GS Paper I 2018

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Discuss: why safeguarding India's art heritage, tangible and living, is urgent now
2. Discuss: how it is safeguarded (Constitution, law, institutions), the gaps, and the way forward

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• Urgency: encroachment, pollution and neglect of monuments; theft and smuggling of antiquities (642 retrieved since 2014); fading crafts and folk arts.
• Value: heritage carries identity, sustains artisans and tourism, and adds to India's soft power.
• Constitution: Article 49 makes protection a State duty; Article 51A(f) makes preserving composite culture a citizen's duty.
• Law and institutions: AMASR Act 1958, Antiquities and Art Treasures Act 1972; ASI, NMMA (2007), INTACH, Sangeet Natak and Lalit Kala Akademis.
• Gaps: thin conservation staff, weak site security, slow theft trials, little income support for artists.
• Way forward: NMMA database and 3D scans, Adopt a Heritage 2.0, building control near monuments, GI tags and market links for artisans.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Assess: what the Chinese and Arab travellers' accounts add to reconstructing India's history
2. Assess: their limits, and how historians corroborate them

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• Chinese pilgrims: Faxian on Gupta-age society; Xuanzang (travels 630–644) on Harsha's polity; Yijing and Xuanzang on Nalanda's learning.
• Arab writers: Sulaiman (851) on trade; al-Biruni's Kitab-ul-Hind on science, religion and caste; Ibn Battuta's Rihla on Tughluq's court and the postal system.
• Value: eyewitness detail, help in chronology, and site identification, as Xuanzang's account guided Cunningham to Nalanda in the 1860s.
• Limits: al-Biruni's own barriers (language, religious difference, insularity); acceptance of the Brahmanical view of caste; the pilgrims' Buddhist focus.
• Hearsay, exaggeration and uneven regional coverage make the accounts supplementary sources.
• Method: historians test each claim against inscriptions, coins and excavation.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Throw light on: the present-day significance of Gandhi's ideas (non-violence, simple living, gram swaraj, trusteeship, public ethics, social harmony)
2. Throw light on: their limits and the need to adapt them

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• Non-violence: satyagraha as peaceful protest and conflict resolution; the UN's International Day of Non-Violence on 2 October (resolution 61/271, 2007).
• Simple living: limiting wants and dignity of labour answer consumerism and climate stress; Swachh Bharat Mission launched on his birth anniversary, 2014.
• Gram swaraj: inspired Article 40 and later Panchayati Raj and decentralised planning.
• Trusteeship and Sarvodaya: wealth held in trust for society, relevant to inequality and responsible business.
• Ethics: unity of means and ends; his talisman of the poorest person as a test for public servants.
• Social harmony: unfinished fight against untouchability and communal violence.
• Limits: scepticism of machinery cannot guide a modern economy literally; adapt principles, not copy them.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Why: the strategic, service and self-reliance reasons India needs its own regional navigation system
2. How: the constellation, signals and services through which IRNSS delivers position and timing

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• Strategic autonomy: GPS and GLONASS belong to other governments and can be degraded or denied in a crisis.
• Critical services: disaster response, aviation, shipping and telecom timing need a signal India controls.
• Regional focus: covers India and up to 1,500 km beyond its boundary; builds indigenous satellites, ground segment and chipsets.
• Working: ground stations update orbit and clock data; satellites broadcast timed signals; receivers use four or more to fix position and time.
• Constellation and accuracy: three geostationary and four inclined geosynchronous satellites; better than 20 m in the primary service area.
• Services and uses: open SPS and encrypted Restricted Service; navigation, fishermen's alerts, disaster management; L1 signal from 2023 eases phone adoption.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Why: India's resource interests in the Arctic (energy, minerals, fisheries, shipping routes)
2. Why: the interests beyond resources (climate science, diplomatic standing, strategic balance), with the cautions

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• Energy security: USGS (2008) estimate of about 13 per cent of undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of undiscovered gas.
• Minerals and fisheries: rare earths and northward-moving fish stocks matter for industry and food security.
• Shipping: the Northern Sea Route could shorten Asia–Europe voyages for Indian trade.
• Climate science: Himadri station in Svalbard (2008) studies links with the monsoon and Himalayan glaciers.
• Standing and strategy: Svalbard Treaty (February 1920, Paris); one of 13 observer states alongside China; voice in shaping rules.
• Policy and cautions: Arctic Policy 2022 with six pillars; fragile ecology and UNCLOS norms call for responsible engagement.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Define: what a mantle plume is, where it rises from and how it makes a hotspot
2. Explain its role in plate tectonics: recording plate motion, rifting and break-up, flood basalts, ridge and intraplate volcanism, driving force and the debate

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• Definition: hot, buoyant rock rising from deep in the mantle, possibly near the core–mantle boundary; its head spreads and melts under the lithosphere.
• Fixed source: plumes stay roughly stationary while plates drift over them, the hotspot idea J. Tuzo Wilson proposed in 1963.
• Plate motion: the Hawaiian Islands–Emperor Seamounts chain ages away from the active vent, tracing the Pacific Plate's path.
• Break-up: plumes dome and weaken the lithosphere, opening rifts that can split continents.
• Flood basalts: plume heads pour out vast lava, as in the Deccan Traps linked to the Réunion plume.
• Ridge and intraplate volcanism: Iceland on a ridge, Yellowstone far from plate edges; plume push is minor beside slab pull, and the model is still debated.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. What dead zones are and why they are spreading, in brief
2. What the consequences of their spread are for marine life, food webs, habitats, fisheries and climate, with the way forward

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• Process: fertiliser and sewage nutrients feed algal blooms whose decay uses up dissolved oxygen.
• Spread: about 700 low-oxygen sites in 2011 against 45 before the 1960s (IUCN); warming and stratification add to it.
• Mass mortality: fish, crabs and shellfish that cannot escape suffocate; mobile species flee.
• Biodiversity and food web: hypoxia-tolerant microbes and jellyfish replace diverse communities.
• Habitat and livelihoods: seagrass, corals and seabed life decline; catches shrink and shift.
• Climate feedback: deoxygenated waters release nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide.
• Way forward: balanced fertiliser use, wetlands, sewage treatment and oxygen monitoring.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Comment on the premise: the new identities and associational forms caste is taking, and why it persists
2. Comment on the inference that caste cannot therefore be eradicated: forces of erosion, the law, the limits, and a verdict

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• Associations and parties: caste associations and, since the 1980s, caste-based parties press demands on the State.
• Dominant caste: M.N. Srinivas's concept shows landowning jatis turning numbers into power.
• Persistence: endogamy, jati networks in jobs and credit, and caste-sorted matrimonial columns.
• Reservation politics widens access but hardens categories.
• Erosion: urbanisation, education and new occupations weaken purity–pollution barriers.
• Law and incentives: Article 17, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the 2013 manual-scavenging ban, and Rs 2.50 lakh for inter-caste marriage.
• Verdict: adaptation is not immortality; caste weakens where mobility, inter-marriage and enforcement advance.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Explain the reasons within the programmes: targeting, delivery and design
2. Explain the reasons beyond the programmes: growth pattern, health shocks, social barriers and regional gaps, with the way forward

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• Targeting: inclusion and exclusion errors; overlapping schemes with benefits too small to cross the line.
• Delivery: corruption, delayed wages, weak local capacity; DBT, Aadhaar and Jan Dhan have cut leakage.
• Design: consumption support with few durable assets, skills or incomes.
• Growth: job-poor growth and a large informal workforce with weak wages.
• Health shocks: out-of-pocket spending 39.4 per cent of health expenditure in 2021–22.
• Social and regional barriers: caste, gender and tribal disadvantage; less developed States with thin capacity.
• Way forward: jobs and skills, convergence, health cover and social security, independent evaluation.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. How the Indian concept differs from the Western model: principled distance versus mutual exclusion, community rights, corrective intervention, public role of faith, constitutional basis
2. Discuss the criticisms of the Indian model and what its credibility depends on

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• Principled distance: the State may intervene or abstain, whichever better serves liberty, equality and social justice.
• Corrective intervention: Article 17 and Article 25(2)(b) on opening Hindu religious institutions to all sections.
• Community rights: Articles 29–30; freedom of religion of individuals and communities.
• Public role of faith: festivals of many faiths, unlike French laïcité's 2004 school ban on conspicuous symbols.
• Constitutional basis: 42nd Amendment (1976) and S.R. Bommai (1994).
• Criticisms: selective intervention, vote-bank politics and the uniform civil code debate (Article 44).

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Discuss: what the re-orientation under Chaitanya was, in worship, social outlook, theology, literature and lasting reach
2. Discuss: how far it was a real re-orientation, set against earlier Bhakti and parallel Krishna-bhakti currents

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• Prem for Radha–Krishna replaced ritual and formless (nirguna) devotion with a personal bond to a saguna deity.
• Nagar sankirtan: public congregational chanting opened worship to all, without priest, Sanskrit or costly ritual.
• Devotion above birth: followers such as Haridasa Thakur, though less openly anti-caste than Kabir.
• Six Goswamis of Vrindavan gave it a theology, acintya bheda-abheda.
• Bengali literature (Chaitanya Charitamrita), later art (Kshitindranath Majumdar), Manipur Sankirtana (UNESCO 2013) and ISKCON (1966) carry the legacy.
• Limits: Shankaradeva's naam kirtan in Assam and Vallabhacharya in Gujarat show a shared turn within Bhakti, not a break.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Discuss: the economic gains of forming new states (closer governance, neglected regions, tailored policy)
2. Discuss: the economic costs (duplication, disputes, fiscal dependence, fresh demands) and the mixed record
3. Reach a reasoned view on whether new states benefit the economy, with criteria for future creation

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• Article 3 lets Parliament form states by simple law, so economic logic must be tested politically.
• Gains: closer administration, own budgets for neglected hill and tribal regions, policy tailored to local resources.
• Costs: duplicated capitals and offices; AP Reorganisation Act 2014 made Hyderabad common capital for up to ten years.
• Disputes over assets, water, power and staff; narrow tax bases raise dependence on central transfers.
• Fresh demands such as Vidarbha; Jharkhand's minerals without matching human development show size is not destiny.
• View: beneficial where viable and needed; SRC (1953) criteria should become a standing fiscal-viability test.

It asks 2 things — answer each

1. Why: the reasons the British took indentured labour from India to other colonies (plantation demand after slavery, distress in India, the contract system)
2. Have they preserved their cultural identity: preservation, blending and erosion, with a judgement

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• Pull: abolition of slavery left plantations short; Britain chose Mauritius in 1834 for its 'great experiment' with 'free' labour.
• Push: eastern UP, Bihar, central India, dry Tamil Nadu districts saw cottage industries decline and rents rise.
• Five-year contracts, deceptive recruiters, harsh plantations: a 'new system of slavery'; ended 1917–20 after nationalist campaigns.
• Preserved: temples, Ramcharitmanas, Diwali and Phagwa; Fiji Hindi and Sarnami.
• Blended: Trinidad's Hosay from Muharram, chutney music in Trinidad and Guyana.
• Eroded: conversion, English and creole, onward migration, ethnic politics in Fiji and Guyana; ties renewed by Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (2003) and OCI.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Examine the premise: what water harvesting can do against groundwater depletion, and why it is central but not sufficient
2. How it can be made effective in urban areas: mandate and enforcement, urban institutions, incentives, recharge works, water bodies, science and community
3. What must accompany harvesting: borewell regulation, wastewater reuse and leakage control

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• CGWB Master Plan 2020 envisages about 1.42 crore recharge structures to harness 185 BCM of monsoon rain.
• Harvesting cuts borewell demand and urban flooding but cannot offset unregulated extraction alone.
• Mandate and enforce: Tamil Nadu (2003); 35 States/UTs adopted MBBL 2016 rainwater provisions; link occupancy certificates.
• Catch the Rain: ULB rainwater harvesting cells to monitor extraction and recharge; tax rebates and retrofit subsidies.
• Recharge pits, trenches, permeable pavements, stormwater links; revive lakes and stepwells; site them by NAQUIM aquifer maps.
• Pair with borewell regulation, wastewater reuse and leakage control.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Define the Blue Revolution, with its scheme form in India
2. Explain the problems facing pisciculture: inputs, infrastructure and markets, finance, resources and ecology
3. Explain the strategies for its development: technology, finance and infrastructure, institutions and markets, sustainability

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• Definition: rapid, sustained rise in fish production through aquaculture and fisheries management; inland sources give about 75% of fish output value.
• Schemes: Blue Revolution (2015–16, Rs 3,000 crore); PMMSY (2020, Rs 20,050 crore investment).
• Problems: poor seed and feed, disease, small ponds; weak cold chains, middlemen; thin credit.
• Ecology: shrinking, polluted water bodies; overfishing; illegal African catfish threatening native species.
• Strategies: hatcheries, cage culture, biofloc and RAS; FIDF (Rs 7,522.48 crore) and KCC for fishers (2018–19).
• Cooperatives, producer organisations, MPEDA exports, ICAR extension; fishing bans, mesh rules, mangroves, native species.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. What is the significance: Explain why industrial corridors matter for manufacturing, logistics, jobs and regional growth
2. Identify: Name India's industrial corridors, as of 2018 and since
3. Explain their main characteristics: Describe the transport spine, planned nodes, governance and design, with challenges and a way forward

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• Significance: cheaper, faster factory set-up on plug-and-play land; lower logistics cost; jobs and exports; investment in hinterland districts.
• Planned urbanisation: greenfield smart cities absorb migrants and replace unplanned sprawl around old industrial towns.
• Corridors by 2018: Delhi–Mumbai (about 1,500 km along the Western DFC), Amritsar–Kolkata, Chennai–Bengaluru, Bengaluru–Mumbai, Visakhapatnam–Chennai.
• Since then: the NICDP has grown to 11 corridors; 12 new nodes worth Rs 28,602 crore approved in 2024 across 10 States.
• Characteristics: freight rail, expressway and port spine; greenfield nodes such as Dholera and Shendra–Bidkin; SPV governance; plug-and-play, walk-to-work design.
• Challenges: land acquisition, delayed freight corridors, water and power gaps, environmental clearances and Centre–State coordination.
• Way forward: align nodes with the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan and tie skill centres to cluster needs.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Mention: State the core strategies of the programme: themes and indicators, district ownership, Prabhari officers, real-time ranking and institutional support
2. Explain: Show the nature of convergence, collaboration and competition and how each drives success
3. Explain: Note the risks and what lasting success needs

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• Five themes tracked through 49 key performance indicators (81 data points), with health and nutrition carrying 30% of the weight.
• District ownership: each district plans on its strengths, guided by a central Prabhari officer of Joint or Additional Secretary rank.
• Monitoring: the Champions of Change dashboard and delta rankings of incremental monthly progress.
• Convergence: Central and State schemes aligned on common outcomes; an Empowered Committee under NITI Aayog's CEO clears bottlenecks.
• Collaboration: Centre, State, district administration, development partners and citizens work as one team.
• Competition: published delta rankings create peer pressure and a race to the top.
• Risks and way forward: self-reported data, gaming of indicators; independent verification, rewards, and extension to 500 Aspirational Blocks since 2023.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Substantiate: Give evidence across phases that the movement's agenda and leadership neglected lower-caste and poor women
2. Substantiate: Weigh the counter-evidence of grassroots and legal advances that reached poorer women
3. Substantiate: State a reasoned verdict and the way forward

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• Early agenda: AIWC and reform bodies took up education, marriage age, suffrage and legal reform, the concerns of middle-class women.
• Second phase from the mid-1970s: dowry, rape law, harassment and personal law; mostly urban middle-class concerns.
• Dalit critique: caste-based sexual violence, the devadasi system, manual scavenging and wage and land discrimination were ignored; Sharmila Rege's Dalit feminist standpoint; NFDW.
• Representation: the 1996 Women's Reservation Bill debate and demands for quotas within quotas; the 2023 Act reserves one-third seats.
• Counter-evidence: SEWA (1972), Chipko, the anti-arrack movement of the mid-1980s, self-help groups and Mahila Samakhya reached poor women.
• Law: 73rd Amendment reserved one-third panchayat seats, including within SC and ST seats; Vishaka guidelines (1997) from the Bhanwari Devi case.
• Verdict: largely true of the early and urban streams, only partly of the later movement; caste and class gaps persist.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Elucidate: Explain the homogenising pull of globalisation on Indian society
2. Elucidate: Explain how cultural specificities are strengthened through glocalisation, vernacular revival, global recognition and identity assertion
3. Elucidate: Note the costs, the hybrid outcome and a way forward

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• Homogenising pull: global brands, fast food, English, Hollywood and streaming spread a common urban consumer style.
• Glocalisation: foreign channels such as Star and MTV use Indian languages; McDonald's sells no beef and goes vegetarian in Navaratri.
• Vernacular revival: regional cinema, music, news and social media in Indian languages widen local cultures' reach.
• Global stage: International Day of Yoga (UN resolution 69/131, 2014), Garba on UNESCO's list (2023), GI tags under the 1999 Act.
• Identity assertion: religious, caste, linguistic and regional revivalism partly answers a fear of cultural erosion; diaspora reinforces tradition.
• Costs and hybridity: dialects, folk arts and crafts under market pressure; fusion food and music emerge.
• Way forward: protect folk forms through GI tags, heritage listings and support to artisans.

It asks 3 things — answer each

1. Argue: Show with illustrations how power struggle produces communalism, colonial and post-independence
2. Argue: Show with illustrations how relative deprivation produces communalism
3. Argue: Weigh the either–or claim against other causes and suggest remedies

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• Power struggle, colonial: divide and rule; separate electorates conceded in 1909 and the Communal Award (1932) made religion a basis of representation.
• Power struggle, post-1947: vote-bank mobilisation, as around Ayodhya and the riots of 1992–93; Paul Brass on organised riot networks.
• Relative deprivation: gaps in jobs, education and business breed grievance; Sachar Committee (2006) on Muslim disadvantage.
• Deprivation explains mass response: unemployed youth and squeezed traders are easiest to mobilise.
• Other causes: distorted history, rumours on social media, weak or partisan policing; Varshney on civic associations.
• Verdict: the two explain motive and mass response, but violence also needs triggers and a civic deficit.
• Remedies: impartial policing, prosecution, peace committees, inclusive development, curbs on hate speech.