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CSAT 2020 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2020 · Question 26 · Reading comprehension

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Passage—5

In India, agriculture still engages about half of its workforce, and about 85 per cent of its farms are small and marginal. Compared to China and Vietnam, which have experienced fast structural and rural transformation, India’s story is of slow transformation. As a result, poverty reduction in India was at a much slower pace during 1988–2014, compared to China and Vietnam. India’s poverty reduction was slow during 1988–2005, but during 2005–2012, it accelerated dramatically—almost three times faster than during the earlier period. What did India do during this period? Research reveals that the relative price scenario changed significantly (by more than 50%) in favour of agriculture in the wake of rising global prices. This boosted private investments in agriculture by more than 50%. As a result, agri-GDP growth touched 4.1% during 2007–2012 as against 2.4% during 2002–2007. The net surplus of agri-trade touched $25 billion in 2013–2014; real farm wages rose by 7% per annum. All this led to unprecedented fall in poverty.

CSAT 2020 · Q26

Reading comprehension Hard

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

  1. 1.Structural and rural transformation is impossible when farms are mainly small and marginal.
  2. 2.A good price incentive can trigger investments in agriculture.
  3. 3.India needs to build value chains for high-value agri-products like livestock and horticulture.
  4. 4.Higher global prices of agricultural commodities are essential for India’s poverty reduction.

Which of the above assumptions are valid?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) 2 and 3

Statement 2 is the passage's own mechanism: better relative prices lifted private farm investment by over 50%. Statements 1 and 4 use absolute words ('impossible', 'essential') that the passage does not support, which leaves 2 and 3 as the only workable pair.

  • ✗ 1. The passage calls India's transformation 'slow', not impossible, and does not make small farm size the barrier.
  • ✓ 2. The relative price scenario moved in favour of agriculture by over 50%, and 'this boosted private investments in agriculture by more than 50%'.
  • ✓ 3. Livestock and horticulture are not named, but the passage's lesson is that better returns on farm produce drive investment, growth and poverty reduction; value chains for high-value products are a way to secure such returns. It is the only remaining statement free of an overreach.
  • ✗ 4. Global prices helped in one period, but 'essential' goes too far — the passage shows how the benefit came through prices and investment, not that poverty cannot fall any other way.

Remember · When one statement is certain, strike the options with extreme words ('impossible', 'essential'); the survivor is usually the answer.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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