SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 14 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.

Which of the following district–state combinations is correctly matched with respect to iron ore reserves in India?

(a)Singhbhum – Jharkhand
(b)Mayurbhanj – Uttar Pradesh
(c)Sundargarh – Meghalaya
(d)Keonjhar – Rajasthan

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Singhbhum is in Jharkhand, and NCERT names its Gua and Noamundi mines as hematite sources on the Odisha–Jharkhand iron ore belt.

The other three districts are iron-ore districts too, but all three lie in Odisha, so each of those pairings fails on the state → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Mayurbhanj – Uttar Pradesh — Mayurbhanj is a district of Odisha, not Uttar Pradesh. NCERT places Odisha's high-grade hematite at the Badampahar mines in Mayurbhanj and Kendujhar (Keonjhar).
(c)
Sundargarh – Meghalaya — Sundargarh is a district of Odisha, not Meghalaya. It lies on Odisha's border with Jharkhand and is home to the Rourkela steel plant.
(d)
Keonjhar – Rajasthan — Keonjhar (Kendujhar) is a district of Odisha, not Rajasthan. Its Barbil–Joda area is one of the state's main iron-ore mining tracts.

Concept

NCERT's Class 10 geography groups India's major iron ore into four belts: Odisha–Jharkhand, Durg–Bastar–Chandrapur, Ballari–Chitradurga–Chikkamagaluru–Tumakuru, and Maharashtra–Goa.

The Odisha–Jharkhand belt crosses the state border. Singhbhum sits on the Jharkhand side, and Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh on the Odisha side. That is how this question can offer four real iron-ore districts and still leave a single correct pairing.

Singhbhum has since been divided. The Gua and Noamundi mines are in West Singhbhum, while Jamshedpur, home of the Tata steel works, is in East Singhbhum.

Key facts

NCERT's Class 10 geography names Gua and Noamundi in Singhbhum, Jharkhand, as hematite mines of the Odisha–Jharkhand belt.
Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar (Kendujhar) and Sundargarh are all districts of Odisha.
The Rourkela steel plant stands in Sundargarh district, Odisha.
NCERT rates magnetite as the finest iron ore, up to 70 per cent iron, and hematite as the most used, at 50–60 per cent.

Study next

The Durg–Bastar–Chandrapur belt and the Bailadila range of ChhattisgarhMagnetite versus hematite: iron content and usesSteel plants and the ore fields that feed them: Rourkela, Bhilai, Jamshedpur

Common traps

Rejecting Singhbhum because Odisha's mining districts come to mind first. Each of the other options names an Odisha district and pins it on the wrong state.
Judging which district has the most ore. The question asks only whether each district–state pair is right.

Mineral geography is also set as a pairing at 19 Jan 2026, 11:00 AM, GA Q.17, which matches minerals with their leading producing states (keyed Bauxite – Odisha).

12 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.24 asks for India's oldest iron and steel company, keyed TISCO, whose Jamshedpur works lie in East Singhbhum.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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