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CSAT 2025 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2025 · Question 62 · Reading comprehension

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

Directions for the following 3 (three) items: Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage—1

There has been no democracy that has grown economically without corporate capitalism. It helps in modernizing the economy and enabling the transition from rural to urban, and agriculture to industry and services, which are inevitable with growth. It generates jobs — and there is no other way to fix a country’s unemployment challenge without a further impetus to private business. Big companies can operate on a large scale and become competitive both domestically and externally. A vibrant corporate capitalist base also leads to additional revenues for the State — which in turn, can be used for greater welfare for the marginalized and creating a more level playing field in terms of opportunities.

CSAT 2025 · Q62

Reading comprehension Medium

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

  1. I.Corporate capitalism promotes the growth of labour force and provides more employment opportunities.
  2. II.Poor and marginalized sections of population are benefited by corporate capitalism due to trickle-down effect.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) Both I and II

Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key accepts both assumptions. The tempting objection to II is that the passage's route to the poor is State revenue spent on welfare, not a market 'trickle-down'; but the statement is testing whether the author assumes the marginalised benefit from corporate capitalism, and the passage plainly does, through jobs and through revenue-funded welfare. In the exam, read a named 'effect' in its broad sense unless the passage contradicts it.

The author credits corporate capitalism with generating jobs and with producing State revenue that funds welfare for the marginalised. Both the employment benefit (I) and the benefit that reaches the poor from corporate growth (II) are built into the argument, so UPSC's key accepts both.

  • ✓ I The passage says corporate capitalism 'generates jobs', shifts workers from agriculture to industry and services, and is the only way to fix unemployment; a growing, better-employed workforce is taken for granted.
  • ✓ II A vibrant corporate base yields 'additional revenues for the State' that can fund 'greater welfare for the marginalized'. The author assumes the gains of corporate growth reach the poor, which is the trickle-down idea in its broad sense.

Remember · When an author lists the benefits of something, assumptions that restate those benefits in other words are usually valid.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·

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