SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 21 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following is correctly classified as a consumer goods industry?

(a)Iron and steel
(b)Aluminium smelting
(c)Toothpaste
(d)Copper smelting

Answer

Why

Correct — C. NCERT's Class X geography classifies industries by their main role.

Basic or key industries supply their products as raw materials to make other goods: iron and steel, copper smelting and aluminium smelting.

Consumer industries produce goods for direct use by consumers, and NCERT's list names sugar, toothpaste, paper, sewing machines and fans. That is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Iron and steel — Iron and steel is NCERT's first example of a basic or key industry. Its output is the raw material of other industries, not a product bought for direct use.
(b)
Aluminium smelting — Aluminium smelting is on NCERT's list of basic or key industries. The metal it produces goes into other manufacturing rather than straight to consumers.
(d)
Copper smelting — Copper smelting sits in the same basic or key group as iron and steel and aluminium smelting. Its copper is a raw material for other industries.

Concept

NCERT's Class X chapter on manufacturing sorts industries on five bases.

By raw material: agro-based or mineral-based.
By main role: basic or key, or consumer.
By capital investment: small scale or large scale.

By ownership: public, private, joint or cooperative.
By bulk and weight: heavy or light.

One industry can carry several labels. NCERT names iron and steel as mineral-based, basic and heavy, so read which scheme the question asks for: here it is main role.

Key facts

Basic or key industries supply raw materials to other industries: iron and steel, copper smelting, aluminium smelting (NCERT Class X, Manufacturing Industries).
Consumer industries make goods for direct use: sugar, toothpaste, paper, sewing machines, fans.
By ownership, NCERT's examples are BHEL and SAIL (public sector), TISCO (private) and Oil India Ltd. (joint).
By bulk and weight, iron and steel is NCERT's example of a heavy industry.

Study next

Industries by ownership: public, private, joint and cooperative sectorsAgro-based versus mineral-based industriesLocation factors of the iron and steel industry

Common traps

Treating smelted metal as a consumer good, when it is sold to other industries, which makes smelting a basic industry.
Answering a question about role with a label from another scheme, such as heavy or mineral-based.

The same NCERT scheme also appears at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.6 and 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.6, asking for private-sector and joint-sector examples, and at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.23, on iron and steel as a heavy industry.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Economic Scene — all 92 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.