SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 25 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.

The CSO adopted the concept of Gross Value Added in ______.

(a)January 2012
(b)January 2017
(c)January 2013
(d)January 2015

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The CSO moved to Gross Value Added when it released the revised national accounts series in January 2015, shifting the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12.

Two things changed together. Sectoral output began to be measured as GVA at basic prices instead of GDP at factor cost, and the headline growth figure became GDP at market prices, bringing India into line with international practice.

The two are linked by arithmetic: GDP = GVA + taxes on products - subsidies on products.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
January 2012 — January 2012 is the base year leaking into the answer. The series is dated 2011-12 because that is the year its prices are measured against, not the month it was published.
(b)
January 2017 — January 2017 is two years after the change. It looks plausible because that period is crowded with economic events, from demonetisation to the run-up to GST, but none of them is this one.
(c)
January 2013 — January 2013 falls between the old series and the new one. Nothing in the GVA switch happened then — the revision came two years later.

Concept

Gross Value Added measures what a producer actually adds: output minus the intermediate goods consumed in making it. Sum GVA across all sectors and you have the production side of the economy, before taxes touch it.

GDP is the same total seen from the market side. The two differ only by taxes and subsidies on products, so GDP equals GVA plus product taxes minus product subsidies.

The CSO, the Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, compiled these accounts. It was merged with the NSSO into the National Statistical Office in 2019.

Base year and adoption year are two different numbers, and the options are built to exploit the confusion.

2011-12 is the base. January 2015 is when the series built on that base was released, and it is the date the question wants.

Key facts

The CSO released the new national accounts series with base year 2011-12 in January 2015, adopting GVA.
GVA at basic prices replaced GDP at factor cost as the sectoral measure.
GDP at market prices equals GVA plus taxes on products minus subsidies on products.
The CSO and the NSSO were merged into the National Statistical Office in 2019.

Study next

GDP, GNP, NDP and NNP, and the factor-cost against market-price distinctionWhy base years are revised and what a revision changesThe organisations under MoSPI and what each of them publishes

Common traps

Answering with the base year, 2011-12, instead of the release date
Treating GVA and GDP as interchangeable when product taxes and subsidies separate them
Comparing a factor-cost figure with a basic-price figure as though they were the same series

National-income definitions are a recurring GA slot rather than a one-off: 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.21 and 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21 both ask what is subtracted from GDP to reach NDP.

24 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.8 tests whether national income is NNP at factor cost. Learn the aggregates as one connected set of equations, not as separate definitions.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.