GS Paper I 2024 · Q17
15 marks · 250 words Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularismWhat is regional disparity? How does it differ from diversity? How serious is the issue of regional disparity in India?
Approach · directive: “what / how serious”
What it asks · Define regional disparity, separate it from diversity, and assess how serious it is in India with evidence, causes and consequences.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- Define regional disparity
- Distinguish it from diversity
- Assess how serious regional disparity is in India: evidence, causes, consequences and responses
Open with · Regional disparity is the unequal spread of income, infrastructure and human development across regions; diversity is difference without hierarchy.
Cover
- Difference: diversity is horizontal (language, culture, ecology) and to be valued; disparity is vertical (deprivation) and to be reduced.
- Evidence: per capita income in Goa or Sikkim is several times that of Bihar; poverty is concentrated in central and eastern states.
- Within states: Vidarbha, Marathwada, Bundelkhand, north Karnataka and tribal belts lag their own state averages.
- Causes: colonial legacy, geography, uneven industrialisation and private investment, weak administrative capacity.
- Consequences: distress migration, demands for separate states (Telangana), extremism in neglected tribal areas, Centre–state fiscal friction.
- Responses: Finance Commission equalisation, Aspirational Districts Programme, Article 371 special provisions, North-East schemes.
Close with · Disparity, unlike diversity, strains national cohesion; bringing lagging regions level in human development is the real test of cooperative federalism.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2024, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 290 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Regional disparity is the unequal spread of income, infrastructure and human development across regions; diversity is difference without hierarchy — India has plenty of both.
What regional disparity is
- A measurable gap in well-being between states, or between regions within a state, seen in per capita income, poverty, infant mortality, literacy, credit–deposit ratios and industrial investment.
How it differs from diversity
- Diversity is horizontal: languages, faiths, cuisines and ecologies — differences to be valued and protected (Eighth Schedule, Article 29).
- Disparity is vertical: a ranking of deprivation to be reduced; it breeds resentment and separatism, whereas diversity can coexist with equality.
- Diversity is an identity people choose to keep; disparity is a condition they seek to escape.
How serious is it in India?
- Evidence: per capita income in Goa, Sikkim or Haryana is several times Bihar's; multidimensional poverty concentrates in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh; industry and FDI cluster in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
- Within states: Vidarbha, Marathwada, Bundelkhand, north Karnataka and the KBK districts of Odisha lag their own state averages.
- Causes: colonial port-centred development, geography, the freight equalisation policy (1952–93) that hurt mineral-rich eastern states, an uneven Green Revolution, and private investment following infrastructure and administrative capacity.
- Consequences: distress migration; statehood demands (Telangana, 2014; Vidarbha, Bundelkhand); left-wing extremism in neglected tribal belts; Centre–state friction over Finance Commission devolution and delimitation.
- Responses: Finance Commission equalisation (income distance weighted 45% by the 15th FC); Aspirational Districts Programme (2018, 112 districts); Article 371 development boards; North-East packages; industrial corridors in the east.
- Balance: human development indicators are converging even as incomes diverge — serious, but not unmanageable.
Disparity, unlike diversity, strains national cohesion; bringing lagging regions level in human development is the real test of cooperative federalism.
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.