Minimalist IAS
CSAT 2021 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2021 · Question 42 · Reading comprehension

Which of the following statements best reflect the rational, plausible and practical implications…

Passage—2

In the immediate future, we will see the increasing commodification of many new technologies — artificial intelligence and robotics, 3D manufacturing, custom made biological and pharmaceutical products, lethal autonomous weapons and driverless cars. This will pose conundrums. The moral question of how a driverless car will decide between hitting a jaywalker and swerving and damaging the car has often been debated. The answer is both simple — save the human life — and complex. At which angle should the car swerve — just enough to save the jaywalker or more than enough? If the driverless car is in Dublin, who would take the decision? The Irish Government, or the car’s original code writer in California, or a software programmer in Hyderabad to whom maintenance is outsourced? If different national jurisdictions have different fine print on prioritising a human life, how will it affect insurance and investment decisions, including transnational ones?

CSAT 2021 · Q42

Reading comprehension Medium

Which of the following statements best reflect the rational, plausible and practical implications that can be derived from the passage given above?

  1. 1.Too much globalization is not in the best interests of any country.
  2. 2.Modern technologies are increasingly blurring the economic borders.
  3. 3.Innovation and capital have impinged on the domain of the State.
  4. 4.Public policy of every country should focus on developing its own supply chains.
  5. 5.Geopolitics will have to reconcile to many ambiguities and uncertainties.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) 2, 3 and 5 only

A driverless car running in Dublin, coded in California and maintained from Hyderabad raises questions no single government can settle, and differing national rules will affect transnational insurance and investment. So technology is blurring economic borders (2), innovation and capital are entering the State's domain (3), and geopolitics must live with uncertainty (5); the passage neither condemns globalisation nor prescribes self-reliant supply chains.

  • ✗ 1. The passage raises dilemmas; it passes no judgement that globalisation is harmful.
  • ✓ 2. One product spans Dublin, California and Hyderabad, and decisions are 'transnational' — technology cuts across economic borders.
  • ✓ 3. A life-and-death choice may rest with a code writer or an outsourced programmer rather than the Irish Government — private innovation and capital now reach into what was the State's domain.
  • ✗ 4. Supply chains are not discussed; this is a policy prescription the passage does not make.
  • ✓ 5. 'Who would take the decision?' and different 'fine print' across jurisdictions leave open questions that countries must learn to handle.

Remember · For 'implications', keep what flows from the passage's own questions; drop prescriptions ('should') and value judgements it never makes.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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