Minimalist IAS
CSAT 2017 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2017 · Question 1 · Reading comprehension

What does the above passage imply?

Directions for the following 8 (eight) items: Read the following eight passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage—1

What climate change will undeniably do is cause or amplify events that hasten the reduction of resources. Competition over these diminishing resources would ensue in the form of political or even violent conflict. Resource-based conflicts have rarely been overt and are thus difficult to isolate. Instead they take on veneers that appear more politically palatable. Conflicts over resources like water are often cloaked in the guise of identity or ideology.

CSAT 2017 · Q1

Reading comprehension Easy

What does the above passage imply?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) Environmental issues contribute to resource stresses and political conflict.

The passage traces a chain: climate change shrinks resources, and the scramble for what remains turns into political or even violent conflict, often disguised as identity or ideology. Option (c) states exactly this link between environmental stress, scarce resources and conflict.

  • ✗ (a) The passage says resource conflicts wear a politically palatable 'veneer'; it never says politics is their motive, and 'always' is far too strong.
  • ✗ (b) Solutions are not discussed at all; the passage only explains how such conflicts arise and how they are disguised.
  • ✓ (c) Climate change 'hastens the reduction of resources', and competition over them takes the form of 'political or even violent conflict' — environment, then resource stress, then conflict.
  • ✗ (d) Whether identity-based conflict can be resolved is never discussed; the passage only says resource conflicts are cloaked as identity or ideology.

Remember · For 'imply' questions, choose the option that restates the passage's cause-and-effect chain; reject options about solutions the passage never discusses.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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