Ghaziabad is the 8th largest Hindi speaking city of India with a total population of 1.6 million. Highest employment in Ghaziabad district is in the Food and beverage, Automobile, Electronics and Metal Industry. Out of the total working population, Ghaziabad district has 76% of the workforce in Industrial jobs, 19% in Agriculture and the remaining 5% as Household workers. Ghaziabad is not a big agricultural district today largely because of increased industrialization over the years though the district has very fertile flat land with an abundance of good quality groundwater. The city is situated on the banks of the Hindon River which is a tributary of River Yamuna. The excavations carried out at the mound of Kaseri, at the banks of river Hindon, approx. 2 km north of Mohan Nagar, have shown that ancient civilization existed there as early as 2500 BCE. Being close to Delhi, the city and its surrounding region have witnessed numerous battles over the last few centuries. In AD 1313, the entire region including present day Ghaziabad became a huge battlefield, when Taimur laid siege on the area during Muhammad bin Tughluqs reign. The modern city of Ghaziabad was thereafter founded in AD 1740 by Wazir Ghazi-ud-din, who named it Ghaziuddin-nagar. Ghaziabad, along with Meerut and Bulandshahr, remained one of the three Munsifs of the District, under the Meerut Civil Judgeship during most periods of the British Raj. Ghaziabad played an important role during the first war of independence of 1857 and is often referred as the gateway of Uttar Pradesh.
