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RAS question

The concept of 'Core Sector Industries' in India includes how many industries?

Correct answer: (C) 8.

India’s core sector industries are eight in number: Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.

  1. (A)

    12

  2. (B)

    6

  3. (C)

    8

  4. (D)

    10

Explanation

The core sector is counted through the Index of Eight Core Industries, so the number is eight, not a broader industrial total. PIB states that the ICI measures the combined and individual production performance of Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. These eight industries matter because they together carry 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production. For the MCQ, the clue is the formal phrase “core sector industries”: it refers to this fixed ICI basket of eight infrastructure-heavy industries, not to every major industry in the economy.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) Twelve overstates the official ICI basket; the cited PIB release lists only eight core industries.
  • (B) Six leaves out two industries from the official set of Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
  • (D) Ten is not the official count because the ICI is defined around eight named core industries, not ten.

Concept

This tests the Indian Economy concept of industrial indicators, especially the Index of Eight Core Industries and its link with the IIP. It recurs in RAS because core-sector output is a standard way to read infrastructure and industrial momentum.

Source

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