Match the following : (a) Vitthal Ramji Shinde - (i) President, 'Valve Taluka Shetkari Parishad' at Borgaon (b) Khasesaheb Pawar - (ii) President, Fourth session of 'Mumbai Prantik Brahmanetar Party' (c) Dinkarrao Javalkar - (iii) Weekly 'Tej' (d) Shripatrao Shinde - (iv) Vijayi Maratha
This MPSC previous-year question is drawn from MPSC Gazetted CS Combined Pre 2021 — State Service / Rajyaseva GS Paper 1 (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
On this one, option A. Vitthal Ramji Shinde presided over the Valve taluka Shetkari Parishad at Borgaon; Khasesaheb Pawar headed the fourth Mumbai Prantik Brahmanetar Party session; Dinkarrao Javalkar edited the weekly Tej; Shripatrao Shinde ran Vijayi Maratha — (a)-i through (d)-iv.
Why this question matters
Repeat-frequency analysis of the last decade of MPSC papers shows that geography accounts for a stable 10–15 percent of every prelim. Aspirants who master this segment early free up preparation time for the more volatile subjects (Current Affairs, Environment) that require weekly refresh. That is why our editorial team places geography PYQs prominently in the topic-wise practice flow.
How to attempt this in the exam
Watch for negation traps — words like "not", "except", "incorrect" that flip the intent of the question. MPSC deliberately embeds them in geography items to catch aspirants who read the question in a hurry. Re-read the stem with a mental highlight on any negation word before selecting an option.
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 Gazetted CS Combined Pre 2021 — State Service / Rajyaseva GS Paper 1 (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 [email protected] — 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.
Practice the full subject
MPSC Gazetted CS Combined Pre 2021 — State Service / Rajyaseva GS Paper 1 (English)
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