निम्नलिखित कथनों में से कौन-सा एक इस परिच्छेद के मर्म को सर्वोत्तम रूप से प्रतिबिम्बित करता है?
Read this question in English
Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the passage?
(a) People should be persuaded to continue with the mainly Indian traditional cereal-based diets. · (b) India needs to focus on developing agricultural productivity and capacity for more energy generation in the coming years. · (c) Modern technological developments result in the change of cultural and social behaviour of the people. · (d) Water management practices in India need to change dramatically in the coming years.
उत्तर और व्याख्या · explanation in English
Answer: (d) आने वाले वर्षों में भारत में जल प्रबंधन प्रणालियों में नाटकीय बदलाव लाने की आवश्यकता है।
Both changes the passage describes — protein-rich diets that need more water, and more gadgets and vehicles whose energy needs water to generate — end in rising demand for water. The crux is that India must manage water very differently.
- ✗ (a) The passage describes the move to protein-rich diets; it does not argue for persuading people back to cereal diets.
- ✗ (b) Farm productivity and energy capacity are not the focus; the passage points to water as the common need behind both trends.
- ✗ (c) The passage links affluence, not technology, to changing habits, and the change it stresses is the resulting demand for water.
- ✓ (d) Diets that “need significantly more water” and energy whose “generation… needs water” both point to a growing water demand that current practices must be changed to meet.
Remember · For ‘crux’ items, find the idea every sentence leads to — here each trend ends in ‘water’.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·