SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 21 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following is in geographical proximity to Sri Lanka?

(a)Only Karaikal
(b)Karaikal and Yanam
(c)Only Yanam
(d)Mahe

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Of the districts named, Karaikal is the one on the Tamil Nadu coast, on the Bay of Bengal near Nagapattinam — the stretch of Indian coastline that faces Sri Lanka across the Palk Strait. That is option (a).

Yanam is an enclave inside Andhra Pradesh, in the Godavari delta, several hundred kilometres to the north. Mahe lies on the Arabian Sea in Kerala, on the other side of the peninsula altogether.

So a pairing of Karaikal with Yanam fails on Yanam, and Mahe fails on the coast.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Karaikal and Yanam — Karaikal qualifies but Yanam does not. Yanam sits in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh, far up the eastern coast from the waters facing Sri Lanka.
(c)
Only Yanam — Yanam is the wrong district entirely — an Andhra Pradesh enclave in the north-east of the peninsula, nowhere near the Palk Strait.
(d)
Mahe — Mahe is on the Arabian Sea coast inside Kerala, on India's western side. Sri Lanka lies off the south-east, so Mahe faces the wrong sea.

Concept

The Union Territory of Puducherry is not one block of land. Its four districts are scattered along two coasts: Puducherry and Karaikal as enclaves inside Tamil Nadu on the Bay of Bengal, Yanam inside Andhra Pradesh in the Godavari delta, and Mahe inside Kerala on the Arabian Sea.

The scatter is a legacy of French India, where these were separate trading settlements. Any proximity question about Puducherry therefore turns on which of the four districts is meant.

Sri Lanka lies off India's south-east, across the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. Among the districts named, Karaikal alone sits on that coast.

Key facts

Puducherry Union Territory has four districts: Puducherry, Karaikal, Yanam and Mahe.
Karaikal lies on the Tamil Nadu coast on the Bay of Bengal, the Indian coastline nearest Sri Lanka.
Yanam is an enclave in Andhra Pradesh in the Godavari delta.
Mahe lies on the Arabian Sea coast within Kerala.

Study next

The four districts of Puducherry and the states that surround themPalk Strait and Gulf of Mannar in India-Sri Lanka geographyFormer French settlements in India and how they were transferred

Common traps

Assuming all Puducherry districts share one coast.
Reading Yanam as a far-southern place because Puducherry is a southern UT.

Puducherry turns up as a political fact as well as a physical one — the party N. Rangasamy founded is asked at 24 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.7, and the UT with the highest slum population in Census 2011 at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.