Which of the following is/are the most rational and logical inference/inferences that can be made from the passage?
- 1.It is essential to rethink and redefine the economic role of the State in the quest for development.
- 2.India has not made effective implementation of its policies in social sectors nor made sufficient investments in them.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2
UPSC's official answer: (c) · the answer UPSC accepted, and the one that counts in the exam
Also defensible: (a)
- Inference 1 follows: the reforms were shaped 'by the economic problems of the government than by the economic priorities of the people or by the long-term development objectives', had 'limitations in conception and design', and 'these problems must be resolved' for growth to become development, so the State's economic role needs rethinking.
- Inference 2 claims two specific failures: poor implementation of social-sector policies and insufficient investment in them. The passage names outcomes only, 'jobless growth, persistent poverty and rising inequality' and 'four quiet crises' in 'agriculture, infrastructure, industrialization and education'. It says nothing about how any policy was implemented or how much was invested.
- UPSC's key takes the one step from those outcomes to their likely cause and accepts 2, giving (c); an inference that must rest on what the passage says stops at 1, giving (a).
UPSC's key is (c); a strict reading, on which an inference rests only on what the passage says, gives (a). In the exam, allow UPSC's one step from stated outcomes to their likely cause, but no more.
This box is Minimalist IAS's analysis, with its sources; it does not change UPSC's answer.
The passage says liberalization was shaped by the government's own economic problems rather than by people's priorities or long-term development goals, that its design flaws have been confirmed by experience — jobless growth, persistent poverty, rising inequality and four quiet crises including education — and that these must be resolved for growth to become meaningful development. UPSC's key takes both inferences as following: the State's economic role needs rethinking (1), and the social outcomes show that social-sector policies were neither delivered well nor funded enough (2).
- ✓ 1. The reforms reflected the government's problems, not 'the economic priorities of the people or ... the long-term development objectives', had 'limitations in conception and design', and 'these problems must be resolved' — so the State's economic role in development needs to be rethought and redefined.
- ✓ 2. Persistent poverty, rising inequality and a crisis in education decades into reform are the passage's evidence on the social side; UPSC's key reads them as showing that policies in the social sectors were neither effectively implemented nor adequately funded — the one step of reasoning that 'most rational and logical' allows.
Remember · For 'most rational and logical inference', ask what the passage's stated outcomes and causes, taken together, point to; UPSC allows one step of common-sense reasoning from outcome to cause.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·