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Practice UPSC New previous year questions on Anantam IAS: 0 Prelims MCQs and 596 Mains Q&A with answer keys, explanations and topic-wise links.
Prelims MCQs 0
No Prelims MCQs from New yet.
Mains Q&A 596
The Constituent Assembly was not fully representative in form, but it became representative in substance.” Discuss.
Sovereignty today does not mean isolation from the world — it means the capacity to engage with it on one’s own terms.” In the light of India’s constitutional commitments and foreign policy practice, examine this statement.
Discuss the limitations of Gender Budgeting in India as an instrument for achieving gender equality.
Growing fiscal pressures on State Governments have significant implications for India’s macroeconomic stability. Discuss.
Explain how Outcome-Based Budgeting contributes to better public expenditure management. What are its limitations?
Examine the major challenges in Public Expenditure Management in India. Discuss the measures taken by the government to improve the quality of public expenditure.
“Fiscal discipline is the foundation of macroeconomic stability.” Examine in the context of India’s public finances.
Organic farming can contribute to sustainable agriculture, but it cannot be viewed as a universal substitute for conventional farming in India. Discuss.
The next phase of agricultural transformation in India lies not in producing more food grains but in creating greater value from agriculture. Discuss.
Despite being one of the world’s largest edible oil producing countries in the world, India imports more than half of its vegetable oil requirement. What are the reasons for such import dependency? Discuss the need for achieving self-sufficiency in edible oil and elaborate the policy steps taken by the government in this regard.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 has significantly transformed India’s insolvency resolution framework. However, delays in resolution continue to undermine its effectiveness. Discuss.
“The mobilisation of resources in India is constrained less by the availability of savings than by their efficient channelling into productive investment.” Critically examine.
“India’s low tax-to-GDP ratio reflects structural features of its economy as much as administrative weakness.” Examine.
Discuss the major structural weaknesses of India’s capital markets and their implications for the mobilisation of resources for productive investment.
Declining household financial savings pose significant challenges for India’s investment-led growth strategy. Discuss.
You are the District Magistrate of a coastal district. A category-2 cyclone has destroyed 6,400 fishermen huts in 18 villages. Total compensation entitlement under SDRF norms is ₹52 crore but only ₹19 crore is currently available; ₹33 crore is awaiting NDRF release after Central JRDA. A local MLA demands you ‘release pro-rata’ so all 6,400 families get something now; a national NGO insists you prioritise the poorest 2,200 SC/ST households fully; an angler-cooperative federation, which negotiates on behalf of OBC fishermen, wants its members served first. The State Disaster Authority is silent. The Press is watching. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the Principal Secretary, Health, in a state. A state-run super-speciality hospital has 6 paediatric heart-transplant slots a year; demand is 80 children, of whom 22 are critically waitlisted. The current first-come allocation favours those who reach the registry early — often urban, educated families. A proposed revision would weigh medical urgency (40 per cent), age-prognosis (30 per cent), waitlist time (20 per cent), and geographical equity (10 per cent). The medical fraternity is divided; an industrialist offers ₹30 crore in CSR to fund 4 additional slots in a private hospital tie-up. The State Cabinet wants a memo in 14 days. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are a Joint Director in CBI. A team led by an ASP shows you internal evidence — interception logs, financial trails — that a sitting Member of Parliament’s Personal Secretary has been receiving regular payments from an arms-broker. The MP himself is not directly implicated yet. The case is sensitive; the MP belongs to the ruling alliance. Your Director hints that ‘we should wait for the joint inquiry committee’. The ASP is willing to file a Preliminary Enquiry, but only on your written nod. The case file may leak. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are District Collector in a tribal district. A 1,200-acre bauxite mining lease is up for public hearing under the EIA Notification 2006. The PVTG hamlets in the impact zone have not received the hearing notice in their dialect; only Hindi notices have been pasted. The hearing date is in 9 days. The State Industries Minister calls personally to say a Rs.6,400 crore investment will be lost if the hearing is rescheduled. The State Pollution Control Board’s regional officer says she will go ahead. The local Forest Rights Committee has formally objected. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.