Minerals, Energy & Industry: previous-year questions

Answer: (A) Gujarat

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

Gujarat has the largest installed wind power capacity of any Indian state, having overtaken Tamil Nadu, which led for many years. Tamil Nadu is therefore the tempting wrong option; Maharashtra and Rajasthan come lower in the ranking.

Answer: (B) Surat

Surat in Gujarat cuts and polishes the large majority of the world's diamonds and is called the Diamond City. Jaipur is known for coloured gemstones, Hyderabad for pearls, and Ahmedabad for textiles.

Answer: (C) Assam and Rajasthan.

Tertiary (younger) coal and lignite occur in Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir. Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh hold the older Gondwana coal.

Answer: (A) Koraput.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's Engine Division at Sunabeda, Koraput (Odisha), manufactures aero-engines such as those for the MiG and Sukhoi aircraft. Kolkata and Visakhapatnam do not make aircraft engines, so (D) does not apply.

Answer: (C) Chennai

India's first cement factory was set up in Madras (Chennai) in 1904 by South India Industries Ltd. Bhadravati is known for iron and steel, Sindri for fertiliser, and Dalmianagar's cement works came much later.

Answer: (A) Diamond

The Panna belt in Madhya Pradesh has India's only working diamond mine, at Majhgawan, run by the NMDC. It is not a source of silver, coal or gold.

Answer: (B) Standup India

Stand-Up India (2016) provides bank loans of ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore to at least one SC/ST and one woman entrepreneur per bank branch for a new enterprise. Startup India supports start-ups in general, Skill India training, and Make in India manufacturing.

Answer: (A) Make in India

Make in India, launched in September 2014, aims to make India a global manufacturing hub by attracting domestic and foreign investment into manufacturing. Digital India, Skill India and Startup India target digital services, training and start-ups.

Answer: (C) Rourkela

Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha, India's first public-sector integrated steel plant, was built with West German collaboration and began production in 1959. Bhilai and Bokaro were built with Soviet help and Durgapur with British help.

Answer: (C) Rajasthan.

The Khetri–Singhana copper belt lies in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, where Hindustan Copper runs a mining and smelting complex. Jharkhand has the Singhbhum belt and Madhya Pradesh the Malanjkhand mine.

Answer: (A) 1948

Independent India's first Industrial Policy Resolution was announced on 6 April 1948, defining a mixed economy. The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 was the second, which makes it the tempting wrong option.

Answer: (B) Odisha

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

Odisha is India's largest producer of bauxite, mainly from the Panchpatmali deposit in Koraput. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra produce much less.

Answer: (A) Ministry of Finance

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

The Ministry of Finance frames and implements the government's economic policy, including fiscal policy, the Budget, taxation and financial regulation. NITI Aayog is an advisory think-tank without enforcement powers, the Planning Commission was abolished in 2015, and Commerce and Industry deals only with trade and industry.

Answer: (B) Iron ore mining area

The Rourkela Steel Plant (Sundargarh district, Odisha), set up in 1959 with West German collaboration during the Second Five Year Plan, was located on the basis of proximity to raw material: it stands in the iron-ore belt of Sundargarh and Kendujhar (Bonai, Barsua, Kiriburu). Its coal comes from farther away (Jharia and Talcher), hydel power from Hirakud and water from the Koel and Sankh rivers. It is therefore an iron-ore-based location, not a coalfield or Damodar Valley location like Durgapur and Bokaro. Compare: Bhilai (Chhattisgarh, Soviet help) uses Dalli-Rajhara ore, Durgapur (West Bengal) had British help, and Bokaro (Jharkhand) Soviet help.

Answer: (C) Madras/Chennai

OTEC produces power from the temperature difference (about 20°C or more) between warm surface water and cold deep water in tropical seas. India's OTEC efforts have centred on Tamil Nadu: a 1 MW plant was proposed off the Tamil Nadu coast in the early 1980s, and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, later built an experimental 1 MW floating OTEC plant and now runs low-temperature thermal desalination (LTTD) plants in Lakshadweep, which work on the same principle. Hence Madras/Chennai is the answer; Kolkata, Haldia and Paradip have no OTEC link. For tidal energy, the potential sites are the Gulf of Khambhat, the Gulf of Kachchh and the Sundarbans.

Answer: (C) Andhra Pradesh

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

PSC's final answer key gives Andhra Pradesh (the provisional key had given Gujarat). According to the Annual Survey of Industries, Andhra Pradesh has the largest number of registered food-processing factories in the country (over 5,500 in 2021–22), followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab and Maharashtra. Its strengths are rice milling, seafood and aquaculture, eggs, mango pulp (Chittoor), chillies (Guntur) and edible oil; one of India's first mega food parks, Srini, was set up at Chittoor. Gujarat is better known for dairy processing (Amul, Anand). Central schemes for the sector are PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana, PMFME and the PLI scheme for food processing.

Answer: (A) Kolkata – Ghusuri

India's first cotton mill, the Fort Gloster mill, was set up in 1818 on the Hooghly near Kolkata — at Ghusuri (Howrah) according to standard textbooks — but it did not succeed. The first successful modern mill was the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company, started in 1854 by Cowasji Nanabhai Davar. Ahmedabad's first mill came in 1861 and Jamsetji Tata's Empress Mills at Nagpur in 1877. Nicknames: Ahmedabad is the "Manchester of India", Kanpur the "Manchester of North India" and Coimbatore the "Manchester of South India". For comparison, the first jute mill was at Rishra (1855).

Answer: (D) Petroleum refinery and Chemical Fertilizers production

Haldia, at the meeting point of the Haldi and Hooghly rivers in Purba Medinipur, grew up around the Indian Oil refinery (commissioned 1975) and the associated petrochemical and chemical-fertiliser industries, so "petroleum refinery and chemical fertilizers production" is the answer. Batteries are also made there, but that is not one of the two principal industries, and ship repairing is associated with Kolkata (Garden Reach), not Haldia. Related facts: Haldia Dock Complex (1977) is part of the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata, and National Waterway 1 runs from Prayagraj to Haldia.

Answer: (D) 1818

The first cotton mill in India, the Fort Gloster mill near Kolkata, was set up in 1818 but failed. The first successful mill was the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company (1854, C. N. Davar). Dates of other industrial firsts: railway, Bombay to Thane, 1853; jute mill, Rishra, 1855; modern ironworks, Kulti, 1870s; Tata Iron and Steel Company, Jamshedpur, 1907. The years 1812, 1820 and 1840 have no connection with cotton mills and are plain distractors. Note that the same paper also asks the place of this mill (Ghusuri).

Answer: (A) Ballarpur

Ballarpur in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, home of Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT), is regarded as the largest centre of the paper industry in India, using bamboo from the nearby forests. Nepanagar in Madhya Pradesh has the NEPA Mills, India's first newsprint factory. Salkia is an industrial locality of Howrah, and Nagpur is known for oranges rather than paper. Other paper centres worth remembering: Titagarh, Naihati and Raniganj (West Bengal), Sirpur-Kaghaznagar (Telangana), Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh), Dandeli (Karnataka) and the Security Paper Mill at Narmadapuram (Hoshangabad), which makes currency paper.