SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 23 of 98

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.

Which of the following statements best describes Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's achievement?

(a)She founded Infosys Biotech in 1981.
(b)She is India's first woman to head a top biotech company.
(c)She was honored for developing India's COVID vaccine.
(d)She launched India's first nanotechnology research hub.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon in 1978 in Bengaluru, starting in the garage of a rented house with ₹10,000 of seed capital.

She built it from an enzymes maker into a leading biopharmaceutical company, and heads it as executive chairperson.

Of the four statements, (b) is the one her record supports: a woman at the head of a top Indian biotech company → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
She founded Infosys Biotech in 1981. — Wrong company and wrong year. She founded Biocon in 1978. 1981 is when Infosys, an IT company, was founded in Pune, and 'Infosys Biotech' is not part of her story.
(c)
She was honored for developing India's COVID vaccine. — Not her company's vaccine. India's main COVID-19 vaccines were Covishield from the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin from Bharat Biotech, neither developed by Biocon.
(d)
She launched India's first nanotechnology research hub. — Wrong field. Her company and her recognition lie in biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals, not in founding a nanotechnology research hub.

Concept

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw trained as a brewer, earning a master's in brewing from Ballarat College, Melbourne University, in 1975.

She started Biocon in 1978. Its first projects were enzymes: papain from papaya and isinglass from tropical catfish. Biocon later grew into biopharmaceuticals.

She received the Padma Shri in 1989 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005.

The keyed wording, 'India's first woman to head a top biotech company', is the question's own phrase. We found no source conferring that exact title. It is keyed because the other three statements are false.

Key facts

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon in Bengaluru in 1978.
Biocon's first projects were enzymes: papain and isinglass.
She received the Padma Shri in 1989 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005.
Infosys, the IT company, was founded in Pune on 2 July 1981.

Study next

India's COVID-19 vaccines: Covishield, Covaxin and their makersBiosimilars and India's biopharmaceutical industryPadma awards: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri

Common traps

Trusting a precise-looking year: 1981 belongs to Infosys, not to anything she founded.
Crediting any Indian biotech leader with the COVID vaccine: Covishield came from the Serum Institute and Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.

Asked as 'best describes the achievement'. One decoy borrows a real name and year from elsewhere, Infosys and 1981. The other two credit her with a COVID vaccine and a nanotechnology research hub.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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