Indian Institute of Petroleum is situated at:

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Dehradun. The Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP) is at Mohkampur, Dehradun, in Uttarakhand. Set up in 1960, it is one of the constituent laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and its work covers the downstream side of the hydrocarbon chain — petroleum refining, natural gas, petrochemicals, alternative and bio-fuels, and the utilisation of fuels in engines and in industrial and domestic combustion. Dehradun is the natural home for it: the city is India's oil-and-earth-science cluster, with ONGC's registered office and its Keshava Deva Malaviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration, the Survey of India, the Forest Research Institute and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology all located there.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Dhanbad in Jharkhand is India's coal capital — home to IIT (ISM) Dhanbad and to CSIR's Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR). Its research tradition is coal and mining, not petroleum refining.  (b) Chandigarh hosts CSIR's Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) and the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), along with PGIMER — a strong science city, but with no petroleum institute.  (c) Bhavnagar in Gujarat is the seat of CSIR's Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) and of the Alang ship-breaking yard. Gujarat certainly has the refineries — Jamnagar and Koyali — but the CSIR petroleum research laboratory is not in the state.

Concept: CSIR runs a national network of subject-specialised laboratories, and each one is tied to a particular city. Questions of this kind are really asking whether you carry that map in your head. The four options here are all genuine CSIR or research towns — Dehradun (petroleum), Dhanbad (mining and fuel), Chandigarh (microbial technology and scientific instruments), Bhavnagar (salt and marine chemicals) — so guessing by elimination does not work unless the pairings are learnt.

State PCS 2025 Q89 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q89 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer