Agriculture & crops

Answer: (d) I, II and III

UPSC's key treats all three statements as correct. The Spices Board and ICAR-IISR describe India as a leading producer and exporter, many varieties and local cultivars are grown (23 improved varieties in the manual's Table 1 alone, plus local cultivars such as Duggirala, Erode local, Salem, Alleppey and Lakdong), and Telangana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are among the top producing States, with Karnataka listed among the other important producers.

• ✓ I The Spices Board manual calls India a leading producer and exporter of turmeric. UPSC's official key treats the statement as correct; we could not confirm the rest of the statement from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✓ II The manual's Table 1 lists 23 improved varieties (from ICAR-IISR Kozhikode, TNAU, OUAT, KAU and others), and it names local cultivars such as Duggirala, Tekkurpet, Amalapuram, Erode local, Salem, Alleppey, Moovattupuzha and Lakdong, so more than 30 are grown.
• ✓ III The manual says Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh together give 63.4% of India's turmeric, and lists Odisha, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat, Meghalaya and Assam as other important producers.

Remember · Turmeric: India is a leading producer and exporter; more than 30 varieties and cultivars; Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh lead, with Karnataka and Odisha among other important producers.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only three

Cassava (woody shrub), ginger (herb with a pseudostem) and Malabar spinach (climber) are matched correctly. Mint is a herbaceous perennial, not an annual shrub, and papaya is a tree-like herb, not a woody shrub. That makes three correct pairs.

• ✓ I FAO describes cassava as a woody perennial shrub that grows 1 m to 5 m tall.
• ✓ II Ginger is a slender perennial herb; its leafy shoot is a pseudostem formed by the leaf sheaths, not a true stem.
• ✓ III Malabar spinach (Basella) has soft, succulent, branched climbing stems, so it is a herbaceous climber.
• ✗ IV Mint is a herbaceous perennial that spreads by stolons; it is a herb, not a shrub.
• ✗ V FAO calls papaya a fast-growing tree-like herb, so it is not a woody shrub.

Remember · Cassava = woody shrub; ginger = herb with a pseudostem; Malabar spinach = climber; mint = herbaceous perennial; papaya = tree-like herb (not woody).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Statement I is not correct but Statement II is correct

Statement I is wrong because the United States, not Brazil, is the world's largest ethanol producer. Statement II is correct: corn is the main feedstock in the United States and sugarcane in Brazil.

• ✗ Statement-I The United States produced over 16 billion gallons of ethanol in 2024; the same data table puts Brazil at roughly 9 billion gallons, so Brazil is second.
• ✓ Statement-II Most US ethanol is made from corn, while Brazil mainly uses sugarcane.

Remember · The US is the top ethanol producer (mostly from corn); Brazil is second (mainly from sugarcane). Together they make about 80 per cent of the world's ethanol.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) All the three

All three fruits are New World plants that reached India through Portuguese contact: pineapple in the sixteenth century, papaya through Portuguese (and Spanish) sailors carrying seeds to India, and guava in the seventeenth century.

• ✓ I Papaya spread from Central America; an FAO history says Spanish and Portuguese sailors took its seeds to India in the century after 1500.
• ✓ II The National Horticulture Board records that pineapple cultivation was introduced to India by the Portuguese in 1548.
• ✓ III Guava is native to tropical America; an ICAR journal states it was introduced in India by the Portuguese during the seventeenth century.

Remember · Pineapple (1548), papaya and guava are all New World fruits that the Portuguese brought to India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error