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CSAT 2019 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2019 · Question 23 · Reading comprehension

Which of the following is most definitively implied by the above passage?

Passage—2

With the digital phenomenon restructuring most social sectors, it is little surprise that global trade negotiations are now eyeing the digital area in an attempt to pre-emptively colonise it. Big Data is freely collected or mined from developing countries, and converted into digital intelligence in developed countries. This intelligence begins to control different sectors and extract monopoly rents. A large foreign company providing cab service, for instance, is not a network of cars and drivers; it is digital intelligence about commuting, public transport, roads, traffic, city events, personal behavioural characteristics of commuters and drivers and so on.

CSAT 2019 · Q23

Reading comprehension Medium

Which of the following is most definitively implied by the above passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (a) Big Data is the key resource in the digital space.

The passage treats Big Data as the raw material that is mined, turned into digital intelligence and then used to control sectors and earn monopoly rents; even a cab company is really 'digital intelligence'. That makes Big Data the key resource of the digital space.

  • ✓ (a) Data → intelligence → control of sectors and monopoly rents; the cab example shows the real asset is data.
  • ✗ (b) The data is mined 'from developing countries'; nothing says big economies create it.
  • ✗ (c) A 'prerogative' is an exclusive right; the passage describes what is happening, not an entitlement, and the data originates in developing countries.
  • ✗ (d) Developing countries hold the data at source; what developed countries have is its conversion into intelligence, so this is not definite.

Remember · 'Most definitively implied' rewards the idea the whole passage rests on; reject options that turn a described trend into a right or a rule.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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