Minimalist IAS
CSAT 2023 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2023 · Question 13 · Reading comprehension

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the passage?

Passage—3

Many people are not eating the right food. For some, it is simply a decision to stick with food they enjoy but which is not too healthy. This is leading to an increase in non-communicable diseases. This in turn leads to major burden on our health-care systems that have the potential to derail the economic progress which is essential for the poor to improve their lives. For others, it is about limited access to nutritious food or a lack of affordability, leading to monotonous diets that do not provide the daily nutrients for them to develop fully. Part of the reason nutrition is under threat worldwide is that our food systems are not properly responding to nutritional needs. Somewhere along that long road from farm to fork, there are serious detours taking place.

CSAT 2023 · Q13

Reading comprehension Easy

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) We must place food-based nutrition at the centre of our policy debate.

The passage traces poor nutrition to unhealthy food choices, poor access and poor affordability, and blames food systems that are not responding to nutritional needs 'from farm to fork'. Its crux is that nutrition through food must be central to policy.

  • ✗ (a) Universal Basic Income is not mentioned; affordability is only one of several causes described.
  • ✓ (b) The closing idea, that 'our food systems are not properly responding to nutritional needs', calls for making food-based nutrition the centre of policy.
  • ✗ (c) Genetically modified crops are outside the passage.
  • ✗ (d) Fortification is a specific technique the passage does not discuss, and it would not address the choice and access problems described.

Remember · The crux covers all the causes a passage lists; specific technical fixes such as GM crops or fortification are usually too narrow.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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