SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 15 of 75

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.

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.

The Sindri fertilizer plant, one of India's oldest and most significant, is located in which state, utilizing its proximity to a major coal-producing region?

(a)West Bengal
(b)Odisha
(c)Jharkhand
(d)Bihar

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Sindri is an industrial township in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand. Its fertilizer factory began production in 1951 and was inaugurated in March 1952.

Dhanbad district holds the Jharia coalfield, the coal-producing region the stem alludes to. The area was in Bihar when the plant was built, but Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, so the answer today is Jharkhand.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
West Bengal — West Bengal has a coalfield of its own at Raniganj, which makes it tempting. Sindri, though, lies in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.
(b)
Odisha — Odisha has large coal reserves around Talcher, but the Sindri plant is in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, not in Odisha.
(d)
Bihar — Bihar is the trap: Sindri was in Bihar when the plant opened in 1951. It has been in Jharkhand since that state was formed from Bihar in 2000.

Concept

Sindri Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd was incorporated under the Companies Act in December 1951. Its Sindri factory made ammonium sulphate from 1951 and urea from 1959.

Sindri lies in the coal belt of Dhanbad district, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. The old plant, run by the Fertilizer Corporation of India, closed in 2002.

The stem asks where the plant is located, in the present tense. That rules out Bihar, the state Sindri belonged to until Jharkhand was formed in 2000.

Key facts

Sindri is in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand.
The Sindri fertilizer factory began production in 1951 and was inaugurated in March 1952.
Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar on 15 November 2000.
The old Sindri plant of the Fertilizer Corporation of India closed in 2002.

Study next

Damodar valley coalfields: Jharia, Bokaro and RaniganjStates formed in 2000: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and JharkhandNitrogenous fertilizers: ammonium sulphate and urea

Common traps

Answering Bihar because the plant dates from 1951, when Sindri was part of Bihar.
Picking West Bengal because it also has a major coalfield, at Raniganj.

The stem gives a location clue, a coal region, and asks the present-day state, so a state-reorganisation trap sits among the options.

Fertilizer policy is asked at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.23 (keyed: subsidies raised productivity but often benefited richer farmers).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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