Gujarat – Situated in the northwest corner of India. Gujarat is the seventh largest State in India and comprises three distinct geographic regions:

• The undulating terrains of Saurashtra, which is a peninsula jutting into the Arabian Sea

• The Rann (desert) of Kachchh in the north, bordering Pakistan, and

• The Mainland -which is essentially the alluvial plains.

All major rivers in Gujarat are west-flowing. The Sabarmati has a catchment of 21 674 km2, 81% of which lies in Gujarat. Similarly 34% of the Mahi basin and 11.5% of the Narmada basin lie in the State, mainstreams of all the three rivers meeting the Arabian sea. A large number of minor streams radiate down from the hills of Saurashtra joining the Arabian sea, Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat. This network of small rivers and undulating terrain creates ideal conditions for water resource development projects and thus the five districts of Saurashtra, viz., Rajkot, Jamnagar, Junagarh, Amreli and Bhavanagar among themselves share nearly half of the reservoirs in the State. Sabarkantha, Panchmahals and Surat also have large areas under man-made lakes.

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Gujarat is a sometimes referred to as the Jewel of Western India. It has an area of 196,024 km2 with a coastline of 1,600 km, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and its capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat encompasses some sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, such as Lothal and Dholavira. Lothal is believed to be one of the world's first seaports, Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks, and was familiar in other Western centres of civilisation through the end of the European Middle Ages. Modern-day Gujarat is derived from Sanskrit term Gurjaradesa, the Gurjar nation, parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra or Gurjarabhumi for centuries before the Mughal period. Gujarat was one of the centres of the Indus Valley Civilization. It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal, Dholavira, the ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, the most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about 50 Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat, the ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants.

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SPOTLIGHT “SURAT” – THE METRO NEAREST TO US: Surat, is a port city previously known as Suryapur. It is the capital and former princely state in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the eighth largest city and ninth largest urban agglomeration in India, Surat is the 3rd cleanest city of India, and 4th fastest growing city of the world. Surat is famous for its food, textile, and diamonds, Surat polishes over 90 percent of the world’s rough diamonds. It is a metropolis and the capital of the Surat district. The city is located 284 kilometers south of the capital, Gandhinagar,265 kilometers south of Ahmedabad and 80 km from Songadh . The city centre is located 22 km south of the Tapti River, a moat divides the older parts of the city, with their narrow streets and historical houses, from the newer suburbs. Surat had a population of 4.5 million at the 2011 census, making it the second largest city in the state of Gujarat and it is the eighth largest city and ninth largest urban agglomeration of India. Surat is the 34th-largest city by area and 4th-fastest developing of India.

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Surat was selected as the first smart IT city in India which is being constituted by the Microsoft CityNext Initiative tied up with IT services majors Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro. The city has 2.97 million internet users which is about 65% of total population, Surat was selected in 2015 for an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant. Surat has been selected as one of twenty Indian cities to be developed as a city under PM Narendra Modi’s flagship Smart Cities Mission.

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Surat is mentioned in Sanskrit epic, the Mahābhārata, when Lord Krishna stopped there on his way from Mathura to Dwarka, the Parsis began to settle there in the 8th century. Local Hindu traditions state that the city was founded in the last years of the fifteenth century A. C. E. by a Brahman named Gopi, in 1512 and again in 1530 Surat was ravaged by the Portuguese Empire. In 1513, the Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa described Surat as an important seaport, frequented by ships from Malabar. By 1520, the name of the city was Surat, when the harbour in Cambay began to silt up toward the end of fifteenth century; Surat eclipsed Cambay as the major port of western India. At the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese were undisputed masters of the Surat sea trade, on the banks of the Tapti River, there is still a picturesque fortress that was built in 1540. In 1608, ships from the English East India Company started docking in Surat, ultimately the city was made the seat of a presidency.