SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 14 of 100

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 6 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 the transboundary river between India and Pakistan?

(a)Beas
(b)Indus
(c)Ravi
(d)Jhelum

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The Ravi rises in Himachal Pradesh, crosses Punjab, and then runs along and across the India-Pakistan boundary before joining the Chenab inside Pakistan.

One river, two sovereign states sharing its water — that is what transboundary means.

Under the Indus Waters Treaty (1960) the Ravi is one of the three eastern rivers, with the Beas and the Sutlej, whose waters India may use without restriction. The channel itself still carries on into Pakistan.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Beas — Beas is the one river here that never leaves India. It rises at Beas Kund in Himachal and ends at Harike in Punjab, where it merges into the Sutlej.
(b)
Indus — The Indus does reach Pakistan, so this is the near-miss on the page. It enters from Ladakh and becomes Pakistan's trunk river rather than running along the settled India-Pakistan boundary, and the key marks the Ravi.
(d)
Jhelum — The Jhelum also ends up in Pakistan, but it gets there by crossing the Line of Control in Kashmir — a ceasefire line rather than the settled international border, which makes it the looser fit for the wording used.

Concept

A transboundary river is one whose basin is shared by more than one country, so no single government controls it end to end. In the Indus system that is the rule, not the exception.

The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, brokered by the World Bank, divides the six main rivers between the two states. India gets unrestricted use of the eastern three — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Pakistan gets the western three — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.

The Indus and the Sutlej rise in Tibet, so China sits in this basin as well.

The wording is loose. Judged only by 'does it flow from India into Pakistan', the Indus and the Jhelum qualify too.

The Ravi is the one that actually runs along the international boundary in Punjab, and it is the one the key marks — so answer on that reading.

Key facts

The Ravi rises in Himachal Pradesh and joins the Chenab inside Pakistan.
Indus Waters Treaty, 1960: the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India, the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan.
The Beas lies entirely within India, ending where it meets the Sutlej at Harike in Punjab.

Study next

The Indus Waters Treaty 1960 and the eastern-western split of the six riversWhere each Indus tributary rises and which state it drainsIndia's other shared basins, above all the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system

Common traps

Reading 'transboundary' as 'forms the border' and discarding rivers that merely cross it
Grouping the Beas with the Ravi because the treaty puts them in the same set
Swapping the treaty's two groups, giving the eastern rivers to Pakistan

River identification is a fixed slot in this cycle: 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.19 asks which river originates in the Himalayas, and 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.17 works the same names through the Sapta Sindhu.

The same shift also asks which feature blocks the cold Central Asian winds (10 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.13). Learn the six Indus rivers as the treaty's two groups, not as loose names.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.