GS Paper 2 practice questions for UPSC Mains 2026.

Introduction: Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0, launched in 2021, reaches roughly 10 crore beneficiaries through 14 lakh Anganwadi Centres on a real-time Poshan Tracker, with a 2025-26 outlay of about Rs 21,960 crore.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Design strengths: maternal nutrition, IYCF norms, community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM), fortified take-home rations, digital growth monitoring; (ii) Performance evidence: stunting fell from 38.4 to 35.5 percent and underweight from 35.8 to 32.1 percent between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5, but child anaemia rose from 58.6 to 67.1 percent and women's anaemia from 53 to 57 percent; (iii) Gaps: NFHS data are 2019-21 vintage, FAO SOFI 2024 records 194.6 million undernourished Indians and 18.7 percent wasting, Anganwadi worker vacancies, weak last-mile fortification supply.

Way forward / Conclusion: Centre the first 1,000 days through maternal nutrition under PMMVY, scale mandatory rice fortification with FSSAI +F standards, fix Anganwadi vacancies and integrate POSHAN with PMAY-G water and sanitation.

Introduction: PM-JAY, launched on 23 September 2018, is the world's largest publicly funded health-assurance scheme, with Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation and a 70-plus age-group expansion in 2024.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Achievements: over 35 crore Ayushman cards issued, more than 8 crore hospital admissions, around 31,000 empanelled hospitals, integration with ABHA under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission; (ii) Limits: covers only inpatient care, leaves out outpatient and medicine costs that drive about 60 percent of OOPE; private-empanelled hospitals dominate; missing trust-based vs insurance-based state variations; package-rate disputes; (iii) Equity: states like West Bengal and Delhi opted out for periods; tribal districts under-utilise; women's claim share lags.

Way forward / Conclusion: Add an outpatient and chronic-disease cover, raise the public-health spend toward the National Health Policy 2017 target of 2.5 percent of GDP, strengthen Health and Wellness Centres for primary care, and audit private hospital empanelment with WHO ICD-coded outcome data.

Introduction: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 entitles every rural household to 100 days of manual work in a financial year and stands as India's largest demand-driven safety net.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Counter-cyclical role: enrolled work peaked at 389 crore person-days in 2020-21 during the pandemic; (ii) Issues: average wage Rs 289-300 in 2024-25, lagging state minimum wages; FY 2025-26 BE around Rs 86,000 crore against a CAG-flagged real demand of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore; mandatory Aadhaar-Based Payment System and National Mobile Monitoring System exclusion errors; (iii) Asset creation: water-conservation works and individual-beneficiary land development under convergence with PMAY-G and JJM.

Way forward / Conclusion: Re-index wages to inflation, untie budget from cap, restore demand-driven character and pilot an urban employment guarantee.

Introduction: India's tribal architecture rests on two tracks — welfare-saturation schemes (PM-JANMAN, DAJGUA) and rights-recognition laws (FRA 2006, PESA 1996). The first delivers amenities; the second transfers ownership.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Welfare push: PM-JANMAN (November 2023) put Rs 24,104 crore behind 75 PVTGs; DAJGUA (November 2024) added Rs 79,156 crore to saturate nearly 63,843 tribal villages with PMAY-G houses, JJM water and PMGSY roads; (ii) Rights stall: Forest Rights Act review on 1 June 2025 by MoTA found more than 18 lakh of the 51 lakh claims rejected (about 36 percent rejection); Community Forest Resource rights titled to under 5 percent of the potential area; (iii) Constitutional design: Article 244, Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PESA in 10 states, gram sabha as the FRA gatekeeper.

Way forward / Conclusion: Couple PM-JANMAN delivery with FRA title verification, end the deemed-rejection of claims without speaking orders (Niyamgiri principle), and converge MFP MSP and CFR governance under gram sabha control.

Introduction: The RPwD Act 2016 is the Indian implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by India on 1 October 2007, and the Rajive Raturi v. Union of India ruling on 8 November 2024 declared accessibility a fundamental right under Article 21.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Statutory architecture: 21 specified disabilities, social model definition, 4 percent reservation in government jobs (Section 34), 5 percent in higher education (Section 32), Chief Commissioner and State Commissioners as quasi-judicial enforcers; (ii) Implementation gap: only 8.73 percent of buses accessible per the Centre's own Rajive Raturi compliance affidavit; Sugamya Bharat Phase 1 targets missed; Census 2011 enumerates only 2.21 percent disabled against WHO's 16 percent global estimate; (iii) Compliance hearing on 11 February 2026 — the Court refused the Centre's plea to defer mandatory accessibility rules; vacancies in DEPwD and State Commissions persist.

Way forward / Conclusion: Notify enforceable accessibility rules under Section 40 with penalties, conduct a disability-inclusive Census 2027 with the Washington Group Short Set, fill commissioner vacancies and audit the 4 percent reservation backlog.

Introduction: The PEMSR Act 2013 banned manual scavenging and made hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without safety gear a punishable offence, building on the 1993 prohibition.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Statutory and judicial scaffolding: PEMSR Act 2013, Safai Karamchari Andolan v. Union of India (2014) directed Rs 10 lakh compensation per sewer death, raised to Rs 30 lakh in Balram Singh v. Union of India (October 2023); (ii) Persistent deaths: Government told Rajya Sabha 294 sewer/septic-tank deaths in 2020-2024 (with zero 'manual scavenging' deaths reported, exposing the definitional dodge); (iii) NAMASTE scheme (launched 2023, replacing SRMS) — mechanised desludging, Profiling of Sewer-Septic-Tank Workers (PWSSWs), PPE kits, capital subsidy for sanitation enterprises; convergence with Swachh Bharat 2.0.

Way forward / Conclusion: Merge 'manual scavenging' and 'hazardous cleaning' for legal accountability, criminalise non-mechanised entry, vest enforcement in Municipal Commissioners with strict liability and ensure caste-disaggregated NAMASTE data.

Introduction: The National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), renamed from RNTCP in 2020, pursues India's 2025 elimination target under the National Strategic Plan 2017-25.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Architecture: Ni-kshay digital surveillance, Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana cash transfer of Rs 1,000 per month (raised in 2024) for nutritional support, free first-line and second-line drugs, BPaL/BPaLM oral regimen for MDR-TB; (ii) Burden: WHO Global TB Report 2024 — India had about 28 lakh TB cases and 3.15 lakh TB deaths in 2023, 26 percent of global incidence; MDR/RR-TB notifications around 75,000; (iii) Gaps: private-sector notification under-coverage, latent-TB infection screening only nascent, stock-outs of pediatric formulations and HIV-TB co-infection management.

Way forward / Conclusion: Universal active case finding in slums and tribal pockets, mandatory private-sector notification with conditional cash, and integration with PM-JAY for catastrophic-cost protection.

Introduction: India's public health expenditure remains around 1.84 percent of GDP (NHA 2021-22), short of the 2.5 percent target set in the National Health Policy 2017 and the High Level Expert Group on UHC (2011) benchmark of 3 percent.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Out-of-pocket expenditure has fallen from about 64.2 percent (FY15) to 39.4 percent (FY22) but still drives an estimated 6 crore Indians into poverty annually; (ii) State variation — Tamil Nadu and Kerala spend more than 1 percent of GSDP on health while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar spend less than 0.5 percent; (iii) Federal design — health is a State Subject (List II Entry 6); 15th Finance Commission's Health Sector Grant of Rs 70,051 crore (2021-26) routed via local bodies.

Way forward / Conclusion: Earmark a cess-funded Health Equity Fund, expand PM-ABHIM critical-care blocks and condition central transfers on primary-care strengthening.

Introduction: India's population aged 60-plus will roughly double from about 10.5 percent in 2022 to 20.8 percent by 2050 per the UNFPA India Ageing Report 2023, with the elderly outnumbering children under 14 by about 2046.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Income inadequacy: Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) pays Rs 200 per month (60-79) and Rs 500 (80-plus), unchanged since 2007; about 71 percent of elderly are rural and 52 percent are women (feminisation and ruralisation of ageing); (ii) Care infrastructure: National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE), Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, SAGE platform; long-term care (LTC) and dementia services almost absent; (iii) NITI Aayog Senior Care Reforms (February 2024) framework — four pillars of social, financial, health and digital inclusion, plus a national policy on Active and Healthy Ageing.

Way forward / Conclusion: Recast IGNOAPS as a non-contributory universal social pension indexed to inflation, create a National Eldercare Authority, license LTC homes, and use Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana for community-level care.

Introduction: NEP 2020, the third national policy after 1968 and 1986/1992, restructures school education into a 5+3+3+4 design and reaffirms the Kothari Commission (1964-66) target of 6 percent of GDP on education.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Foundational stage: NIPUN Bharat (July 2021) sets FLN targets by Grade 3 by 2026-27, with PM SHRI schools (Rs 27,360 crore, 2022-27) as model laboratories; (ii) Higher education: 50 percent GER target by 2035 from current 28.4 percent (AISHE 2021-22), Academic Bank of Credits, multidisciplinary universities, and UGC autonomy reforms; (iii) Spending gap: Education spend remains around 4.6 percent of GDP combined Centre and States, well below the 6 percent target; Right to Education enforcement, teacher vacancies (over 10 lakh) and learning losses captured in ASER 2024 persist.

Way forward / Conclusion: A Central FLN Mission with state co-finance, mother-tongue early instruction under Article 350A, end ad hoc teacher recruitment and link Samagra Shiksha grants to ASER outcomes.

Introduction: The 86th Constitutional Amendment (2002) inserted Article 21A making free and compulsory education for 6-14-year-olds a fundamental right, operationalised by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Access wins: gross enrolment near universal at primary, drop-out at upper-primary at 5.2 percent (UDISE 2022-23); (ii) Quality stagnation: ASER 2024 shows only 23.4 percent of Class 3 government-school students can read a Class 2 text, and 33.7 percent can do subtraction; (iii) Structural issues: no-detention policy amended in 2019, 25 percent EWS quota in private schools (Section 12(1)(c)), teacher pupil-ratio breaches in 12 states.

Way forward / Conclusion: Link Samagra Shiksha funding to learning outcomes, reintroduce mid-year diagnostic assessments under NIPUN Bharat, and end ad hoc teacher recruitment under the State PSC route.

Introduction: The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 made the right to mental healthcare statutory and aligned Indian law with the UNCRPD framework that India ratified in 2007.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Rights architecture: right to access mental healthcare under Section 18, advance directives under Section 5, nominated representatives, Mental Health Review Boards, Central and State Mental Health Authorities, Section 115 decriminalising suicide attempts; (ii) Workforce and finance gap: 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 against WHO norm of 3; about 9,000 working psychiatrists with a shortfall of 36,000 per the 2023 Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health; mental-health allocation Rs 1,898 crore in 2025-26 (about 1 percent of Union health budget); (iii) Demand-side reality: NMHS 2015-16 — 10.56 percent current and 13.67 percent lifetime prevalence; treatment gap 84.5 percent overall; Tele-MANAS took close to 30 lakh calls since October 2022.

Way forward / Conclusion: Operationalise District Mental Health Programme with task-sharing through ASHAs and counsellors (mhGAP), publish NMHS-2 with state-level data, raise mental-health budget toward WHO's 5 percent benchmark, and integrate Tele-MANAS with ABDM.

Introduction: India boycotted the first Belt and Road Forum in 2017 over CPEC's $62 billion route through Gilgit-Baltistan and has maintained the line that activity on Indian-claimed territory is 'inherently illegal, illegitimate, and unacceptable'.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Sovereignty rationale rooted in the Instrument of Accession 1947 and Article 1(3)(c) of the Constitution; (ii) Alternative corridors: IMEC (9 September 2023, G20 New Delhi Summit), INSTC via Chabahar (US sanctions waiver expired 26 April 2026), I2U2 (14 July 2022); (iii) BRI scale — about $1 trillion across 147 countries; India's hedge is a portfolio not a single bet.

Way forward / Conclusion: Keep the BRI boycott as principled but operationalise IMEC pilot cargoes via UAE-Israel Haifa link, formalise INSTC framework with Russia and Iran, and accelerate Trincomalee energy hub.

Introduction: India runs the world's second-largest higher-education system. NEP 2020 commits to raising the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50 percent by 2035 against 28.4 percent in AISHE 2021-22.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Quantitative progress: female GER 28.5 percent now exceeds male GER 28.3 percent; SC GER at 25.9 percent and ST GER at 21.2 percent below the national average; (ii) Equity gaps: PhD enrolment by SC/ST under-represented; minority enrolment uneven; M.Sukhdeo Thorat Committee (2007) on JNU exclusion still relevant; (iii) Structural reforms: 103rd Amendment EWS quota (2019), Academic Bank of Credits, multiple-entry-and-exit, four-year UG with research, and the proposed Higher Education Commission of India to replace UGC and AICTE.

Way forward / Conclusion: Index post-matric scholarships to inflation, fill backlog SC/ST/OBC faculty vacancies in central universities, scale PM-USHA RUSA infrastructure, and audit private deemed universities to prevent diploma-mill expansion.

Introduction: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2023-24 (released 23 September 2024) shows female labour-force participation jumping from 23.3 percent (2017-18) to 41.7 percent — an 18-point rise.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Composition: women classified as 'helpers in household enterprises' more than doubled from 9.1 percent to 19.6 percent, and rural women's engagement in agriculture rose from 71.1 percent (2018-19) to 76.9 percent (2023-24); (ii) Pay gap: self-employed men earn about 2.8 times what self-employed women earn; regular salaried women earn 76 percent of male pay; (iii) Unpaid burden: NSO Time Use Survey 2024 — women spend 289 minutes/day on unpaid domestic work against men's 88 minutes.

Way forward / Conclusion: Public investment in the care economy (creches, eldercare, school meals) per the ILO 5R framework; enforce Code on Wages 2019 equal-pay clause; and operationalise Section 67 of Code on Social Security 2020 for women platform workers.

Introduction: The Code on Social Security 2020 was notified into force on 21 November 2025, consolidating nine social-security laws and naming 'gig worker' and 'platform worker' as statutory categories for the first time.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Architecture: Section 2(35) defines gig worker; Section 141 mandates a Social Security Fund financed by aggregator contributions (1-2 percent of turnover or 5 percent of payouts), with e-Shram as the unified registry (31.38 crore registered by 27 November 2025); (ii) Scale: about 90 percent of India's workforce is informal contributing nearly 50 percent of GDP; NITI Aayog (2022) projects gig workforce will reach 2.35 crore by 2029-30 from 77 lakh in 2020-21; (iii) Delivery gap: rules under sections 109 and 114 still pending in many states, no operational Social Security Fund disbursement, ESI/EPFO portability incomplete.

Way forward / Conclusion: Notify aggregator-contribution rules with platform-level audits, port ABHA-PM-JAY benefits to e-Shram IDs, build a federated Social Security Fund with state matching, and recognise Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers Act 2023 as a model.

Introduction: India's working-age (15-59) population peaks around 2041 and the demographic dividend window closes around 2046, when the over-60 cohort overtakes those under 14, per UNFPA 2023 and SRS 2024 data.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Demographic shift: TFR fell from 2.2 (SRS 2020) to 2.0 (SRS 2024), already below replacement; southern states have TFR below 1.7; (ii) Skills gap: India Skills Report 2024 — only 51.3 percent of graduates are employable; PMKVY 4.0 has trained around 1.4 crore but placement remains under 25 percent; (iii) Policy levers: National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, ITI revamp (Rs 60,000 crore plan announced in Union Budget 2025-26), Skill India Digital Hub, and Atmanirbhar Skilled Employee-Employer Mapping (ASEEM) portal.

Way forward / Conclusion: Industry-linked dual-system apprenticeships (German model), align skilling with PLI-anchored sectors, expand female ITI seats, and integrate skilling outcomes into the 16th Finance Commission's grants framework.

Introduction: 'Neighbourhood First', anchored in the 5S vocabulary (Samman, Samvad, Shanti, Samriddhi, Sanskriti), promises non-reciprocal generosity to immediate neighbours, complemented by SAGAR (2015, Mauritius) and its 2025 expansion to MAHASAGAR.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Political churn: Tarique Rahman's BNP swept Bangladesh polls in February 2026 (212 of 300 seats), Muizzu's 'India Out' recalibrated to 'trusted friend' in Maldives, NPP's Dissanayake in Sri Lanka chose New Delhi as first foreign visit; (ii) Instruments: India supplied 5,000 MT diesel within days of Rahman's swearing-in; Rs 600 crore aid to Maldives in Budget 2025; co-chaired Sri Lanka Official Creditor Committee with Japan and France for $5.9 billion debt restructuring; (iii) China factor: Hambantota 99-year lease ($1.12 billion, 2017), $3.7 billion Sinopec Hambantota refinery (January 2025), but Beijing slowed mega-loans and declined Pakistan's ML-1 railway financing.

Way forward / Conclusion: Move from leader-led to institution-led ties, push BBIN MVA, prioritise grid and transit (Trincomalee, Greater Male) and avoid the Adani-Bangladesh power-supply pricing trap; restore SAARC functionality through BIMSTEC as bridge.

Introduction: India and Nepal share an open border under the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, with a pegged Nepalese rupee at 1.6 INR and over 6 million Nepalese living in India.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Irritants: Nepal's Constitution (September 2015) was followed by a Madhesi blockade; the 2020 'new political map' included Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura; the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report (2018) remains unaccepted; (ii) Connectivity wins: Motihari-Amlekhgunj petroleum pipeline (September 2019, 69 km), Jaynagar-Janakpur railway (April 2022), Arun-III hydropower (900 MW under SJVN); (iii) China factor: Nepal-China Trans-Himalayan Railway feasibility study and 2017 BRI MoU; the pro-China KP Sharma Oli government dissolved in mid-2024 to a Prachanda-Deuba coalition that recalibrated toward Delhi.

Way forward / Conclusion: Receive the EPG report, conclude the long-pending Pancheshwar DPR under the Mahakali Treaty 1996, expand 10,000 MW power-purchase agreements and let states (UP, Bihar) lead micro-cooperation under BBIN MVA.

Introduction: BIMSTEC, founded in 1997 as BIST-EC and renamed in 2004, links 5 South Asian states (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka) with 2 Southeast Asian (Myanmar, Thailand). The BIMSTEC Charter entered into force 20 May 2024.

Body: Three dimensions — (i) Strategic value: 22 percent of world population, $5+ trillion combined GDP, Bay of Bengal connectivity bridge for Act East; (ii) Sixth Summit Bangkok (4 April 2025) — Bangkok Vision 2030, BIMSTEC Centre of Excellence on Disaster Management at Noida, BIMSTEC Chamber of Commerce, master plan on transport connectivity; (iii) Limits: pending BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement (mooted 2004), Myanmar civil war disrupts BIMSTEC Motor Vehicles Agreement, no joint defence framework yet.

Way forward / Conclusion: Close the BIMSTEC FTA, operationalise Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Project and Trilateral Highway, and make BIMSTEC the Bay of Bengal connectivity backbone alongside MAHASAGAR.