UPSC CIVIL SERVICES PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

UPSC Prelims 2024— Question 56

2024General Studies Paper-IEconomyFinancial Marketsdifficult
Q56

Question

Consider the following materials: 1. Agricultural residues 2. Corn grain 3. Wastewater treatment sludge 4. Wood mill waste. Which of the above can be used as feedstock for producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel?

Options

A
1 and 2 only
B
3 and 4 only
C
1, 2, 3 and 4✓ Correct Answer
D
1, 3 and 4 only
AnswerOption C

Explanation

The correct answer is option (C). Sustainable aviation fuel can be produced from a broad range of feedstocks, including agricultural residues, lipid or biological wastes, corn-derived pathways, wastewater sludge and woody residues. Thus all four listed materials can serve as feedstock in appropriate conversion pathways. The key to this question is to distinguish the exact constitutional provision, factual association, scientific principle, or current-affairs detail being tested from statements that are partly true but incomplete or incorrectly framed. UPSC often makes the distractors plausible by changing one institutional role, date, classification, geographic association, or causal relationship. Option A — “1 and 2 only” is incorrect. It does not match the established fact or contains the incorrect combination, institution, relationship, classification, or proposition identified in the explanation above. Choosing it would therefore introduce a factual error or omit a necessary element. Option B — “3 and 4 only” is incorrect. It does not match the established fact or contains the incorrect combination, institution, relationship, classification, or proposition identified in the explanation above. Choosing it would therefore introduce a factual error or omit a necessary element. Option C — “1, 2, 3 and 4” is correct. It matches the established fact described above and gives the complete combination or identification required by the question. Option D — “1, 3 and 4 only” is incorrect. It does not match the established fact or contains the incorrect combination, institution, relationship, classification, or proposition identified in the explanation above. Choosing it would therefore introduce a factual error or omit a necessary element. For examination purposes, the safest approach is to verify each statement independently before looking at the answer-code combination. This is particularly important in statement-based questions, because one false clause makes an entire combination wrong. In factual questions, compare the defining characteristic asked in the stem with each alternative rather than relying on superficial familiarity. The answer recorded here follows the verified Set C key used for this database.

Question Classification

SubjectEconomy
TopicFinancial Markets
SubtopicTerminal topic
Question TypeMulti-statement
Difficultydifficult
VerificationVerified