NDA (II) 2023 General Ability Test · Question 102 of 146

Correct — A, Area wise Madhya Pradesh is the fourth largest state in India. This is the false statement, and the question asks for the false one. Madhya Pradesh covers 308,252 sq km and is India's SECOND largest state by area, behind Rajasthan at 342,239 sq km. Fourth place belongs to Uttar Pradesh at 240,928 sq km, with Maharashtra third at 307,713 sq km. Madhya Pradesh was the largest state until 2000, when Chhattisgarh was carved out of it and Rajasthan moved ahead — which is where the confusion in this option starts.

• (b)Hornbill festival is celebrated in Nagaland — This is true, so it cannot be the answer to a NOT-correct stem. The Hornbill Festival is held in Nagaland at the Kisama Heritage Village, about 12 km from Kohima, from 1 to 10 December every year; it began in December 2000 and is run by the state's tourism and art and culture departments.
• (c)Gujarat state contribute 7·9 per cent share to the National GDP — The paper treats this as a correct statement, so it is not the answer. Gujarat is one of India's largest state economies, but a share of national GDP is a moving figure that depends on the year and the data series, and we do not certify the exact 7.9 per cent here. The item is decided instead by option (a), whose rank claim is checkably wrong.
• (d)Telangana is situated in the Deccan plateau in the central stretch of Indian peninsula — Also true. Telangana lies on the Deccan plateau in the central part of the peninsula, which is why it has the plateau's characteristic black soils and its dependence on the Godavari and Krishna systems.

A NOT-correct stem is a search for the single false claim, and the reliable way through it is to look for the claim that carries a rank or a number you can check against a fixed list. Areas of Indian states are exactly such a list, and it has been stable since 2000: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka. Rank claims like this one are the examiner's favourite place to hide an error, because a wrong rank still sounds plausible.

Two printing details in this item deserve a note, since the text above is exactly as the booklet printed it. The decimal in option (c) is set with a middle dot, 7·9, a typesetting convention this paper uses throughout — read it as 7.9. And option (c) reads 'Gujarat state contribute', a subject-verb slip that appears in more than one stem in this booklet; it does not change the meaning. There is also an honest limit worth stating. A state's percentage share of national GDP is not a fixed constant — it shifts with the year and with the series used, and we found no primary source pinning it at exactly 7.9 per cent as of the September 2023 exam. That does not disturb the answer, because a NOT-correct stem needs only one clearly false claim, and the area rank in option (a) is wrong on arithmetic that does not move.

• Rajasthan is India's largest state by area at 342,239 sq km; Madhya Pradesh is second at 308,252 sq km.
• Maharashtra is third at 307,713 sq km and Uttar Pradesh fourth at 240,928 sq km.
• The Hornbill Festival runs from 1 to 10 December at the Kisama Heritage Village near Kohima, Nagaland, and began in December 2000.
• Madhya Pradesh lost its first place in area when Chhattisgarh was separated from it in 2000.

• Remembering Madhya Pradesh as India's largest state, which it was only until Chhattisgarh was separated in 2000.
• Answering the statement you are surest about instead of the one the stem asks for — this stem wants the FALSE claim.
• Rejecting an economic percentage just because you cannot verify it, when a rank on the same paper is checkably wrong.

Asked as a mixed-bag NOT-correct stem where one geography rank is wrong and the other three claims are ordinary state-level general knowledge.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is the correct descending order of Indian states by area?

  • (a)Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh
  • (b)Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra
  • (c)Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
  • (d)Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra

  Answer(a) Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh — 342,239 then 308,252 then 307,713 then 240,928 sq km.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Hornbill Festival is held every year at

  • (a)Kisama, Nagaland
  • (b)Majuli, Assam
  • (c)Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh
  • (d)Imphal, Manipur

  Answer(a) Kisama, Nagaland — the Heritage Village near Kohima hosts it from 1 to 10 December.