Consider the following statements: 1) In India, State Governments do not have the power to auction non-coal mines. 2) Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand do not have gold mines. 3) Rajasthan has iron ore mines. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

The correct answer is D (3 only). Only statement 3 holds.

• Statement 1 is false. The MMDR Act, 1957 was amended in 2015 to allow states to auction non-coal mineral blocks, and states do conduct these auctions. The Centre runs coal block auctions under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, but that does not take away state power over non-coal minerals.
• Statement 2 is false. Andhra Pradesh has gold, notably in the Kurnool belt (Jonnagiri-Ramagiri). Jharkhand also has small gold occurrences, mainly in Singhbhum. Karnataka (Kolar, Hutti) is the main producer, which is why aspirants wrongly drop AP from the list.
• Statement 3 is true. Rajasthan has iron ore deposits, in districts such as Banswara, Dungarpur and Jhunjhunu, though its output is small compared with Odisha, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.

The core concept is the distribution of minerals and the Centre-state division of mining powers under the MMDR framework, which links to the Mains GS-III question on mineral governance and the reforms of 2015. The 2015 amendment changed the auction regime, so state powers are now much wider than the pre-2015 position.

Trap: marking statement 1 as true by relying on the old pre-2015 position, when states have held auction powers for non-coal minerals since the amendment.