1. The State of Maharashtra is India's second-most populous state and third-largest state by area, spread over 307,713 km2 (118,809 sq m) in the Western part of the country.
2. Just to put things into perspective, Maharashtra is bigger in size than many countries like UK, New Zealand, Italy, Cuba, Luxembourg, Bhutan, Fiji, Cyprus, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Qatar, Mongolia, Panama, Kuwait, Oman, Ireland and many others.
3. About 52,000 years ago, a meteor hit a place in Maharashtra and created the Lonar Lake, which is the Earth’s largest and only hyper-velocity impact crater in basaltic rock. Lonar lake is about 150 m deep and 1.8 km wide.
4. The village of Shani Shingnapur in Maharashtra is the only village in the world where houses do not have doors! It is believed that anyone who tries to steal in this village loses his / her eyesight.
5. Maharashtra is India’s wealthiest state by all major economic measures and it is also the most industrialized state in India.
6. Maharashtra is also home to Pune, one of the three automotive hubs in India (the other two being Delhi NCR and Chennai). Besides the home-grown majors like Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Force Motors, key international players like Mercedes Benz, Fiat Chrysler, Volkswagen Group, Piaggio, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and Skoda have also made Pune their base.
7. Most of India’s major home-grown industrial giants are headquartered in Maharashtra and these include Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, Aditya Birla Group, Reliance Industries, Godrej & Boyce, Kirloskar Brothers, Bajaj, Essar and many others.
8. Of the three of India’s oldest industrial townships, two are in Maharashtra. These are Kirloskarwadi and Walchandnagar. (The third one being Jamshedpur).
9. India’s first train ran in Maharashtra between Mumbai and Thane on April 16, 1853. It was also Asia’s first train.
10. Maharashtra is also the home to India’s most important financial institutions including the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and the SEBI.
11. Most of India’s major private banks like HDFC, ICICI, Axis Bank and so on are based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
12. The State is also home to some of India’s foremost scientific and nuclear institutes like BARC, NPCL, IREL, TIFR, AERB, AECI, and the Department of Atomic Energy.
13. Maharashtra has a long coastal line measuring 720 km of the Arabian Sea, with Mumbai having two major sea ports.
14. The state is extremely rich and varied in terms of its bio-diversity and has several National Parks and Sanctuaries. Mumbai is the only city in India to have a National Park within the city limits. The Sahyadri Mountain Range is part of Maharashtra.
15. Maharashtra has 24 universities, with the University of Mumbai being the world’s largest university in terms of the number of graduates.
16. India’s first two colleges (still very much functional) – Wilson College and Elphinstone College are located in Mumbai, Maharashtra’s Capital City.
17. There are 350 forts in Maharashtra with most of them being hill forts. Most of these forts were built or re-built by the Great King Shivaji or his successors, the Peshwas.
18. There are several ancient cave temples and monasteries in Maharashtra including Ajanta, Ellora, Kanheri, Elephanta, Karla, Bhaja and many more.
19. The Festival of Ganeshotsav is Maharashtra’s biggest festival and is celebrated with great fervour all over the state.
20. Maharashtra is also the home to several major pilgrim places of Hindus including Pandharpur, Shirdi, Ashtavinayak, four of the Jyotirlingas, four of major Goddess temples, Shani Shingnapur and many others.
21. The Hindi film industry is world’s largest Film Industry and it is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Legendary singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle are both residents of Maharashtra.
22. Maharashtra has produced some of India’s finest cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar.
23. The State of Maharashtra was officially formed on May 1, 1960 with Mumbai as its Capital and Marathi as the State language.
24. Yashwantrao Chavan of the Indian National Congress was the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The current Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis belongs to the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
25. The name Maharashtra itself means Great (Maha) Nation (Rashtra) in Sanskrit!
26. Maximum Marathis are Dravidian by Race !!! (Except people from Kokan who are Aryans by Race and so have fair skin color, so.. we are South Indians basically )
27. Marathi is basically a language derived from Maharashtri Prakrut, Sanskrut and have major influence of Kannada and Tamil on it (So, if you start learning Kannada you will pick up it faster than you pick up Hindi :) )
28. Marathi was most spoken language of India and was the official language of communication of Government in North India in 17th Century
29. Maharashtra is the only state in India to have 2 Metro Cities(Mumbai and Pune) but Second Capital of Maharashtra (Nagpur) ranks 4th in the State in terms of Population
30. In India, only Nagpur is the city which is not the capital of any State but have branch of Reserve Bank of India.
31. Nashik district of Maharashtra is the biggest market for Onions in the world and produces almost half of the world’s onions every year.
32. Navapur Railway Station is half in Maharashtra state and half in Gujarat state.
33. Wipro Ltd is basically a Marashtrian company established by Mohamed Premji in Amalner, Dist Jalgaon Maharashtra.
34. Maharashtra is the most civilized state of India where almost 50% people live in cities and about 30% in just Mumbai and Pune.
35. Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is richest local body in Asian continent.
36. First Indian Movie was not made in Mumbai but in Nashik by Dadasaheb Phalke.
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