Vadodara, fondly known as “Sanskari-Nagar” or ‘Cultured City’, is one of the mid-sized cities in the Western India in the State of Gujarat. The city is also known by a smaller and more popular name Baroda. There are a number of previous names for the city, based on the name of the ruling King or a certain incident of valiant bravery of the ruling clan. The presence of plenty of banyan trees in the city gave it the name Vadpatra, the banyan leaf, which has over the years been distorted to Vadodara.

History of Vadodara. The city of Vadodara had the singular advantage of being in the hinterland and defended by brave Marathas. The Mughals could not control the fiery independent spirit of the Marathas and the year 1721 saw Pilaji Gaekwad seizing control of the city. The city was virtually under the Gaekwads even during the British Raj.

The Gaekwads. The sagacity of the Gaekwads, in particular Sayajirao Gaekwad, has been responsible for the progress of the city. He setup schools and universities and mandated primary education for all. The initiation that he started in the industrialization of Vadodara has given it the modern chemical industries. He has made immense contributions to the growth of the city and fondly remembered as Sayaji. And the city has another apt sobriquet Sayaji Ki Nagri.

Sayaji, Founder of Modern Vadodara. The legacy of Sayaji has sustained in the field of education too. The Maharaja Sayaji Rao University of Baroda with a dozen faculties is a fitting tribute to this visionary. The city kids are fortunate to have the finest public and private schools. The Gujarat Government is strengthening the education infrastructure to attract the poor to the schools. The slogan free meals and free primary education for all has been exceptionally successful in Vadodara and surrounding rural areas.

A City Bursting at Seems. The city of Vadodara today is a cosmopolitan city with modern facilities, a well established industry, lot of employment opportunities and truly bursting at it’s seems. The influx of youth from neighboring villages and towns looking for job opportunities is adding to the woes of the city. The industrial capital of the state with a number of glass, pharmaceutical and chemical industries is facing an unemployment crisis.

Job Crunch. The State of Gujarat has a comparatively smaller percentage of area under cultivation to the national average or the states like Punjab and Haryana. For the educated youth of Vadodara the only viable option is landing a good job with the industry. Mumbai, the financial capital of India had always been the favorite job seeking destination for the youth of Vadodara.

The Concrete Jungle. The great banking reforms and easy availability of loans has resulted in a haphazard building construction and development of the city. The infrastructure and development planning is woefully ill-advised or kind of non existent. The roads are a veritable death trap for pedestrians. The encroachments are adding insult to the injury. The city is one of the richest cities of Gujarat but facing severe shortage of funds and can not pay even for redoing the zebra-crossings. A simple advice if you prefer to walk in Vadodara, learn the art of wiggling through the traffic or better still just take a cab.