Which of the following prepared the Annual Groundwater Quality Report 2024 ? 1. Central Pollution Control Board 2. Central Water Commission 3. Central Groundwater Board Select the correct answer from the code given below : Code :
- (a)1 and 2
- (b)2 and 3
- (c)Only 3
- (d)Only 1
Correct — C, Only 3, the Central Ground Water Board. The Annual Ground Water Quality Report 2024 was prepared and published by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, and was released on 31 December 2024 by the Union Minister of Jal Shakti, C. R. Patil. It was the first edition to follow a Standard Operating Procedure for groundwater quality monitoring, and it drew on 15,259 monitoring locations across the country together with a focused assessment at 4,982 trend stations. Its headline findings are worth carrying: about a fifth of the samples exceeded the BIS limit of 45 mg per litre for nitrate, fluoride remained a serious problem in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while every sample tested in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir met BIS standards. The logic of the question is a division of labour between three bodies that all sound alike. Groundwater is the CGWB's subject — it is the national apex agency for the assessment, monitoring, development and regulation of India's groundwater, and the annual quality report is one of its standing products. So statement 3 alone is right, and only option (c) says so.
- (a)1 and 2 — Neither body prepared this report, and the option is wrong twice over. The Central Pollution Control Board is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, created by the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; its water work is on rivers, lakes and effluent standards, not on a national groundwater quality assessment. The Central Water Commission, under the same Ministry of Jal Shakti as the CGWB, is the surface-water agency — river basins, flood forecasting, reservoir storage and irrigation projects. Groundwater is deliberately not its remit.
- (b)2 and 3 — Half right and therefore the most tempting wrong answer, because the Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water Board really are siblings under the Ministry of Jal Shakti and are often named in the same breath. But the division between them is exactly the point: the Commission handles surface water and the Board handles groundwater. Adding the Commission to the correct answer converts a precise fact into a vague one.
- (d)Only 1 — The Central Pollution Control Board is the natural guess for anyone who reads 'quality' and thinks 'pollution', but it is the wrong ministry and the wrong statute. The CPCB sits under the Environment Ministry and takes its powers from the Water Act of 1974 and the Air Act of 1981; the groundwater quality report comes from the Jal Shakti stable. Note also the related trap: it is the Central Ground Water AUTHORITY, not the CPCB, that was constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to regulate groundwater extraction.
India's water administration splits along a clean line that examiners test again and again. Surface water — rivers, dams, canals, floods — belongs to the Central Water Commission. Groundwater — aquifers, water levels, recharge, and the chemical quality of what comes out of a borewell — belongs to the Central Ground Water Board. Both sit under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Pollution control as a regulatory function, by contrast, belongs to the Central Pollution Control Board under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, a statutory body created by the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. A fourth name completes the set: the Central Ground Water Authority, constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, is the regulator that controls groundwater extraction, while the Board is the technical and scientific agency that measures and reports.
When three official-sounding bodies are offered, decide by mandate and by parent ministry rather than by the words in the report's title. 'Quality' pulls a candidate towards the Pollution Control Board and 'water' pulls them towards the Water Commission, but the operative word is 'Ground Water', and there is a body with exactly that name whose whole job is aquifers. The report itself is a familiar 2024-25 current-affairs item: released on 31 December 2024, built on 15,259 monitoring stations, and remembered chiefly for the finding that roughly a fifth of samples breached the 45 mg per litre nitrate standard. Anchor the report to the CGWB, and remember the neighbouring pair — CWC for surface water, CGWA for regulation under the 1986 Act — and this family of questions stops being confusing.
- The Annual Ground Water Quality Report 2024 was prepared by the Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti, and released on 31 December 2024 by Union Minister C. R. Patil
- It was the first such report to follow a Standard Operating Procedure for groundwater quality monitoring, and covered 15,259 monitoring locations with a focused assessment at 4,982 trend stations
- About 20 per cent of the samples exceeded the BIS permissible limit of 45 mg per litre for nitrate; fluoride was flagged as a major concern in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
- All samples met BIS standards in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir
- Division of labour: Central Ground Water Board — groundwater, under Jal Shakti; Central Water Commission — surface water and river basins, also under Jal Shakti; Central Pollution Control Board — statutory pollution regulator under the Water Act, 1974, in the Environment Ministry
- The Central Ground Water Authority, a separate body, was constituted under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to regulate and control groundwater development
Only the Central Ground Water Board prepared the report — hence option (c), Only 3.
- Reading 'quality' as 'pollution' and answering CPCB. The report is a Jal Shakti product, not an Environment Ministry one
- Merging the Central Ground Water Board with the Central Ground Water Authority. The Board surveys and reports; the Authority regulates extraction under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
- Assuming the Central Water Commission covers all water. It is the surface-water agency; groundwater was carved out for the CGWB
UPPSC likes to name a recent report and ask which organisation produced it — the same template it used in 2025 for the Global Wage Report and the Global Financial Stability Report. UPSC prefers the statutory angle: which body was constituted under which Act, or what a report's findings actually say about groundwater extraction and contamination.
Which one of the following has been constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986?
- (a) Central Water Commission
- (b) Central Ground Water Board
- (c) Central Ground Water Authority
- (d) National Water Development Agency
Answer(c) Central Ground Water Authority
The same four institutions, sorted by statute instead of by report. UPSC's answer separates the Central Ground Water Authority, created under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, from the Central Ground Water Board, the Jal Shakti agency that actually surveys aquifers and writes the quality report — the single distinction most likely to cost a mark in this family of questions.
Which of the following can be found as pollutants in the drinking water in some parts of India? 1. Arsenic 2. Sorbitol 3. Fluoride 4. Formaldehyde 5. Uranium Select the correct answer using the codes given below.
- (a) 1 and 3 only
- (b) 2, 4 and 5 only
- (c) 1, 3 and 5 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Answer(c) 1, 3 and 5 only
The content of the report rather than its author. Arsenic, fluoride and uranium are precisely the contaminants the CGWB's annual quality assessment tracks, alongside the nitrate exceedance that made the 2024 edition news. Knowing what is actually in India's groundwater makes the report memorable instead of one more scheme name.
Consider the following statements: 1. 36% of India’s districts are classified as “overexploited” or “critical” by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA). 2. CGWA was formed under the Environment (Protection) Act. 3. India has the largest area under groundwater irrigation in the world. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 2 only
- (d) 1 and 3 only
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
Ties the regulatory and the resource sides together: the CGWA's constitution under the Environment (Protection) Act and the scale of India's groundwater irrigation, which is why a national quality assessment matters in the first place.
'Blue baby syndrome' is due to the presence of which of the following in the blood ?
- (a) Haemoglobin
- (b) Methemoglobin
- (c) Lead
- (d) Nitrate
Answer(b) Methemoglobin
The human consequence of the 2024 report's headline finding. Nitrate above the 45 mg per litre limit — found in roughly a fifth of the CGWB's samples — is converted in an infant's gut to nitrite, which turns haemoglobin into methemoglobin and produces blue baby syndrome. UPPSC has asked the chemistry; in 2025 it asked who does the measuring.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following bodies has been constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986?
- (a)Central Water Commission
- (b)Central Ground Water Board
- (c)Central Ground Water Authority
- (d)National Water Development Agency
Answer(c) Central Ground Water Authority — constituted under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to regulate and control groundwater development, unlike the CGWB, which is the technical agency under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
- practice — not a real PYQ
With reference to the Annual Ground Water Quality Report 2024, consider the following statements: 1. It was prepared by the Central Ground Water Board under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. 2. It found that about one-fifth of the samples exceeded the permissible limit for nitrate. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2 — the CGWB released the report on 31 December 2024, and roughly 20 per cent of samples breached the BIS nitrate limit of 45 mg per litre.