Northwest India in the context of "Indus Valley Civilisation"

Punjab (/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/ pun-JAHB; Punjabi: Panjāb, pronounced [pəɲˈd͡ʒaːb] ) is a geographical, ethnolinguistic, and historical region in South Asia, located in its northwestern part, comprising areas of modern-day Pakistan and northwestern India. It is primarily inhabited by the Punjabi people. Lahore is its largest city and historic capital, with other major cities including Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha, and Bahawalpur in Pakistan; alongside Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Patiala, Mohali, Bathinda, Firozpur, and Fazilka in India.

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, followed by migrations of the Indo-Aryan peoples. Agriculture has been the chief economic feature of the Punjab and formed the foundation of Punjabi culture. 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."

The Punjab Plain is a large alluvial plain in northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. The plain includes the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and the union territory of Delhi, excluding the Shahdara district, and the eastern part of Pakistani Punjab. This plain is around 200–300 meters above mean sea level. The plain is the western part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and is bounded by the Sivalik Hills in the north, the Yamuna River in the east, the Thar Desert of Rajasthan to the south, the Ravi River to the northwest and Sutlej River to the southwest. The plain is extensively farmed for cereals and cotton.

The land formed of alluvium in between two rivers known as Doab is found here. 'Doab' is made up of two words — 'do' meaning two and 'ab' meaning water. Similarly 'Punjab', is also made up of two words — 'Punj' meaning five and 'ab' meaning water.

The Beas River is a river in northwestern India, flowing through the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, and is the smallest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. Rising in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, the river flows for approximately 470 kilometres (290 mi) into the Sutlej River in Punjab. Its total length is 470 kilometres (290 mi) and its drainage basin is 20,303 square kilometres (7,839 sq mi) large.

As of 2017, the river is home to a tiny isolated population of the Indus dolphin.

The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Near East and South Asia. Of the three, it was the most widespread: it spanned much of Pakistan, northwestern India, and northeast Afghanistan. The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan.

The term Harappan is also applied to the Indus Civilisation, after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan. The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861. There were earlier and later cultures called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. The early Harappan cultures were populated from Neolithic cultures, the earliest and best-known of which is named after Mehrgarh, in Balochistan, Pakistan. Harappan civilisation is sometimes called Mature Harappan to distinguish it from the earlier cultures.

Haryana (Hindi: Hariyāṇā, pronounced [ɦəɾɪːˈaːɳɑɐː]) is a state located in the northwestern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% (44,212 km or 17,070 sq mi) of India's land area. The state capital is Chandigarh, which it shares with the neighbouring state of Punjab; the most populous city is Faridabad, a part of the National Capital Region. The city of Gurgaon is among India's largest financial and technology hubs. Haryana has 6 administrative divisions, 22 districts, 72 sub-divisions, 93 revenue tehsils, 50 sub-tehsils, 140 community development blocks, 154 cities and towns, 7,356 villages, and 6,222 villages panchayats.

Haryana contains 32 special economic zones (SEZs), mainly located within the industrial corridor projects connecting the National Capital Region. Gurgaon is considered one of the major information technology and automobile hubs of India. Haryana ranks 11th among Indian states in human development index. The economy of Haryana is the 13th largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹7.65 trillion (US$90 billion) and has the country's 5th-highest GSDP per capita of ₹240,000 (US$2,800).

The 3rd millennium BC spanned the years 3000 to 2001 BC. This period of time corresponds to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, characterized by the early empires in the Ancient Near East. In Ancient Egypt, the Early Dynastic Period is followed by the Old Kingdom. In Mesopotamia, the Early Dynastic Period is followed by the Akkadian Empire. In what is now Northwest India and Pakistan, the Indus Valley Civilization developed a state society.

World population growth relaxed after the burst due to the Neolithic Revolution.World population was largely stable, at roughly 60 million, with a slow overall growth rate at roughly 0.03% p.a.