Vadodara is also named as Baroda. It is one of the four towns in Gujarat with a population over one million. It is the administrative headquarter of Vadodara district. This city Vadodara has came across a several names from its origin.

Two thousand years back, there was a small town named as Ankottak on the western bank of river Visvamitri. In 600 A.D. severe floods in Vishvamitri river forced the inhabitants of Ankottak to move to the eastern side of river to a village known as "Vatpatrak". Latter on the Village name was changed into "Vadapadraka", which was now developed as Vadodara. In Tenth Century Vadapadraka replaced Ankottak as the main town.

Once this city was named as "Chandanavati" after its ruler Raja Chandan of Dor tribe of Rajputs. It was also called as " Virakshetra" or land of Warriors. "Vadapatrak` originally came from the Sanskrit word Vatdor, which means ` in the heart of Banyan tree`. English traveller used to call it as "Brodera", which latter pronounced as "Baroda". But finally in 1974, it has officially named as Vadodara.

History of Vadodara, Gujarat
Baroda has rich historical background. The first noted history of the city was of the early trader settlers who settled in the region in 812 A.D. Followed by the Hindu rulers, who ruled till the year1297. Before Vadodara coming in the hand of Mughal emperors, Gupta dynasty, Chalukya dynasty, Solanki dynasty and Muslim Sultans ruled over it. Mughal Emporer`s main problems were the Marathas, who slowly but eventually took over the region. Then it became the capital of Maratha Gaekwads. The Britishers had a major influence in this region but Vadodara remained a princely state till independence and joined the republic of India in 1947. Baroda was merged into Bombay states shortly after Independence, which was divided into the states of Gujrat and Maharashtra in the year 1960. After the division, Vadodara came in the part of Gujrat state.

Geography of Vadodara, Gujarat
Vadodara is located at 22.30°N and 73.19°E in western India at an elevation of 39 meters. It is the 18th largest city of India with an area of 148.95 Km square and a population of 1.6 millions. The vadodara district is bounded by Panchmahal and Dahod districts to the north, Anand and Kheda district to the west, bharuch and narmada distict to the south and the state of madhya Pradesh to the east. The tallest point of the region is the hill of Pavagadh.

The city sits on the bank of Vishvamitri river. The south and north areas of Vadodara is bounded by Narmada and Mahi river. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the town falls under seismic zone-III, in a scale of I to V.

There are mainly three seasons , summer, winter and monsoon realized in Vadodara. Most of the time the weather of the city is dry. The average summer temperature is maximum36°C and minimum23°C. During winter the average of maximum is 30°C and minimum is 15°C. The average rainfall is 931.9mm.

Economy of Vadodara, Gujarat
Vadodara always counted as cultural and educational area till the year1960. Only few industries such as Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Sarabhai Chemicals and Jyoti were running at that time. But by 1962, there were288 dominating factories of Chemical industries, Pharmaceuticals cotton textiles and machine tools employing 27,510 workers. The discovery of oil and gas in Ankleshwar led to the industrial development of Gujrat in a big way. The Vadodara region is the largest beneficiary in the process of industrialization. Gujrat Refinery being a basic industry made a vital contribution on several fronts of regional and national levels.

In Vadodara various large scale industries such as Gujrat state Fertilizer and Chemicals, Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited, Gujrat Alkalis and Chemical Limited have come up in the vicinity of Gujrat Refinery and all of them dependent on it for their fuels and feedstock. Other large-scale public sector units are Heavy water Projects, Gujrat industries Power Company Limited, ONGC and GAIL. In addition to these public sector enterprises, a number of large-scale industries have come up in private sectors. The establishment of large-scale industrial units in this region automatically brings into existence a number of smaller enterprises.

Government and politics in Vadodara, Gujarat
Vadodara is administered by Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). Some of the regions surrounding the city are administered by the Vadodara Urban Development Authority. The VMC was established in July 1950 under the Bombay provincial Corporation Act, 1949.

The city was divided by four zones and 26 wards. Three corporators are elected from each ward who in turn elects a mayor. The executive powers are vested in the municipal corporation, who is an IAS officer appointed by the Gujrat State Government. The mayor is responsible for day to day running of the city services. Vadodara city police are headed by a police commissioner, who is an IPS officer and maintaining law and order in society.

Transport of Vadodara, Gujarat
By Air
Vadodara airport is well connected with the cities of Mumbai and Delhi.
By Rail
Vadodara railway station belongs to western railway division of Indian railways. It is a major station linked with Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai- Ahmedabad routes.
By Road
National highway No-8 is linked with the city. Vadodara also linked with Ahmedabad through Indian National Express Way 1.

Demographics of Vadodara, Gujarat
As per 2001 Census, Vadodara area had population of 1,492,398. Males constitute 52% of the population and female constitutes 48% of the total population. 11% of the population is under six years of age. Vadodara has an average literacy rate of 78% higher than, the national average of 59.5%. Male literacy is 82% and female literacy is 74%. Vadodara`s sex ratio is 909 female per 1000 males.

Culture of Vadodara, Gujarat
Gujrati, Marathi and Hindi are the prominent spoken language of Vadodara. Vadodara is also called `Sanskari Nagar` means `city of Culture`. It is also one of India`s cosmopolitan cities.

The great museums in palace grounds such as the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum and Art Gallery are unique and carry artifacts from around the nation and the world. There are few Gujrati studios and old style movie theatres in addition to the newer multiplexes to entertain the all types of people.

Diwali, Uttarayan, Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Eid, Christmas and New Year are celebrated with great enthusiasm.Navratri or Garba is the city`s largest celebrated festival. In the month of October many of the residents spend their evenings at their local Garba grounds where local musician play traditional music and people dance the Rass and Garba dance. Large numbers of international tourists come every year only to take part in Garba dance.

Visiting places in Vadodara, Gujarat
Vadodara is famous for its Culture and places. The following places are the major tourist places .
Aurobindo Society- Relics of Shri Aurobindo are present in Aurobindo society. It is open to all for meditation. The society contains Library, study room and sales emporium.

Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery- Baroda Museum has impressive collection of art and archeology, natural history, geology and ethnology. It has an excellent collection of arts, paintings, Mughal miniatures and palm-leaf manuscripts etc.

Laxmi Vilas palace- This palace was designed in Indo-Saracenic style and was built by King Sayaji RaoIII. Started in the year 1878 and completed in the year 1890. It is the residence of Royal family.

Darbar Hall- Darbar Hall in Laxmi Vilas Palace was the courtroom of Gaekwads. Here musicians performed and entertained the royal family.

EME Temple- EME temple is a unique design of geodesic structure covered with aluminum sheets. This temple is taking care by army authority.

Khanderao Market- This is palatial building erected by the king Sayaji Rao III in the year 1906. It was presented by him as a gift to the Municipality to mark the silver jubilee of his administration.

Kirti Mandir- Kirti Mandir was built in the year 1936 by Sayaji Rao to perpetuate the glorious memory of his beloved ancestors.

Lal bag- it is another beautiful garden and popular picnic spot.

Lehripura Gate- Lehripura gate was built as the western gateway to the old city in 1558.

Makarpura Palace- This beautiful palace was designed in Italian style; this place is now used as training schoolboy the Indian Air Force.

Mahatma Gandhi Nagar Gruh- This is the city`s town hall for cultural programmes built in the year of 1954.

Maharaja Fatehsinh Museum- The Museum has royal collection of art treasures and works of old masters like Raphel, Titian and Murilo as well as modern western and Italian paintings.

Education
The present educational foundation rests on over 20 public schools and over 100 private schools. Maharaja Sayajirao University(MSU) is one the famous Universities of India. MSU is the only University in Gujrat with English medium of instruction.the university caters to 100,000 students every year. There are other premier institute also located in city including Sigma Institute of management studies, Parul institute of Engineering and Technology.

Media in Vadodara, Gujarat
Vadodara has number of newspaper publication. The English language news papers are Times of India, Indian Express and Economic Time. Three Gujrati dailies are Sandesh, Gujrat samachar and Divya Bhaskar. The city has four local FM stations : Radio Mirchi,Big FM, radio City and All India Radio. Housev hold receive television through two main cable networks. In Cable net and Siti cable, but DTH is also very popular in Vadodara. The city telephone services are provided by landline and mobile operators like BSNL,Reliance Communication, Airtel, Idea, Hutch and tata Indicom.

Sports in Vadodara, Gujarat
Like the rest of India, in Vadodara also people love cricket much more. There are also other popular games such as football, field hockey, volleyball, table tennis and Lawn Tennis.
Vadodara has also its own team for cricket, who are playing national level also. In Vadodara there is also an oldest cricket ground named Moti Baug.