Kanpur is the 4th largest Hindi speaking city of India with a total population of 2.9 million. Highest employment in Kanpur district is in the sectors of Leather and leather products, Machinery and Automobile parts, Plastic, Defense, and in the Education Industry. Kanpur is well known for its leather industry. 79% of the workforce is employed in the Industrial Sector and the remaining 21% in Agriculture and other segments. Even though the terrain of Kanpur is flat and fertile, the modern district did not have a big agricultural belt because of its early industrialization in the colonial era. Kanpur Nagar lies between the two rivers of Ganga and Pandu. The Ganga waterway played a major role in the industrialization of Kanpur by providing a ready channel of transportation of the industrial products to the Port of Calcutta. The name “Kanpur” is said to be a corruption of “Kanhaiyapur”, which was an unimportant village till its first contact with the British. It is believed that the Raja of Sachendi, Hindu Singh, came here around the year 1750 to bathe in the holy river Ganga and established a village which he (possibly) named Kanhpur, the name becoming changed to Kanpur in the course of time. In the National Archives of India, the first mention of Cawnpore occurs in 1770 in a report dated 2nd May written by Captain Gabriel Harper from Faizabad, the then capital of Avadh. This region was once included in the ancient kingdom of Panchala which extended from the Himalayan mountains in the north to the Chambal river in the south. Owing to its location, Kanpur has played an important role in medieval and in the colonial period. Kanpur cantonment, built in 1803, is Indias largest cantonment. Today, Kanpur is the 11th most populous city in India and the largest city in the state of Uttar Pradesh after the Capital Lucknow.
