MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 52 of 100

Correct — C, statements 1, 2 and 4. Statement 1 is right: Mahan Aluminium is Hindalco's greenfield smelter at Bargawan in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh. Statement 2 is right in the sense the commission intends: the smelter tapped its commissioned in the 2010s (the full pot line was ramped up over the following two years). Statement 4 is right: Mahan smelts using AP-36 pot-line technology developed by Aluminium Pechiney of France — hence 'French technology'. Statement 3 is the planted error: no official figure fixes eighty per cent of this particular plant's output as exported; Hindalco reports export shares at company level, not for the Mahan unit, and the commission's key excludes statement 3. Dropping 3 and keeping 1, 2 and 4 gives option C.

• (a)1, 2 and 3 are correct — It admits the unsupported eighty-per-cent export claim (statement 3) and throws out statement 4, which is the one genuinely distinctive fact about the plant — its French AP-36 smelting technology.
• (b)2, 3 and 4 are correct — It drops the plainly correct location statement (Bargawan, Singrauli) and keeps the unsupported export figure — exactly the wrong trade.
• (d)1, 2, 3 and 4 are correct — The 'all of them' option, which only works if statement 3 is true. An exact-sounding percentage attached to a single plant with no official source is the classic inserted error in this format.

Aluminium smelting is the most power-hungry step in Indian metallurgy — roughly 14,000 units (kWh) of electricity per tonne of metal. That single fact decides where smelters go: they sit on cheap captive coal power, while alumina is railed in. Mahan is the textbook Indian case — a smelter of roughly 360,000 tonnes a year with a captive thermal power plant of about 900 MW, planted in Singrauli, India's 'energy capital', not on a bauxite field.

Statement-set questions on a named plant are won by triage. Location and ownership/technology are stable, documented facts you can verify; trade shares and percentages drift year to year and are almost never officially published per plant. So when one statement carries a suspiciously round figure like 'eighty percent is exported', treat it as the error and check whether an option exists that keeps everything else — here, option C.

• Mahan Aluminium is Hindalco's smelter at Bargawan, Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh, with a captive thermal power plant of about 900 MW.
• First hot metal was produced in 2013; the full pot line was commissioned over the following couple of years.
• Smelting uses AP-36 pot technology developed by Aluminium Pechiney (France).
• Aluminium smelting consumes roughly 14,000 kWh per tonne — which is why Indian smelters sit on coalfields (Singrauli, Korba, Renukoot, Angul) rather than on bauxite mines.

• Assuming a smelter must sit on bauxite — it sits on cheap electricity; alumina travels, power does not
• Trusting a precise percentage inserted into a statement set; unsourced plant-level trade shares are usually the planted error
• Confusing Singrauli district of MP with Singrauli town/Sonbhadra district across the Uttar Pradesh border

As a statement set on one named plant. MPPSC keeps location and technology honest and corrupts a number; UPSC asks the same idea conceptually — 'why is this smelter located here?'

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Aluminium smelting plants in India are located primarily with reference to:

  • (a)bauxite deposits
  • (b)cheap and abundant electric power
  • (c)coastal ports for export
  • (d)proximity to consumer markets

  Answer(b) cheap and abundant electric power — smelting needs roughly 14,000 kWh per tonne, so smelters follow coalfields and captive power.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mahan Aluminium plant is located in which district of Madhya Pradesh?

  • (a)Sidhi
  • (b)Singrauli
  • (c)Shahdol
  • (d)Anuppur

  Answer(b) Singrauli — the plant stands near Bargawan in Singrauli district.