Status Report 2016-2019 The Western Continental Margin of India: Indian Scientific Contributions (2016-2018) DHANANJAI K PANDEY*, NISHA NAIR and AJEET KUMAR ESSO-National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Vasco da Gama, Goa, India (Received on 10 August 2019; Accepted on 29 September 2019) The western continental margin of India (WCMI) is among some of the most spectacular passive margins with numerous pronounced morpho-tectonic features. While it preserves early imprints of the final Gondwana dispersal, deep post-rift sedimentary archives on this margin are crucial for deciphering the India-Eurasia collisional tectonics and its long term climatic response. With a varying degree of magmatism along its ~2500 km long N-S stretch, the WCMI has a gently dipping wide shelf in the north as compared to the steep and narrower shelf in the south. Due to its vital link in understanding the formation and evolution of passive continental margins, the past few years have witnessed significant growth in the geoscientific studies especially led by the Indian geoscientific community. Here we collate some of the recent Indian contributions (2015-2018) aimed at augmenting our knowledge about the origin and subsequent evolution of this complex passive margin. Scientific contributions discussed in this review primarily focuses on various tectonic fragments/ domains along WCMI namely-submarine fan, shelf, seamounts, aseismic ridges, and abyssal basins.These recent studies using new seismic, bathymetric, potential field and magnetic data have targeted both aspects of the WCMI fairly well in terms of unraveling its early as well as late structural and tectonic evolution. We also make a particular mention of the first- ever deep-sea drilling through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expedition 355 in the eastern Arabian Sea and the initial scientific findings emanating from it. Keywords: Western Indian Margin; Laxmi Ridge; Laxmi Basin; Laccadive Ridge; Laccadive Basin; Arabian Basin; Indus Fan *Author for Correspondence: E-mail: pandey@ncpor.res.in Proc Indian Natn Sci Acad 86 No. 1 March 2020 pp. 331-341  Printed in India. DOI: 10.16943/ptinsa/2020/49789 Major Structural Elements Along The Western Continental Margin of India The Western Continental Margin of India (WCMI) is a passive continental margin having undergone repeated drift-drift transitions since the mid-late Cretaceous (~120-65 Ma). The WCMI is presently a seismically quiescent margin that inherits crucial records of the continental break-up of India from Madagascar and the Seychelles blocks and subsequent opening of the northwestern Indian Ocean. The WCMI is characterized by ~300 km wide continental shelf in the north (offshore Gujarat) that gradually narrows down to ~50 km in the south (offshore Kerala) (Fig. 1). Prominent structural features along the western continental margin include the NW-SE trending Laxmi Ridge (LR), Laxmi Basin (LB), Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, and adjoining basins, Prathap Ridge complex and numerous associated seamount chains (e.g. Panikarridge). Towards further north, adjoining India-Pakistan shelf lies an extensive submarine Indus Fan system. This offshore depositional system is one of the largest sediment repositories sourced through weathering, erosion and mass wasting mechanisms ever since the onset of India-Eurasia collision (~50 Ma). Much of the offshore sedimentation in the eastern Arabian Sea adjoining WCMI is attributed to the drainage systems emanating from the western Himalaya and the central Indian peninsular discharge. Extensive geological and geophysical studies have been carried out over several decades, which have rendered significant understanding about the structural style and long term sedimentation patterns along this margin. Thick sedimentation in the shelf regions is also envisaged hydrocarbon worthy. Precise knowledge about these geological processes is crucial for evaluating long- term links between mountain-building processes and