Features
With a population of 123 million and 2016 GDP of $300 billion, the state of Maharashtra is crucial to India’s economy accounting for just under 13 percent of India’s gross domestic product.
Maharashtra is located on the western region of India and is bordered by Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to the north, Goa and Karnataka to the south, Chhattisgarh and Telangana to the south and the Arabian Sea to the west. The capital of Maharashtra is Mumbai, followed by other large cities such as Pune, Nagpur and Nashik. Marathi is the most common language spoken, with other languages being English, Hindi and Konkani.
FDI inflows into Maharashtra totaled $83 Billion in 2016. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is the oldest stock market in Asia. Mumbai is also home to the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank. It is also home to some of India’s largest and wealthiest industrial conglomerates, such as the Aditya Birla Group, Godrej, Reliance and Tata. FDI inflows into Maharashtra totaled $83 Billion in 2016.
The Indian Institute of Technology has a campus in Mumbai. The Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, a leading business school is also located in Mumbai. The Indian Institute of Management became operational in 2015 with a campus in Nagpur. The city of Pune is known as a hub for college education.
Transport
The state of Maharashtra has seven domestic and three international airports. International airports are present in Mumbai (BOM) Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport which is India’s second busiest airport, Pune International Airport (PNQ) and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur (NAG). The Navi Mumbai International Airport is currently being built and it will make up India’s first urban multi-airport system.
Most of the sea traffic for India originates or terminates in Mumbai. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is the largest and busiest port of India in terms of container port traffic.
Doing Business in Maharashtra
Maharashtra is the most industrialized state in India and maintains the first spot in the industrial sector.
Mumbai being the commercial and financial capital of India, it has evolved as a hub for finance. Is it also the largest location for entertainment production – movies, television, video games and mobile entertainment.
Cipla Ltd, Wockhardt Ltd, Sun Pharma and Lupin Ltd. are large pharmaceutical companies headquartered in Mumbai.
The IT industry has several multinational firms operating their services in Mumbai such as Accenture, IBM, Capgemini and Infosys Technologies.
Larsen & Toubro, an Indian conglomerate, is a major engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, with major factories located in Powai. Additional engineering companies with a presence in the city include Siemens Group, ABB and Greaves Cotton Ltd.
Other multinational firms have Mumbai locations including Bank of America, Oracle, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever PLC, and the Walt Disney Company.
Tourism
The Gateway of India is a symbolic monument which was built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. The Ajanta & Ellora Caves are famous for their Buddhist carvings.
Last updated: January 15th, 2018
