SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 17 of 99

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 industrial policy marked the beginning of liberalisation in the Indian industry, reducing the restrictions on private companies?

(a)Industrial Policy 1956
(b)Industrial Policy 1977
(c)Industrial Policy 1980
(d)Industrial Policy 1991

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The Statement on Industrial Policy of 24 July 1991 is the break with the licence regime.

It abolished industrial licensing for all but a short reserved list, cut the group of industries kept for the public sector from 17 to 8, and scrapped the MRTP Act's requirement that large firms obtain prior approval before they expanded.

Those three moves are precisely what the stem describes — restrictions on private companies reduced, and liberalisation begun.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Industrial Policy 1956 — The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 did the opposite. It built the licence regime, sorting industry into three schedules and reserving the commanding heights for the State.
(b)
Industrial Policy 1977 — The 1977 statement of the Janata government shifted emphasis to small-scale, tiny and cottage industry and created District Industries Centres. It redirected the licence regime rather than dismantling it.
(c)
Industrial Policy 1980 — The 1980 statement aimed at fuller use of installed capacity and at reviving sick units, inside the same licensing framework. It did not open the field to free private entry.

Concept

India's industrial policy runs in phases, and SSC tests the turning points rather than the text.

1956 builds the framework: state-led industrialisation, industries reserved for the public sector by schedule, licensing for private entry.

1977 and 1980 adjust it — the first towards small-scale industry, the second towards capacity utilisation — without touching the licence itself.

1991 dismantles it: licensing gone for most industries, public-sector reservation cut, MRTP pre-entry approval scrapped, foreign investment admitted on a defined route.

The 1991 statement was tabled alongside that year's budget, in the middle of a balance-of-payments crisis. The exam wants the year and the direction of change, not the crisis narrative.

Key facts

The Statement on Industrial Policy of 24 July 1991 began India's industrial liberalisation.
It cut the number of industries reserved for the public sector from 17 to 8.
It abolished industrial licensing for all but a short reserved list of industries.
The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 sorted industry into three schedules and is the policy that 1991 reversed.

Study next

The Industrial Policy Resolution 1956 and its three schedulesThe 1991 reforms as liberalisation, privatisation and globalisationThe MRTP Act and its replacement by the Competition Act

Common traps

Choosing 1956 because it is the most famous industrial policy resolution.
Dating liberalisation to 1980, whose statement is also described as loosening controls.

SSC asks each policy by its distinguishing feature rather than by bare date recall. The 1980 statement is asked directly at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q3, where the objective that does not belong is 'allowing the maximum foreign direct investment' — the very thing 1991 is remembered for.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.