agency.

During the revolt of 1857, there were mutinies at the cantonments of Nasirabad and Neemuch and at Kota, but most Rajput chiefs stayed loyal to the British.

Freedom movement

Political awareness in the princely states grew slowly because rulers restricted organisations. Peasant protest was the first strong strand: movements against heavy land revenue and forced labour were recorded in Mewar, notably at Bijolia, in the early 20th century. Among the tribal groups of the south, the Bhil leader Govind Giri organised a reform and protest movement around the hill of Mangarh on the Banswara-Dungarpur border, which ended in a bloody clash in 1913 and is remembered as one of the major tribal events of the state. From the 1930s, praja mandals (people's associations) were formed in several states, including Jaipur, Marwar and Mewar, demanding responsible government under the rulers. After independence in 1947 the question became what shape the states would take within the Union.

Integration of Rajasthan, 1948 to 1956

On 15 August 1947 Rajputana was made up of the princely states and the British province of Ajmer-Merwara. The Ministry of States brought them together in seven stages, which are among the most frequently asked facts in exams:

Stage	Date	What happened
1. Matsya Union	18 March 1948	Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli united
2. Rajasthan Union	25 March 1948	Kota, Bundi, Jhalawar, Tonk, Kishangarh, Shahpura, Pratapgarh, Banswara, Dungarpur and Kushalgarh joined; Kota was the capital
3. United Rajasthan	18 April 1948	Udaipur (Mewar) merged with the Rajasthan Union; Udaipur became the capital
4. Greater Rajasthan	30 March 1949	Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer joined; Jaipur became the capital
5. United Greater Rajasthan	15 May 1949	The Matsya Union was merged into Greater Rajasthan
6. Sirohi	26 January 1950	Sirohi merged, except Abu and Delwara, which had gone to Bombay State
7. Reorganisation	1 November 1956	Under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, Ajmer-Merwara and the Abu-Delwara area were added, along with the Sunel Tappa area; Sironj went to Madhya Pradesh

The details of the final exchange of small territories, especially the Sunel Tappa and Sironj changes, are given in the sources in slightly different words, and the table gives them in the commonly stated form. Rajasthan Day is observed on 30 March, the date of the fourth stage, even though the shape of the state was completed only in 1956. The state's capital has been Jaipur since 1949.

For exam preparation

• Kalibangan is a Harappan site on the Ghaggar in Hanumangarh district, excavated by the ASI in 1960 to 1970; it has a ploughed field and fire altars.
• The Ahar-Banas culture (about 3000 to 1500 BCE) is a Chalcolithic copper-using culture of south-eastern Rajasthan, with black-and-red pottery.
• Ganeshwar (Sikar district) is known for copper objects; Bairat (Viratnagar) was the Matsya capital and has an Ashoka rock edict.
• The First and Second Battles of Tarain were in 1191 and 1192; Khanwa was in 1527 and Haldighati in 1576.
• Jaipur was founded on 18 November 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II.
• Khejarli (1730): Amrita Devi and 363 Bishnois are reported to have died protecting khejri trees.
• Integration happened in seven stages: 18 March 1948, 25 March 1948, 18 April 1948, 30 March 1949, 15 May 1949, 26 January 1950 and 1 November 1956.

Geography

Rajasthan lies between roughly 23 and 30 degrees north and 69 and 78 degrees east, with a length of about 826 km from north to south and a breadth of about 869 km from west to east. The Aravalli Range splits it into a dry north-western region, with the Thar Desert, and a better-watered south-eastern region. Rainfall, soils, rivers, crops and settlement all follow this split.

Location and boundaries

Rajasthan has an international border of about 1,070 km with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh, which runs along the Radcliffe Line. It touches four districts: Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer, from north to south. This is reported as the longest border with Pakistan of any Indian state. The Indian neighbours are Punjab and Haryana (north), Uttar Pradesh (east), Madhya Pradesh (south-east and east) and Gujarat (south-west). On the east and south-east the state meets Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh; the Chambal forms part of the boundary with Madhya Pradesh.

Physiography

The state is usually divided into four physical regions.

• The Western Sandy Plains (the Thar Desert and its margins). This region lies north-west of the Aravallis and is the largest zone. It includes the sand-dune country of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner, and the semi-arid plains of Jodhpur, Churu and Nagaur. The Thar Desert as a whole is about 264,091 sq km, of which about two-thirds is in India, and rainfall there is about 100 to 300 mm a year, mostly in the July to September monsoon. It is one of the most densely populated deserts in the world. The Luni is the main river.
• The Aravalli Range. The range is the oldest fold-mountain belt in India and runs south-west to north-east. Length figures differ: about 670 km is a common measure for the whole range from Gujarat to Delhi, and some sources give more than 800 km for the Rajasthan portion. The highest point is Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu, at 1,722 m. The range is the source of the Banas, the Luni and the Sahibi. It is rich in minerals and holds the state's main forests. In late 2025 the Supreme Court took up the legal definition of the Aravalli hills, and an order using a 100-metre height test was later put on hold; the matter is still developing and is a current-affairs item rather than settled geography.
• The Eastern Plains. These fertile alluvial plains east of the Aravallis, in Jaipur, Bharatpur, Alwar, Dausa and Dholpur, are drained by the Banas, Banganga and their tributaries. They are the most densely settled and the most intensively farmed part of the state.
• The South-Eastern Plateau (Hadoti). The Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar area is an extension of the Malwa plateau with black soil and the Chambal and its tributaries. It has more rainfall than the west, and is a key area for soyabean, coriander and wheat.

Rivers

Drainage is split by the Aravallis. Rivers east of the range join the Chambal or Yamuna system and reach the Ganga; rivers in the west drain inland or to the Rann of Kutch; and a southern group flows to the Gulf of Khambhat.

River	Course and facts	Notes
Chambal	About 1,024 km from near Mhow in Madhya Pradesh; enters Rajasthan, flows through Kota and Dholpur, joins the Yamuna near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh	Gandhi Sagar, Rana Pratap Sagar, Jawahar Sagar and Kota Barrage; Chambal ravines; usually described as the state's main perennial river
Banas	About 512 km, wholly in Rajasthan; rises in the Khamnor hills near Kumbhalgarh and joins the Chambal near Rameshwar in Sawai Madhopur district	Drainage area about 45,833 sq km; Bisalpur project supplies Jaipur
Luni	About 495 km; rises near Ajmer (Pushkar valley) and ends in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat	Largest river of the Thar region; salty, so its other name is Lavanavati; tributaries include the Jawai, Sukri, Bandi and Jojari
Mahi	Rises in Madhya Pradesh, flows through the Banswara and Pratapgarh area to the Gulf of Khambhat	Southern Rajasthan; Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam
Ghaggar	Seasonal; flows through Hanumangarh	Kalibangan stands on its bank; traditionally linked with the lost Sarasvati
Sahibi (Sabi)	Rises in the Aravallis of Jaipur-Alwar region	Flows towards Haryana and the Yamuna system

The Luni basin is the largest area of the state drained by an inland river and covers districts such as Ajmer, Barmer, Jalore, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Pali and Sirohi, about 37,363 sq km in all. Textile and dyeing industry in the Pali-Balotra belt has badly polluted it.

The Indira Gandhi Canal (earlier the Rajasthan Canal), at about 837 km, is described as the longest canal in India. It takes water from the Harike barrage at the confluence of the Sutlej and Beas in Punjab and ends near Gadra Road in the Thar. Work began in 1958, the first stage was completed in 1986 and the second in 2010. It has turned parts of Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer into cotton, wheat and mustard land, and in places follows an old river channel believed to be linked with the Sarasvati.

The main natural lakes are Sambhar (a large saline lake near Jaipur, a Ramsar site since 1990), Didwana and Pachpadra (salt lakes) and Pushkar (a sacred lake near Ajmer). The best-known man-made lakes are in Udaipur, including Pichola and Fateh Sagar.

Climate

The climate is hot and arid to semi-arid. Most of the state is classed as hot desert and the rest as hot semi-arid. Summers are long, with May and June often above 40 and sometimes above 45 degrees Celsius, and winters are cool to cold, with night temperatures near freezing in some places. Rainfall mostly comes in the south-west monsoon from July to September and falls sharply from east to west: Jaisalmer, the driest of the major stations, gets about 270 mm a year, while Jaipur gets about 637 mm. Mount Abu and the Vagad region of the south are the wettest parts. Winter rain from western disturbances is small but matters for the wheat and mustard crops.

Soils

The main soil groups are sandy and desert soils in the west, which are low in organic matter and fertile only with water; grey-brown alluvial soils in the north and east, which are the best for crops; red and yellow soils in the Aravalli country; and black soils of the Hadoti plateau, which hold moisture. Salinity is a problem along the Luni and the canal-irrigated areas.

Forests and wildlife

India State of Forest Report 2023 figures for Rajasthan, as reported in secondary summaries, put forest cover at about 16,548 sq km, or about 4.84 per cent of the state's area, and show a small fall from the 2021 assessment. The Forest Survey of India report itself was not opened for this guide, so treat these as approximate. Forests are mostly dry deciduous and thorn forests, and the main trees include the khejri, rohida, babool, dhok and, in the south, teak. The khejri is the state tree.

The state bird is the Great Indian Bustard, which is critically endangered and found in the Desert National Park area. The chinkara and the camel are listed as state animals, and the rohida is the state flower.

Minerals

Rajasthan has deposits of dozens of minerals and is the main producer of several. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines state profile, it holds a very large share of the country's lead-zinc ore resources, a major share of copper ore and talc or soapstone, and it leads in silver, calcite and gypsum production. The Bureau also describes the state as the only producer of lead-zinc ores, selenite and wollastonite. Main areas are Zawar (Udaipur), Rampura-Agucha (Bhilwara) and Rajpura-Dariba (Rajsamand) for lead-zinc, the Khetri-Singhana belt in Jhunjhunu for copper, and Makrana for marble. Fuels and building stones are covered with the economy later in this guide.

Protected areas

Area	Type	Notes
Ranthambore	National park and tiger reserve	Sawai Madhopur; between the Banas and Chambal
Sariska	Tiger reserve and national park	Aravalli forests in the Alwar area
Mukundra Hills	National park and tiger reserve	Notified as a tiger reserve in 2013; Kota, Bundi, Chittorgarh and Jhalawar; includes Darrah, Jawahar Sagar and Chambal sanctuaries
Ramgarh Vishdhari	Tiger reserve	Declared 2022; Bundi; about 1,072 sq km
Dholpur-Karauli	Tiger reserve	Declared 2023; Dholpur and Karauli; about 1,111 sq km; reported as India's 54th tiger reserve
Keoladeo (Ghana)	National park, Ramsar site	Bharatpur; man-made wetland; Ramsar listing 1 October 1981; a World Heritage Site
Desert National Park	National park	Jaisalmer and Barmer; Great Indian Bustard, chinkara
Sambhar Lake	Ramsar site	Designated 23 March 1990
Khichan, Menar and Silisereh	Ramsar sites	Also listed among the state's five Ramsar sites

The state has five tiger reserves, five national parks listed by Wikipedia (Desert, Keoladeo, Mukundra Hills, Ranthambore and Sariska) and five Ramsar sites on the list that stood at 101 sites for India on 4 August 2026. The Chambal, which forms a long stretch of the eastern border, is also a protected riverine habitat for the gharial.

For exam preparation

• Rajasthan's border with Pakistan is about 1,070 km and touches Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer districts.
• The Aravalli Range runs south-west to north-east; Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu (1,722 m) is the highest point in the state.
• About three-fifths of the state lies north-west of the Aravallis.
• The Chambal is usually described as the state's main perennial river; the Banas (about 512 km) lies wholly in Rajasthan; the Luni (about 495 km) ends in the Rann of Kutch.
• The Indira Gandhi Canal (about 837 km) starts at Harike barrage; work began in 1958.
• Keoladeo became a Ramsar site on 1 October 1981 and Sambhar on 23 March 1990.
• The state has five tiger reserves: Ranthambore, Sariska, Mukundra Hills, Ramgarh Vishdhari and Dholpur-Karauli.
• The Great Indian Bustard is the state bird; the khejri is the state tree.

Administration and districts

As on 4 October 2026, Rajasthan has 41 districts in 7 divisions, according to the state's current reports and the Wikipedia list. The number was 33 before 2023, rose to 50 districts and 10 divisions after 2023, and fell back to 41 and 7 on 28 December 2024. No later change was found when this section was checked, but district boundaries are a current-affairs topic and any new notification should be checked against the state government's notices.

Divisions

A division is headed by a Divisional Commissioner and groups several districts for administration and revenue appeals. The seven divisions are Ajmer, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur.

Division	Districts	Count
Ajmer	Ajmer, Beawar, Bhilwara, Didwana-Kuchaman, Nagaur, Tonk	6
Bharatpur	Bharatpur, Deeg, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur	5
Bikaner	Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Sri Ganganagar	4
Jaipur	Alwar, Dausa, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Khairthal-Tijara, Kotputli-Behror, Sikar	7
Jodhpur	Balotra, Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jodhpur, Pali, Phalodi, Sirohi	8
Kota	Baran, Bundi, Jhalawar, Kota	4
Udaipur	Banswara, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Salumbar, Udaipur	7

The 41 districts

Most district headquarters bear the district's name. Where a district has a double name, the headquarters town is not confirmed in the sources checked and is marked so.

District	Headquarters	Division	Notes
Ajmer	Ajmer	Ajmer	Pushkar lake; Ajmer Sharif dargah
Alwar	Alwar	Jaipur	Sariska; Matsya Union member
Balotra	Balotra	Jodhpur	Created 2023 and retained; textile industry
Banswara	Banswara	Udaipur	Fifth Schedule district; Mahi basin
Baran	Baran	Kota	Hadoti plateau
Barmer	Barmer	Jodhpur	Pakistan border; oil and gas
Beawar	Beawar	Ajmer	Created 2023 and retained
Bharatpur	Bharatpur	Bharatpur	Keoladeo National Park
Bhilwara	Bhilwara	Ajmer	Textiles; Rampura-Agucha zinc mine
Bikaner	Bikaner	Bikaner	Pakistan border; Junagarh fort
Bundi	Bundi	Kota	Ramgarh Vishdhari tiger reserve
Chittorgarh	Chittorgarh	Udaipur	Chittor Fort, a World Heritage hill fort
Churu	Churu	Bikaner	Shekhawati fringe; northern desert
Dausa	Dausa	Jaipur	Eastern plains
Deeg	Deeg	Bharatpur	Created 2023 and retained
Dholpur	Dholpur	Bharatpur	Chambal ravines; Matsya Union member
Didwana-Kuchaman	Not confirmed	Ajmer	Created 2023 and retained; Didwana salt lake
Dungarpur	Dungarpur	Udaipur	Fifth Schedule district; high tribal share
Hanumangarh	Hanumangarh	Bikaner	Kalibangan; Ghaggar
Jaipur	Jaipur	Jaipur	State capital; boundary changed after 2023
Jaisalmer	Jaisalmer	Jodhpur	Largest district by area (reported 38,401 sq km); Pakistan border
Jalore	Jalore	Jodhpur	Granite; Luni basin
Jhalawar	Jhalawar	Kota	Gagron Fort
Jhunjhunu	Jhunjhunu	Jaipur	Shekhawati; Khetri copper belt
Jodhpur	Jodhpur	Jodhpur	Mehrangarh; Rajasthan High Court's principal seat
Karauli	Karauli	Bharatpur	Dholpur-Karauli tiger reserve
Khairthal-Tijara	Not confirmed	Jaipur	Created 2023 and retained; smallest district by area (reported 2,007 sq km)
Kota	Kota	Kota	Chambal city; Chambal city
Kotputli-Behror	Not confirmed	Jaipur	Created 2023 and retained; contains Bairat
Nagaur	Nagaur	Ajmer	Site of the 1959 Panchayati Raj launch
Pali	Pali	Jodhpur	Luni basin; textiles
Phalodi	Phalodi	Jodhpur	Created 2023 and retained; Thar
Pratapgarh	Pratapgarh	Udaipur	Fifth Schedule district
Rajsamand	Rajsamand	Udaipur	Kumbhalgarh; marble; Rajpura-Dariba mine
Salumbar	Salumbar	Udaipur	Created 2023 and retained
Sawai Madhopur	Sawai Madhopur	Bharatpur	Ranthambore
Sikar	Sikar	Jaipur	Ganeshwar; Shekhawati
Sirohi	Sirohi	Jodhpur	Mount Abu; Guru Shikhar
Sri Ganganagar	Sri Ganganagar	Bikaner	Canal-irrigated north; Pakistan border
Tonk	Tonk	Ajmer	Rajasthan Union member
Udaipur	Udaipur	Udaipur	Lake city; Mewar capital

Formation of new districts

Rajasthan has repeatedly carved new districts out of old ones. The state had 33 districts until 2023. In 2023 the then state government created 17 new districts and 3 new divisions (Banswara, Pali and Sikar), taking the totals to 50 districts and 10 divisions, at a time when elections were close. In December 2024 a review committee found that many of the new units were not viable, citing financial feasibility, low population and administrative capacity. On 28 December 2024 the cabinet cancelled nine districts (Dudu, Kekri, Shahpura, Neem Ka Thana, Gangapur City, Jaipur Rural, Jodhpur Rural, Anupgarh and Sanchore) and the three new divisions, and retained eight (Balotra, Beawar, Deeg, Didwana-Kuchaman, Kotputli-Behror, Khairthal-Tijara, Phalodi and Salumbar). Reports also note that notifications for three further proposals, Sujangarh, Kuchaman City and Malpura, were revoked or not carried forward. The decision drew protests in some of the affected towns and criticism from the opposition; it is reported here only as a matter of record.

Boundary changes also matter because the Census needs fixed administrative boundaries. Under central rules for the next Census, states can change boundaries only until a set deadline, after which boundaries are frozen. Which boundaries the next Census will use is a point to follow in current affairs.

Local government

Rajasthan has a three-tier rural system under the Panchayati Raj Act and Part IX of the Constitution (73rd Amendment): the gram panchayat at village level, the panchayat samiti at block level and the zila parishad at district level. Rajasthan was the first state to start Panchayati Raj: the scheme was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 2 October 1959 at Bagdari village in Nagaur district, on Gandhi's birthday. Later the Part IX framework gave constitutional status to these bodies, with regular elections held by the State Election Commission and reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. Counts of gram panchayats and samitis change when districts and blocks are reorganised, so exact totals are not given here.

Urban areas are run by municipal corporations in large cities, municipal councils in medium towns and municipal boards in small ones, under the Rajasthan Municipalities Act and the 74th Amendment. The number of corporations has changed in recent years, and the current list is not given here.

Scheduled Areas

Rajasthan has no Sixth Schedule area, because that schedule applies only to parts of the north-east. The Fifth Schedule, which protects tribal land and gives the Governor special powers, applies to the Scheduled Areas of the state. In May 2018 the Union Cabinet approved a new Constitution order replacing the older 1981 order. The areas now include three whole districts (Banswara, Dungarpur and Pratapgarh) and parts of Udaipur, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Pali and Sirohi: nine whole tehsils, one whole block and 46 gram panchayats covering 227 villages. These areas are linked to the Tribal Sub-Scheme (formerly Tribal Sub-Plan), and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act applies to them.

For exam preparation

• As on October 2026, Rajasthan has 41 districts and 7 divisions: Ajmer, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur.
• Before 2023 there were 33 districts; 17 new districts and 3 divisions were created in 2023, giving 50 and 10.
• On 28 December 2024 the cabinet cancelled nine districts and three divisions (Banswara, Pali and Sikar) and retained eight of the 2023 districts.
• Jaisalmer is the largest district by area; Jodhpur division has the most districts (8).
• Panchayati Raj was inaugurated at Bagdari in Nagaur on 2 October 1959; Rajasthan was the first state to start it.
• Banswara, Dungarpur and Pratapgarh are fully in the Fifth Schedule Scheduled Areas; Rajasthan has no Sixth Schedule area.

Demography

Census 2011 is still the latest published census, and the figures below are from it unless stated. Rajasthan had 68,548,437 people, about 5.66 per cent of India. It is a mostly rural, young and fast-growing state with a low sex ratio and literacy that has risen sharply but still sits close to the national average. All of these figures use 2011 boundaries, with 33 districts.

Census 2011 at a glance

Indicator	Census 2011
Population	68,548,437
Males	35,550,997
Females	32,997,440
Decadal growth, 2001 to 2011	21.31 per cent
Density	200 per sq km
Sex ratio	928 females per 1,000 males
Child sex ratio (0 to 6 years)	888
Literacy	66.11 per cent (male 79.19, female 52.12)
Urban population	24.87 per cent
Rural population	75.13 per cent
Scheduled Castes	12,221,593 (about 17.8 per cent)
Scheduled Tribes	9,238,534 (13.48 per cent)
Area	342,239 sq km

The gap between male and female literacy (about 27 percentage points) was one of the widest in the country, and the child sex ratio of 888 was below the overall sex ratio, which is a long-standing policy concern. More recent survey figures such as NFHS-5 were not checked for this guide; refer to the latest surveys for current health and fertility indicators.

Languages

Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language of the state, and English is used as an additional language. Most people speak one of the Rajasthani forms, a group of Indo-Aryan speech varieties. Census 2011 put speakers of the Rajasthani group at about 52.7 million, including Marwari (about 7.8 million under the narrower label), Mewari (about 4.2 million), Hadauti (about 2.9 million), Bagri (about 1.7 million) and Malvi and Nimadi, which are spoken partly outside the state. Other regional forms include Dhundhari (Jaipur area), Shekhawati, Mewati and Wagri (Banswara and Dungarpur). Bhili languages are spoken among the Bhil communities of the south. Rajasthani is not in the Eighth Schedule. The state assembly passed a resolution in 2003 asking for its inclusion, and no step has followed; Sahitya Akademi treats it as a distinct literary language.

Religions

Religion	Share (Census 2011)	Population
Hindu	88.49 per cent	60,657,103
Muslim	9.07 per cent	6,215,377
Sikh	1.27 per cent	872,930
Jain	0.91 per cent	622,023
Christian	0.14 per cent	96,430
Buddhist	0.02 per cent	12,185

The Jain share is notable, and Hindus are the large majority.

Scheduled Castes and Tribes

Scheduled Castes were about 17.8 per cent of the population in 2011. Scheduled Tribes numbered 9,238,534, or 13.48 per cent, after a decadal growth of 30.2 per cent between 2001 and 2011. There are 12 notified Scheduled Tribes in the state. The Meena are the largest group, at about 47.04 per cent of the tribal population (4,345,528 people), followed by the Bhil and related groups at about 44.38 per cent (4,100,264). Others include the Garasia (about 3.41 per cent) and the Sahariya (about 1.21 per cent). The Sahariya of Baran district are the community in the state usually classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group.

Tribal people are concentrated in the south and south-east. In Census 2011, with the 33 districts of that time, the highest tribal shares were in Banswara (76.41 per cent), Dungarpur (71.25 per cent) and Pratapgarh (63.36 per cent), which is why these three districts are fully under the Fifth Schedule.

Urbanisation and cities

Only 24.87 per cent of residents lived in towns in 2011, below the national share. Jaipur had about 3.1 million people in the city in 2011 and is the tenth most populous city in the country. After Jaipur, the largest cities are Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Ajmer and Udaipur. Because most of the state is desert or semi-desert, people are concentrated in the eastern plains, the canal-irrigated north and the city belts around Jaipur, Kota, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

Other indicators

HDI, NFHS-5 and recent survey literacy figures are not given here, because the sources checked for this guide did not give an agreed, confirmable figure. When you need them, read the latest NFHS, SRS and NITI Aayog reports directly and note the year.

For exam preparation

• Census 2011 population is 68,548,437, seventh largest in India, with a density of 200 per sq km.
• Sex ratio is 928 and child sex ratio is 888; literacy is 66.11 per cent (male 79.19, female 52.12).
• Urban share is 24.87 per cent and rural share is 75.13 per cent.
• Scheduled Castes are about 17.8 per cent and Scheduled Tribes 13.48 per cent of the population.
• Meena and Bhil are the two largest Scheduled Tribes; Banswara has the highest ST share (76.41 per cent).
• Hindus are 88.49 per cent and Muslims 9.07 per cent; Sikhs 1.27 per cent and Jains 0.91 per cent.
• Hindi is the official language; Rajasthani is not in the Eighth Schedule.

How the state is governed

Rajasthan has a parliamentary system under the Constitution of India, built the same way as every other state. This section describes the structure, which stays fixed from one government to the next. Names of sitting office-holders change, so this guide does not list them; for the current Governor, Chief Minister, ministers, Chief Secretary, DGP and Chief Justice, use the official state portal and our current affairs pages. Jaipur has been the capital since 1949. The Assembly and Secretariat are in Jaipur, the High Court's principal seat is in Jodhpur and the Public Service Commission is in Ajmer.

The executive

Office	Role	How filled
Governor	Constitutional head of the state; summons and dissolves the Assembly, gives assent to bills, appoints the Chief Minister, and has special duties for the Scheduled Areas of the south	Appointed by the President (Articles 155 and 156), normally for five years and at the President's pleasure
Chief Minister	Head of the government; leads the council of ministers and the party or alliance in the House	Leader of the party or alliance with a majority in the Assembly, appointed by the Governor
Council of ministers	Runs the departments; collectively responsible to the Assembly	Capped at 15 per cent of the House under Article 164(1A), which is 30 members for a 200-seat Assembly, with a floor of 12; the Chief Minister is counted in the total
Chief Secretary	Head of the civil service and the Secretariat	Senior IAS officer chosen by the government
Director General of Police	Head of the state police	IPS officer, selected under the Supreme Court's Prakash Singh guidelines
Advocate General	Chief legal adviser to the government	Appointed by the Governor under Article 165

Departments and bodies

The government works through departments, each under a minister and a secretary. The state has 41 districts in 7 divisions (as on October 2026). Constitutional and statutory bodies include:

• the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), set up on 22 December 1949 with its headquarters at Ajmer, which recruits to state services (Articles 315 to 323);
• the State Election Commission, which conducts panchayat and municipal polls under Articles 243K and 243ZA, separate from the Election Commission of India;
• the State Finance Commission (Article 243I), which recommends how money is shared with local bodies;
• the Rajasthan Lokayukta, created in 1973 and based at the Secretariat in Jaipur;
• the State Human Rights Commission, constituted on 18 January 1999;
• the State Information Commission under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

The Chief Electoral Officer, who runs Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and the electoral rolls for the Election Commission of India, is a separate post from the State Election Commissioner. Two state digital systems are Raj SSO, a single sign-on, and Jan Aadhaar, run by a Jan Aadhaar Authority in the Planning Department.

For exam preparation

• The Governor is appointed by the President; the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor.
• The council of ministers is capped at 15 per cent of the House (Article 164(1A), 91st Amendment), which means 30 for Rajasthan.
• The RPSC was established on 22 December 1949 and sits at Ajmer.
• The Rajasthan Lokayukta dates from 1973; the State Human Rights Commission from 18 January 1999.

Legislature, Parliament and judiciary

Rajasthan has a single-chamber legislature, the Vidhan Sabha, of 200 members, along with 10 Rajya Sabha seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats. The state chose to have no upper house, so there is no Vidhan Parishad.

Vidhan Sabha

The first Assembly was inaugurated on 31 March 1952 with 160 members. The House grew to 176 after Ajmer State merged in 1956, to 184 from 1967 and to 200 from 1977. It meets at Vidhan Bhavan in Jaipur. The Sixteenth Assembly was elected in 2023 and the next general election is due in 2028.

Of the 200 seats, 141 are General, 34 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 25 for Scheduled Tribes. This pattern has applied since the 2008 delimitation; the 2003 election was fought on a map of 143 General, 33 SC and 24 ST seats (Election Commission of India statistical reports).

Party	Seats won, 2023 election (including Karanpur, polled in January 2024)
Bharatiya Janata Party	115
Indian National Congress	70
Bharat Adivasi Party	3
Bahujan Samaj Party	2
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party	1
Rashtriya Lok Dal	1
Independents	8
Total	200

At the count on 3 December 2023 the Congress had 69 seats, because polling in Karanpur had been put off; it won that seat on 5 January 2024. These are last-election results. Strength changes with by-elections and defections, so check the Assembly website for the live position. Twenty women were elected in 2023, against 24 in 2018 (ECI, PRS).

Rajya Sabha

Rajasthan has 10 Rajya Sabha seats (Chief Electoral Officer's fact sheet, 12 March 2026). MLAs elect members by single transferable vote for six-year terms, with seats falling vacant in staggered batches.

Lok Sabha

The state has 25 Lok Sabha constituencies: 18 General, 4 SC and 3 ST, a pattern from the 2008 delimitation.

Category	Constituencies
Scheduled Caste (4)	Ganganagar, Bikaner, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur
Scheduled Tribe (3)	Dausa, Udaipur, Banswara
General (18)	Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Nagaur, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota, Jhalawar-Baran

High Court and other bodies

The Rajasthan High Court was established on 29 August 1949 under the Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949, and inaugurated by the Rajpramukh; it merged five earlier courts of the princely states. Its principal seat is Jodhpur. The court's history page says a permanent Jaipur bench was re-established on 8 December 1976 after the earlier arrangement ended in 1958 (Wikipedia gives 31 January 1977 for the bench's start). The sanctioned strength is 50 judges (38 permanent, 12 additional), as reported on Wikipedia in October 2026. A new building outside Jodhpur was inaugurated in December 2019. Below it sit district and sessions courts in every district, family courts and special courts.

The Rajasthan Lokayukta (1973) handles corruption complaints against public servants.

For exam preparation

• The Vidhan Sabha has 200 seats: 141 General, 34 SC, 25 ST.
• The first Assembly met on 31 March 1952 with 160 members; the House has had 200 members since 1977.
• Rajasthan has 10 Rajya Sabha seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats (4 SC, 3 ST); it has no Vidhan Parishad.
• The High Court was established on 29 August 1949; its principal seat is Jodhpur and it has a bench at Jaipur.
• The High Court's sanctioned strength is 50 judges.

Elections

Rajasthan has held sixteen Assembly elections since 1952. The Congress governed for the first 25 years, the Janata Party won in 1977, and since 1990 the contest has been mainly between the BJP and the Congress. The ruling party has changed at every election since 1998: Congress (1998), BJP (2003), Congress (2008), BJP (2013), Congress (2018), BJP (2023). Local talk calls this "riwaj", and it is the best-known feature of the state's politics. Figures for 1993 to 2013 and 2023 come from the Election Commission of India (ECI) statistical reports; 2018 comes from the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) report and Wikipedia; 1952 to 1990 seat counts come from Wikipedia's summary, because the older ECI reports were not opened.

Vidhan Sabha elections, 1952 to 1990

Year	Seats	Congress	Jana Sangh / Janata / BJP	Others	Government
1952	160	82	8 (Jana Sangh)	70	INC
1957	176	119	6 (Jana Sangh)	51	INC
1962	176	88	15 (Jana Sangh)	73	INC
1967	184	89	22 (Jana Sangh)	73	INC, after President's rule
1972	184	145	8 (Jana Sangh)	31	INC
1977	200	41	151 (Janata)	8	Janata Party
1980	200	133	32 (BJP)	35	INC
1985	200	113	39 (BJP)	48	INC
1990	200	50	85 (BJP); Janata Dal 55	10	BJP with Janata Dal

In 1967 the Congress had 89 seats, short of the 93 needed in a 184-seat House, and formed a government only after President's rule. In 1977, after the Emergency, the Janata Party won 151 seats and produced the first non-Congress Chief Minister.

Vidhan Sabha elections since 1993

Year	Polling date	Seats	Turnout	BJP	INC	Others	Government
1993	11 Nov	199 (Rajakhera put off)	60.59%	95	76	JD 6, CPI(M) 1, Ind 21	BJP
1998	25 Nov	200	63.39%	33	153	JD 3, BSP 2, CPI(M) 1, RJD 1, Ind 7	INC
2003	1 Dec	200	67.18%	120	56	INLD 4, BSP 2, JD(U) 2, CPI(M) 1, LJNSP 1, RSNM 1, Ind 13	BJP
2008	4 Dec	200	66.25%	78	96	BSP 6, CPI(M) 3, JD(U) 1, SP 1, LSWP 1, Ind 14	INC
2013	1 Dec; Churu 13 Dec	200	75.04%	163	21	NPEP 4, BSP 3, NUZP 2, Ind 7	BJP
2018	7 Dec; Ramgarh 28 Jan 2019	200	74.72%	73	100	BSP 6, RLP 3, BTP 2, CPI(M) 2, RLD 1, Ind 13	INC
2023	25 Nov; Karanpur 5 Jan 2024	200	75.33%	115	70	BAP 3, BSP 2, RLP 1, RLD 1, Ind 8	BJP

Wikipedia gives two turnout figures for 2013 (75.67 and 74.38 per cent); the ECI report's 75.04 per cent is used. The 2018 Congress count of 100 includes Ramgarh, which polled later; it had 99 on counting day, 11 December 2018. JD is Janata Dal, and INLD, NPEP, NUZP, LSWP and LJNSP are small parties as coded by the ECI.

Year	Electors	Women electors per 1,000 men	BJP vote share	INC vote share	Other notable	Women elected
1993	2,83,40,937	895	38.60%	38.27%	JD 6.93%	9
1998	3,01,32,777	900	33.23%	44.95%	BSP 2.17%	14
2003	3,39,28,675	916	39.20%	35.65%	BSP 3.97%	12
2008	3,62,73,170	905	34.27%	36.82%	BSP 7.60%	28
2013	4,08,29,312	897	45.17%	33.07%	NPEP 4.25%	28
2018	4,76,72,748	919 (CEO)	38.77%	39.30%	BSP 4.03%	24
2023	5,29,31,152	917	41.70%	39.58%	RLP 2.38%; BAP 2.33%; NOTA 0.96%	20

Shares for 1993 to 2013 are as printed in the ECI tables (the basis differs slightly by year). The 2018 shares are from Wikipedia's results table; its infobox gives 38.08 per cent for the BJP, which does not match the votes in the same table. The 2023 shares include NOTA and the Karanpur poll. Women electors per 1,000 men are worked out from the ECI electors tables.

The three most recent elections

2013. The BJP won 163 of 200 seats, the largest tally in the state's history, against 21 for the Congress, its lowest. The vote gap was 12.1 percentage points (45.17 against 33.07), and turnout rose to 75.04 per cent from 66.25. Women voted at a higher rate than men (75.44 against 74.67 per cent), which was not so in 2008. NOTA (None of the Above) was used for the first time. Polling in Churu was put off to 13 December after a BSP candidate died.

2018. Polling was on 7 December and counting on 11 December. The Congress won 99 seats, two short of a majority, and reached 100 when Ramgarh polled on 28 January 2019; it formed the government with BSP support. The BJP fell from 163 to 73. The vote gap was only 0.53 percentage points (39.30 against 38.77). Independents won 13 seats and 24 women were elected. The closest result was Asind, by 154 votes. The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), founded in October 2018, won 3 seats.

2023. Polling in 199 seats was on 25 November and counting on 3 December. The BJP won 115 seats, a gain of 42, and the Congress fell from 100 to 70 with Karanpur. The vote gap was 2.12 percentage points (41.70 against 39.58). Turnout of 75.33 per cent was the highest in the series. The Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), formed in September 2023, won 3 seats in its first election, in the tribal south. In all 1,875 candidates stood and 1,421 lost their deposits; 20 women won; NOTA took 3,83,107 votes. Kotputli was among the closest results, by 321 votes in Wikipedia's constituency table. The new government was sworn in on 15 December 2023.

Postponed polls

A single seat has been put off in four general elections. Rajakhera in 1993 was delayed after a BJP candidate died and voted in 1994. Churu in 2013 moved to 13 December after the death of a BSP candidate. Ramgarh in 2018 polled on 28 January 2019 (the reason was not confirmed in the sources opened). Karanpur in 2023 was put off after a Congress candidate died and polled on 5 January 2024, when the Congress won it.

Lok Sabha elections

Year	BJP seats	INC seats	Others	BJP share	INC share	Turnout
2004	21	4	0	49.01%	41.42%	not confirmed
2009	4	20	1 Independent	36.57%	47.19%	48.41%
2014	25	0	0	54.94%	30.36%	63.11%
2019	24	0	1 (RLP, an NDA partner)	58.47%	34.24%	66.34%
2024	14	8	CPI(M) 1, RLP 1, BAP 1	about 49%	about 38%	about 62%

Shares are from Wikipedia's results tables; other sites that exclude NOTA show slightly higher figures (59.07 per cent for the BJP in 2019, for example). For 2024 the Congress allies together had 45.09 per cent. The Chief Electoral Officer's report gives 2024 turnout as 62.09 per cent in one place and 62.07 in another (3,31,35,879 voters of 5,35,08,009 electors); Wikipedia shows 61.34. Voting was in two phases, on 19 and 26 April, with counting on 4 June. The BJP won all 25 seats in 2014 and the NDA all 25 in 2019. Barmer (about 76 per cent) had the highest turnout in 2024 and Karauli-Dholpur (about 50 per cent) the lowest.

By-elections

Wikipedia's lists show these Assembly by-elections since the 2018 election.

Date	Constituency	Outcome
28 Jan 2019	Ramgarh (postponed poll)	INC
21 Oct 2019	Khinvsar	RLP held
21 Oct 2019	Mandawa	INC, gain from BJP
17 Apr 2021	Sujangarh; Sahara	INC held both
17 Apr 2021	Rajsamand	BJP held
30 Oct 2021	Vallabhnagar	INC held
30 Oct 2021	Dhariawad	INC, gain from BJP
5 Dec 2022	Sardarshahar	INC held
5 Jan 2024	Karanpur (postponed poll)	INC
26 Apr 2024; counted 4 Jun	Bagidora (member resigned)	BAP, gain from INC
Counted 23 Nov 2024	Jhunjhunu, Ramgarh, Deoli-Uniara	BJP, gain from INC (members resigned or died)
Counted 23 Nov 2024	Khinvsar	BJP, gain from RLP
Counted 23 Nov 2024	Salumbar (member died)	BJP held
Counted 23 Nov 2024	Dausa	INC held
Counted 23 Nov 2024	Chorasi	BAP held
Counted 14 Nov 2025	Anta (member disqualified, 23 May 2025)	INC, gain from BJP

Of nine by-elections from January 2019 to December 2022 the Congress won seven. In the seven seats counted on 23 November 2024 the BJP won five. Reasons for the earlier vacancies were not checked.

Panchayat and urban local body elections

The State Election Commission runs these polls separately. The last full panchayat cycle was in 2020 to 2021, for 33 zila parishads, 352 panchayat samitis and 11,320 gram panchayats, held in stages (the Commission cites Covid-19 and delimitation). Gram panchayat polls are non-party, so no party tally is given, and the 2020 zila parishad results were not confirmed.

2026 panchayat elections: announced, not held. The Commission announced the programme on 3 October 2026. Gram panchayat terms ended in January 2026, 27 zila parishads and 300 samitis completed five years in September 2026, two more zila parishads and 22 samitis do so in October, and four (Baran, Sri Ganganagar, Karauli and Kota) with 30 samitis in December, so their heads will vote on dates to be set. After the 2025 to 2026 delimitation there are 41 zila parishads (1,403 wards), 457 samitis (8,245 wards) and 14,403 gram panchayats (1,30,589 wards): 1,55,138 elected posts against 1,28,942 before. The roll has 4,03,07,308 voters (2,08,87,351 men, 1,94,19,789 women, 168 third gender) as of 1 January 2026, with 45,384 polling stations. Zila parishad and samiti seats use electronic voting machines (EVMs); sarpanch and panch use ballot boxes.

Phase	Zila parishad and samiti polling	Sarpanch and panch polling
1	23 Oct 2026	25 Oct 2026
2	29 Oct 2026	31 Oct 2026
3	4 Nov 2026	6 Nov 2026
4	14 Nov 2026	16 Nov 2026

Jaisalmer, Phalodi and Salumbar vote in one phase; Jhunjhunu, Karauli, Sikar, Banswara, Bikaner, Jalore and Udaipur in three; Jaipur in four; the rest in two. Zila parishad and samiti counting is on 20 November 2026, and Pramukh, Up-Pramukh, Pradhan and Up-Pradhan are chosen on 25 to 28 November. As on 4 October 2026 there is no result; see current affairs.

Urban local bodies. Wikipedia records municipal elections on 28 January 2021 in 90 bodies, where the Congress led with 1,197 of 3,034 wards against the BJP's 1,140. The Commission's results page for the 2026 urban general election, opened on 4 October 2026, shows ward results of BJP 4,182, INC 3,619, Independents 2,273, RLP 63, AAP 42, CPI(M) 38, BSP 19 and BAP 8. Its orders show chairperson and deputy elections in February 2026, with the chair chosen by elected members. Poll dates, number of bodies and the chairperson tally were not confirmed.

Reservation, delimitation and voters

The Assembly and Lok Sabha maps were last redrawn by the 2008 delimitation: 141 General, 34 SC and 25 ST Assembly seats, and 18 General, 4 SC and 3 ST Lok Sabha seats. Seat numbers are frozen until the first census taken after 2026, so any change awaits Census 2027. The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 reserves one-third of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats for women, but Wikipedia reports that it works only after delimitation on a new census. The Constitution requires at least one-third of local-body seats for women (Articles 243D and 243T); Rajasthan's own percentages for women, SC, ST and OBC were not confirmed.

In the Special Intensive Revision, the draft roll of 16 December 2025 had 5,06,80,870 electors. After 12,94,358 additions and 2,42,962 deletions, the final roll of 21 February 2026 has 5,17,32,266 general electors and 1,33,883 service voters, 5,18,66,149 in all (CEO Rajasthan fact sheet, 12 March 2026). That is 911 women per 1,000 men, and every general elector holds an EPIC (voter photo ID card).

Firsts and records

• The 163 BJP seats of 2013 are the largest tally by any party.
• The Janata Party's 151 seats in 1977 brought the first non-Congress government.
• Turnout rose from 60.59 per cent (1993) to 75.33 per cent (2023), the highest in the series.
• Women voted at a higher rate than men in 2013 and, excluding postal votes, in 2023 (74.73 against 74.20 per cent).

For exam preparation

• Congress won 153 seats in 1998; the BJP won 163 in 2013, the largest tally.
• The Janata Party won 151 seats in 1977.
• The ruling party has changed at every election since 1998.
• Turnout was 75.04 per cent in 2013, 74.72 in 2018 and 75.33 in 2023.
• Since 2008 the Assembly has 141 General, 34 SC and 25 ST seats.
• In 2023 the BJP won 115 seats, Congress 70 and the BAP 3; Karanpur polled on 5 January 2024.
• The 2026 panchayat polls run from 23 October to 16 November, with counting on 20 November for zila parishad and samiti seats.
• The final electoral roll of 21 February 2026 has 5,18,66,149 electors including service voters.

Past Chief Ministers, Governors and office-holders

This section lists only completed tenures. Names of current holders are left out on purpose (see How the state is governed). Dates follow Wikipedia's lists, which draw on official records; Speaker and Chief Justice dates can differ by a few days from the institutions' own records.

Before the Governor: the Rajpramukh

Until 1956 the state was headed by a Rajpramukh, an office held by a former ruler. Sir Man Singh II of Jaipur held it from 30 March 1949 to 31 October 1956; Sir Bhim Singh II (25 March to 18 April 1948) and Sir Bhupal Singh of Mewar (18 April 1948 to 1 April 1949, then Maha-Rajpramukh until his death on 4 July 1955) held it in the earlier unions. The unions' heads of government were Prime Ministers: Manikya Lal Verma (18 April 1948 to 7 April 1949) and Heera Lal Shastri (7 April 1949 to 26 January 1950).

Chief Ministers

No.	Chief Minister	Party	Tenure	Note
1	Heera Lal Shastri	INC	26 Jan 1950 to 6 Jan 1951	Earlier Prime Minister of the Greater Rajasthan union from 7 Apr 1949
2	C. S. Venkatachar	INC	6 Jan 1951 to 26 Apr 1951	Short tenure of under four months
3	Jai Narayan Vyas	INC	26 Apr 1951 to 3 Mar 1952
4	Tika Ram Paliwal	INC	3 Mar 1952 to 1 Nov 1952	First CM after the first Assembly election
(3)	Jai Narayan Vyas	INC	1 Nov 1952 to 13 Nov 1954
5	Mohan Lal Sukhadia	INC	13 Nov 1954 to 13 Mar 1967; 26 Apr 1967 to 9 Jul 1971	Four swearings-in; over 16 years in all, the longest total
6	Barkatullah Khan	INC	9 Jul 1971 to 11 Oct 1973	Died in office
7	Hari Dev Joshi	INC	11 Oct 1973 to 29 Apr 1977; 10 Mar 1985 to 20 Jan 1988; 4 Dec 1989 to 4 Mar 1990	Three terms
8	Bhairon Singh Shekhawat	JP, then BJP	22 Jun 1977 to 16 Feb 1980; 4 Mar 1990 to 15 Dec 1992; 4 Dec 1993 to 1 Dec 1998	Three terms; first non-Congress CM; later Vice-President of India
9	Jagannath Pahadia	INC	6 Jun 1980 to 14 Jul 1981	About 13 months
10	Shiv Charan Mathur	INC	14 Jul 1981 to 23 Feb 1985; 20 Jan 1988 to 4 Dec 1989	Two terms
11	Hira Lal Devpura	INC	23 Feb 1985 to 10 Mar 1985	Shortest tenure, 15 days
12	Ashok Gehlot	INC	1 Dec 1998 to 8 Dec 2003; 12 Dec 2008 to 13 Dec 2013; 17 Dec 2018 to 15 Dec 2023	Three terms
13	Vasundhara Raje	BJP	8 Dec 2003 to 12 Dec 2008; 13 Dec 2013 to 17 Dec 2018	Two terms; the only woman CM so far
14	Incumbent	BJP	From 15 Dec 2023

President's rule has been imposed four times (about 2 per cent of the period since 1950):

Period	Context
13 Mar 1967 to 26 Apr 1967	Assembly elected in Feb 1967 was hung
29 Apr 1977 to 22 Jun 1977	Before the 1977 election
16 Feb 1980 to 6 Jun 1980	Before the 1980 election
15 Dec 1992 to 4 Dec 1993	After the Babri Masjid demolition the BJP government was dismissed

One Chief Minister died in office (Barkatullah Khan). Ashok Gehlot and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat served three terms each.

Governors

Governor	Tenure
Gurmukh Nihal Singh	1 Nov 1956 to 16 Apr 1962
Sampurnanand	16 Apr 1962 to 16 Apr 1967
Hukam Singh	16 Apr 1967 to 19 Nov 1970; 24 Dec 1970 to 30 Jun 1972
Jogendra Singh	1 Jul 1972 to 15 Feb 1977
Raghukul Tilak	17 May 1977 to 8 Aug 1981
Om Prakash Mehra	6 Mar 1982 to 4 Jan 1985; 1 Feb 1985 to 3 Nov 1985
Vasantdada Patil	20 Nov 1985 to 15 Oct 1987
Sukhdev Prasad	20 Feb 1988 to 2 Feb 1989; 20 Feb 1989 to 2 Feb 1990
Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya	14 Feb 1990 to 26 Aug 1991
Marri Chenna Reddy	5 Feb 1992 to 31 May 1993
Bali Ram Bhagat	30 Jun 1993 to 1 May 1998
Darbara Singh	1 May 1998 to 24 May 1998
Anshuman Singh	16 Jan 1999 to 13 May 2003
Nirmal Chandra Jain	14 May 2003 to 22 Sep 2003
Madan Lal Khurana	14 Jan 2004 to 1 Nov 2004
Pratibha Patil	8 Nov 2004 to 23 Jun 2007
Shilendra Kumar Singh	6 Sep 2007 to 1 Dec 2009
Prabha Rau	2 Dec 2009 to 26 Apr 2010
Margaret Alva	12 May 2012 to 7 Aug 2014
Kalyan Singh	4 Sep 2014 to 4 Sep 2019
Kalraj Mishra	9 Sep 2019 to 31 Jul 2024
Incumbent	From 31 Jul 2024

Between these tenures, fifteen acting or additional-charge holders served short spells. Four Governors died in office: Darbara Singh (1998), Nirmal Chandra Jain (2003), Shilendra Kumar Singh (2009) and Prabha Rau (2010). Gurmukh Nihal Singh was the first Governor after the 1956 reorganisation. Pratibha Patil, the first woman Governor, resigned in 2007 to become President of India.

Speakers of the Assembly

No.	Speaker	Party	Tenure	Assembly
1	Narottam Lal Joshi	INC	31 Mar 1952 to 25 Apr 1957	1st
2	Ram Niwas Mirdha	INC	25 Apr 1957 to 3 May 1967	2nd, 3rd; longest-serving
3	Niranjan Nath Acharya	INC	3 May 1967 to 20 Mar 1972	4th
4	Ram Kishore Vyas	INC	20 Mar 1972 to 18 Jul 1977	5th
5	Laxman Singh	Janata	18 Jul 1977 to 20 Jun 1979	6th
6	Raja Gopal Singh	Janata	25 Sep 1979 to 7 Jul 1980	6th
7	Poonam Chand Vishnoi	INC	7 Jul 1980 to 20 Mar 1985	7th
8	Hira Lal Devpura	INC	20 Mar 1985 to 16 Oct 1985	8th; later Chief Minister
9	Giriraj Prasad Tiwari	INC	31 Jan 1986 to 11 Mar 1990	8th
10	Hari Shankar Bhabhra	BJP	16 Mar 1990 to 21 Dec 1993; 30 Dec 1993 to 5 Oct 1994	9th, 10th
11	Shanti Lal Chaplot	BJP	7 Apr 1995 to 18 Mar 1998	10th
12	Samrath Lal Meena	BJP	24 Jul 1998 to 4 Jan 1999	10th
13	Parasram Maderna	INC	6 Jan 1999 to 15 Jan 2004	11th
14	Sumitra Singh	BJP	16 Jan 2004 to 1 Jan 2009	12th; first woman Speaker
15	Deependra Singh Shekhawat	INC	2 Jan 2009 to 20 Jan 2014	13th
16	Kailash Chandra Meghwal	BJP	22 Jan 2014 to 15 Jan 2019	14th
17	C. P. Joshi	INC	16 Jan 2019 to 20 Dec 2023	15th
18	Incumbent	BJP	From 21 Dec 2023	16th

Ram Niwas Mirdha held the post for about a decade.

Chief Justices of the High Court

No.	Chief Justice	Tenure
1	Kamalkanta Verma	29 Aug 1949 to 24 Jan 1950
2	Kailas Nath Wanchoo	2 Jan 1951 to 10 Aug 1958
3	Sarjoo Prasad	28 Feb 1959 to 10 Oct 1961
4	Jawan Singh Ranawat	11 Oct 1961 to 31 May 1963
5	Durga Shakti Dave	1 Jun 1963 to 17 Dec 1968
6	Daulat Mal Bhandari	18 Dec 1968 to 15 Dec 1969
7	Jagat Narayan	16 Dec 1969 to 13 Feb 1973
8	Bhagwati Prasad Beri	14 Feb 1973 to 16 Feb 1975
9	Prakash Narayan Shinghal	17 Feb 1975 to 5 Nov 1975
10	Vedpal Tyagi	6 Nov 1975 to 27 Dec 1977
11	Closepet Honniah	27 Apr 1978 to 22 Sep 1978
12	Chand Mal Lodha	12 Mar 1979 to 9 Jul 1980
13	Kalyan Dutt Sharma	7 Jan 1981 to 22 Oct 1983
14	Pradyot Kumar Banerjee	23 Oct 1983 to 30 Sep 1985
15	Dwarka Prasad Gupta	12 Apr 1986 to 31 Jul 1986
16	Jagdish Sharan Verma	1 Sep 1986 to 22 May 1989
17	Krishna Chandra Agarwal	15 Apr 1990 to 7 Apr 1994
18	Gokal Chand Mittal	12 Apr 1994 to 3 Mar 1995
19	Amratlal Parmananddas Ravani	4 Apr 1995 to 10 Sep 1996
20	Mukul Gopal Mukherjee	19 Sep 1996 to 24 Dec 1997
21	Shivaraj Virupanna Patil	22 Jan 1999 to 14 Mar 2000
22	Arunachalam R. Lakshmanan	29 May 2000 to 25 Nov 2001
23	Arun Kumar	2 Dec 2001 to 2 Oct 2002
24	Anil Dev Singh	24 Dec 2002 to 22 Oct 2004
25	Sachchidanand Jha	12 Oct 2005 to 15 Jun 2007
26	Jagdish Madhurlal Panchal	16 Sep 2007 to 11 Nov 2007
27	Narayan Roy	5 Jan 2008 to 31 Jan 2009
28	Deepak Verma	6 Mar 2009 to 10 May 2009
29	Jagadish Bhalla	10 Aug 2009 to 31 Oct 2010
30	Arun Kumar Mishra	26 Nov 2010 to 13 Dec 2012
31	Amitava Roy	2 Jan 2013 to 5 Aug 2014
32	Sunil Ambwani	24 Mar 2015 to 22 Aug 2015
33	Satish Kumar Mittal	5 Mar 2016 to 14 Apr 2016
34	Navin Sinha	14 May 2016 to 16 Feb 2017
35	Pradeep Nandrajog	2 Apr 2017 to 6 Apr 2019
36	Shripathi Ravindra Bhat	5 May 2019 to 23 Sep 2019
37	Indrajit Mahanty	6 Oct 2019 to 11 Oct 2021
38	Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi	12 Oct 2021 to 6 Mar 2022
39	Sambhaji Shiwaji Shinde	21 Jun 2022 to 1 Aug 2022
40	Pankaj Mithal	14 Oct 2022 to 5 Feb 2023
41	Augustine George Masih	30 May 2023 to 8 Nov 2023
42	Manindra Mohan Shrivastava	6 Feb 2024 to 20 Jul 2025
43	Kalpathi Rajendran Shriram	21 Jul 2025 to 27 Sep 2025

Acting Chief Justices served in the gaps between some tenures. After the 43rd Chief Justice retired on 27 September 2025, an acting Chief Justice carried the court until the 44th, the incumbent, took office on 7 September 2026. Prakash Narayan Shinghal, Pankaj Mithal and Augustine George Masih later joined the Supreme Court.

For exam preparation

• Heera Lal Shastri was the first Chief Minister (1950) and Tika Ram Paliwal the first after the 1952 election.
• Mohan Lal Sukhadia served the longest in total, over 16 years in four swearings-in.
• Vasundhara Raje is the only woman Chief Minister so far, with two terms.
• Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was the first non-Congress Chief Minister (1977) and later became Vice-President of India.
• Pratibha Patil was the first woman Governor (2004 to 2007) and then became President of India.
• Narottam Lal Joshi was the first Speaker (1952); Sumitra Singh the first woman Speaker (2004).
• Kamalkanta Verma was the first Chief Justice of the High Court (1949).
• For the present holders of any post, check current affairs.

Political history and movements

Rajasthan's politics has moved from a long Congress era, through a short Janata interval and the BJP's rise from 1990, to a two-party alternation since 1998 with small regional parties at the margins.

Formation and the Congress era

The state was built by merging princely states in stages between 1948 and 1956 (see the History section). The first Assembly met on 31 March 1952, and for the next 25 years the Congress governed, with Mohan Lal Sukhadia in office from 1954 to 1971. Ajmer State, which had its own Chief Minister from March 1952, merged into Rajasthan on 1 November 1956 and the Assembly grew from 160 to 176 seats. Rajasthan was the first state to start Panchayati Raj, launched at Bagdari in Nagaur district on 2 October 1959.

The 1967 election broke the pattern. The Congress won 89 of 184 seats, short of 93, and the Jana Sangh and Swatantra Parties made large gains. No government could be formed at first, so President's rule ran from 13 March to 26 April 1967, after which the Congress formed a government under Sukhadia. Barkatullah Khan succeeded him in 1971 and died in office in 1973.

The Janata interval and the rise of the BJP

After the Emergency, the Janata Party won 151 of 200 seats in 1977 and Shekhawat became Chief Minister. His government ended in February 1980 and President's rule lasted until June. The Congress won in 1980 and 1985, and the chief minister's chair changed hands often in the 1980s; Hira Lal Devpura's 15 days in 1985 remain the shortest tenure. In 1990 a BJP and Janata Dal alliance won 140 seats and Shekhawat returned. After the Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992 his government was dismissed and President's rule ran from 15 December 1992 to 4 December 1993. The BJP then won the 1993 election with 95 seats, and Shekhawat served until December 1998.

Alternation since 1998

Since 1998 no party has been re-elected after a full term. The Congress won 153 seats in 1998, the BJP won in 2003 and in 2013 with a record 163 seats, the Congress returned in 2008 and 2018, and the BJP won 115 seats in 2023. Third forces have found room in particular regions: the BSP won up to six seats between 2008 and 2018, the National People's Party four in 2013, the RLP (founded in October 2018) three seats in 2018 and one in 2023, and the BAP (founded in September 2023) three in 2023, mostly in the tribal south. The BAP won a Lok Sabha seat (Banswara) in 2024, and the RLP won Nagaur in 2019 and 2024.

Recent developments

Since 2023 the state has seen the by-elections of 2024 (the BJP won five of seven seats counted on 23 November), the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, with the final roll published on 21 February 2026, urban local-body elections in early 2026 and the announcement on 3 October 2026 of four-phase panchayat polls. The state expanded to 50 districts and 10 divisions in 2023 and cut back to 41 districts and 7 divisions after December 2024 (see Administration and districts). Reservation agitations have recurred in Rajasthan, but this guide gives no dated account because the sources opened did not include one.

For exam preparation

• Rajasthan was formed in seven stages from 18 March 1948 to 1 November 1956; Jaipur has been the capital since 1949.
• The first Assembly met on 31 March 1952; Ajmer State merged on 1 November 1956.
• President's rule was imposed in 1967, 1977, 1980 and 1992 to 1993.
• Since 1998 no party has been re-elected after a full term.
• The RLP was founded in October 2018 and the BAP in September 2023.

Budget and governance

As on 4 October 2026, the latest budget is for 2026-27. It was presented on 11 February 2026 (PRS Legislative Research) and puts the state's gross state domestic product (GSDP) at Rs 21,52,100 crore at current prices, about 15 per cent above the revised estimate for 2025-26. Budget figures are dated to their year and are replaced each February.

Key numbers

All figures are budget estimates for 2026-27 from the PRS analysis of the state's budget documents, in rupees crore.

Item	2026-27 (budget estimate)
Total expenditure including debt repayment	6,10,956
Expenditure excluding debt repayment	4,05,632 (13% above the 2025-26 revised estimate)
Debt to be repaid	2,05,324
Revenue receipts	3,25,740 (own resources 1,91,103; central transfers 1,34,637)
Own tax revenue	1,62,668 (7.6% of GSDP); State GST 72,500 is 45% of it
Share in central taxes	90,446
Grants from the Centre	44,191
Revenue expenditure	3,50,054
Capital outlay	53,978 (37% above the revised estimate for 2025-26)
Revenue deficit	24,314 (1.1% of GSDP)
Fiscal deficit	79,493 (3.7% of GSDP)
Outstanding liabilities	36.8% of GSDP at the end of 2026-27, from 38% estimated for 2025-26

Committed expenditure (salaries 86,906, pensions 37,821 and interest 43,675) comes to Rs 1,68,403 crore, 52 per cent of revenue receipts. Capital outlay has often fallen short of budget: in 2024-25 it was 31 per cent lower than budgeted, and Rs 15,000 crore of the 2026-27 outlay is expected from the Centre's 50-year interest-free capital loans, which are left out of the borrowing ceiling. The 16th Finance Commission has recommended a 3 per cent fiscal-deficit limit for 2026 to 2031. Outstanding guarantees were Rs 1,27,210 crore (6.8 per cent of 2025-26 GSDP) on 31 December 2025.

Headline allocations

Education, sports, arts and culture gets Rs 68,989 crore, energy Rs 42,752 crore (Rs 29,432 crore of it grants for not revising electricity tariffs), rural development Rs 32,948 crore, health Rs 32,526 crore, social welfare and nutrition Rs 26,495 crore (Rs 10,411 crore for the old-age pension scheme), urban development Rs 20,184 crore (Rs 6,766 crore for AMRUT 2.0), agriculture and allied activities Rs 18,212 crore, transport Rs 16,639 crore, water supply and sanitation Rs 14,288 crore and police Rs 11,729 crore. Agricultural subsidies, including farm power, are Rs 42,191 crore. Policy announcements include the Mukhyamantri Yuva Swarojgar scheme (Rs 1,000 crore, with full interest subsidy on loans up to Rs 10 lakh for nearly one lakh young people), a higher Lakhpati Didi loan limit (Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh), an interest waiver for farmers in colonisation areas, a larger cooperative dairy fund (Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,000 crore) and tax amnesty schemes.

Economy in brief

PRS reports that real GSDP grew an estimated 8.7 per cent in 2025-26 (India 7.4 per cent), with agriculture, manufacturing and services at 25.7, 26.5 and 47.7 per cent of the economy, and per capita GSDP at Rs 2,25,200 (India Rs 2,51,393).

Governance and reforms

The state's Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005 sets annual targets for debt, revenue deficit and fiscal deficit. For digital government the state runs Raj SSO, the Jan Aadhaar Authority and the eMitra portal (the portals were opened; their usage figures were not checked). Administrative changes include the 2023 expansion to 50 districts, its partial reversal to 41 in December 2024 and the 2025 to 2026 delimitation of panchayat bodies.

For exam preparation

• The 2026-27 budget was presented on 11 February 2026; expenditure excluding debt repayment is Rs 4,05,632 crore.
• The fiscal deficit target is 3.7 per cent of GSDP (Rs 79,493 crore) and the revenue deficit 1.1 per cent (Rs 24,314 crore).
• GSDP for 2026-27 is projected at Rs 21,52,100 crore; capital outlay is Rs 53,978 crore.
• Education has the largest sector allocation (Rs 68,989 crore), ahead of energy (Rs 42,752 crore).
• Mukhyamantri Yuva Swarojgar has Rs 1,000 crore and offers 100 per cent interest subsidy on loans up to Rs 10 lakh.
• Outstanding liabilities are projected at 36.8 per cent of GSDP at the end of 2026-27.

Economy

Rajasthan is the largest Indian state by area and one of the larger state economies, but it is a spread-out one: a big agricultural and livestock base, a mining belt that supplies much of the country's zinc, lead and building stone, a fast-growing renewable-energy sector in the desert west, and a services sector (tourism, trade, education, finance) that now produces the largest slice of output. As on October 2026, the state's Economic Review 2025-26 (released with the budget in February 2026) puts nominal GSDP for 2025-26 at about ₹18.75 lakh crore and per capita income at ₹2,02,349 at current prices. GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) is the total value of goods and services produced inside a state in a year.

Size, growth and income

The figures below are the Economic Review 2025-26 estimates, as reported by a state-affairs digest that summarised the document. Estimates for the latest year are revised later, so treat them as provisional.

Indicator	Value (2025-26, Economic Review)
GSDP at current prices	about ₹18.75 lakh crore, up 10.24% on the previous year
Per capita income, current prices	₹2,02,349 (crossed ₹2 lakh for the first time)
Per capita income, constant prices	₹1,03,189 (against ₹95,762 the year before)
Share of gross state value added: services	47.7%
Share of gross state value added: industry	26.5%
Share of gross state value added: agriculture and allied	25.7%
Consumer price inflation	4.8%
Female labour force participation	42%

"Current prices" means the value in that year's rupees; "constant prices" removes the effect of inflation by using a fixed base year, and is the right basis for measuring real growth.

For 2026-27, the budget documents analysed by PRS Legislative Research project GSDP at ₹21,52,100 crore, about 15% above the revised estimate for 2025-26. A widely used reference page also ranks Rajasthan sixth among states by total GDP and 22nd by per capita income; we have not confirmed that ranking against an official source, so use it only as a rough guide. The gap between a top-six economy and a per capita rank in the low twenties is the central fact about the state: it is large in population and area, but average incomes are below those of the richer states.

How the economy is structured

Three features stand out.

• Services lead. Services contribute close to half of value added. Tourism, trade, transport, education coaching, banking and public administration all sit here. Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer carry most of this activity.
• Agriculture is still large. One-quarter of value added comes from crops, livestock, forestry and fishing, which is a high share compared with the national figure. Livestock (milk, wool, goat and camel) is unusually important in a dry state.
• Industry is mining- and construction-led. Mining and quarrying, cement, textiles, ceramics, marble processing and a growing energy sector make up most of industry. Large industrial hubs are in the Bhiwadi and Neemrana belt near Delhi, around Jaipur, Kota, Bhilwara and Jodhpur.

Public finances

The 2026-27 budget was presented on 11 February 2026. The figures below are PRS Legislative Research's analysis of the budget documents.

Item (2026-27 budget estimate)	Value
Fiscal deficit	3.7% of GSDP (₹79,493 crore); revised estimate for 2025-26 was 3.9%
Revenue deficit	1.1% of GSDP (₹24,314 crore), down from 1.8% in 2025-26
Outstanding liabilities	36.8% of GSDP at the end of 2026-27
Own tax revenue	₹1,62,668 crore, 17% higher than 2025-26
Central transfers	₹1,34,637 crore, about 41% of revenue receipts

Fiscal deficit is the gap between total spending and revenue plus non-debt receipts. The state's fiscal responsibility law (the Rajasthan Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, FRBM) sets limits on deficit and debt as a share of GSDP; the exact current limits are in the budget documents and are not repeated here because we did not confirm the latest figures. The first source of state taxes is GST, shared between the state and the Centre. Other own taxes include stamp duty and registration, state excise, motor-vehicle tax, and mineral royalty. The state's own tax revenue funds well under half of its spending; most of the rest is central transfers and borrowing.

Sector allocations in the same budget, in round terms: education about ₹68,989 crore, energy ₹42,752 crore, rural development ₹32,948 crore, health ₹32,526 crore and agriculture ₹18,212 crore.

Jobs and poverty

The Economic Review reports female labour force participation at 42%, and notes that about 2% of the workforce is covered as gig or platform workers under a state law passed for such workers (the Platform Based Gig Workers Act). We have not confirmed the state's latest unemployment rate or NITI Aayog multidimensional poverty figures from an opened source, so they are not given here; the latest numbers are in the Periodic Labour Force Survey and NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index reports.

For exam preparation

• Economic Review 2025-26 puts GSDP at current prices near ₹18.75 lakh crore, growing 10.24%.
• Per capita income at current prices crossed ₹2 lakh, at ₹2,02,349; at constant prices it is ₹1,03,189.
• Services are the largest sector (47.7% of value added), then industry (26.5%) and agriculture (25.7%).
• The budget for 2026-27 projects GSDP at ₹21.52 lakh crore and a fiscal deficit of 3.7% of GSDP.
• Central transfers are about 41% of revenue receipts in the 2026-27 budget.

Agriculture, forests, minerals, industry and energy

Rajasthan farms with little rain, mines hard rock and builds solar plants across the same desert. Rainfed millets and oilseeds dominate the west, wheat and mustard dominate the canal-irrigated north, and the south and south-east grow soybean, maize, spices and pulses. Below ground, the state is the country's main source of zinc and lead and its biggest producer of marble and sandstone. Above ground, it leads India in installed solar capacity.

Agriculture

Two crop seasons matter. Kharif crops (sown with the monsoon, harvested in autumn) include bajra (pearl millet), maize, groundnut, soybean, cotton, guar and pulses such as moth and moong. Rabi crops (sown in winter, harvested in spring) include wheat, barley, mustard, gram and spices such as coriander and cumin. The Economic Review 2025-26 reports foodgrain production of 283.98 lakh tonnes and says about one lakh hectares are under natural farming.

A widely used reference page lists Rajasthan as first in India for bajra, rapeseed-mustard and wool, and second for oilseeds, spices and milk, with third place in soybean and coarse cereals. Crop rankings change from year to year with the monsoon, so for exams check the latest Agricultural Statistics before quoting a rank; the bajra, mustard and wool positions are the longest-standing.

Irrigation comes mainly from wells and tubewells, tanks, and canals. The Indira Gandhi Canal waters the north-west, the Chambal and Mahi systems the south-east and south, and the Bisalpur and Jawai dams serve central and western districts. Groundwater is over-used in many blocks, which is why the state has pushed drip and sprinkler irrigation and farm ponds. Subsidised solar pumps under PM-KUSUM, the central scheme for solar pumps, are part of that effort. The Rajasthan Millets Promotion Mission is named in the Economic Review among the state's current farm programmes.

Livestock is a second pillar. The state is a leader in milk, wool and goat farming and has the Saras brand, run by the state's cooperative dairy federation. The 2026-27 budget raises the Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund from ₹1,000 crore to ₹2,000 crore.

Indira Gandhi Canal and water projects

The Indira Gandhi Canal is the main lifeline of the north-west desert. It begins at the Harike Barrage in Punjab, at the meeting of the Sutlej and Beas, and uses water that India gets from the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. The total canal system is described as 837 km long. It was first called the Rajasthan Canal and was renamed the Indira Gandhi Canal on 2 November 1984. Stage I was completed in the mid-1980s, long behind schedule, and Stage II was finished in 2010. The canal runs through Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and the Phalodi area, and lift canals on its southern bank lift water to higher land. After it was built, drinking water and irrigation became available over about 6,770 sq km in Jaisalmer district, enabling crops like mustard, cotton and wheat on former desert.

In the east, the key project is the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), now taken forward under the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal link and linked with the national river-interlinking framework. The Economic Review names it among the state's priority water projects. One summary of the 2026-27 budget says the project's budget is about ₹26,000 crore, covering 16 districts and 25,000 villages; we could not confirm those figures from a primary document, so use them with care.

Forests and wildlife

Rajasthan has little forest in percentage terms, because most of the land is desert or semi-arid scrub. One exam digest reports forest cover of 16,548.21 sq km, 4.84% of the state's area, in the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023; we saw this only in a search result summary and could not open the report, so verify against Forest Survey of India. What is better established is that ISFR 2023 recorded a rise of 394 sq km in the state's combined forest and tree cover compared with the previous assessment, the fourth-largest rise among states, and that forest cover alone fell in that period. The khejri tree is the state tree and the backbone of desert farming systems. Details of protected areas are in the Geography and Tourism sections.

Minerals

Mining is among the state's most distinctive sectors. A reference table on Rajasthan mining gives the state's share of national output for several minerals; these are reported figures and may be dated, so quote them as approximate.

Mineral	Reported share of national output
Zinc concentrate	about 99%
Lead concentrate	about 80%
Marble	about 92%
Sandstone	about 70%
Gypsum	about 93%
Wollastonite	about 100%
Flaggy limestone (Kota stone area)	about 70%

In plain terms, nearly all of India's zinc and lead mining comes from Rajasthan, and the integrated zinc, lead and silver producer is headquartered in Udaipur. Zinc is mined around Zawar and Dariba in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts; Khetri in Jhunjhunu district is the main copper-mining area. Sambhar Lake is the source of salt (see below). The state also produces silver, gold, rock phosphate, copper and lignite. Makrana in Nagaur district is the town whose white marble is famous; it carries a Geographical Indication tag as Makrana Marble. We have not opened a source for Makrana's historic use in monuments, so that is left out.

Sambhar Salt Lake

Sambhar is India's largest inland salt lake, the largest playa (a flat dried-up lake bed that fills seasonally) in the Thar region. It lies about 80 km south-west of Jaipur and spreads over Jaipur and Nagaur districts, bordering Ajmer. Its area varies between about 190 and 230 sq km depending on the season, and it is roughly 35.5 km long. Four seasonal streams, Rupangarh, Mendha, Kharian and Khandel, feed it. The lake yields about 196,000 tonnes of clean salt a year, around 0.66% of national output, through the state-owned Sambhar Salts Ltd. It was designated a Ramsar site in 1990. In 2019, more than 15,000 migratory birds died there, with avian botulism named as the cause. Local belief links the lake to the goddess Shakambhari, from whom the name comes.

Industry

Rajasthan's industrial profile combines old crafts and new manufacturing.

• Textiles: Bhilwara is a long-established textile centre; block-printing and dyeing clusters operate around Jaipur and Barmer.
• Stone and ceramics: marble in Kishangarh and Makrana, sandstone in Dholpur and Bundi, Kota stone, and tile and ceramic units in Jaipur, Kishangarh and Bikaner are major sources of jobs and exports.
• Cement: several large cement plants use the limestone belts of the east, south and Marwar.
• Zinc and metals: the Udaipur region carries the zinc-lead industry.
• Automobile and engineering: Bhiwadi, Neemrana and Alwar are the main hubs near the Delhi-NCR region.
• Handicrafts: jewellery, gems, blue pottery, block prints, lac bangles and leather are cottage industries with strong export links; see the Culture section for the GI-tagged crafts.

Energy

Rajasthan's energy story has moved from coal and nuclear to sun and wind.

• Solar: According to renewable-energy data summarised by trade media for March 2026, Rajasthan is first in India for installed solar capacity, at about 42.1 GW, ahead of Gujarat (32.3 GW) and Maharashtra (20.2 GW). In financial year 2025-26 alone it added about 12,140 MW of large-scale solar, around 35% of the national addition.
• Total renewables: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy data, as quoted by an energy-news site, puts Rajasthan's total renewable capacity at about 47,020 MW in March 2026, second in India with 17.12% of the national total, just behind Gujarat. The same source lists wind at about 5,229 MW and solar at about 37,925 MW as of January 2026, so the two sets of figures come from different dates and sources. The Economic Review 2025-26 quotes a lower figure (31,500 MW), which appears to be for an earlier date. Quote the date together with the number.
• Wind: wind capacity is concentrated in the Jaisalmer region; do not quote a national wind rank from this page.
• Green hydrogen: the Economic Review names a Green Hydrogen Policy among current state initiatives.
• Conventional power: thermal stations at Kota and Suratgarh and the Rawatbhata atomic power plant are long-standing parts of the grid. We list these from general knowledge and have not opened a source for current capacities.

For exam preparation

• Rajasthan is first in India in zinc and lead mining; the integrated zinc-lead-silver producer is headquartered in Udaipur.
• Makrana (Nagaur) marble carries a GI tag; Kota stone comes from flaggy limestone.
• Sambhar is India's largest inland salt lake and a Ramsar site since 1990; it lies on the Jaipur-Nagaur-Ajmer border.
• The Indira Gandhi Canal starts at Harike Barrage; it was renamed from the Rajasthan Canal on 2 November 1984 and Stage II was completed in 2010.
• The state ranks first in installed solar capacity (about 42.1 GW as on March 2026).
• Bajra, mustard and wool are the crop and fibre items where the state has held first place for years.

Transport and infrastructure

Rajasthan's size makes distance the main transport problem: its east is a few hours from Delhi, but the far west is more than a day away by train. The state has built a network of expressways and national highways over the last decade, the North Western Railway runs most of its rail lines, and air links are growing but limited to a handful of cities. This section gives the verified outline.

Railways

The North Western Railway zone, headquartered in Jaipur, was created on 1 October 2002. It has four divisions: Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner. The zone also covers parts of neighbouring states. Rail route length has changed with gauge conversion, and the figure on the reference page we opened still reflected metre-gauge routes, so we do not quote route-kilometres. Important junctions are Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Abu Road, Kota (which is on the West Central Railway zone, not the North Western) and Bharatpur. We list the Kota zone from general knowledge; check it before using it in an exam answer.

Roads and expressways

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is 1,350 km in total, of which 373 km runs through Rajasthan, the longest single-state stretch. In Rajasthan it passes through the Alwar, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Kota and Bundi districts. The Sohna-Dausa-Lalsot stretch of 246 km was opened on 12 February 2023, the Dausa-Sawai Madhopur section on 2 October 2023, and an 80 km stretch between Gopalpura (Kota) and Laban (Bundi) on 18 December 2024. The route includes wildlife crossings and a tunnel inside Mukundara Hills, designed for tiger movement between reserves. National highway length and the state road network are not quoted here because we did not confirm current figures.

Airports

According to a reference list, Rajasthan has one international airport, Jaipur International Airport at Sanganer. Domestic airports with operational flights are at Bikaner (Nal), Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Kishangarh (near Ajmer; the newest) and Udaipur (Maharana Pratap Airport at Dabok). Kota's airport on Jhalawar Road is listed as not operating at the time of that source. Check the latest flight and airport status before relying on this list.

Urban transport

The Jaipur Metro began commercial service on 3 June 2015 between Mansarovar and Chandpole. The Phase 1-B extension to Badi Chaupar opened on 23 September 2020. The system now operates one line, the Pink Line, of about 11.97 km with 11 stations, run by the Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation. It is notable as the first Indian metro to run on a triple-storey arrangement of elevated road and metro track. We have not confirmed any later extensions, so check for updates. Bus services are run by the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation, and heritage trains such as the Palace on Wheels are a tourism product; both are listed from general knowledge.

Water and power infrastructure

The Indira Gandhi Canal in the north-west, the Chambal and Mahi systems in the south-east, and the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project are the major water systems; see the previous section. Power infrastructure is increasingly renewable, with large solar parks in the Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner belt.

For exam preparation

• North Western Railway has its headquarters in Jaipur and was created on 1 October 2002; its divisions are Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner.
• The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway runs 373 km in Rajasthan, through Alwar, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Kota and Bundi.
• Jaipur is the state's only international airport (as on October 2026 per the list we opened).
• The Jaipur Metro opened on 3 June 2015; its Pink Line is about 11.97 km.

Culture, tribes and heritage

Rajasthan's culture grew out of the Rajput kingdoms, desert trade routes, pastoral communities and tribal belts in the south. It is known for forts and palaces, folk music of hereditary musician communities, hand-printed and dyed textiles, and big seasonal fairs. UNESCO has recognised both built and living heritage here, including the Kalbelia songs and dances (2010) and several monuments listed in the next section.

Languages

Hindi is the official language of the state. Spoken languages and dialects include Marwari, Mewari, Dhundhari (Jaipur region), Hadoti, Mewati and Wagdi, which are often grouped as Rajasthani. We have not confirmed any official-language status for Rajasthani, which has been a long-running demand, so we make no claim here. Early literature includes bardic chronicles of the Rajput courts; the poet-saint Meera Bai (a devotee of Krishna) is among the best known historical voices. Vijaydan Detha, who wrote in Rajasthani and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007, is among the most respected modern writers.

Tribes

Scheduled Tribes live mainly in the south and south-east of the state. The Bhil are the main tribe in the southern districts around Banswara, Dungarpur, Udaipur and Pratapgarh; Meena (Mina) communities are widely spread in the east and north-east; Garasia, Sahariya and Damor are other groups. The Sahariya, found in Baran district, are listed as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). The tribal belt of the south is a Fifth Schedule area. We have not opened a source for current tribal population figures; Census 2011 data are in the Demography section.

Tribe	Where mainly found
Bhil	Banswara, Dungarpur, Udaipur and neighbouring southern districts
Meena	Eastern and north-eastern districts, including Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur areas
Garasia	Southern Aravalli belt, including Sirohi and Udaipur areas
Sahariya	Baran district; a PVTG

District and population details above are from general knowledge and should be cross-checked with the Census 2011 tables.

Folk dance, music and theatre

• Ghoomar is a women's dance from the Marwar region, performed in long, wide skirts with turning movements.
• Kalbelia is the dance and song tradition of the Kalbelia community, traditionally snake charmers. UNESCO listed the Kalbelia folk songs and dances on its Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2010.
• Bhavai is a dance in which performers balance a stack of pots on the head while stepping to the rhythm; Chari is a women's dance with brass pots carrying lit lamps.
• Manganiyar and Langa communities are hereditary musicians, performing ragas and devotional songs; their repertoires are part of the desert's sound.
• Kathputli is a string-puppet tradition, said to have been pioneered by the Bhat community more than 1,500 years ago. It also holds a GI tag as "Kathputlis of Rajasthan."
• Pabuji ki Phad is a long painted cloth scroll (about 15 feet) telling the story of the folk deity Pabuji; priest-singers called bhopas carry and perform it as a travelling shrine. The Devnarayan scroll is longer, around 30 feet. The Joshi family of Bhilwara has been associated with the craft, and a school set up in Bhilwara in 1960 opened teaching to a wider group.

Other well-known forms such as Terah Tali, Gair and Kachhi Ghodi are listed here from general knowledge only and have not been checked against an opened source.

Festivals and fairs

Festival or fair	Where and when
Pushkar Fair	Pushkar, Ajmer district; from the start of the month of Kartik to Kartik Purnima, usually late October to November; livestock market, pilgrimage and tourist event
Desert Festival	Jaisalmer, in the winter season; folk performances and camel events
Gangaur	Statewide in spring; women worship Gauri
Teej	Monsoon festival, celebrated by women across the state
Makar Sankranti, Holi, Deepawali	Celebrated statewide
Mewar Festival	Udaipur, in spring around Gangaur; timing not confirmed from an opened source

The Pushkar Fair is the best known. It draws crowds estimated at anywhere from over 200,000 to several lakh, and includes camel races and other contests alongside the animal trade. Pushkar lake and its Brahma temple make the town a pilgrimage centre, about 10 km from Ajmer.

Cuisine

Rajasthani food reflects a dry climate and a martial past, with dishes that keep well. Dal baati churma (lentils, baked wheat balls and a sweet crumble), panchratna dal and papad curry are the signature items. Ker sangri, a dish of desert berries and khejri beans, received a Geographical Indication tag, announced on 29 May 2025. Bikaneri bhujia, a spiced gram-flour snack, also holds a GI tag.

Handicrafts and GI tags

Rajasthan's craft products are numerous. The following carry a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, as listed in two state-affairs summaries. Years are given only where we saw them.

GI product	Type
Sanganeri Hand Block Printing	Textile
Bagru Hand Block Print	Textile
Kota Doria	Textile (cotton and silk, checkered weave)
Jodhpur Bandhej Craft	Textile (tie-dye)
Bikaner Kashidakari Craft	Embroidery
Bikaner Usta Kala Craft	Camel-hide gold-leaf work
Blue Pottery of Jaipur	Pottery
Molela Clay Work	Terracotta
Pokaran Pottery	Pottery (GI tag on 18 May 2018)
Kathputlis of Rajasthan	Puppets
Thewa Art Work	Gold-on-glass jewellery
Nathdwara Pichhwai Painting	Painting
Udaipur Koftgari Metal Craft	Metalwork
Makrana Marble	Stone
Sojat Mehndi	Henna
Bikaneri Bhujia	Food
Ker Sangri	Food (announced 29 May 2025)

The list may not be complete and new tags are added over time. The one-line descriptions of the Bikaner crafts and Thewa are from general knowledge.

Painting and architecture

Rajasthan's courts patronised miniature painting in several local schools, and the walls of palaces and havelis carry fresco work. The best-known architecture is military and royal: hill forts, step-wells and palaces. Jaipur was founded on 18 November 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II of Amer, planned by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya on Vastu principles, and was painted pink in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales. Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is an observatory of astronomical instruments. The forts are covered in the next section.

For exam preparation

• UNESCO inscribed Kalbelia songs and dances on its Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2010.
• Ghoomar belongs to Marwar; Bhavai and Chari are pot-balancing dances.
• The Pushkar Fair runs from the start of Kartik to Kartik Purnima.
• Pabuji ki Phad is a roughly 15-foot scroll painting; bhopas sing it.
• Kota Doria, Sanganeri and Bagru block printing, Jaipur blue pottery, Molela, Pokaran pottery, Thewa, Makrana marble and Bikaneri bhujia all hold GI tags.
• Ker sangri's GI tag was announced on 29 May 2025.

Tourism and places of interest

Rajasthan is one of India's main tourism states. Visitors come for the forts and palaces, desert safaris, lakes, wildlife and fairs, and a standard "royal" circuit links Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Udaipur. Four listings in the state are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and others are protected as national parks, tiger reserves and Ramsar wetlands.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Site	Year inscribed	Notes
Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur	1985	Wetland and bird sanctuary
Jantar Mantar, Jaipur	2010	Astronomical observatory
Hill Forts of Rajasthan	2013	Six forts: Chittor, Kumbhalgarh, Amber, Ranthambore, Jaisalmer, Gagron
Jaipur City	2019 (6 July)	Walled city, inscribed as "Jaipur City, Rajasthan"

According to the reference list we opened, India has 45 World Heritage Sites, of which 37 are cultural, seven natural and one mixed. The Hill Forts were inscribed at the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2013 under cultural criteria (ii) and (iii). They were built and extended between the 5th and 18th centuries. Kumbhalgarh in Rajsamand is called the "Great Wall of India" in popular writing; Jaisalmer Fort is described as a "living fort"; Gagron in Jhalawar is a hill-and-water fort.

Wildlife and protected areas

According to a reference page on tiger reserves, Rajasthan has five tiger reserves.

Tiger reserve	Established	Area (as listed, sq km)
Ranthambore (Sawai Madhopur)	1973-74	1,411.29
Sariska (Alwar)	1978-79	1,213.34
Mukundra Hills	2013-14	759.99
Ramgarh Vishdhari	2022	1,501.90
Dholpur-Karauli	2023	599.64

Different sources give slightly different areas; the table follows the list we opened, and total tiger reserves in India were 58 as of March 2025 in the same source.

• Ranthambore was created as the Sawai Madhopur Game Sanctuary in 1955, became a Project Tiger reserve in 1974 and a national park in 1980. It sits between the Banas and Chambal rivers and holds the 10th-century Ranthambore Fort within its boundary. A reference page gives 69 tigers as of 2022; verify for the latest census.
• Sariska was a wildlife sanctuary from 1958, a tiger reserve in 1978 and a national park in 1982. Tigers disappeared by 2005, and from 2008 tigers from Ranthambore were relocated there. The same source reports about 30 tigers by 2023.
• Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur) covers about 2,873 hectares. It became a bird sanctuary in 1976, a national park in 1982 and a World Heritage Site in 1985, and is also a Ramsar site; sources differ on the Ramsar date, with one reference page giving 1981. More than 370 bird species have been recorded there. The last Siberian cranes were recorded in the winter of 2001-02.
• Desert National Park covers about 3,162 sq km, split between Jaisalmer and Barmer districts, with sand dunes making up about 44% of the area. It is a home of the Great Indian Bustard and holds fossils up to 180 million years old and dinosaur remains reported at 65 to 66 million years old.
• Sambhar Lake is a Ramsar site (1990); other sanctuaries include Tal Chhapar, Mount Abu and Sita Mata.

Key places

Place	Why it matters
Jaipur	State capital; City Palace, Hawa Mahal, Amer Fort, Jantar Mantar
Jodhpur	Mehrangarh Fort; the blue city
Jaisalmer	Fort, Thar desert, Desert Festival
Udaipur	Lakes and palaces; Mewar region
Chittorgarh	Chittor Fort, a Hill Fort World Heritage component
Pushkar and Ajmer	Pushkar Fair and lake; Ajmer is a major pilgrimage city
Mount Abu	Hill station in the Aravalli range with Jain temples
Bharatpur	Keoladeo bird sanctuary
Bikaner	Fort, camel-based crafts, bhujia

The Hawa Mahal is a five-storey pyramidal structure with 953 windows, according to the Jaipur reference page. Mehrangarh Fort and the Hawa Mahal are named in the state reference page; other attributions in the table, such as Mount Abu's Jain temples, are from general knowledge.

For exam preparation

• Rajasthan has four World Heritage listings: Keoladeo (1985), Jantar Mantar (2010), Hill Forts (2013) and Jaipur City (2019).
• The six Hill Forts are Chittor, Kumbhalgarh, Amber, Ranthambore, Jaisalmer and Gagron.
• Rajasthan has five tiger reserves: Ranthambore, Sariska, Mukundra Hills, Ramgarh Vishdhari and Dholpur-Karauli.
• Sariska lost all its tigers by 2005 and received tigers from Ranthambore from 2008.
• Desert National Park (about 3,162 sq km) is in Jaisalmer and Barmer.
• Jaipur was founded on 18 November 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II.

Education, health, sports and personalities

Rajasthan has a mix of national institutes, older state universities and private campuses, and Kota in the south-east is known across India as a coaching centre for entrance tests. Health delivery relies on a state insurance programme and the AIIMS at Jodhpur. This section lists institutions and notable people we could verify; it stays away from living office-holders.

Institutions of higher education

Institution	Place	Notes
IIT Jodhpur	Jodhpur	Established 2008; permanent campus about 852 acres on NH-62, moved in July 2017
AIIMS Jodhpur	Jodhpur	Became operational on 17 September 2012; Institute of National Importance
MNIT Jaipur	Jaipur	Founded 1963 as a regional engineering college; NIT status 2002; Institute of National Importance since 15 August 2007
IIM Udaipur	Udaipur	Established 2011; Balicha campus designed by B. V. Doshi, in use since April 2016
BITS Pilani	Pilani	Founded 1946 as Birla College of Engineering; deemed university 1964
IIIT Kota	Kota	Institute of National Importance
Central University of Rajasthan	Kishangarh, Ajmer	Central university
National Law University	Jodhpur	National law university
University of Rajasthan	Jaipur	State university
Mohanlal Sukhadia University	Udaipur	State university
Jai Narain Vyas University	Jodhpur	State university
M.B.M. University	Jodhpur	State university
Rajasthan University of Health Sciences	Jaipur	State health university
Banasthali Vidyapith	Vanasthali	Deemed university

We could not confirm founding years for the central university, NLU, IIIT Kota and the state universities, so they are left blank. The reference list also mentions an NIFT campus in Jodhpur; we left it out because the location was unclear.

Literacy and health

The literacy rate in Census 2011 is covered in the Demography section; one reference page gives 75.8% as of 2024, a figure we could not match to a primary source and have not relied on. Health coverage is led by the state health insurance scheme described in the next section: after a January 2024 decision, the state's Chiranjeevi scheme was merged with the central Ayushman Bharat programme as the Ayushman Bharat Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme, retaining ₹25 lakh cover. The Economic Review 2025-26 reports 1.36 crore families covered under Ayushman Bharat. The state's health budget for 2026-27 is about ₹32,526 crore. We have not opened NFHS-5 or SRS tables, so infant mortality, institutional deliveries and other indicators are not stated here.

Sports

The state's best-known stadium is Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, and Rajasthan has an IPL franchise named after it. Both claims are from general knowledge. We have not opened a source for the state's sports facilities, national-level achievers or sports policy, so we deliberately leave them out rather than guess.

Notable people

Only people whose careers are complete are named.

Person	Known for
Maharana Pratap	King of Mewar
Rani Padmini	Queen linked to Chittorgarh in tradition
Panna Dhai	Nurse remembered for self-sacrifice to save a Mewar prince
Bhamashah	Minister remembered for his generosity
Brahmagupta	Ancient mathematician and astronomer
Daulat Singh Kothari	Physicist; Padma Vibhushan 1973
Ram Narayan	Sarangi maestro; Padma Vibhushan 2005
Jagjit Singh	Ghazal singer
Mehdi Hassan	Ghazal singer
Vijaydan Detha	Writer in Rajasthani; Padma Shri 2007

The occupations in the table follow the reference list we opened, which does not give birth places. Maharana Pratap's and Rani Padmini's roles are widely taught but, in Padmini's case, rest largely on later literary tradition.

For exam preparation

• IIT Jodhpur was established in 2008 and AIIMS Jodhpur began in 2012.
• IIM Udaipur was set up in 2011 and its campus was designed by B. V. Doshi.
• MNIT Jaipur became an Institute of National Importance on 15 August 2007.
• BITS Pilani was founded in 1946 and became a deemed university in 1964.
• Chiranjeevi and Ayushman Bharat were merged in January 2024 with ₹25 lakh cover.

Government schemes

The state runs a mix of central schemes (PM-KUSUM, PMEGP, Ayushman Bharat) and its own welfare programmes. As on October 2026 these are the ones we could confirm; amounts and names are changed by budgets and notifications, so always check the department's current notification. We name schemes only, not the people who launched them.

Scheme	What it does (as reported)	Status
Ayushman Bharat Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme (also called Chief Minister Ayushman Arogya Yojana)	Cashless treatment up to ₹25 lakh per family, plus an additional ₹10 lakh accident cover as reported; formed by merging Chiranjeevi (launched May 2021) with Ayushman Bharat in January 2024	Active
Rajasthan Lado Protsahan Yojana	Phased financial support for the girl child, reported as a savings bond of ₹1.5 lakh paid in seven instalments, plus nutrition support	In the 2026-27 budget
Shri Annapurna Rasoi Yojana	Meals at ₹8 a plate, with a state subsidy of ₹22 per plate; earlier called Indira Rasoi and relaunched under the present name on 6 January 2024	Active, though one press report says some kitchens closed over unpaid subsidies
PM-KUSUM and the state solar-pump programme	Solar pumps for farmers; expanded in the 2026-27 budget	Active
Mukhyamantri Kisan Samman (with PM-KISAN)	₹6,000 a year from the Centre and ₹2,000 from the state, by direct transfer through Jan Aadhaar	Reported active
Mukhyamantri Yuva Swarojgar Yojana	Self-employment support for youth; ₹1,000 crore in the 2026-27 budget	Active
Rajasthan Millets Promotion Mission	Promotes millet farming	Named in the Economic Review 2025-26
Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund	Dairy infrastructure; ₹2,000 crore in 2026-27, up from ₹1,000 crore	Active
Mukhyamantri Jal Swavalamban Abhiyan	Water conservation	Named in a 2026 scheme listing; details not confirmed
PMEGP	Central subsidy scheme for micro-enterprises	Named in the Economic Review
Lakhpati Didi	Women's self-help-group income scheme	Named in the Economic Review
Platform Based Gig Workers Act	Law covering gig and platform workers	Named in the Economic Review

For eligibility, use the Jan Aadhaar record and the relevant department's guidelines; we have not confirmed eligibility conditions from official notifications. One scheme listing also mentions a Mukhyamantri Yuva Sambal Yojana, an unemployment allowance, a Senior Citizen Pilgrimage Scheme and a ₹450 LPG cylinder arrangement, but we could not verify their current status and leave them out of the table.

For exam preparation

• The Chiranjeevi scheme was launched in May 2021 and merged with Ayushman Bharat in January 2024, keeping ₹25 lakh cover.
• Indira Rasoi was relaunched as Shri Annapurna Rasoi on 6 January 2024; meals cost ₹8.
• Lado Protsahan Yojana supports the girl child in phases, reported at ₹1.5 lakh in seven instalments.
• PM-KUSUM is the central solar-pump scheme that Rajasthan extends through its own programme.
• The Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project is now taken forward under the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal link.

Government exams in Rajasthan

Government recruitment in Rajasthan runs through three main doors. The Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), based in Ajmer, selects officers and senior teachers. The Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB) runs most Class III and Class IV written exams. The Rajasthan Police headquarters and the High Court run recruitment for their own constables and court staff. Teacher eligibility sits with a fourth body, the Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan (BSER), which has conducted REET. Vacancy numbers, dates, fees and age rules change with every advertisement, so treat each figure below as a pointer and check the latest notification before you apply. Where a number comes from an exam-prep website rather than an official notice, we say "reported".

Rajasthan has also had a very public fight against paper leaks. A state law passed in 2022 and tightened in 2023 treats exam leaks as serious criminal offences, which is explained in the last sub-section below.

Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC)

The RPSC was established on 22 December 1949 and has its headquarters at Ajmer. It is a constitutional body: the Constitution provides for a Public Service Commission in each state, and the Governor appoints its chairman and members. The commission's sanctioned strength has been reported as 11 members including the chairman; how many seats are filled changes over time, so we do not give a current number. We do not name any member or chairman here because they change; see current affairs for the latest.

According to Wikipedia, the commission recruits for the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS), the Rajasthan Police Service (RPS), engineering, technical, subordinate, forest and judicial services, Sub-Inspectors, college and school lecturers, and specialist posts such as veterinary, agriculture and statistical officers. The commission's own homepage, when we opened it on 4 October 2026, showed advertisements and exam notices for Assistant Prosecution Officer (2026), Veterinary Officer (2025), Deputy Jailor (2024), several Assistant Professor subjects, and upcoming exams for October to December 2026 that included Scientific Officer, School Lecturer and a combined state services exam. The page also carried a warning that candidates without the required qualifications risk disqualification and legal action, and a note to rely only on the official site and not on social media for dates and results.

RAS / RTS (State and Subordinate Services Combined Competitive Exam)

The RAS is the flagship exam. It is conducted in three stages and, unlike many state exams, the preliminary stage is only a screening test. The pattern reported by the exam-pattern page we opened is below.

Stage	What it is
Prelims	One objective paper of 150 questions and 200 marks, 3 hours, in Hindi and English. The reported penalty is one-third of a mark for a wrong answer. Prelims marks are not added to the final merit.
Mains	Four descriptive papers of 200 marks each, a total of 800, three hours per paper. Paper I is General Studies (reported as history and economy), Paper II is General Studies (geography), Paper III is General Studies (current affairs and the political system) and Paper IV is General Hindi and General English. There is no optional subject.
Interview	100 marks.

Final merit is reported to be the Mains plus the interview, which makes 900 marks. One source reports qualifying marks in the Mains of 10% in each paper and 15% in aggregate, with 5% relaxation for SC and ST; because we found it in a single place, confirm this in the rules of the cycle you apply for. The exam is often written as RAS/RTS in exam-prep material, and the posts it fills come from the advertisement. Posts, vacancies and the syllabus come from the advertisement, not from this guide.

We do not give vacancy numbers or the date of the latest RAS cycle here. Search results mention a 2024 notification for about 700 posts and a 2026 figure of 607 vacancies, but we did not open an official notice for either, so we do not rely on them. Check the commission's site for the cycle that is open today.

The usual eligibility, as reported by two exam-prep sites that agree with each other, is a bachelor's degree in any stream with no minimum percentage, and final-year students may apply if they show proof of completion before the Mains. Age and domicile rules are in the next section.

RPSC School Lecturer, Senior Teacher and other teaching posts

The commission recruits school lecturers (the post that teaches classes 11 and 12) and senior teachers (reported as the "second grade" teacher post). For School Lecturer, a Careers360 page reports a notification on 17 July 2025, applications from 14 August to 12 September 2025, and 3,225 posts. The same page reports two written papers: Paper I of 150 marks (1 hour 30 minutes) on general awareness and general studies, and Paper II of 300 marks (3 hours) on the subject. The qualification is reported as a postgraduate degree in the subject plus a B.Ed, with age 21 to 40 years and category relaxations. Treat all of this as reported until you check the official notice.

For Senior Teacher (Second Grade), one exam-prep page reports an age range of 18 to 40 years as on 1 January 2025, a degree plus an NCTE-recognised teaching qualification, and 2,129 posts in that cycle. The commission has also had a notable incident: in December 2022 it cancelled the general knowledge paper of the second-grade teacher exam after a paper leak was confirmed, and permanently barred 46 candidates. We use this only as context for why the law described below was strengthened.

Rajasthan Police Service, Sub-Inspector and other RPSC exams

Sub-Inspector recruitment in Rajasthan Police is run by the RPSC, not by the Staff Selection Board. According to the exam-prep pages we opened, the written test has two objective papers of 200 marks each: General Hindi and General Knowledge with General Science, 2 hours each, with one-third negative marking and a reported minimum of 36% in each paper and 40% in aggregate. After the written exam come physical tests, an interview, document verification and a medical examination. The qualification is a bachelor's degree, and the reported age range is 20 to 25 years with relaxations. Reported physical standards for the Rajasthan Police include a minimum height of 168 cm for men and 152 cm for women. One site reported about 1,015 posts and a written exam on 5 April 2026 for the latest SI cycle; we could not confirm this against a commission notice, so do not quote it.

Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB)

The Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (राजस्थान कर्मचारी चयन बोर्ड) is the body that most Class III and Class IV aspirants deal with. Several exam sites say it was earlier called the Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board (RSMSSB), and older results and syllabi still use that name. The board's own site (rssb.rajasthan.gov.in) uses the name RSSB and, when we opened it on 4 October 2026, did not mention the old name. We could not confirm the date or the legal basis of the rename. In practice, treat RSMSSB and RSSB as the same board and look at the issuing authority on a notice.

The board's homepage on that date listed notices for Lab Assistant (2026), Live Stock Assistant (2024), Contractual Teaching Associate (2026) and Driver (2024), and the board's own description covers teachers, drivers, lab assistants, librarians, computer instructors and administrative roles. Other sources add the Village Development Officer (VDO), Patwari, Junior Assistant, Lower Division Clerk, Junior Accountant, 4th Grade (Class IV), Stenographer, Informatics Assistant and Junior Engineer exams. For most of these the process is a written exam, followed where relevant by a typing or skill test and document verification.

Two reported patterns, both from news and exam-prep sites:

• VDO 2025: 160 questions for 200 marks, with a penalty of one-third of a mark per wrong answer. Subjects were Hindi and English, mathematics, general knowledge, and the geography, natural resources, agriculture, economy, history and culture of Rajasthan. The same report mentions 850 posts and an exam on 2 November 2025.
• Patwari: reported as an objective paper with general knowledge, mathematics, basic computers and general Hindi, with one-third negative marking. The reports we saw disagreed on the number of questions, so check the notification.

Rajasthan-specific GK carries real weight in these exams. The state's history, culture, geography and economy are listed in the syllabus of both the VDO and the Police Constable papers.

Rajasthan Police constable recruitment

Constables in the Rajasthan Police are recruited through the Police headquarters (the office of the Director General of Police), not through the RPSC. For the 2025 cycle, Careers360 reports 8,148 posts for constable and constable driver, a written exam on 13 and 14 September 2025, and these qualifications: Class 10 for district police, Class 8 for the RAC and MBC battalions, and Class 12 with physics and mathematics for the Police Telecom Operator. The reported written paper is 150 objective questions for 150 marks in three parts: reasoning and computer aptitude (60 marks), general knowledge, science, social science and contemporary topics (45 marks), and the history, culture, politics, art, geography and economy of Rajasthan (45 marks). Duration is reported as 2 hours or 150 minutes by different sites, so read the admit card. Qualifying marks are reported as 40% for general candidates and 36% for SC, ST and other backward categories.

After the written exam come the Physical Efficiency Test and Physical Standard Test and a proficiency test, then documents and a medical check. Reported standards are a 5 km run in 25 minutes for men and 35 minutes for women, and heights of 168 cm for men and 152 cm for women. One reported age range is 18 to 23 years with up to 5 years' relaxation for SC, ST, OBC and Sahariya candidates and for women. Because the exam is large and the standards are revised, confirm every number in the current advertisement.

REET and teacher eligibility

The Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET), earlier called RTET, tests eligibility for school teaching in state government schools. It has two levels: Level 1 for classes 1 to 5 and Level 2 for classes 6 to 8. It is reported to be conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan, although one page that discussed the 2026 cycle pointed to the staff selection board's website; confirm who is running the cycle you plan to take. The reported pattern is the same for both levels in time and size: 150 multiple-choice questions, one mark each, 150 minutes, no negative marking, in Hindi and English.

Level	Sections (marks)
Level 1 (classes 1 to 5)	Child development and pedagogy 30, mathematics 30, Language I 30, Language II 30, environmental studies 30
Level 2 (classes 6 to 8)	Child development and pedagogy 30, Language I 30, Language II 30, then mathematics and science or social science 60

Reported eligibility is senior secondary with 50% plus a D.El.Ed for Level 1, and graduation plus a B.Ed or the elementary education diploma for Level 2. Reported minimum qualifying marks are 60 for the general category, 55 for SC, OBC, MBC and EWS, 50 for women and ex-servicemen in one list, and 40 for specially abled candidates, but this list differs between sources, so confirm it. A Careers360 page says the 2026 cycle had a Mains exam on 17 to 20 January 2026 with a result on 27 May 2026; we could not confirm this with a board notice. The validity period of the REET certificate was not confirmed on any page we opened. Passing REET only makes you eligible; the teacher post itself is filled in a separate recruitment run by the RSSB or the RPSC depending on the grade.

Rajasthan High Court and district courts

The High Court of Rajasthan was established on 29 August 1949 and has its principal seat at Jodhpur, with a bench at Jaipur. Wikipedia describes the sanctioned strength as 50 judges (38 permanent and 12 additional) as on our check. The court recruits its own staff and staff of the subordinate courts. Reports of recent cycles list the Junior Judicial Assistant, Clerk Grade II (district courts), and similar posts. A widely reported rule is that a candidate should be a graduate with basic computer knowledge and aged 18 to 35 years on 1 January before the last date. The skill test is reported as a computer typing test of 100 marks (a speed test and an efficiency test of 50 each) with a speed of 8,000 key depressions per hour. We saw that figure for earlier cycles, so confirm it for the current one. Judicial officer posts (Civil Judge) are filled through the RPSC, not through the court's staff recruitment.

Paper-leak law and what it means for you

Rajasthan passed the Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2022 (Act No. 6 of 2022). The Governor gave assent on 5 April 2022 and it was published in the Gazette on 6 April 2022. It covers recruitment to any post under the state government, including autonomous bodies, authorities, boards and corporations. We read the PRS-hosted gazette copy and found these main points:

• Leaking or attempting to leak a question paper, obtaining it without authority, and helping an examinee are defined as unfair means.
• An examinee who uses unfair means can face up to three years in prison and a fine of at least one lakh rupees.
• For organised offences, the 2022 text set 5 to 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of ten lakh to ten crore rupees. Act No. 17 of 2023 amended this to a minimum of ten years extending to imprisonment for life.
• All offences are cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.

For you as an aspirant, three practical points follow. First, never pay anyone who promises a paper or a seat; the examinee is also liable. Second, use only the official sites (rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in and rssb.rajasthan.gov.in) for information. Third, expect more cancellations and re-exams to remain possible when a leak is found, so keep your admit cards and application receipts until the final result.

For exam preparation

• The RPSC is at Ajmer, was established on 22 December 1949, and is a constitutional body.
• The RAS Prelims has one paper of 150 questions and 200 marks, and its marks are not counted in the final merit.
• The RAS Mains has four papers of 200 marks, with no optional subject; the interview carries 100 marks, and final merit is reported as 900.
• The RSSB was earlier called the RSMSSB; read the issuing authority on every notice.
• Sub-Inspector recruitment is by the RPSC; constable recruitment is by the Police headquarters.
• REET has Level 1 (classes 1 to 5) and Level 2 (classes 6 to 8), with 150 questions and no negative marking.
• Act No. 6 of 2022 was strengthened in 2023 to a minimum of ten years and up to life imprisonment for organised paper leaks.

Domicile, reservation and recruitment rules

Reservation in Rajasthan state jobs follows the state's own rules, and most benefits depend on holding a Rajasthan domicile certificate. A general-category candidate from any state can usually apply to the RAS, while a reserved-category candidate who is not a Rajasthan domicile is treated as general. Reservation percentages and age rules are set by notification and rules, and courts have sometimes reviewed them, so read the advertisement and the rules of the specific service.

Domicile and who can apply

Two sources we opened agree on the main RAS rule. Domicile is not required for general-category candidates from other states, but SC, ST, OBC, EWS, MBC and Sahariya-area quotas and the women's age relaxations are available only to candidates with a valid Rajasthan domicile. A reserved-category candidate without it is considered in the general pool. We did not open the service rules themselves, so use this as the common pattern and not as a legal text. Many Class III and Class IV advertisements add their own conditions, so read each one. We could not confirm any state-wide language or residence condition that applies to all posts, and do not state one.

For caste certificates, the OBC non-creamy layer certificate is usually accepted only if it is valid on the relevant date. The central guidance we saw says the income test uses the three financial years before the year of appointment and that the certificate is generally valid for a financial year. Rajasthan advertisements specify their own as-on dates, so follow the notice.

Reservation percentages

The table follows the state-by-state summary in the Wikipedia article on reservation in India (the only compiled source we opened) and is cross-checked against two news reports. Our wording is "as reported", and these figures should be verified against the Rajasthan government's latest orders.

Category	Reservation
Scheduled Castes (SC)	16%
Scheduled Tribes (ST)	12%
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	21%
Most Backward Classes (MBC)	5%
Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)	10%

The sum is 64%, above the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case in 1992. Courts allow a higher share only on specific grounds with data, so the rule has been tested. The 5% MBC quota comes from the history of the Gurjar and related communities' demand. In 2015 the state tried a Special Backward Class quota and the Rajasthan High Court struck it down in 2016, as one report records. A 2017 bill sought to raise OBC reservation from 21% to 26% for Gurjars and four other communities. In February 2019 the Rajasthan Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was reported to be passed by voice vote, creating the MBC category for five communities that were earlier OBC. Reports differ on whether the 5% sits on top of the 21% or inside a 26% OBC block; for the exam, remember "5% MBC" and that the total exceeds 50%. Whether the quota is placed in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution is a long-standing demand; we could not confirm its status.

Women's reservation is horizontal. One document we found, the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules (as shown in a search listing), states that 30% of vacancies in direct recruitment are reserved for women category-wise, that the reservation is horizontal within each category, and that one-third of it is for widows and divorced women in the ratio 80:20. We saw this in judicial service rules, and other services may differ, so do not assume the same figure for every post. Horizontal quotas for persons with disabilities, ex-servicemen and similar groups also exist but we did not verify their percentages.

Age limits and relaxation

For the RAS, two exam-prep sites agree on the following (verify in the notification):

Group	Maximum age
General, male	40 years
General, female	45 years
SC, ST, OBC, MBC, EWS, male (Rajasthan domicile)	45 years
SC, ST, OBC, MBC, EWS, female (Rajasthan domicile)	50 years
Widow or divorced woman	No upper limit

The minimum age for the RAS is 21 years. One source reports 45 for persons with disabilities and 50 for ex-servicemen. There is no fixed cap on the number of attempts; you can keep applying until you cross the age limit. Other exams differ: the reported age range for the School Lecturer is 21 to 40 years, for Senior Teacher 18 to 40 years, for the Sub-Inspector 20 to 25 years, for constable 18 to 23 years and for High Court Junior Judicial Assistant 18 to 35 years. The cut-off date is set by each notification, usually 1 January of the year of the advertisement.

Selection stages and cycles

• RPSC exams: a screening test or written exam, descriptive Mains where applicable, then interview, document verification and medical check.
• RSSB exams: a written exam, a typing or skill test for clerical and stenography posts, then documents.
• Police: a written exam, the PET and PST, a proficiency test, documents and medical.
• Teachers: REET for eligibility, followed by a separate recruitment exam.

There is no fixed annual timetable we could confirm for any of these. The RSSB site lists notices and has also published an exam calendar in the past according to one search result, but we did not open it. Use our Rajasthan govt jobs page to see current openings, and re-check the official site every few weeks.

For exam preparation

• Reserved-category benefits need a Rajasthan domicile certificate; without it the candidate is treated as general.
• Reported reservation: SC 16%, ST 12%, OBC 21%, MBC 5%, EWS 10%.
• The total exceeds the 50% ceiling set in Indra Sawhney (1992).
• Women's reservation is horizontal within each category; one rule text reports 30%.
• RAS age is 21 to 40 for general male candidates, with a widow or divorced woman having no upper limit.
• There is no attempt cap for the RAS, only the age limit.

How to use this guide for exam preparation

Most state exams in Rajasthan test Rajasthan GK alongside general subjects. The RPSC's RAS Prelims is a general studies and general science paper, the Mains has three General Studies papers, and the police constable and VDO papers include a block on the history, culture, geography and economy of Rajasthan. This guide is a reference for that block. It does not replace the syllabus in the notification, so keep the official syllabus open next to it.

Which sections give the most marks

Section of this page	Why it matters	Where it usually shows up
History and Culture	Rajasthan's history, forts, fairs, painting and festivals are staples of every state paper.	RAS Prelims and Mains, constable, VDO
Geography	Desert, Aravalli, rivers, lakes, soils, climate, parks and districts.	Prelims, Patwari, VDO, Mains Paper II
Government and Legislature	Structure of offices, the Vidhan Sabha, the High Court, constitutional bodies.	RAS Prelims, High Court and clerical exams
Economy and Agriculture	Crops, minerals, industries, irrigation, GSDP.	Mains, VDO (agriculture), Patwari
Schemes	State and central schemes with as-on dates.	Prelims current affairs, interview
Rapid-fire facts	Compressed numbers and firsts.	Last-week revision

For the RAS, the Prelims is only a screen, so what you write in Mains is what decides your rank. For constable and Class III exams, the GK, reasoning, arithmetic and language mix is broader, so use the history, geography and schemes sections for the state block and spend the rest of your time on the other syllabus parts.

A four-week revision plan

Week 1: land and people. Read History, Geography, Administration and Demography with a map open. After each section write ten facts from memory. By the end of the week you should name the seven divisions, the main rivers, the Thar desert, the Aravalli range and the tiger reserves without looking.

Week 2: government and economy. Read How the state is governed, Legislature and Judiciary, Elections, Economy and Agriculture. Build a one-page table of offices with the as-on date. Learn the structure of the RPSC and the High Court from the exam section above.

Week 3: culture, tourism and schemes. Read Culture, Tourism, Education and Schemes. Make flash cards for fairs, dances, forts and World Heritage Sites. Take one topic-wise test on Rajasthan GK in our online test series and keep a mistake log.

Week 4: recall and tests. Read the Rapid-fire table every day, take two full-length mocks, and revise only the mistake log and the as-on facts. Start no new source this week.

Common traps

• Mixing the bodies. Sub-Inspector is an RPSC exam, constable is a Police headquarters exam, and Class III exams like Patwari and VDO come from the RSSB. REET is eligibility only.
• Old names. The RSSB was earlier the RSMSSB. Old books and videos use the old name.
• District counts. Wikipedia reports 41 districts as on 30 December 2024, after the later administration dissolved nine districts that had been created by the previous one. Older books show other counts, so check the date of the book you are reading.
• Census years. The latest published census is Census 2011. Do not quote an estimate unless the question names the source.
• Old office-holders. Chief ministers, ministers, chief justices and commission members change. This guide does not name sitting office-holders; use current affairs for them.
• Reservation numbers. Percentages differ between a state exam, a central exam and a university admission. Check the notice.
• Prelims marks. For the RAS they are not counted in the final merit; do not confuse a Prelims cut-off with the final cut-off.

For comparison, many aspirants prepare for more than one state. Our sibling guides cover Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, and the recruiting structure there looks similar: a commission for officers and a board for Class III posts. Our full-length mock tests are in the online test series.

For exam preparation

• Use the History, Geography and Culture sections for the Rajasthan GK block in almost every exam.
• Keep the as-on facts in a separate sheet and update them before each exam.
• Take full-length mocks in week 4; revise from a mistake log.
• The RAS Prelims is only a screen; the Mains and interview decide merit.
• Confirm the syllabus and age cut-off on the official notification.

Rapid-fire facts

Each row below comes from a page we opened (listed in the last section). A fact with an as-on date should be rechecked. Items marked "reported" come from exam-prep or news sites and not from an official notice.

Fact	Answer
Capital of Rajasthan	Jaipur
Area of Rajasthan	342,239 km2
Rank by area among Indian states	First
Highest point	Guru Shikhar, 1,722 m
Length of the Aravalli range (Wikipedia)	More than 850 km
Desert in the north-west	Thar
Rivers named as major (Wikipedia)	Banas, Chambal, Luni, Ghaggar
Population, Census 2011	68,548,437
Latest published census	Census 2011
Divisions (as on December 2024)	7
Districts (as on 30 December 2024)	41
Districts dissolved by the later administration (as reported)	Nine, including Kekri, Shahpura, Dudu, Jaipur Rural, Sanchore, Gangapur City, Anupgarh, Neem ka Thana and Jodhpur Rural
Vidhan Sabha seats	200
Legislature type	Unicameral
Seat of the Vidhan Sabha	Vidhan Bhavan, Jaipur
First Vidhan Sabha inaugurated	31 March 1952, with 160 members
200-seat strength reached from	Sixth Assembly (1977 to 80)
Merger with Ajmer State	1956
Lok Sabha seats	25
Rajya Sabha seats	10
Term of the Vidhan Sabha	Five years
State bird	Godavan (Great Indian Bustard)
State tree	Khejri
State flower	Rohida
State animals (Wikipedia)	Chinkara and Camel
Tiger reserves	Five
Ranthambore notified	1973 to 74
Sariska notified	1978 to 79
Mukundra Hills notified	2013 to 14
Ramgarh Vishdhari notified	2022
Dholpur-Karauli notified	2023
Keoladeo National Park, World Heritage	1985
Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, World Heritage	2010
Hill Forts of Rajasthan, World Heritage	2013
Jaipur City, World Heritage	2019
Jaipur was founded	1727
Rajasthan's World Heritage Sites	Four (as in Wikipedia's list)
Keoladeo, Ramsar designation	1 October 1981
Sambhar Lake, Ramsar designation	23 March 1990
Keoladeo is	A man-made, man-maintained wetland
High Court of Rajasthan established	29 August 1949
Principal seat of the High Court	Jodhpur
Bench of the High Court	Jaipur
High Court moved from Jaipur to Jodhpur	1956
New High Court building inaugurated	2019
High Court sanctioned strength (as on 2026)	50 judges (38 permanent, 12 additional)
RPSC established	22 December 1949
RPSC headquarters	Ajmer
RPSC members are appointed by	The Governor
RPSC sanctioned strength (Wikipedia)	11 including the chairman
RAS exam stages	Prelims, Mains and interview
RAS Prelims papers	One
RAS Prelims questions and marks	150 questions, 200 marks
RAS Prelims duration	3 hours
RAS Prelims penalty (reported)	One-third mark per wrong answer
Do RAS Prelims marks count in final merit?	No
RAS Mains papers and marks	Four papers, 800 marks
Optional subject in RAS Mains	None
RAS Mains Paper IV	General Hindi and General English
RAS interview marks	100
RAS final merit total (reported)	900
RAS minimum age	21 years
RAS maximum age, general male	40 years
RAS maximum age, general female	45 years
RAS maximum age, reserved male (Rajasthan domicile)	45 years
RAS maximum age, reserved female (Rajasthan domicile)	50 years
Upper age limit for widow or divorced woman (reported)	None
RAS attempt cap (reported)	None, only the age limit
RAS qualification	Bachelor's degree in any stream
Does RAS require Rajasthan domicile for general candidates?	No (reported)
RSSB expands to	Rajasthan Staff Selection Board
RSSB was earlier called	RSMSSB (Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board)
RSSB official website	rssb.rajasthan.gov.in
Sub-Inspector recruiting body	RPSC
SI written papers (reported)	Two of 200 marks each
SI wrong-answer penalty (reported)	One-third
Constable recruiting body (reported)	Police headquarters
Constable written paper (reported)	150 questions, 150 marks
Constable qualifying marks (reported)	40% general, 36% reserved
REET Level 1 is for	Classes 1 to 5
REET Level 2 is for	Classes 6 to 8
REET questions and duration (reported)	150 questions, 150 minutes
Negative marking in REET (reported)	None
REET Level 1 sections (reported)	Five sections of 30 marks
Paper-leak law	Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2022
Act number	Act No. 6 of 2022
Governor's assent to the Act	5 April 2022
Gazette publication of the Act	6 April 2022
2023 amendment	Act No. 17 of 2023
Organised offence punishment after 2023	10 years to imprisonment for life
Organised offence punishment in 2022 text	5 to 10 years
Fine for organised offence, 2022 text	Rs 10 lakh to Rs 10 crore
Offences under the Act are	Cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable
RPSC paper leak cancellation	December 2022 (second-grade teacher GK paper)
Candidates permanently barred then	46
SC reservation (reported)	16%
ST reservation (reported)	12%
OBC reservation (reported)	21%
MBC reservation (reported)	5%
EWS reservation (reported)	10%
Supreme Court case on the 50% ceiling	Indra Sawhney, 1992
Women's quota, one rule text (reported)	30%, horizontal

Frequently asked questions

What is the full form of RSSB and RSMSSB?

RSSB is the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board. It was earlier called the Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board (RSMSSB). We could not confirm the date of the name change.

Who conducts the RAS exam?

The Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) at Ajmer conducts it. It has a Prelims, a Mains and an interview.

How many papers are in the RAS Prelims and Mains?

The reported pattern is one Prelims paper of 150 questions and 200 marks, and four Mains papers of 200 marks each. Check the notification for the cycle you apply for.

Do Prelims marks count in the RAS final merit?

According to the pattern we opened, no. Final merit is reported on the Mains and the interview.

Is there an optional subject in the RAS Mains?

The reported pattern has no optional subject: three General Studies papers and one language paper.

What is the age limit for the RAS?

The reported limits are 21 to 40 for general male candidates, with relaxations: 45 for general women and reserved men, 50 for reserved women with Rajasthan domicile, and no upper limit for widows and divorced women. Verify in the current notice.

Is Rajasthan domicile compulsory for the RAS?

Reported sources say it is not compulsory for general candidates. Reserved-category benefits need a Rajasthan domicile certificate; otherwise the candidate is treated as general.

Is the Sub-Inspector exam conducted by the RPSC or the Police?

By the RPSC. Constable recruitment is run through the Police headquarters.

What is the exam pattern for Rajasthan Police constable?

The reported paper has 150 objective questions for 150 marks, with sections on reasoning and computer, general knowledge and science, and Rajasthan topics. Physical tests and a proficiency test follow. Check the current advertisement.

Is REET conducted by the RPSC?

No. REET is reported to be conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan. The cycle's notice names the body.

What is REET Level 1 and Level 2?

Level 1 is for classes 1 to 5 and Level 2 is for classes 6 to 8. Both are reported to have 150 questions, with no negative marking.

Does passing REET give me a teacher job?

No. It is an eligibility test. Teacher posts are filled by a separate recruitment exam.

What are the reservation percentages in Rajasthan?

As reported: SC 16%, ST 12%, OBC 21%, MBC 5% and EWS 10%. Check the latest government order for the exact rule for each recruitment.

What is the MBC quota?

It is a 5% quota created after the Rajasthan Backward Classes Amendment Bill of 2019 for communities including Gurjars that were earlier in the OBC list. Reports differ on how it sits with the 21% OBC quota.

What is the Rajasthan paper-leak law?

It is the Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2022, amended in 2023. Organised leaks can attract a minimum of ten years up to life imprisonment, and offences are cognizable and non-bailable.

Where do I find current Rajasthan vacancies?

On the RPSC and RSSB sites, and on our Rajasthan govt jobs page.

Where is the Rajasthan High Court?

The principal seat is at Jodhpur, with a bench at Jaipur. The High Court was established on 29 August 1949.

Does the High Court recruit clerks?

It recruits Junior Judicial Assistants and district court clerks, reported as graduates with computer knowledge and a typing test.

Which mock tests should I take?

Use topic tests for Rajasthan GK and full-length mocks from our online test series.

How many districts does Rajasthan have?

41 as on 30 December 2024 per Wikipedia, after nine newly created districts were dissolved. Check the latest notification, as this can change.

Sources and verification

Time-sensitive facts (budget, exam rules, district count, local-body schedule) were checked on 4 October 2026. Where sources disagreed or a figure came from a single secondary source, the text says so. The 1993 to 2013 Assembly figures come from Election Commission statistical reports; later and earlier figures are largely Wikipedia reproductions of Election Commission data, so cross-check results before quoting a number in an answer. Census 2011 is the latest published census.

Facts verified on 4 October 2026. Several exam figures come from exam-prep and news sites, not official notices, and are marked "reported" in the text. The official Staff Selection Board and Commission homepages were opened for names and notice headings only.

• Rajasthan Public Service Commission official site (rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in), homepage as on 4 October 2026.
• Rajasthan Staff Selection Board official site (rssb.rajasthan.gov.in), homepage as on 4 October 2026.
• PRS Legislative Research, gazette copy of the Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2022 (Act No. 6 of 2022) with the 2023 amendment appended.
• Drishti IAS, RPSC exam pattern page.
• Wikipedia, as a cross-check only: Rajasthan, List of districts of Rajasthan, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, Rajasthan High Court, Rajasthan Public Service Commission, Reservation in India, List of World Heritage Sites in India, List of tiger reserves in India, List of Ramsar sites in India.
• ThePrint, report on the Rajasthan OBC reservation bill and the 50% ceiling.
• Careers360, pages on Rajasthan Police Constable, REET 2026 and RPSC School Lecturer.
• Oliveboard, REET exam pattern page.
• RajRAS, RAS eligibility, age limit and attempts page.
• Physics Wallah, RPSC Second Grade Teacher eligibility page.
• Search-result summaries (not full pages) for the RAS domicile rule, Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules on women's reservation, RSMSSB-to-RSSB naming, RPSC Sub-Inspector pattern, the Rajasthan Backward Classes Amendment Bill 2019 (Hindustan Times, Tribune and others), Rajasthan High Court staff recruitment and the RSSB exam patterns for VDO and Patwari.