India's national sport, field hockey, has gone into a sharp decline in the recent years, losing out in terms of popularity to cricket, though many Mumbai players play in the national team.
Mumbai residents celebrate Indian and Western festivals with great fanfare.
The name was officially changed to the Marathi pronunciation of Mumbai in 1995.
The middle class in Mumbai is the segment most impacted by this growth and is the driver behind the consequent growth in consumer spending, fueled by upward mobility among Mumbaikars.
Mumbai’s status as the state capital means that state and central government employees make up a large percentage of the city's workforce.
The local Mumbai cricket team is among the strongest competitors and is the most successful team in the Ranji Trophy, the nation's top domestic cricketing circuit.
Mumbai's mean monthly temperature in mid-summer (May) is 33°C (91°F); in mid-winter (January) it drops to 19°C (67°F).
Much of Mumbai is just above sea level, and the average elevation ranges from 10 to 15 meters (32.8 – 49 feet).
The backbone of the city's transport, the Mumbai Suburban Railway, is composed of three separate networks running the length of the city, in a north-south direction.
Mumbai also has a large population of unskilled and semi-skilled laborers, who primarily earn their livelihood as hawkers, taxi drivers, mechanics and other blue collar professions.
Mumbai is the birthplace of Indian cinema (Dadasaheb Phalke laid the foundations with his silent movies followed by his Marathi talkies), with the oldest film broadcast here in the early twentieth century.
Marathi television and the Marathi film industry are also based in Mumbai.
Schools in Mumbai are either "municipal schools" (run by the BMC) or private schools (run by trusts or individuals), which in some cases receive financial aid from the government.
Mumbai sits on a seismically active zone owing to the presence of three fault lines in the vicinity.
The Harbour Line is a sub-division of the Central Railway, covering a distance of 54 km along the south-eastern section of the city, near the docks, and extending into Navi Mumbai (New Mumbai).
Mumbai has a large polyglot population like any other metropolitan city of India.
During the first few centuries of our era, control over Mumbai was disputed between the Indo-Scythian Western Satraps and the Satavahanas.
The Mumbai Police is headed by a Police Commissioner, who is an IPS officer.
Mumbai's per-capita income is Rs.48,954 which is almost three times the national average.
Five lakes supply water to Mumbai: Lakes Vihar, Vaitarna, Powai, Tulsi and Tansa.
Mumbai households receive over a hundred television channels via cable, and a majority of them are produced to cater to the city's polyglot populace.
Following a successful protest, in which 105 people were killed by police fire, Maharashtra state was formed with Mumbai as its capital on May 1, 1960.
Mumbai has produced several famous international cricketers, and is home to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Mumbai is located on Salsette Island, which lies at the mouth of Ulhas River off the western coast of India, in the coastal region known as the Konkan.
A few months later, on March 12, a series of co-ordinated bombings at several city landmarks by the Mumbai underworld killed around three hundred people.
Mumbai has attracted migrants from all over India because of the immense business opportunities, and the relatively high standard of living, making the city a potpourri of various communities and cultures.
Mumbai also boasts large number of cinemas, including world's largest IMAX dome theatre, which feature mainstream Bollywood, Marathi and Hollywood movies.
In 2006, Mumbai was also the site of a major terrorist incident in which over two hundred people were killed when several bombs exploded almost simultaneously on the Mumbai Suburban Railway.
Mumbai is home to two of India's important research institutions – The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
Mumbai is classified as a metropolis of India, under the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
Northern Mumbai is hilly, and the highest point in the city is 450 meters (1,450 feet).
The late 1970s witnessed a construction boom and a significant influx of migrants, as a consequence of which Mumbai overtook Kolkata as India's most populous city.
Most of Mumbai's inhabitants rely on public transport to travel to and from their workplaces.
Artifacts found near Kandivali, in northern Mumbai, indicate that these islands had been inhabited since the Stone Age.
Many of India's numerous conglomerates (including State Bank Of India, Tata Group, Godrej and Reliance), and four of the Fortune Global 500 companies are based in Mumbai.
Mumbai recorded 27,577 incidents of crime in 2004, which is down 11 percent from 30,991 in 2001.
Mumbai also has two lower courts, the Small Causes Court for civil matters, and the Sessions Court for criminal cases.
Most colleges in the city are affiliated with the University of Mumbai, one of the largest universities in the world in terms of the number of graduates.
Mumbai's suburban rail systems carry a total of 2.2 billion passengers every year.
Up until the 1980s, Mumbai owed its prosperity largely to textile mills and the seaport, but the local economy has since been diversified to include engineering, diamond-polishing, healthcare and information technology.
Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (formerly, Sahar International Airport) is the busiest airport in India, and caters to cargo and passenger flights.
Mumbai also has three small rivers within the city limits originating in the National Park.
Mumbai single-handedly handles about 25% of the domestic and 38% of the international air passenger traffic in the country.
Mumbai has six sister cities (the maximum permitted by the Indian government).
Mumbai has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Elephanta Caves.
In 2004, the Mumbai Marathon, an annual marathon event, was established in a bid to bring the sport to the Indian public.
Mumbai has numerous newspaper publications and television and radio stations – Popular English language newspapers published and sold in Mumbai include the Times of India, Mid-day, DNA, Hindustan Times, Mumbai Mirror and Indian Express.
Almost all of Mumbai's daily refuse of 7,800 metric tons is transported to dumping grounds in Gorai in the northwest, Mulund in the northeast, and Deonar in the east.
In 1995, the city was renamed Mumbai by the Shiv Sena government of Maharashtra, in keeping with their policy of renaming colonial institutions after historic local appellations.
Mumbai is well connected by the Indian Railways to most parts of India through trains that originate from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus), Dadar, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Mumbai Central and Bandra terminus.
A proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport, to be built in the Kopra-Panvel area, has been sanctioned by the Government and would help relieve the increasing traffic burden on the existing airport.
The religions represented in Mumbai include Hindus (68 percent of the population), Muslims (17 percent of the population), and Christians and Jains (4 percent each).
The middle class in Mumbai is the segment most impacted by this growth and is the driver behind the consequent growth in consumer spending, fueled by upward mobility among Mumbaikars.
The Football World Cup is one of the most widely watched television events in Mumbai.
Every February, Mumbai holds the Derby races in the Mahalaxmi Racecourse.
According to the 2001 census, the population of Mumbai is about 12 million, with the population of the urban agglomerate exceeding 16 million.
Mumbai is also one of the few cities that accommodates a national park, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, within its city limits.