Q.Define primary data and secondary data, and give one example of each in the context of a study on the literacy rate of a district.

Primary data would be collected firsthand for this specific literacy study; secondary data would be an already-existing figure the researcher borrows from an earlier source.

Step 1 — Define primary data. Primary data is data collected for the first time, directly by (or for) the investigator, specifically for the purpose of the present study.

Step 2 — Give a matching primary-data example. For a literacy-rate study of a district, primary data would be the researcher personally (or through enumerators) visiting households in the district and directly recording, firsthand, whether each individual can read and write.

Step 3 — Define secondary data. Secondary data is data that already exists, having been collected earlier by some other person or agency for their own purpose, and is merely reused.

Step 4 — Give a matching secondary-data example. The researcher could instead use the literacy figures already published in the latest Census of India report for that district — data that the Census organisation collected for its own, broader purpose (a complete national census), not specifically for this researcher's study.

Check. The two examples describe the same underlying fact (district literacy) obtained two different ways — one collected fresh (primary), one borrowed from an existing publication (secondary) — correctly illustrating the distinction.

Giving two examples that are both actually secondary (e.g., "newspaper report" and "government report") without providing a genuinely firsthand-collection example for the primary-data side is a common shortfall — make sure the primary example clearly involves the CURRENT investigator collecting data directly.