Total soil organic carbon (SOC), soil inorganic carbon (SIC) and total carbon (TC) stocks were estimated as 0.47, 0.71 and 1.18 Pg for the black soils and 0.33, 0.50 and 0.83 Pg for the red soils, respectively which cover nearly 15 million ha area in the semi-arid tropics (SAT), India. It is observed that the soils revisited after 25–30 years indicate an overall increasing trend in SOC. On the basis of SOC stock (Pg/M ha) the study helped to identify 22 systems as viable under the present level of management systems. The study also suggests identification of minimum and maximum threshold limit of SOC and bulk density (BD) values in the 22 identified systems. The level of management adopted in the black soils of SAT, India, for the last 20–25 years helped these soils to reach a new higher quasi-equilibrium value in terms of SOC. This indicates that these shrink-swell soils under semi-arid and arid bioclimatic systems respond to controlled management level and are not depleted in SOC.