Gurgaon is India's second largest information technology hub, largest civil aviation hub, largest hospitality hub and second largest Management consulting hub. Gurgaon's economic growth started in the s when Maruti Suzuki India Limited established a manufacturing plant and gathered pace after General Electric established its business outsourcing operations known as Genpact in the city in collaboration with real-estate firm DLF.
Despite rapid economic and population growth, Gurgaon continues to battle socio-economic issues, such as high-income inequality and high air pollution.
The region of Gurgaon originally fell under the Kuru Kingdom. In late 4th century BCE, the city was absorbed by the Maurya Empire as part of Chandragupta Maurya 's earliest expansions of his kingdom. Gurgaon may be same as the Gudapura town mentioned in the 12th century text Prithviraja Vijaya. According to the text, Nagarjuna, a cousin of the Chahamana king Prithviraj Chauhan , rebelled against the king and captured the town.
Prithviraj crushed the rebellion and recaptured the town. During the Mughal and initially during the British colonial era , Gurgaon was just a small village in Jharsa paragana of Delhi subah. Jharsa paragana passed to Begum Samru in β77 and came under direct British rule in after her death when her territory was taken over by the British who established a civil lines at Jharsa and a cavalry cantonment at nearby Hiyadatpur.
An land revenue settlement report records that the idol of Sitla Mata was brought to Gurgaon years earlier 15th century. Begum Samru claimed the offering to Sitla Mata temple during the Chaitra month and the revenue from the offerings given to the deity for rest of the month was distributed among the prominent Jat zamindars of the area. In , Bharawas district was disbanded and Gurgaon was made a new district.
