UPSC Prelims 2021— Question 63

In the first quarter of the seventeenth century the English East India Company had a factory at Broach (Bharuch). Chicacole and Trichinopoly were not among the relevant early EIC factory locations in the way stated. The question tests early European commercial expansion and the geography of Company factories on the western coast. The final answer-key position for Set C identifies option A as the correct option. Option A — 1 only — is correct because it is the alternative that matches the constitutional, historical, geographical, scientific or economic principle established above. Option B — 1 and 2 — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. Option C — 3 only — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. Option D — 2 and 3 — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. For PYQ interpretation, the distinction between the correct alternative and merely related facts is important. UPSC often places plausible distractors beside the precise statement that matches the underlying rule, chronology, definition or empirical relationship. The answer should therefore be read against the exact wording of the question rather than against a broadly related fact.