Given below are two statements:
Statement I: Nickel is being used as the catalyst for producing syn gas and edible fats.
Statement II: Silicon forms both electron rich and electron deficient hydrides.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

We need to evaluate two statements about nickel and silicon.

Analyze Statement I.

Statement I: Nickel is being used as the catalyst for producing syn gas and edible fats.

Syn gas (CO + H$$_2$$) is produced by steam reforming of methane: CH$$_4$$ + H$$_2$$O $$\xrightarrow{\text{Ni}}$$ CO + 3H$$_2$$. Nickel is indeed the catalyst used.

Edible fats are produced by hydrogenation of vegetable oils using finely divided nickel as catalyst.

Statement I is correct.

Analyze Statement II.

Statement II: Silicon forms both electron rich and electron deficient hydrides.

Silicon forms silanes (SiH$$_4$$, Si$$_2$$H$$_6$$, etc.), which are electron-precise hydrides — each Si forms 4 bonds using all valence electrons. Silicon does not form electron-rich hydrides (like PH$$_3$$, H$$_2$$S with lone pairs that dominate chemistry) or electron-deficient hydrides (like B$$_2$$H$$_6$$ with 3-centre 2-electron bonds).

Statement II is incorrect.

Conclusion.

Statement I is correct but Statement II is incorrect.

The correct answer is Option D: Statement I is correct but statement II is incorrect.