All exercise questions (and the in-text questions and activity asked within the chapter) from the NCERT textbook India: People and Economy, Chapter 5, “Mineral and Energy Resources”, exactly as the English edition prints them, with a full model answer for each. Try your own answer first, then check it against this one.
1 Choose the right answer of the following from the given options
Q. In which one of the following States are the major oil fields located?
(a) Assam (b) Bihar (c) Rajasthan (d) Tamil Nadu
Answer: (a) Assam. The chapter names Assam among the states with major oilfields (Digboi, Naharkatiya and Moran), and Digboi in Assam was the only oil-producing region in the country before the ONGC was set up in 1956. Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are not named as oilfield states in the chapter.
Q. At which one of the following places was the first atomic power station started?
(a) Kalpakkam (b) Narora (c) Rana Pratap Sagar (d) Tarapur
Answer: (d) Tarapur. The chapter lists Tarapur (Maharashtra), Rawatbhata near Kota/Rana Pratap Sagar (Rajasthan), Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), Narora (Uttar Pradesh), Kaiga (Karnataka) and Kakarapara (Gujarat) as important nuclear power projects but does not itself say which came first; this is a standard general-knowledge fact confirmed outside the chapter text: the Tarapur Atomic Power Station, commissioned in 1969, was India’s first atomic (nuclear) power station.
Q. Which one of the following is non-renewable source of energy?
(a) Hydel (b) Solar (c) Thermal (d) Wind power
Answer: (c) Thermal. Thermal power is generated from coal, a conventional, exhaustible (non-renewable) fossil fuel. Hydel, solar and wind are all renewable, non-conventional sources named in the chapter.
2 Answer the following questions in about 30 words
Q. Give an account of the distribution of mica in India.
Answer: Jharkhand’s belt in the lower Hazaribagh plateau (about 150 km × 22 km) gives high quality mica; Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) gives the best quality. Rajasthan has a 320 km belt from Jaipur to Bhilwara and Udaipur. Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra also produce mica.
Q. What is nuclear power? Mention the important nuclear power stations in India.
Answer: Nuclear power is energy generated from nuclear minerals, mainly uranium and thorium, found in Dharwar rocks and in parts of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and the Kerala/Tamil Nadu beach sands. Important nuclear power projects are Tarapur, Rawatbhata (near Kota), Kalpakkam, Narora, Kaiga and Kakarapara.
Q. Name non-ferrous metal. Discuss their spatial distribution.
Answer: Bauxite and copper. Bauxite’s largest producer is Odisha (Kalahandi, Sambalpur), with Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra also producing it. Copper’s main deposits are Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh) and Jhunjhunu-Alwar (Rajasthan), with minor deposits in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Q. What are non-conventional sources of energy?
Answer: Non-conventional sources are the renewable, sustainable energy sources: solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and bio-energy. These are more equitably distributed and environment-friendly than exhaustible conventional sources, and provide sustained, eco-friendly, cheaper energy once the initial cost is met.
3 Answer the following questions in about 150 words
Q. Write a detailed note on the Petroleum resources of India.
Answer: Crude petroleum consists of hydrocarbons of liquid and gaseous states, varying in chemical composition, colour and specific gravity, and occurs in sedimentary rocks of the tertiary period. It fuels internal combustion engines in automobiles, railways and aircraft, and its by-products go into petrochemical industries: fertiliser, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibre, medicines, vaseline, lubricants, wax, soap and cosmetics, earning it the name “liquid gold” for its scarcity and diversified uses. Oil exploration and production was taken up systematically only after the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) was set up in 1956; till then, Digboi in Assam was the only oil-producing region. Today, Digboi, Naharkatiya and Moran (Assam) and Ankaleshwar, Kalol, Mehsana, Nawagam, Kosamba and Lunej (Gujarat) are important oilfields, alongside Mumbai High (160 km off Mumbai, discovered 1973, production from 1976) and newer exploratory wells in the Krishna-Godavari and Kaveri basins on the east coast. Crude oil contains impurities and must be refined at field-based refineries (e.g. Digboi) or market-based refineries (e.g. Barauni) before use.
Q. Write an essay on hydel power in India.
Answer: The 2026-27 reprint of this chapter has no separate section on hydel power. It names hydro only in its list of sustainable, renewable energy sources, so the answer below is built on what the chapter says about that group.
Hydel (hydro-electric) power is electricity produced from the energy of flowing or falling water. The chapter puts hydro among the sustainable energy resources, which are “only the renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro-geothermal and biomass”.
- Renewable: unlike coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear energy, it does not use up an exhaustible raw material.
- Fairer spread: renewable sources are “more equitably distributed” than mineral fuels, which are concentrated in a few belts.
- Environment-friendly: no fuel is burnt, so there is no smoke from the power station itself.
- Cheaper in the long run: such sources give “more sustained, eco-friendly cheaper energy after the initial cost is taken care of”.
- Exam view: the same thermal-versus-renewable contrast is tested in Q1(iii) of this exercise, where hydel is a renewable source and thermal power is not.
4 In-text questions and activity (asked within the chapter)
Q. Have you ever thought about the reason of major iron and steel industry being located in this region?
Answer: The North-Eastern Plateau Region (Chhotanagpur in Jharkhand, the Odisha Plateau, West Bengal and parts of Chhattisgarh) has a variety of minerals together: iron ore, coal, manganese, bauxite and mica. The iron ore mines here occur in close proximity to the coal fields, which adds to their advantage. So the main raw materials of the iron and steel industry (iron ore, coal for smelting and manganese for smelting and ferro alloys) are all available close to one another, which cuts transport cost. That is why most of the iron and steel plants are located around these mines (for example around the old iron ore mines of Jharkhand).
Q. Find out the specific region where these minerals are being extracted.
Answer: Using the chapter itself: iron ore is extracted in Sundergarh, Mayurbhanj and Jhar (Odisha: Gurumahisani, Sulaipet, Badampahar, Kiruburu, Bonai), and in Poorbi and Pashchimi Singhbhum (Jharkhand: Noamundi, Gua); coal in the Damodar valley (Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro, Giridih, Karanpura); manganese in the central part of the iron ore belt of Odisha (Bonai, Kendujhar, Sundergarh, Gangpur, Koraput, Kalahandi, Bolangir); bauxite in Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Bolangir and Koraput (Odisha) and the patlands of Lohardaga (Jharkhand); and high quality mica in the lower Hazaribagh plateau of Jharkhand. Locate each of these places on a map of India.
Q. Why and where Dandi March was organised by Mahatma Gandhi?
Answer: The chapter notes that Gujarat and Rajasthan both have rich sources of salt. In 1930 Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi March (the Salt Satyagraha) from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a village on the sea coast of Gujarat, to break the British salt law, which taxed salt and did not allow Indians to make their own salt. At Dandi he made salt from sea water, and the march became a mass movement of civil disobedience against British rule.
Q. Can you find out its reason? (The newspaper clipping in the chapter says the iron ore mining industry in India is attracting several new players, both large and small.)
Answer: Reasons, from the chapter and the clipping: (i) India has the largest reserve of iron ore in Asia, and its iron ore (haematite and magnetite) has great demand in the international market due to its superior quality; (ii) any industrialising nation needs vast quantities of iron ore, the basic raw material for iron and steel, and the number of end-user industries in India is growing, so the demand for steel is rising; (iii) the iron ore mines lie close to the coal fields in the north-eastern plateau region, which adds to their advantage; and (iv) the Government has taken steps to promote the mineral sector, such as the National Mineral Policy, 1993 and the amended Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, which aims at attracting private investment and foreign direct investment into the sector.
Q. Collect information about cross country natural gas pipelines laid by GAIL (India) under ‘One Nation One Grid’.
Answer: This is a project activity: collect the information from GAIL (India) Ltd. and Government sources. Points to cover: ‘One Nation One Grid’ (the national gas grid) aims to connect all regions of the country with a network of natural gas pipelines, so that gas reaches every region. The map of conventional energy resources in the chapter (Fig. 5.4) shows the HVJ (Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur) natural gas pipeline, which carries natural gas from Hazira on the west coast to Vijaipur and Jagdishpur in the interior. Note how such pipelines help natural gas emerge as a transport fuel (CNG) and a cooking fuel (PNG) through city gas distribution networks.
Q. How India is utilising non-conventional energy resources? Discuss.
Answer: India is developing renewable sources to replace exhaustible fossil fuels: (i) Solar energy, tapped through photovoltaics and solar thermal technology, is used in heaters, crop dryers and cookers; the western part of India (Gujarat and Rajasthan) has greater potential. The news clippings in the chapter add that India crossed 70,000 MW of solar installed capacity in September 2023, one of only 5 countries to reach this milestone, and that India’s solar generation grew 26 per cent in the first half of 2023. (ii) Wind energy is already being generated, with favourable conditions in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. (iii) A geothermal energy plant has been commissioned at Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh. (iv) Bio-energy: a project converting municipal waste into energy works at Okhla in Delhi. (v) Tidal and wave energy have great potential along the west coast, but wave energy has not yet been utilised.