Maharashtra Times (Marathi: महाराष्ट्र टाईम्स), colloquially referred to as 'Ma Taa' (मटा) from its Marathi initialism, is a Marathi newspaper based in Mumbai, India. It is the ninth-largest-selling daily newspaper in the country. It is owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. or The Times Group, the largest media house in India.

According to the IRS 2005, Maharashtra Times enjoys the second largest readership in Mumbai. Other than The Times of India, Maharashtra Times is the only newspaper in Mumbai which has more than one million readers in the city.

Maharashtra Times' first editor was D B Karnik. In the late 1960s, he was replaced by Govindrao Talwalkar. During Talwalkar's tenure, which stretched into 1990s, the newspaper achieved its zenith primarily due to Talwalkar's editorials.^{[citation needed]} Some of the leading editorials written by Talwalkar have been anthologized. After that Kumar Ketkar worked as Editor.

The paper, in its heyday, had among its contributors some of the most respected names of the day in Marathi literature such as Durga Bhagwat, Kusumagraj and P. L. Deshpande.

Maharashtra /mɑːhəˈrɑːʃtrə/ (Marathi: महाराष्ट् mahārāṣṭra [məharaːʂʈrə] ( listen)) is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India. Maharashtra is the richest state in India, contributing 15% of the country's industrial output and 13.3% of its GDP (2006–2007 figures).

Maharashtra is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the northwest, Madhya Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Karnataka to the south, Andhra Pradesh to the southeast, and Goa to the southwest. The state covers an area of 307,731 km² (118,816 sq mi) or 9.84% of the total geographical area of India. Mumbai, the capital city of the state, is India's largest city and the financial capital of the nation. Nagpur is the second capital of the state. Marathi is the official language.

Maharashtra is the world's second most populous first-level administrative country sub-division. Were it a nation in its own right, Maharashtra would be the world's tenth most populous country ahead of Mexico.