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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.
“India’s low tax-to-GDP ratio reflects structural features of its economy as much as administrative weakness.” Examine.
“The mobilisation of resources in India is constrained less by the availability of savings than by their efficient channelling into productive investment.” Critically 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 probationary IAS officer posted as Assistant Collector. Your Collector, a senior officer, instructs you to draft a transfer order for the local Sub-Registrar (a state-cadre officer) within 24 hours, citing ‘administrative reasons’. You discover the Sub-Registrar had refused a Sarpanch’s request to backdate a sale-deed three days earlier. The Sarpanch is the brother of the District Collector’s college-batchmate. The transfer would send the Sub-Registrar to a remote tehsil 380 km away, separating him from a child receiving cancer treatment in the district hospital. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.
You are the Block Development Officer in a panchayat-dominated district. A local MLA’s nominee has been pre-selected by the panchayat to receive a ₹2.6 crore PMAY-G housing-aggregation contract, although the panchayat’s resolution is procedurally clean. The technical sub-engineer flags that the nominee firm has no prior experience and has previously failed to deliver in two adjoining blocks. The MLA’s PA visits you and politely says the file ‘will move smoothly’ if you sign. The Zila Parishad CEO is on leave. Beneficiaries are waiting for their first instalment to begin construction before monsoon. What course of action would you take? Justify with the values involved.