Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the de facto financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-most populous city in India after Delhi and the eighth-most populous city in the world with a population of roughly 2 crore. As per the Indian government population census of 2011, Mumbai was the most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 1.25 crore (12.5 million) living under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 2.3 crore. Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. It has the highest number of millionaires and billionaires among all cities in India.
Maharashtra is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdivision globally. It was formed on 1 May 1960 by splitting the bilingual Bombay State, which had existed since 1956, into majority Marathi-speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati-speaking Gujarat. Maharashtra is home to the Marathi people, the predominant ethno-linguistic group, who speak the Marathi language, the official language of the state. The state is divided into 6 divisions and 36 districts, with the state capital being Mumbai, the most populous urban area in India, and Nagpur serving as the winter capital, which also hosts the winter session of the state legislature. Godavari and Krishna are the two major rivers in the state. Forests cover 16.47 per cent of the state's geographical area. Out of the total cultivable land in the state, about 60 per cent is used for grain crops in the Deccan region, rice in coastal Konkan, and other high rainfall areas.
Shiv Sena is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bombay, the party agitates for preferential treatment for the Marathi people over migrants from other parts of India. Its election symbol for Maharashtra is Bow and Arrow. Uddhav Thackeray, Bal Thackeray's son, is party leader and served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra between 2019 To 29 June 2022.
Sharad Govindrao Pawar is an Indian politician. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on four occasions. He has held the posts of Minister of Defence and Minister of Agriculture in the Government of India. He is president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress. He leads the NCP delegation in the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Indian parliament. He is the chairperson of Maha Vikas Aghadi.
The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the eight national parties in India. The party generally supports Marathi nationalism and Gandhian secularism.
Aurangabad (pronunciation , proposed to be officially renamed as Sambhajinagar, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is the fifth-most populous urban area in Maharashtra with a population of 1,175,116. The city is known as a major production center of cotton textile and artistic silk fabrics. Several prominent educational institutions, including Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, are located in the city. The city is also a popular tourism hub, with tourist destinations like the Ajanta and Ellora caves lying on its outskirts, both of which have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1983. Other tourist attractions include the Aurangabad Caves, Daulatabad Fort, Grishneshwar Temple, Jama Mosque, Bibi Ka Maqbara, Himayat Bagh, Panchakki and Salim Ali Lake. Historically, there were 52 Gates in Aurangabad, some of them extant, because of which Aurangabad is nicknamed as the "City of Gates". In 2019, the Aurangabad Industrial City became the first greenfield industrial smart city of India under the country's flagship Smart Cities Mission.
Bombay State was a large Indian state created at the time of India's Independence, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Presidency was merged with the princely states of Baroda, Western India and Gujarat and the Deccan States.
Sushilkumar Sambhaji Shinde is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Power in the Manmohan Singh government, and the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha until 26 May 2014. He previously served as the Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra from 18 January 2003 to October 2004.
Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi, or Vinayaka Chaviti or Ganeshotsav is a Hindu festival commemorating the birth of the Hindu god Ganesha (Ganesh). The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's clay murtis (idols) privately in homes and publicly on elaborate pandals. Observances include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, such as prayers and vrata (fasting). Offerings and prasada from the daily prayers, that are distributed from the pandal to the community, include sweets such as modaka as it is believed to be a favourite of Ganesha. The festival ends on the tenth day after start, when the idol is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea, called visarjan on the day of Anant Chaturdashi. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 statues are immersed annually. Thereafter the clay idol dissolves and Ganesha is believed to return to his celestial abode.
Maharashtra Open is a professional men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts in Pune, India. It is part of the ATP Tour 250 series on the ATP Tour.
The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a 5-year term.
Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray is an Indian politician who served as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2019 to 2022. He is also the president of Shiv Sena.
The Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad or Maharashtra Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Maharashtra state in western India.
Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis is an Indian politician serving as the 9th and current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 30 June 2022. He served as the 18th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 31 October 2014 to 12 November 2019. Having been sworn in at the age of 44, he's the second-youngest Chief Minister in Maharashtra's history after Sharad Pawar. He served a 5-day long second term as Chief Minister during the 2019 Maharashtra political crisis, before resigning on 28 November 2019. On 30 June 2022, he took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, following the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis. He is an activist with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Fadnavis represents the Nagpur South West constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from the single-seat constituencies. The members of the upper house, the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad are indirectly elected through an electoral college.
Eknath Sambhaji Shinde is an Indian politician serving as the 20th and Current Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He was earlier the Cabinet Minister of Urban Development and Public Works in the Government Of Maharashtra. He is a Member of Legislative Assembly from Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency of Thane, Maharashtra. He has been elected consecutively for 4 terms in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019.
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian state of Maharashtra was confirmed on 9 March 2020.
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