What action was taken by the government to celebrate the achievement of the Green Revolution in agriculture?
- (a)Released a special stamp, ‘Wheat Revolution’
- (b)Distributed free food to all the people
- (c)Distributed green vegetables to the people
- (d)Released a regular salary for the farmers
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The government marked the achievement with a commemorative postage stamp, not with a handout.
In July 1968 the Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a special stamp titled 'Wheat Revolution', released by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The design states what was being celebrated: wheat stalks, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi behind them, and a bar chart of wheat output in 1951 set against 1968. Option (a) is the key.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)Distributed free food to all the people — No free-food distribution to all people accompanied the Green Revolution. Its aim was to end grain imports and build buffer stocks, and the public distribution system sold subsidised grain rather than giving it away.
- (c)Distributed green vegetables to the people — The 'green' in Green Revolution names a seed-and-input package for foodgrains, wheat and rice above all. It was not about horticulture, and no vegetable distribution was involved.
- (d)Released a regular salary for the farmers — Farmers were never put on a government salary. State support took the form of minimum support prices, subsidised fertiliser, cheap institutional credit and assured procurement.
Concept
The Green Revolution was a package, not a slogan: high-yielding variety seeds of wheat and rice, assured irrigation, chemical fertiliser and pesticides, applied together on land that could take all four.
It began in the mid-1960s after two bad droughts and dependence on imported American wheat, and its first and sharpest gains came in wheat, in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
By 1968 the wheat harvest was large enough for the state to celebrate it publicly, and the commemorative stamp is the artefact of that moment.
The stem asks what was done to 'celebrate' an achievement. That is a commemorative act, so the three welfare-sounding options are wrong by category before you check a single fact.
Reading the register of the options is a genuine first cut in General Awareness, and it works whenever one option answers the question that was asked while the rest answer a related one.
Key facts
- The special stamp titled 'Wheat Revolution' was released in July 1968 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
- Its design shows wheat stalks, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, and a bar chart comparing wheat output in 1951 and 1968.
- The Green Revolution package combined high-yielding variety seeds with assured irrigation, chemical fertiliser and pesticides.
- The early gains were concentrated in wheat, which is why the stamp names wheat rather than foodgrains in general.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing a welfare measure because the Green Revolution is remembered as a food-security programme.
- Dating the stamp to the 1970s when the harvest it marks is 1968.
SSC returns to the Green Revolution from several angles. The definition itself is asked at 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.23, and Punjab as the state it transformed most at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.2.
The costs are asked too, with soil degradation as the environmental consequence at 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.20, and so is the sequel, with the second Green Revolution cell's headquarters at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.10.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.