Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pune is a city in the state of Maharashtra on the western margin of the Deccan Plateau in Western India. It sits at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers at an altitude of 560 metres, about 149 km south-east of Mumbai by road.
The city was anglicized to Poona in 1857 during British rule, and that spelling remained the official name until 1978, when it was changed to Pune. The earliest reference to the place is a Rashtrakuta copper plate of 937 CE calling it Punya-vishaya, meaning holy land.
Pune is often called the Oxford of the East because of its educational institutions. It has over a hundred educational institutes and more than nine deemed universities, plus the Savitribai Phule Pune University, the largest university in India by number of affiliated colleges.
Pune is one of the largest IT hubs in India and one of its most important automobile and manufacturing hubs. It hosts the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park in Hinjawadi with over 800 IT companies, automobile plants at Chakan, and the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer.
Pune was ruled at different times by the Rashtrakuta dynasty, the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, the Mughals and the Adil Shahi dynasty. In the 18th century it was part of the Maratha Empire and the seat of the Peshwas, before being seized by the British East India Company in the Third Anglo-Maratha War.
Pune was a major centre of resistance to the British Raj, with Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak leading agitation between 1875 and 1910. Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned at Yerwada Central Jail and held under house arrest at the Aga Khan Palace between 1942 and 1944.
Badminton in its modern form originated in Pune. The game was known as Poona or Poonah after the British garrison town where it was particularly popular, and the first rules for the game were drawn up there in 1873.