RAS question
Mumbai High (Bombay High) is India's largest:
Correct answer: (B) Offshore oil and gas field.
Mumbai High, also called Bombay High, is India’s largest offshore oil and gas field.
Explanation
Mumbai High is best identified as an offshore oil and gas field, not as a port, fishery zone, or industrial plant. It lies about 160 km off the Mumbai coast in the Arabian Sea, and ONGC discovered it in 1974. PIB’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas release confirms the core classification by calling Mumbai High India’s largest offshore oilfield and describing ONGC’s work there to stabilise and enhance production. The older PIB release also underlines its petroleum importance by recording that a large share of the country’s oil and gas comes from Mumbai High. That is why, in geography and resource-distribution questions, Mumbai High is treated as India’s flagship offshore hydrocarbon field.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Mumbai High may lie in the Arabian Sea, but the question asks its primary national significance: offshore oil and gas production, not fishing.
- (C) Mumbai High is located offshore from Mumbai, whereas a port such as Mumbai Port or JNPT is a separate coastal transport facility, not the offshore hydrocarbon field described here.
- (D) The site is associated with ONGC’s offshore crude oil and natural gas operations, while a steel plant is a land-based metallurgical industrial unit and is not located here.
Concept
This tests the Indian geography theme of mineral and energy-resource distribution, especially offshore petroleum in the western offshore basin. It recurs in RAS because Mumbai High is a standard map-based and economy-linked example for India’s domestic hydrocarbon resources.