UPSC Prelims 2024— Question 57

The correct answer is option (C). A farmer's plough is durable productive equipment and therefore fixed capital, not working capital. A computer is fixed capital. Yarn used in weaving is an intermediate input consumed in production and is working capital, not fixed capital. Petrol is also working capital. Hence two pairs are correctly matched: 2 and 4. 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 — “Only one” 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 — “Only two” 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 — “Only three” is correct. It matches the established fact described above and gives the complete combination or identification required by the question. Option D — “All four” 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.