In relation to Maharashtra which statements are true as per 2011 census ? (a) In population Maharashtra rank 2nd in Country (b) Density is 365 per sq. km (c) Literacy is 82.91% (d) Sex ratio is 925 Answer options :
- (1)Only (a), (b) and (c)
- (2)Only (b), (c) and (d)
- (3)Only (a), (c) and (d)
- (4)All the above
Correct — option (1), only statements (a), (b) and (c). The question is decided by statement (d), and it is worth seeing why before checking anything else: of the four choices offered, option (1) is the only one that leaves statement (d) out, so a candidate who knows that Maharashtra's 2011 sex ratio was not 925 can mark the answer without adjudicating the other three. Maharashtra returned 929 females per 1,000 males at the 2011 Census — below the all-India figure of 943 — so the printed 925 is wrong and every option containing (d) falls. Statement (a) is correct: with a population of about 11.24 crore, Maharashtra was the second most populous state in the country at the 2011 Census, behind Uttar Pradesh, and accounted for roughly 9.3 per cent of India's people. Statement (b) is correct: the state's population density was 365 persons per square kilometre, below the all-India density of 382, because Maharashtra combines an enormous urban concentration around Mumbai and Pune with large, thinly settled tracts in the drought-prone interior and the forested east. Statement (c) gives Maharashtra's literacy as 82.91 per cent. The Census's published final table for the state records 82.34 per cent, with male literacy at 88.38 and female at 75.87, and the figure of about 82.9 per cent is the one carried in a good deal of state-level Census 2011 material; the two differ by roughly half a percentage point and nothing in this question turns on which is used, since the option list contains no choice that treats statement (c) as false while treating (d) as false too. Either reading leaves option (1) as the answer. What the candidate actually needs here is the sex ratio, and the safest form in which to hold it is as a pair: Maharashtra 929 against India 943.
- (2)Only (b), (c) and (d) — This option keeps statement (d), whose figure of 925 for Maharashtra's sex ratio is wrong — the 2011 Census recorded 929 females per 1,000 males — and simultaneously drops statement (a), which is sound, since Maharashtra was indeed the second most populous state in the country after Uttar Pradesh. It therefore makes two errors in opposite directions: it admits the one false statement and rejects the most securely established true one. The 925 figure is close enough to the real 929 to survive a hurried reading, which is exactly the point of setting it.
- (3)Only (a), (c) and (d) — This option also keeps the false statement (d) and additionally drops statement (b), the density figure of 365 persons per square kilometre, which is correct. Density is one of the most frequently quoted Maharashtra Census figures and sits just below the all-India value of 382, so a candidate who has the state profile in mind should retain it with confidence. As with the other wrong options, the fatal element is the retention of (d): any option that treats a sex ratio of 925 as correct cannot be the answer.
- (4)All the above — This accepts all four statements, including the sex ratio of 925, and so fails on the same point as the other two wrong options. It is the most tempting of them because the first three statements are genuinely correct and the fourth is only narrowly wrong — 925 against an actual 929 — so a candidate who verifies (a), (b) and (c) and then reads (d) quickly may sweep it in. This is the standard function of an 'all of the above' option on a statement question: it rewards momentum and punishes the failure to check the last item as carefully as the first.
The sex ratio in Indian census practice is the number of females per 1,000 males, which is the reverse of the convention used in several other countries, and it is one of the Census's most closely watched indicators because it registers both the survival chances of girls and the effect of sex-selective practices. At the 2011 Census India's overall sex ratio was 943, an improvement on 933 in 2001 but still well short of parity. Maharashtra's 929 sits below the national figure, which is a striking result for a state that is comparatively prosperous, highly urbanised and among the more literate — a reminder that the sex ratio does not track income or education in any simple way, and that the states with the most adverse ratios have often been among the country's better-off. Alongside the sex ratio, the four indicators MPSC returns to for Maharashtra are the state's population and rank, its density, its literacy and its decadal growth, and they are best learned as a single connected profile with the corresponding all-India figure next to each, since almost every question is built on a comparison.
This question is a standard MPSC construction: three correct statements and one containing a number altered just enough to be wrong. The defence is arithmetic discipline — read each figure against a remembered value rather than against a general sense of plausibility, because 925 and 929 feel equally reasonable if the exact number is not held. It is also worth reading the option list structurally before working through the statements. Here the four choices are (a),(b),(c) / (b),(c),(d) / (a),(c),(d) / all four, so statement (c) appears in every option and can never discriminate, while statement (d) appears in three of the four. That means the whole question turns on statement (d), and settling it settles everything. Learning to scan an option list for the statement that actually splits it is one of the most transferable habits in this paper.
- Maharashtra's sex ratio at the 2011 Census was 929 females per 1,000 males, below the all-India figure of 943; the 925 printed in statement (d) is not the census value.
- Maharashtra was the second most populous state in India at the 2011 Census, with about 11.24 crore people, behind Uttar Pradesh and accounting for roughly 9.3 per cent of the national population.
- Maharashtra's population density at the 2011 Census was 365 persons per square kilometre, below the all-India density of 382.
- The Census's published final literacy rate for Maharashtra in 2011 is 82.34 per cent, with male literacy 88.38 and female literacy 75.87; the figure of about 82.9 per cent used in this question circulates widely in state-level Census 2011 material.
- In Indian census practice the sex ratio is expressed as females per 1,000 males, so a figure below 1,000 indicates more males than females in the population.
Hold the sex ratio as a pair — Maharashtra 929 against India 943 — and the item is answered without adjudicating anything else.
- Accepting 925 for Maharashtra's sex ratio because it is close to the real 929; on Census questions the wrong figure is usually adjusted by a few units, not by an order of magnitude
- Working through the statements in order without first scanning the option list — statement (c) appears in all four options here and cannot discriminate, so time spent on it is wasted
- Being swept into the 'all of the above' option by the momentum of three correct statements and reading the last one less carefully than the first
- Confusing the sex ratio convention: in India it is females per 1,000 males, so a number under 1,000 means a deficit of women, not of men
Maharashtra's Census 2011 indicators are among the most reliably examined facts in MPSC Paper I, and the Commission asks them in every available form — direct recall of a single figure, a two-statement true or false pair, a four-statement sort like this one, and match-the-columns pairings of indicator with value. The numbers used are the standard published ones and the wrong versions are always near misses rather than wild figures, so a candidate who holds the profile approximately will still lose the question. Learn the state's figures alongside the corresponding all-India figures, because comparison is the Commission's favourite framing.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
According to the 2011 Census, what was the sex ratio of Maharashtra, and how did it compare with the all-India figure ?
- (a)929 females per 1,000 males, below the all-India figure of 943
- (b)943 females per 1,000 males, equal to the all-India figure
- (c)925 females per 1,000 males, above the all-India figure of 919
- (d)946 females per 1,000 males, above the all-India figure of 943
Answer(a) 929 females per 1,000 males, below the all-India figure of 943 — Maharashtra's ratio sits under the national value despite the state's relative prosperity and high urbanisation, which is a standing reminder that the sex ratio does not track income or literacy in any simple way.
- practice — not a real PYQ
At the 2011 Census, Maharashtra ranked second among Indian states by population. Which state ranked first ?
- (a)Bihar
- (b)West Bengal
- (c)Uttar Pradesh
- (d)Madhya Pradesh
Answer(c) Uttar Pradesh — the most populous state at the 2011 Census, ahead of Maharashtra in second place with about 11.24 crore people. Bihar ranked third and West Bengal fourth; Madhya Pradesh, though large in area, ranked lower on population.