SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 16 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.

According to the Agricultural and Processed food products Export Development Authority (APEDA) 2020-2021, which state of India has the first rank in grapes production?

(a)Bihar
(b)Uttar Pradesh
(c)Karnataka
(d)Maharashtra

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Maharashtra grows more grapes than any other Indian state and takes first rank on the APEDA figures the question cites.

The crop concentrates in the Nashik belt and around Sangli, Solapur and Pune — a semi-arid plateau with a dry, warm ripening season, which is exactly what a table grape needs and what a monsoon-soaked plain cannot give it.

That same belt supplies most of India's grape exports, which is why an export authority is the body being quoted at all.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bihar — Bihar sits on the humid Gangetic plain, where a vine meets fungal disease through the growing season. Its horticulture strength is litchi and makhana, not grapes.
(b)
Uttar Pradesh — Uttar Pradesh leads India in sugarcane, potato and mango, and that record is the trap: a state can top several crop tables and still grow almost no grapes.
(c)
Karnataka — Karnataka is the genuine near-miss — the Vijayapura and Bagalkot belt is a real grape and raisin region, but it ranks behind Maharashtra rather than level with it.

Concept

APEDA — the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority — is the body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry that promotes and regulates the export of scheduled agricultural products. It was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1985.

Because it certifies and tracks consignments, its production and export tables are a standard source for state-rank questions of this kind.

For grapes the geography does the work. The crop wants a dry ripening season on well-drained soil, which the Deccan plateau of western Maharashtra supplies and the humid plains do not.

The stem names both an agency and a year, 2020-21. Treat that as decoration: Maharashtra's lead in grapes is long-standing, and no shift expects you to recall a tonnage.

What is being tested is the state-crop pairing, nothing finer.

Key facts

Maharashtra ranks first in India in grape production, with Nashik as its leading district.
APEDA was created by an Act of Parliament in 1985 and works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Grapes need a dry ripening period, which is why they concentrate in the semi-arid Deccan rather than the humid plains.

Study next

State-wise leaders for the major horticultural crops such as mango, banana and litchiWhat APEDA does and which products sit on its export scheduleWhy the Deccan plateau suits grapes, cotton and oilseeds

Common traps

Choosing Karnataka because it is also a genuine grape state
Reading 'APEDA 2020-21' as a demand for a figure when only the rank is asked
Assuming India's largest agricultural state must lead every crop table

The agency-plus-year state-rank item recurs across this cycle: 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.24 asks the Tea Board's largest tea producer, and 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21 asks the biggest producer of pulses.

The named source changes from shift to shift; only the state-crop pairing is actually being tested.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.