In which of the following products has Bangladesh emerged as the main competitor to India in the world market?

Answer: (b) Jute

Bangladesh, the largest jute exporter, was India’s main rival in world jute markets.

The idea

Competition in an export market depends on countries selling similar goods to the same buyers. A country’s main export overall need not be the product in which it competes with India in a particular question. Read this as a 1990 product-specific comparison, rather than applying a later export pattern.

Why the others are wrong

(a) Bangladesh’s garment boom came later, and is a different rivalry.

(c) Cement is not a big export for either.

(d) India dominates generic pharmaceuticals.

The trap

Garments are Bangladesh’s biggest export today — but the question is from 1990.

Also know

Jute grows well in the warm, wet Ganga–Brahmaputra delta and nearby alluvial plains. Retting uses water and microbes to loosen the fibres from the stem. Jute is used for sacks and hessian; cotton supplies a different fibre, while synthetic packaging can compete with both. Raw jute trade and finished jute-goods trade are separate categories.