It is argued that the strategy of inclusive growth is intended to meet the objectives of inclusiveness and sustainability together. Comment on this statement.
Approach · directive: “comment”
What it asks · Comment on the claim that inclusive growth is meant to secure inclusiveness and sustainability together: explain both aims, show where they reinforce each other, note the trade-offs, and give a reasoned view.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- Explain the two objectives and how the strategy of inclusive growth is meant to serve both
- Show where inclusiveness and sustainability reinforce each other, and where they pull apart
- Comment: a reasoned view on whether the strategy meets both objectives together
Open with · Inclusive growth seeks growth whose benefits reach all sections and regions; sustainability asks that this growth does not use up the natural base on which the poor most depend.
Cover
- Meaning: inclusiveness is growth with jobs, access to services and smaller social and regional gaps; sustainability is growth within environmental limits that spares future generations.
- Policy link: the Twelfth Plan's theme (faster, more inclusive, sustainable growth) and the SDG pledge to leave no one behind pair the two aims.
- Reinforcing: the poor depend directly on land, water, forests and fisheries and suffer most from pollution and climate change, so protecting resources protects livelihoods.
- Reinforcing: inclusion supports sustainability; clean cooking (Ujjwala), solar power and community forest management under the Forest Rights Act cut poverty and pressure on nature.
- Tensions: cheap coal for jobs and growth against emissions; mining and dams that displace tribal and forest-dependent people; subsidies that waste water and fertiliser.
- Gaps: job creation has lagged growth, inequality and regional gaps persist, and air, water and soil degradation rises; neither aim is automatic.
Close with · Inclusive growth can meet both aims only if jobs, services and environmental safeguards are planned together, with the poor as partners in protecting resources and not their casualties.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2019, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 310 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Inclusive growth is growth whose gains, in jobs, incomes and services, reach every section and region; sustainability asks that this growth not exhaust the natural base on which the poor depend most. The Twelfth Plan's theme of faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth and the SDG pledge to leave no one behind treat the two as one agenda.
Why the two aims belong together
- The poor live closest to nature: they depend on land, water, forests and fisheries, and suffer first from polluted air, degraded soils and climate shocks, so protecting resources protects their livelihoods.
- Inclusion can advance sustainability: Ujjwala's clean cooking cuts indoor smoke and firewood pressure; solar power and community forest management under the Forest Rights Act reduce both poverty and pressure on nature.
- Both need the same instruments: secure tenure, local participation, public services and long-horizon investment, which a growth-only strategy neglects.
Where they pull apart
- Cheap coal and thermal power for jobs and industry against carbon emissions and air quality.
- Mining, dams and highways that displace tribal and forest-dwelling communities in the name of growth.
- Subsidised power, water and fertiliser that lift output today but deplete aquifers and soils tomorrow.
The record so far
- Job creation has lagged growth, regional and income gaps persist, and air, water and soil degradation has risen; neither inclusiveness nor sustainability follows from growth automatically.
Comment
- The argument holds in principle: a growth path that excludes the poor or destroys the commons cannot last. It holds in practice only when the two aims are planned together, with carbon and resource limits built into industrial policy, consent and rehabilitation in resource projects, and green jobs targeted at the poorest.
Inclusive growth can meet both objectives only if jobs, services and environmental safeguards are designed as one package, with the poor as partners in protecting resources rather than the casualties of using them.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.