GS Paper 2 practice questions for UPSC Mains 2026.

• Article 76: appointed by the President; must be qualified to be a Supreme Court judge; holds office during the President's pleasure; remuneration as the President determines.
• Advises the Government on legal matters referred by the President and performs assigned duties of a legal character.
• Right of audience in all courts (Article 76(3)); represents the Union in Supreme Court cases and Article 143 references.
• Article 88: may speak in either House and parliamentary committees without voting; enjoys MP privileges under Article 105(4).
• Conventional restrictions: no advice or brief against the Government, no defence of criminal accused or company directorship without permission.
• Not a Cabinet member; conventionally resigns with the government — a political appointment carrying professional obligations of independence.

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• The Tenth Schedule plus routine whips convert MPs into party delegates; dissent invites disqualification.
• Bills referred to committees fell from 71 per cent (15th Lok Sabha) to about 16 per cent (17th) — PRS data.
• Sitting days have nearly halved since the 1950s and Question Hour is routinely lost to disruption.
• Only 14 private members' bills have ever passed; none since 1970 — the individual legislative initiative is dead in practice.
• Ordinances, guillotine and the money-bill route (Aadhaar Act, 2016) bypass deliberation.
• 170th Law Commission Report and NCRWC recommend restricting the whip to confidence motions.
• Weak research support and money-and-muscle candidature erode legislative craft and debate quality.

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• Post-1991 planning is indicative and outcome-oriented; NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission's allocative role.
• The core efficiency claim: local information improves targeting and cuts leakages that centralised schemes suffer.
• GPDP under 'Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas' converges schemes and Fifteenth Finance Commission grants at the village level.
• The Aspirational Districts Programme and SDG India Index institutionalise competitive federalism as an efficiency device.
• District Planning Committees under Article 243ZD should integrate rural-urban plans but remain dormant in most states.
• Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996), devolving roughly a third of plan funds, is the standing proof of concept.
• Incomplete devolution of funds, functions and functionaries plus fiscal centralisation (cesses, surcharges) block realisation.

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• The JAM trinity and UPI show state-market-technology collaboration producing population-scale services.
• PM-JAY's private hospital empanelment and the Covishield-CoWIN combination demonstrate co-production in health.
• NSDC skilling and PM POSHAN with Akshaya Patra illustrate PPP and civil-society roles in human capital.
• DAY-NRLM's SHG-bank linkage mobilising nearly ten crore households is community-finance partnership at scale.
• The GST Council and PM Gati Shakti institutionalise collaboration across governments and ministries.
• The Kelkar Committee flagged PPP risk mis-allocation; FCRA tightening strained NGO partnerships — team spirit needs trust and fair contracts.

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• Awareness gaps leave entitlements unclaimed — uptake of maternity benefits and social-security insurance runs well below eligibility.
• Aadhaar authentication failures among manual workers and the elderly show what design without beneficiary consultation costs.
• MGNREGA social audits (SSAAT in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) recovered misappropriated funds — community monitoring works.
• Kudumbashree and Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Committees prove community institutions improve last-mile delivery.
• Jan Soochna Portal and Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra are scalable models of proactive disclosure and saturation outreach.
• Fix: statutory social audit units, IEC through SHG networks in local dialects, simplified portable entitlements, and Gram Sabha space for vulnerable groups.

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• India's old leadership rested on Bandung (1955), NAM's founding (1961), the G-77 and advocacy of a New International Economic Order.
• Perceived departure: the Quad and US foundational agreements, deepening Israel ties, and prime ministerial absences from NAM summits (2016, 2019).
• Multi-alignment privileges national interest — RCEP exit and sanction-era energy purchases are read as transactionalism.
• The 2023 G20 presidency delivered structural voice for the South: admission of the African Union.
• Vaccine Maitri to about 100 countries, Operation Dost and nearly USD 4 billion for Sri Lanka built first-responder credentials.
• Development partnership — ITEC, USD 30 billion-plus lines of credit, DPI sharing — plus WTO battles on food security and the TRIPS waiver sustain the leadership claim.
• Assessment: leadership re-negotiated from moral spokesman to capability-backed bridging power.

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• US strategy values India mainly as a counterweight to China (Indo-Pacific, Quad) rather than as an autonomous pole — the root of the status mismatch.
• Trade friction: GSP withdrawal (June 2019), 'tariff king' rhetoric and punitive 2025 tariffs linked to India's Russian oil purchases.
• CAATSA threats over the S-400 and secondary sanctions that ended Iranian oil imports show US domestic law constraining Indian strategic choices.
• Washington's transactional reliance on Pakistan, especially in Afghan diplomacy, has repeatedly grated on Indian sensitivities.
• US backing for India's UNSC permanent seat and NSG membership remains declaratory; H-1B curbs strain the human bridge between the two economies.
• Convergence is real — LEMOA, COMCASA, BECA, STA-1, iCET — but alliance-style US expectations clash with India's strategic autonomy.
• Durability requires the US to accommodate India's self-image: technology sharing, trade stability and support for reformed multilateralism.

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• Section 123, RPA 1951 lists corrupt practices: bribery, undue influence, appeals to religion or caste, booth capturing and publication of false statements.
• Guilt is determined only in an election petition before the High Court; the six-month trial mandate of Section 86(7) is honoured mostly in the breach.
• A Section 99 naming does not itself disqualify — Section 8A routes the case to the President, who acts on the Election Commission's opinion, adding a delaying stage.
• Appeals and stays mean consequences rarely arrive within the member's term, so deterrence collapses.
• Law Commission 244th Report (2014): expedite election-petition trials and make filing false affidavits a ground for disqualification.
• Abhiram Singh (2017) broadened Section 123(3) on religious appeals — substantive law has tightened while procedure lags.
• Reform direction: automatic disqualification on the High Court's finding, dedicated election benches and day-to-day trial.

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• RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 replaced the fixed five-year tenure with a Centre-prescribed term (three years under the 2019 Rules).
• Salary parity with the CEC/Election Commissioners was removed; the Centre now sets pay and conditions.
• The Centre's rule-making power covers State Information Commissioners too — a federal intrusion into state-level adjudication.
• Core harm: adjudicators serving on executive-revisable terms face a structural chilling effect when ruling against government.
• Downgraded stature undermines the commissions' ability to direct senior officials and enforce penalties.
• The amendment compounded vacancies and pendency — Anjali Bhardwaj v Union of India (2019) had already directed timely appointments.
• Government's defence — statutory bodies need not mirror constitutional ones — does not answer the independence objection.

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• Frame the answer on Granville Austin's 'cooperative federalism' design versus its contested working reality.
• Cooperation: GST Council's consensus record under Article 279A; pandemic-era PM-CM coordination and vaccine rollout.
• Competition: NITI Aayog's rankings (SDG India Index, EoDB, Aspirational Districts) and inter-state investment bidding.
• Confrontation: GST compensation dispute (2020), state resolutions against CAA and farm laws, Kerala's Article 131 suit.
• Institutional friction: CBI general-consent withdrawals and Governor-state standoffs over bills (SC's 2023 Punjab Governor ruling).
• Assessment: the three modes coexist and are not mutually exclusive — each has recent, citable instances as the question demands.
• Way forward: regularise the Inter-State Council and zonal councils as standing dialogue mechanisms.

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• Common inheritance: common law, adversarial procedure, precedent and judicial independence bind the two systems historically.
• Convergence 1: Constitutional Reform Act, 2005 / UK Supreme Court (2009) moved Britain toward Indian-style separation of the judiciary from the legislature.
• Convergence 2: expanding UK judicial review of the executive — Miller (2017) and the prorogation case (2019) — mirrors Indian activism.
• Convergence 3: proportionality and rights review under the Human Rights Act, 1998 parallels Part III adjudication; both liberalised standing and tribunalised.
• Divergence 1: parliamentary sovereignty (declarations of incompatibility only) versus constitutional supremacy with basic-structure review in India.
• Divergence 2: independent Judicial Appointments Commission in the UK versus India's collegium after the NJAC verdict (2015).
• Divergence 3: India's integrated single hierarchy and Articles 32/136/142 remedies versus the UK's plural jurisdictions and narrower remedial toolkit.

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• British convention: the Speaker resigns party membership and is re-elected unopposed; in India the Speaker stays a party member and contests on a party ticket, inviting doubts of partisanship.
• Kihoto Hollohan (1992) makes the Speaker a tribunal under the Tenth Schedule, so impartiality is a constitutional expectation, not a courtesy.
• Keisham Meghachandra Singh (2020): the Supreme Court flagged partisan delays in disqualification petitions and mooted an independent tribunal in place of the Speaker.
• Tenth Schedule para 5 already exempts a Speaker who resigns party membership from disqualification — a route rarely used since N. Sanjiva Reddy (1967).
• A neutral Speaker improves Opposition trust, fair time allocation and reduces disruptions and litigation over rulings.
• Feasibility limit: first-past-the-post constituency politics makes an unopposed return unrealistic without an all-party consensus on the Speaker's seat.

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• Frame health care as the foundation of social development (capability approach), then anchor both demands in data: elderly share to reach 20.8% by 2050 (India Ageing Report 2023).
• MMR fell to 97 per lakh live births (SRS 2018–20) but remains above the SDG 3.1 target of 70, with wide inter-state gaps (Kerala 19 vs Assam 195).
• Geriatric architecture: NPHCE, Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007, and Ayushman Bharat cover for all above 70 (2024).
• Maternal continuum of care: JSY, JSSK, PMMVY, PMSMA, LaQshya, SUMAN lifted institutional deliveries to ~89% (NFHS-5).
• Persisting gaps: 57% of women anaemic (NFHS-5), scarce palliative/dementia care, few trained geriatricians, weak old-age income security.
• Way forward: primary-care integration, midwifery cadre, nutrition convergence, community-based elder care — a life-cycle approach to health policy.

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• Open by linking the quote to institutional economics: Douglass North and Acemoglu–Robinson show institutions, not geography alone, determine economic performance; the civil service is the state's core implementing institution.
• Capacity building: Mission Karmayogi (NPCSCB, 2020) — competency-driven, citizen-centric training and a move from rule-based to role-based work.
• Neutrality and stability: T.S.R. Subramanian v. Union of India (2013) — fixed minimum tenure and Civil Services Boards to curb arbitrary transfers.
• Performance management: 360-degree appraisal for empanelment, outcome-linked goals, FR 56(j) review of deadwood with due process.
• Openness: lateral entry of domain experts (joint-secretary level since 2019) and specialization, per NITI Aayog and the 2nd ARC.
• Democratic payoff: impartial delivery and rule of law build citizen trust — the channel through which civil service quality strengthens democracy.

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• Define 4IR (Schwab): fusion of AI, IoT, big data, cloud and mobile internet — then show it changed the *mode* of governance from discretion-heavy files to platform-based delivery.
• DPI trinity as the backbone: Aadhaar (140 crore+), UPI (18 billion+ monthly transactions), DigiLocker — identity, payments and documents as public rails.
• DBT has cumulatively saved over ₹3 lakh crore by eliminating ghost and duplicate beneficiaries.
• Sectoral spread proves integration: CoWIN, GeM, e-NAM, faceless assessment, e-Courts, SVAMITVA drone mapping.
• Next phase: IndiaAI Mission (2024), Bhashini language AI, AI-assisted CPGRAMS — 4IR technologies inside the state's own workflow.
• Balance with risks: digital divide (NFHS-5 internet-use gap), exclusion errors, cybersecurity, and DPDP Act 2023 implementation.

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• Answer the directive: 'critically examine' requires both the WHO's contributions and its failures, ending with a reasoned judgment.
• Contributions: PHEIC on 30 January 2020, pandemic declaration on 11 March 2020, universal technical guidance, Solidarity trials, ACT-Accelerator.
• COVAX (with Gavi and CEPI) delivered close to 2 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries — the largest vaccine-sharing effort in history, yet short of targets.
• Failures: delayed alarm, deference to early Chinese reporting, initial advice against travel curbs.
• Structural constraints: IHR 2005 gives no inspection or enforcement powers; ~80% of funding is earmarked voluntary contributions; the 2020 US withdrawal announcement hit finances and legitimacy.
• Reform trajectory: IPPPR report, IHR amendments (2024), WHO Pandemic Agreement adopted at the 78th World Health Assembly (May 2025).

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• Scale: about 35 million NRIs and PIOs — the world's largest diaspora — with its densest influence in the US and the UK.
• US politics: roughly five million Indian-Americans as swing voters; Kamala Harris's vice-presidency; the Samosa Caucus; the India Caucus among the largest in Congress.
• European politics: Rishi Sunak (UK Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar (Ireland), António Costa (Portugal, later President of the European Council).
• Economy: the highest-earning ethnic group in the US; CEOs of Google, Microsoft, IBM and Adobe; over 70% of H-1B visas; NHS reliance on Indian doctors.
• Record remittances of about US$129 billion in 2024 — the highest received by any country — plus deep investment and startup linkages.
• Policy leverage: diaspora lobbying aided the 2008 civil nuclear deal and routinely moderates anti-India legislative moves.
• Caveat: the diaspora is politically diverse, and host-country immigration debates can cut both ways.

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• The constitutional tilt: Article 246 supremacy, residuary power (Article 248), emergency provisions, Article 356, All-India Services and single citizenship privilege unity over classical federalism.
• The EDA 1897 is state-centric (Section 2), but Section 2A and the 2020 amendment expanded central control over transport inspection and nationwide protection of healthcare workers.
• The DM Act 2005 enabled a centrally decreed national lockdown: binding NDMA/MHA guidelines (Sections 35, 62) and overriding effect (Section 72), though public health is a State subject (Entry 6, List II).
• The Farm Acts 2020 used Entry 33, List III to reach into agriculture and markets (Entries 14 and 28, List II); states passed counter-Bills and repeal followed in November 2021.
• Centralisation aids crisis coordination and a unified market but produces one-size-fits-all failures (migrant crisis) and legitimacy deficits when states are bypassed.
• Way forward: consultative federalism — an active Inter-State Council (Article 263), GST Council-style sectoral councils, and the Punchhi Commission's recommendations.

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• Separation of powers in India is functional, not absolute — Ram Jawaya Kapur (1955); it is nonetheless part of the basic structure per Kesavananda Bharati (1973).
• The objection: guideline-making is legislation without democratic accountability, debate or fiscal scrutiny; Articles 50, 121-122 and 211-212 signal mutual restraint.
• Justification 1: Articles 32 and 226 impose a duty to enforce fundamental rights — a rights vacuum cannot await legislative convenience.
• Justification 2: judicial guidelines are interstitial and temporary — Vishaka operated only until the POSH Act, 2013 was enacted.
• Justification 3: they remedy executive inaction — Vineet Narain (CBI autonomy), D.K. Basu (arrest safeguards), enforced through continuing mandamus.
• Articles 141-142 supply the textual authority; guidelines always yield to subsequent legislation.
• Balance: judicial restraint on policy and fiscal matters, plus prompt legislative codification, keeps the arrangement within constitutional bounds.

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• The formative phase secured Functions, Functionaries and Funds through the 73rd/74th Amendments; the contemporary question is whether devolved powers are actually exercisable — functionality.
• Parallel bodies and line departments (parastatals, smart-city SPVs) hollow out Eleventh and Twelfth Schedule functions despite formal devolution.
• Fiscal weakness: municipal revenue stagnant at about 1% of GDP (RBI); property tax under-collected; State Finance Commissions delayed and their reports ignored.
• Tied, scheme-based grants deny local bodies discretion over locally determined priorities.
• Functionary problem: deputationist staff loyal to state departments and weak planning capacity for GPDPs and municipal budgets.
• Proxy representation (sarpanch-pati) and rotation of reserved seats weaken elected leadership.
• Way forward: activity mapping, untied 15th FC direct grants, property-tax reform, RGSA capacity building and empowered Gram Sabhas.

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