UPSC Prelims 2015 GS Paper I · Q58 of 100 Geography easy

In India, the steel production industry requires the import of

  1. (a) saltpetre
  2. (b) rock phosphate
  3. (c) coking coal ✓ UPSC's answer
  4. (d) All of the above

Why the answer is (c)

• Steel-making in blast furnaces needs coking (metallurgical) coal; India's coal is mostly high-ash non-coking coal, so it imports 50–60 million tonnes of coking coal a year, mainly from Australia — option (c).

• Saltpetre (a) is used in gunpowder and fertiliser; rock phosphate (b) is imported for phosphatic fertilisers — neither is a steel input.

• Hence option (c).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) saltpetre
Saltpetre is not used in steel production.
(b) rock phosphate
Rock phosphate is a fertiliser input, not steel.
(d) All of the above
Only coking coal is a steel input.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2015, held on 23 August 2015. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

Practise this paper free