Mumbai, formerly Bombay, city, capital of Maharashtra state, southwestern India. It is the country’s financial and commercial centre and its principal port on the Arabian Sea.Explore Mumbai, the most populous city and the country's financial and commercial center.Mumbai is India’s most-populous city, and it is one of the largest and most densely populated urban areas in the world. It was built on a site of ancient settlement, and it took its name from the local goddess Mumba—a form of Parvati, the consort of Shiva, one of the principal deities of Hinduism—whose temple once stood in what is now the southeastern section of the city.Mumbai, long the centre of India’s cotton textile industry, subsequently developed a highly diversified manufacturing sector that included an increasingly important information technology (IT) component. In addition, the city’s commercial and financial institutions are strong and vigorous, and Mumbai serves as the country’s financial hub.It became known as Bombay during the British colonial period, the name possibly an Anglicized corruption of Mumbai or perhaps of Bom Baim, supposedly a Portuguese name for the locale.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway also called a local train, is bifurcated into inner suburban railway lines from the mainline to serve the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in a better way. It's the 3rd largest suburban rail network with a route length of 427 km after Kolkata, Chennai, and the 3rd busiest in terms of passengers after Mumbai and Kolkata. Approximately 2342 local trains are operated by Mumbai Suburban Railway and carry more than 7.5 million passengers on daily basis between 4:00 am to 01:00 am.Today with the Western, Central, Harbour and Trans-Harbour line catering to more than seven-and-a-half million commuters on a daily basis, 2,342 train services running from 4am to 1am – and some beyond – Mumbai’s suburban train network is one of the busiest train systems in the world. Much like the various ups and downs in the city’s history, the trains too have numerous fatalities from overcrowding, derailments and other tragedies. The train system has been targeted during various terrorist attacks, including serial bomb blasts in 2006 which killed 209 people.

Mumbai’s literacy rate is much higher than that of the country as a whole. Primary education is free and compulsory; it is the responsibility of the MCGM. Secondary education is provided largely by public schools that are supervised by the state government, as well as by several independently run private schools for students whose families can afford them. There also are public and private polytechnic institutes and institutions offering students a variety of degree and diploma courses in mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering. The Indian Institute of Technology, operated by the central government, is located in the city. The University of Mumbai, established in 1857, has more than 100 constituent colleges and more than two dozen teaching departments. Several colleges in the state of Goa are affiliated with the university.The University of Mumbai, is one of the premiere universities of India, and has been featured in several magazines alongside other top universities. Most of the colleges affiliated to this university offer courses in streams, such as engineering, science, medicine, fashion designing and arts.