There are two statements Assertion (A) and Reason (R) given below. Find the suitable relationship between the Assertion and Reason as per given options below. Assertion (A) : Cotton is grown in alluvial soils. Reason (R) : Alluvial soils are very fertile.
This MPSC previous-year question is drawn from MPSC Group B Combined Pre 2026 (English). It belongs to the Geography section and is reproduced here in English exactly as it appeared in the official Maharashtra Public Service Commission paper, along with the four options, the official Set A answer key and a compact explanation of why the correct option is correct.
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The right pick is option A. Both the Assertion and the Reason are true, and the Reason genuinely explains why the Assertion holds. So the fit is 'both true and R is the correct explanation of A' — read the two lines together as cause and effect.
Why this question matters
The Maharashtra Public Service Commission recycles geography question patterns across its main five recruitment examinations. Solving a PYQ from one paper substantially increases your accuracy on adjacent papers because the underlying facts and the option-craft are identical. That cross-transfer is the strongest argument for prioritising PYQ practice over generic textbook review.
How to attempt this in the exam
Approach this in three passes. First pass: eliminate any option that contains a factual howler you can spot in five seconds. Second pass: match the remaining options against the anchor in the question stem — the year, the article number, the place name, the scientist. Third pass: commit. On MPSC geography items, the wrong option that survives to the final two usually flips one attribute of the correct one.
Subject-specific tip
Tip for Geography: locate the region on the Maharashtra map (use our interactive /map page), note the watershed, soil type and the nearest power plant or UNESCO site. Spatial recall is the single biggest scorer for MPSC Geography.
Physical geography — the pillars you cannot skip
MPSC Geography rewards structural understanding over rote learning. A well-prepared aspirant can answer 12 of 15 geography items just by knowing (a) the physical division a place belongs to, (b) the river basin that drains it, (c) the annual rainfall bracket that shapes its agriculture, and (d) the mineral or industrial anchor around it. Try that four-step check on any Geography PYQ and you'll see the elimination pattern almost immediately.
The Sahyadri divides Maharashtra into two starkly different worlds. West of the crest is the Konkan — narrow coastal shelf, laterite soils, 2500-3500 mm annual rainfall, cashew and mango belts, and fourteen short rivers that fall to the Arabian Sea in less than a hundred kilometres. East of the crest is the Deccan Trap — flat-topped basalt plateaus, black cotton soil (regur) in Vidarbha and Marathwada, 600-900 mm rainfall in the rain-shadow districts, and the great east-flowing rivers that eventually reach the Bay of Bengal. Every state-geography question sits somewhere on this west-east cross-section.
Learn the ghats not as isolated points but as passes across the Sahyadri crest. From north to south: Thal (Nashik ↔ Mumbai), Bor (Khandala corridor), Tamhini (Pune ↔ Konkan), Varandha (Bhor ↔ Mahad), Kumbharli (Karad ↔ Chiplun), Amba (Kolhapur ↔ Ratnagiri) and Fonda (Belgaum ↔ Goa). Each maps one specific district pair — MPSC's favourite pairing question.
Source and editorial process
Source: MPSC Group B Combined Pre 2026 (English). This question, its four options and the marked correct answer are transcribed verbatim from the official Maharashtra Public Service Commission Set A paper. Our editorial team cross-checks each question against the original PDF released on mpsc.gov.in and against the corresponding official answer key.
We never paraphrase the wording. Where MPSC has issued a revised key after an objection round, the answer highlighted above reflects the revised key and the revision is logged in our internal change-log. If you spot a discrepancy, please email us at dontknowacademy@gmail.com — we acknowledge every report within 24 hours and push a fix within 48 hours.
Related study material
Deepen your preparation on this topic with our long-form MPSC study guides. Every guide is written specifically for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission preliminary syllabus and takes twelve to sixteen minutes to read in full.
- Maharashtra GeographyKonkan, Sahyadri, Deccan plateau, rivers, soils, agriculture, minerals, power sector.
- MPSC Exam PatternGroup B, Group C, PSI, Gazetted CS & TS prelims — marks, syllabus, negative marking, cut-offs.
- MPSC Preparation Strategy6-month plan, book list, daily routine, PYQ usage, mock-test strategy.
About MPSC PYQ QUIZ
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