UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 145 of 150

Correct — D, Only 1. Read that letter off the page before anything else, because this booklet does not use the layout most candidates have memorised: here (d) is 'Only 1' and (a) is 'Only 2', the reverse of the usual UPSC arrangement. A candidate who reasons perfectly and then marks (a) out of habit loses the mark on a question they had solved. Statement 1 is correct. Uttar Pradesh is India's leading potato-producing state, comfortably ahead of West Bengal and Bihar, and the crop is grown right across the western and central districts — Agra, Firozabad, Aligarh, Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Hathras — as a rabi crop lifted between December and March, with the state's cold-store capacity among the largest in the country. Statement 2 is incorrect, and it is incorrect on one word only. The Union Cabinet did approve a South Asia Regional Centre of the International Potato Centre in Uttar Pradesh — the decision was taken on 27 June 2025, some months before this exam — but the site is Singna in AGRA district, not Aligarh. The state government provided about ten hectares at Singna and the approved outlay is around 171 crore rupees, shared between the Government of India and the CIP. The International Potato Centre itself is a CGIAR research centre headquartered in Lima, Peru, and the Agra centre's mandate is high-yielding and climate-resilient potato and sweetpotato varieties, seed systems, pest management and post-harvest value addition for the whole of South Asia. So statement 1 stands, statement 2 falls on the city, and the option that says 'Only 1' on this paper is (d).

• (a)Only 2 — This is the single most dangerous option on the page, and not for its content. It is where 'Only 1' sits on an ordinary UPSC paper, so a candidate who correctly concludes that statement 1 alone is right and then reaches for the remembered position lands here. On the merits it is doubly wrong: it rejects the true statement about Uttar Pradesh's potato leadership and accepts the false one, since the CIP South Asia Regional Centre was approved for Singna in Agra district, not for Aligarh. Aligarh is a real and prominent Uttar Pradesh district, which is exactly why it works as a falsifier — its own claim to fame is locks and hardware, not potato research.
• (b)Both 1 and 2 — Right about Uttar Pradesh, wrong about the site. This option is what a candidate marks who remembers the Cabinet decision of June 2025 in outline — a potato research centre for Uttar Pradesh — without having fixed which district. The whole difficulty of the question is planted in that one place name. Agra is where the centre goes; Aligarh is the substitution. When a current-affairs statement is otherwise accurate, check the proper noun, because that is usually where the examiner has made the swap.
• (c)Neither 1 nor 2 — This rejects statement 1, and statement 1 is true: Uttar Pradesh leads the country in potato production. Candidates sometimes reach for this option because they associate Uttar Pradesh so strongly with sugarcane and wheat — which it also leads or nearly leads — that they assume the potato crown must belong elsewhere, usually to West Bengal. West Bengal is indeed the second-largest producer, but it is second. A state can head more than one crop table, and Uttar Pradesh does.

Potato is a cool-season rabi crop in the Indian plains, sown from October and lifted between December and March, and its geography follows the short winter of the Indo-Gangetic belt. Uttar Pradesh leads national production, with West Bengal and Bihar next, and the crop's economics depend as much on cold storage as on the field, because the tuber is bulky, perishable and harvested all at once. India is among the world's largest potato producers, behind China. The International Potato Centre, known by its Spanish initials CIP, is the CGIAR research centre for potato, sweetpotato and Andean roots and tubers, headquartered in Lima, Peru, and its new South Asia Regional Centre is being built in India to serve the whole region.

This is a two-part current-affairs item, and each part fails differently. The first part is a static production fact — the sort of thing that stays true for years and is worth simply knowing. The second is a dated Cabinet decision from June 2025, four months before the exam, and it has been falsified by changing one proper noun. That is the standard UPPSC method with scheme and institution questions: keep the ministry, the outlay and the year correct so the statement rings true, and swap the district. The defence is to store such facts with their location attached — 'CIP South Asia Regional Centre, Singna, AGRA' — rather than as 'a potato centre in UP'. Then read the option letters, because on this booklet 'Only 1' is at (d), not at (a).

• Uttar Pradesh is India's leading potato-producing state, ahead of West Bengal and Bihar; the precise share of national output moves from year to year and between estimate series, so it is safer to remember the rank than a percentage
• The Union Cabinet approved the CIP South Asia Regional Centre on 27 June 2025 at SINGNA in Agra district, Uttar Pradesh — not at Aligarh
• The centre has an approved outlay of about 171 crore rupees, shared between the Government of India and the International Potato Centre, on roughly ten hectares provided by the Uttar Pradesh government; the proposal came from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
• The International Potato Centre (Centro Internacional de la Papa, CIP) is a CGIAR research centre headquartered in Lima, Peru; the Agra centre's mandate covers high-yielding and climate-resilient potato and sweetpotato varieties, seed systems, pest management, post-harvest handling and value addition for South Asia
• India is the world's second-largest potato producer after China; potato is a rabi crop in the plains, sown from October and harvested between December and March
• Uttar Pradesh's potato belt runs through Agra, Firozabad, Aligarh, Hathras, Farrukhabad and Kannauj, and the state holds one of the country's largest concentrations of cold-storage capacity

• This paper's shuffled option order. 'Only 1' sits at (d) and 'Only 2' at (a), so a candidate who solves the statements correctly and then applies the remembered UPSC layout marks (a) and loses the mark
• The district swap. Agra is the approved site; Aligarh is a plausible substitute from the same state. In institution and scheme questions the falsifier is usually the place name, not the ministry or the money
• Assuming a state can lead only one crop. Uttar Pradesh's dominance in sugarcane and wheat does not displace its lead in potato

UPPSC reliably pairs one static Uttar Pradesh production fact with one dated Union-government decision about the state, then falsifies the second by changing a district. UPSC asks the same production content in the plainer form of 'India is the largest producer and exporter of X' plus a list of leading states, and asks about international agricultural research bodies by their mandate rather than their address.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The South Asia Regional Centre of the International Potato Centre, approved by the Union Cabinet in 2025, is being established at

  • (a)Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh
  • (b)Singna in Agra district, Uttar Pradesh
  • (c)Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
  • (d)Hooghly, West Bengal

  Answer(b) Singna in Agra district, Uttar Pradesh — approved on 27 June 2025 with an outlay of about 171 crore rupees on roughly ten hectares provided by the state government. Shimla is the seat of ICAR's Central Potato Research Institute, a different body.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The International Potato Centre (CIP) is

  • (a)a specialised agency of the United Nations based in Rome
  • (b)a CGIAR research centre headquartered in Lima, Peru
  • (c)an institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research
  • (d)a research arm of the Food and Agriculture Organization based in Manila

  Answer(b) a CGIAR research centre headquartered in Lima, Peru — it works on potato, sweetpotato and Andean roots and tubers, and is establishing its South Asia Regional Centre in Agra district.