SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 12 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 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.

India's land area covers what percentage of the world's total area?

(a)1.4%
(b)2.4%
(c)3.4%
(d)4.4%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. NCERT's Class 9 geography gives India's landmass as 3.28 million sq km, about 2.4 per cent of the total geographical area of the world.

That share makes India the seventh largest country by area → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
1.4% — 1.4% is too low. At that share, India's 3.28 million sq km would imply a world land area of about 234 million sq km, far more than Earth's roughly 149 million.
(c)
3.4% — 3.4% overstates India's share. It would imply a world land area of only about 96 million sq km, well short of Earth's roughly 149 million.
(d)
4.4% — 4.4% is further off still. It would imply a world land area of about 75 million sq km, roughly half of Earth's actual land.

Concept

India's size is set out in NCERT's Class 9 geography: a landmass of 3.28 million sq km, about 2.4 per cent of the world's geographical area, making it the seventh largest country.

The same chapter fixes India's location: it lies wholly in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N) divides the country into almost two equal parts.

Two caveats. NCERT's figure is a share of the world's geographical area, that is, land. Against Earth's whole surface, oceans included, India's share falls below 1 per cent.

Against about 149 million sq km of land, India works out nearer 2.2 per cent. NCERT prints 2.4, and it is the nearest option either way.

Key facts

India's landmass is 3.28 million sq km (NCERT Class 9 geography).
India accounts for about 2.4 per cent of the world's total geographical area.
India is the seventh largest country in the world by area.
The Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N) divides India into almost two equal parts.

Study next

India's latitudinal and longitudinal extentThe Standard Meridian of India, 82°30'E, and the east–west time lagIndia's land boundary and coastline lengths

Common traps

Recalling India's share of world population instead of area. The population share is far larger than the 2.4 per cent area share.
Remembering 3.28 million sq km but not the share. The options test the share, so retain 2.4 per cent alongside the area.

Set here as single-figure recall, with the options one percentage point apart around NCERT's 2.4, so the exact textbook figure decides it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 179 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.