Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (
the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million
As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest in Maharashtra by area, with a geographical area of 7,256 sq km. It has been ranked "the most liveable city in India" several times. Pune is also considered to be the cultural and educational capital of Maharashtra. Along with the municipal corporation area of
PCMC,
PMC and the three
cantonment towns of
Camp,
Khadki, and
Dehu Road, Pune forms the urban core of the eponymous
Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR).
Situated {{convert, 560, m, 0, abbr=off
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''.
The ...
on the
Deccan plateau
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by t ...
, on the right bank of the
Mutha river,
[{{cite web , last=Nalawade , first=S.B. , url=http://www.ranwa.org/punealive/pageog.htm , title=Geography of Pune Urban Area , publisher=Ranwa , access-date=4 April 2008 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222080029/http://www.ranwa.org/punealive/pageog.htm , archive-date=22 December 2007] Pune is also the administrative headquarters of the
Pune district. In the 18th century, the city was the seat of the
Peshwas, the prime ministers of the
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of S ...
, and one of the most important political centres in the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting