17°21′N 75°10′E / 17.35°N 75.16°E / 17.35; 75.16 - 18°19′N 76°09′E / 18.32°N 76.15°E / 18.32; 76.15

Solapur District is a district in Maharashtra state of India. The city of Solapur is the district headquarters. It is located on the south east edge of the state and lies entirely in the Bhima and Seena basins. The entire district is drained by the Bhima River.

Solapur district leads in beedi production. Kundalsangam, Karmala and Barshi have adopted the path of development through industry and education. Akkalkot also has mallikarjun temple where many lingayat devotees worship daily.

Solapur is an ancient historical and religious place with Shri Siddharameshwar as its "Gramadaiwata". Shri Siddharameshwar was a historical figure of the 12th century whose "Karmayoga" on his own native land-Solapur, turned him into a God-figure over the course of time. Siddharama was a great conributor to Lingayata religion and he is considered as one of the six prophets of Lingayat religion. He had gained the "Siddhi". As Solapur was a drought prone area, Shri Siddharameshwar dug a lake with the help of 4000 "Sharanas" to solve the problem of potable water. He entombed himself alive (Shivyogsamadhi) at Solapur.

Solapur  pronunciation (help·info) is a city in South Western Maharashtra, India governed by municipal corporation.

Solapur is one of the four districts that form the region of Western Maharashtra (the other three districts are Satara, Kolhapur and Sangli).Solapur is one of the cities in Maharashtra, situated near the borders with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh It is the fourth largest district in Maharashtra in terms of land area and seventh largest in terms of population. It is an important junction on the Central railway line. Solapur is a city with an array of small and medium scale industries.

Solapur is famous for textile industries, Solapur chadars and towels are famous around the globe.The famous factory outlets/shop are pulagam textile, tanabana, chatala, boddul textile, venugopal textile, etc. It has been a leading center for cotton mills and power looms, though recent times have seen these industries relocate elsewhere.

The chief deity of the city is Shri Siddeshwar. The "Nandidhwaj" procession on Makar Sankranti fair is attended by millions of devotees. An annual fair is held in the month of January wherein huge crowd comes from various parts of country, which is called as Gadda Fair in vernacular language.

Ajit Anantrao Pawar (Marathi: अजित अनंतराव पवार) (born July 22, 1959), popularly known as Dada (Big Brother) is a Maharashtra politician currently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He is the nephew of Sharad Pawar, the Union Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and the chief of Nationalist Congress Party.

Ajit Pawar is the son of Anantrao Pawar who was an elder brother of Sharad Pawar. Anantrao followed a less conventional career of working for V. Shantaram's Rajkamal studio. His paternal grandfather, Govindrao Pawar was employed by the Baramati farmers' Cooperative ( Sahakari Kharedi Vikri Sangh) whilst his grandmother, Shardabai looked after the family farm at Katewadi, ten kilometers from Baramati.

Ajit Pawar made his foray into politics in 1982 when he was elected to a sugar cooperative body. Ajit Pawar was then elected as a chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank (PDC) in 1991, the post he held for 16 years. It merits attention that when he took over, the bank deposits were just Rs 300 crore. When he relinquished office the bank deposits had increased to an astronomical figure of Rs 160000 crores (approximately $32 billion)^{[citation needed]} . During the same time he was elected to Lok Sabha from Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. He later vacated his Lok Sabha seat in favour of Mr. Sharad Pawar who had then become a Defense minister in Mr. P. V. Narasimha Rao's government.

Dilip Mehta (born in 1952 in New Delhi) is a photojournalist and director. Mehta, a Canadian citizen, divides his time between New York City, Delhi and Toronto. His work as a photojournalist has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, National Geographic and Time. Mehta's five-year coverage of The Bhopal gas tragedy won him numerous prizes including the World Press award and Overseas Press award. His next directorial project Cooking with Stella is co-written with his sister Deepa Mehta, a director and screenwriter best known for her Academy Award nominated film Water. His directorial debut The Forgotten Woman was inspired by his work on the set of Water.