Agriculture & crops

Answer: (c) Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana

Cocoa needs a hot, wet equatorial climate, and West Africa's Gulf of Guinea coast supplies most of the world's crop. Côte d'Ivoire is the largest producer and Ghana the second; the other pairs lie in drier parts of Africa and are not significant cocoa growers.

• ✓ (c) Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest cocoa producer, and it and Ghana are the largest cocoa exporters; with Cameroon they account for nearly two-thirds of global cocoa exports.
• ✗ (a) Algeria and Morocco lie in North Africa's dry belt; neither is among the handful of countries that grow almost all of the world's cocoa.
• ✗ (d) Neither Madagascar nor Mozambique is among the nine countries that the International Cocoa Organization says produce over 93% of world cocoa.

Remember · Cocoa belt = West Africa's Gulf of Guinea coast. Côte d'Ivoire is No. 1, Ghana No. 2; together they dominate world cocoa supply.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only three

A parasitoid is an insect whose larva lives on or inside a single host and eventually kills it. Almost all parasitoids are wasps and flies, with a smaller number of beetles, including some carabid (ground) beetles. Centipedes are free-living predators and termites are social decomposers, so only three groups qualify.

• ✓ 1. Some carabid beetles are parasitoids: for example, the larvae of Lebia grandis develop on and kill the pupae of the Colorado potato beetle.
• ✗ 2. Centipedes are active predators that kill prey with venomous claws; they do not develop inside a host.
• ✓ 3. Many flies are parasitoids — tachinid and conopid flies, for example, grow inside other insects and kill them.
• ✗ 4. Termites are social insects that feed on wood and plant matter; none lives as a parasitoid.
• ✓ 5. Parasitic wasps are the largest parasitoid group: they lay eggs inside other insects and the host dies, which is why they are used in biological pest control.

Remember · Parasitoids kill their host (unlike true parasites). Main groups: wasps (Hymenoptera), flies (Diptera), some beetles. Used widely for biological pest control.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) All three

The pea family is Fabaceae (Leguminosae), the legumes — plants that bear pods and host nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), horse-gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) and soybean (Glycine max) are all legumes, so all three belong to it.

• ✓ 1. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is an oilseed legume whose pods ripen underground.
• ✓ 2. Horse-gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum, kulthi) is a drought-hardy pulse legume grown mainly in peninsular India.
• ✓ 3. Soybean (Glycine max) is a legume with the highest protein content among them, grown for oil and food.

Remember · Pea family = Fabaceae/Leguminosae: pulses (gram, horse-gram, lentil, pea) and oilseed legumes (groundnut, soybean) — all fix nitrogen via root nodules.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Exploration, Ch 12 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Only one

Only red sanders is Indian by origin: it grows wild in a small tract of the southern Eastern Ghats. Cashew and papaya are both American plants brought to India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even though India is now a leading grower of both.

• ✗ 1. Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a native of eastern Brazil. The Portuguese introduced it to India in the 16th century, first in Goa, from where it spread along the coasts.
• ✗ 2. Papaya came from the New World (the Americas) along with the pineapple, tomato, potato and chilli during the Mughal period, as NCERT's history text notes.
• ✓ 3. Red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus, 'rakta chandan') is native to southern India, found on dry, rocky hills of the south-eastern peninsula; it is prized and heavily smuggled for its red heartwood.

Remember · Red sanders = native, endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats (mainly Andhra Pradesh). Cashew (Brazil) and papaya (tropical America) were introduced by the Portuguese.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error