What is the revised stock holding limit for a sugar dealer in most of the country?

The correct answer is Kolkata with its extended metropolitan areas and the State of Assam. These were kept outside the general ceiling and given a limit twice as large, because Kolkata draws sugar from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka and forwards it to eastern India including the North-East, while the higher figure for Assam reflects the geography of the region, the logistics of moving goods and the interest of consumers there. Options A, B and D name other large cities and states that are important to trade, but none of them was given an exemption in this order. The point to carry away is that the exemption follows a supply route, not the size of a city: Kolkata acts as a gateway for the east, which is why the stricter national ceiling would have pinched supplies to the North-East.

The correct answer is 15 per cent. Average retail sugar prices have come down by this much from the peak they touched in August, and a further easing is expected as cheaper mill prices pass down the supply chain. Option D, 28 per cent, is the trap in this question, because that is the fall in ex-mill prices, which have also stayed steady over the last three weeks; retail and ex-mill are two different stages of the chain and the figures must not be swapped. Options A and B understate the decline and are wrong. The government has asked wholesalers and retailers to pass the fall in mill prices on to buyers without delay, and has described cane growers and consumers as the two pillars of the country’s sugar policy, one needing remunerative returns and the other protection from unreasonable price rises.

The correct answer is 3,715 lakh metric tonnes. Wheat bought at the floor price over the years from 2014-15 to 2025-26 added up to that quantity. Option A, 2,254 lakh metric tonnes, is the wheat figure for the earlier stretch from 2004-05 to 2013-14 and so is wrong for the period asked about. Option B, 2,302 lakh metric tonnes, is wrong because it is the quantity of all six rabi crops taken together during that earlier stretch, not wheat alone. Option D, 3,921 lakh metric tonnes, is wrong for the same reason in reverse: it covers all six rabi crops from 2014-15 to 2025-26 rather than wheat by itself. Payments track the same pattern, with wheat growers receiving Rs 7.31 lakh crore in the later period against Rs 2.56 lakh crore in the earlier one.

The correct answer is wheat. The expected return over the all-India weighted average cost of production works out to 106 per cent for wheat, the highest among the six mandated rabi crops of the season. Option B, safflower, is wrong because safflower sits at the bottom of this list with a margin of 50 per cent, even though it drew the largest absolute rise in rupee terms. Option C, lentil or masur, is wrong because its margin is 92 per cent, below that of wheat and also below rapeseed and mustard at 96 per cent. Option D, gram, is wrong because gram carries a margin of 59 per cent, only a little above barley at 58 per cent. The margin is measured against a cost that includes hired labour, rent on leased land, seed, fertiliser, irrigation charges, depreciation, interest on working capital and the imputed value of family labour.

The correct answer is safflower. For marketing season 2027-28 the floor price of safflower was raised by Rs 675 a quintal, the biggest rupee increase among the six mandated rabi crops. Rapeseed and mustard came second with a rise of Rs 413 a quintal. Option A, wheat, is wrong because wheat recorded the smallest increase of the lot, only Rs 25 a quintal, even though it enjoys the widest margin over its cost of production at 106 per cent. Option B, gram, is wrong because gram rose by Rs 83 a quintal, far below safflower. Option D, barley, is wrong because barley gained Rs 136 a quintal, again well short of the safflower figure. Lentil, also called masur, gained Rs 390 a quintal and stood third in the order of absolute increases.