Punjab (; Gurmukhi: ਪੰਜਾਬ; Shahmukhi: پنجاب; Punjabi: [pənˈdʒaːb] (listen); also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. Punjab's major cities are Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sialkot, Chandigarh, Shimla, Jalandhar, Gurugram, and Bahawalpur. Punjab grew out of the settlements along the five rivers, which served as an important route to the Near East as early as the ancient Indus Valley civilization, dating back to 3000 BCE, and had numerous migrations by the Indo-Aryan peoples. Agriculture has been the major economic feature of the Punjab and has therefore formed the foundation of Punjabi culture, with one's social status being determined by land ownership. The Punjab emerged as an important agricultural region, especially following the Green Revolution during the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, and has been described as the "breadbasket of both India and Pakistan."Besides being known for agriculture and trade, the Punjab is also a region that over the centuries has experienced many foreign invasions and consequently has a long-standing history of warfare, as the region is vulnerably situated on the principal route of invasions through the northwestern frontier of the Indian subcontinent, including those of Persians, Macedonians, Scythians, Parthians, Kushans, Huns, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols until the eighteenth century which promoted a lifestyle that entailed engaging in warfare to protect the land, with the Marathas, Durranis and British invading the region in subsequent decades. The boundaries of the region are ill-defined and focus on historical accounts and thus the geographical definition of the term "Punjab" has changed over time. In the 16th century Mughal Empire it referred to a relatively smaller area between the Indus and the Sutlej rivers. In British India, until the Partition of India in 1947, the Punjab Province encompassed the present-day Indian states and union territories of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Delhi, and the Pakistani regions of Punjab, and Islamabad Capital Territory. It bordered the Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa regions to the west, Kashmir to the north, the Hindi Belt to the east, and Rajasthan and Sindh to the south. The predominant ethnolinguistic group of the Punjab region is the Punjabi people, who speak the Indo-Aryan Punjabi language. Punjabi Muslims are the majority in West Punjab (Pakistan), while Punjabi Sikhs and Punjabi Hindus are the majority in East Punjab (India). Other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Ravidassia.

Indore ( (listen)) is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and has campuses of both the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management. Located on the southern edge of Malwa Plateau, at an average altitude of 553 meters (1,814 ft) above sea level, it has the highest elevation among major cities of Central India. The city is 190 km (120 mi) west of the state capital of Bhopal. Indore had a census-estimated 2011 population of 1,994,397 (municipal corporation) and 3,570,295 (urban agglomeration). The city is distributed over a land area of just 530 square kilometres (200 sq mi), making Indore the most densely populated major city in the central province. Indore traces its roots to its 16th-century founding as a trading hub between the Deccan and Delhi. The city and its surroundings came under Maratha Empire on 18 May 1724 after Peshwa Baji Rao I assumed the full control of Malwa. During the days of the British Raj, Indore State was a 19 Gun Salute (21 locally) princely state (a rare high rank) ruled by the Maratha Holkar dynasty, until they acceded to the Union of India. Indore served as the capital of the Madhya Bharat from 1950 until 1956. Indore's financial district, based in central Indore, functions as the financial capital of Madhya Pradesh and is home to the Madhya Pradesh Stock Exchange. Indore has been selected as one of the 100 Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under the Smart Cities Mission. It also qualified the first round of Smart Cities Mission and was selected as one of the first twenty cities to be developed as Smart Cities. Indore has been part of Swachh Survekshan since its inception and had ranked 25th in 2016. It has been ranked as India's cleanest city six years in a row as per the Swachh Survekshan for the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, Indore has also been declared as India's first 'water plus' city under the Swachh Survekshan 2021. Indore became the only Indian city to be selected for International Clean Air Catalyst Programme. The project with cooperation of Indore Municipal Corporation and Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, will be operated for a period of five years to purify the air in the city.