SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 23 of 95

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 13 September 2026.

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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 statements best defines joint sector industries?

(a)They are jointly owned by the public and private sectors.
(b)They are run by village panchayats and municipalities.
(c)They are fully financed by foreign companies.
(d)They are operated only by self-help groups.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. NCERT's Class 10 geography classifies industries by ownership and defines joint sector industries as those jointly run by the state and individuals or a group of individuals.

Its example is Oil India Ltd., which it describes as jointly owned by the public and private sector. That is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
They are run by village panchayats and municipalities. — Panchayats and municipalities are organs of government, so an industry run by them alone would sit with the public sector. A joint sector unit needs a private partner alongside the state.
(c)
They are fully financed by foreign companies. — Full financing by foreign companies describes a private, foreign-owned business. Joint sector is defined by the state and private parties owning it together, not by where the money comes from.
(d)
They are operated only by self-help groups. — NCERT's four ownership sectors have no self-help group category. Producers or workers pooling resources form the cooperative sector, like sugar in Maharashtra and coir in Kerala.

Concept

NCERT sorts industries by ownership into four sectors, each with its textbook example:

Public sector, owned and run by government agencies: BHEL, SAIL.
Private sector, owned by individuals or groups: TISCO, Bajaj Auto, Dabur.
Joint sector, run jointly by the state and private parties: Oil India Ltd.
Cooperative sector, owned by producers or workers sharing profits and losses: sugar in Maharashtra, coir in Kerala.

The stem asks for the best definition, and the deciding words are jointly owned. Each wrong option names a single kind of owner.

Key facts

Joint sector: industries jointly run by the state and individuals or a group of individuals.
NCERT's joint sector example is Oil India Ltd. (OIL).
NCERT's public sector examples are BHEL and SAIL, and its private sector examples TISCO, Bajaj Auto Ltd. and Dabur Industries.
Cooperative sector: owned and operated by producers or suppliers of raw materials, workers or both.

Study next

Classification of industries by raw material, by bulk and by main roleWhy NCERT calls the sugar industry ideally suited to the cooperative sectorMaharatna, Navratna and Miniratna public sector enterprises

Common traps

Picking the self-help-group option because it sounds collective, when joint means state plus private and producer ownership is the cooperative sector.
Confusing a joint sector unit with a joint venture between two private or foreign firms.

The same NCERT ownership classification is asked at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.6, which wants a joint sector example (keyed Oil India Limited).
At 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.21, it asks for the cooperative sector's definition.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Economic Scene — all 144 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.