Amalner is a town and a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

in Jalgaon district in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, situated on the bank of the Bori River. Amalner is the birthplace of the

Wipro Wipro Limited (formerly, Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. Thierry Delaporte is serving as CEO and managing directo ...

company, which started business by producing vanaspati ghee from

sunflower seed The sunflower seed is the seed of the sunflower ('' Helianthus annuus''). There are three types of commonly used sunflower seeds: linoleic (most common), high oleic, and sunflower oil seeds. Each variety has its own unique levels of monounsat ...

s there. Amalner is a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

Jalgaon Jalgaon () is a city in Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. Jalgaon is colloquially known as the “''Banana City of Indi ...

district. Amalner lies on the Western Railway between

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

and

Bhusawal Bhusawal is the largest municipal council (established in 1882) in the Jalgaon district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, situated along the banks of the river Tapi. The city emerged as a major railway junction during the British Raj, and s ...

. Amalner is well connected to the Central Railway through Jalgaon / Bhusaval as well as the Western through Surat.

History

Amalner has a historical importance in the fields of education, industrialisation and independence movements. It is host to one of the oldest philosophical centres in India, the Pratap Tatwadnyan Mandir, formerly the Indian Institute of Philosophy.

Pandurang Sadashiv Sane Pandurang Sadashiv Sane ( mar, पांडुरंग सदाशिव साने; ; 24 December 1899 – 11 June 1950), also known as ''Sane Guruji'' (Guruji meaning "respected teacher") by his students and followers, was a Marathi autho ...

, popularly known as

Sane Guruji Pandurang Sadashiv Sane ( mar, पांडुरंग सदाशिव साने; ; 24 December 1899 – 11 June 1950), also known as ''Sane Guruji'' (Guruji meaning "respected teacher") by his students and followers, was a Marathi auth ...

, was one of the famous teachers at Pratap high school. He fought for the

independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, was a teacher, poet and writer, and wrote many books, including ''Shyamchi Aai'' and ''Bhartiya Sanskriti''. Shriram shastri Upasani was also resident of Amalner. He studied the Vedas, Upanishads and other Shastras in Kashi i.e. Varanasi in Gurukul system. Then he came back to Amalner and served as a teacher in Pratap high school and college. He also served to teach religious and philosophical studies to newly initiated Sanyasis of Hindu Jain and Buddhist society. Due to his knowledge in philosophy various intellectual were coming to meet him. He was having close intellectual relations with dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (former President of India). In 1945,

Azim Premji Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian businessman, investor, engineer, and philanthropist, who was the chairman of Wipro Limited. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and founder chairman. He is informally known as ...

's father started the first

dalda Dalda is a brand of vegetable oil (hydrogenated vegetable cooking oil) popular in South Asia. History An individual by the name Hussein Dada, used to import vanaspati ghee from a Dutch company before the 1930s as a cheap substitute for des ...

factory at Amalner, which is now known as a mother plant of the giant

company. Amalner city is still densely populated with Wipro shareholders. Azim Premji visited Amalner's Wipro plant on 12 February 2013, to address the employees of the company.

Geography

Amalner is located at 18°56′N 75°20′E / 18.93°N 75.33°E / 18.93; 75.33 It has an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 344

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

s. It is 36 km from Dhule.

Demographics

As of the Indian

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2011, Amalner had a population of 95,994. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. The average literacy rate is 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%, with 57% of the males and 43% of females being

literate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

. Some 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.ndtv.com/photos/business/wipro-from-a-vegetable-oil-maker-to-an-it-major-14100 , title=Wipro: From a vegetable oil maker to an IT major , publisher=NDTV Profit , accessdate=15 November 2013 {{cite web , title = Company History of Wipro , url = http://www.moneycontrol.com/company-facts/wipro/history/W , publisher = Money Control , accessdate=15 November 2013 Cities and towns in Jalgaon district Talukas in Maharashtra