Solved Mains General Studies CIVIL SERVICES MAIN ...civilservicestimes.co.in/files/cst-mains-solution-2012.pdf · Solved Mains General Studies 2012 27 ... 2008: The Act came into

Solved Mains General Studies 2012

27TIMESCivil Services

www.civilservicestimes.comCurrent NEWS covered up to 25 OCTOBER, 2012

DECEMBER 2012, XVIII Year, Issue No.12

GENERAL STUDIES - Paper ONE1. Answer any five of the following in about250 words each: 25x5=125(a) What do you understand by the term “In-novation”? Discuss the need for launching a na-tional innovation policy in India.Answer: Innovation generally refers to renew-ing, changing, or creating more effective pro-cesses, products, or ways of doing things. In-novation is mainly composed of two parts - (a)The generation of an idea or invention and (b)The conversion of that invention into a busi-ness or other useful application. In order to re-main competitive, every organisation looks to-wards innovation because constant injection ofnew ideas keeps an organisation progressiveand gives them an edge in the marketplace,especially in today's globalized marketplace.Unlike the developed countries and otheremerging economies like China, the share ofprivate sector in R&D expenditure is only about24 per cent, while the remaining three-fourthsis accounted for by the public sector. In theworld of patent and intellectual property rights,India definitely needs to develop further andstrengthen a culture of innovation. In order toface the twin challenge of inclusive develop-ment and sustainable development, India needsan effective national innovative policy that willprovide greater technological inputs. Innova-tion as a national policy agenda certainly makeseminent sense for fast expanding our body ofknowledge, termed as the economics of inno-vation. The national innovation policy will helpto cater incentives and frameworks to shore upa much broader set of innovation inputs thatjust Research and Development. India needs toadopt more focused policy to boost academicresearch nationally that will promote more glo-bal R&D in India, which in turn will boost FDIin the core innovative sectors in the country.Thus, it can be said that the proposed NationalInnovation Policy will help to revamp the en-tire national system of innovation for holistic,comprehensive innovative effort.(b) Keeping in view the informal sector’s sharein the total workforce of the country, criticallyexamine the relevant inclusive measures initi-ated by the Government of India and their ef-fectiveness.Answer: Only 15.6 per cent of the total work-force had regular wage employment/ salariedwork during 2009-10 while 33.5 per cent wascasual labour and 51 per cent was self-em-ployed. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana(RSBY): The RSBY was launched on 01 Octo-

ber 2007 to provide smart card-based cashlesshealth insurance cover of Rs. 30,000 per familyper annum on a family floater basis to BPL fam-ilies (a unit of five) in the unorganized sector.The scheme became operational from 01 April2008. The premium is shared on 75:25 basis bythe centre and state governments. In the caseof the northeastern states and Jammu and Kash-mir, the premium is shared in a 90:10 ratio.More than 2.55 crore smart cards have been is-sued.The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act2008: The Act came into force from 16 May 2009with the objective of providing social securityto unorganized workers. The UnorganizedWorkers-Social Security Rules 2009 have alsobeen framed. Constitution of the National So-cial Security Board in 2009 was another signif-icant step. The Board recommended that socialsecurity schemes, namely the RSBY providinghealth insurance, JBY providing death anddisability cover and Indira Gandhi NationalOld Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) provid-ing old age pension be extended to buildingand other construction workers, MGNREGAworkers, Asha workers, Anganwadi workersand helpers, porters/coolies/gangmen, andcasual and daily wagers.The Government has approved the constitutionand operation of the National Social SecurityFund for unorganised sector workers with aninitial allocation of Rs 1,000 crore. The fund hasbeen created with the aim and objective of pro-viding social security schemes for various seg-ments of unorganised workers like weavers,toddy tappers, rickshaw pullers, beedi work-ers etc. It is an irony that around 94 per cent ofIndia’s workforce is in the unorganised sectorand most of the workers of the unorganised sec-tor do not have social security cover in the formof life or disability insurance, health care andpensions. The fund will also facilitate evolu-tion and funding of schemes by various depart-ments which are currently involved in welfareof these segments of workers. Ministry of Fi-nance is the custodian of the National SocialSecurity Fund and the Ministry of Labour &Employment has been designated as the nodalministry for operation of the fund.Source: CST May 2012, Page No. 227, Column2 and CST June 2012 Page 268 and column 1.(c) Examine the causes and the extent of ‘de-sertification’ in India and suggest remedialmeasures.Answer: The hot arid regions of India lie be-tween 24° and 29° N latitude, and 70° and 76°

CIVIL SERVICES MAIN EXAMINATION 2012General Studies

Tracing trendlesstrends

We are presenting themodel answers forGeneral Studies

(Mains examination2012). The paper has

given once again anew trend in dealingwith GS paper. TheUPSC has furthertried to delink the

textbooks andprepared materials.

This time the nationalissues got top priorityand the conventional

parts of ModernHistory and IndianPolity were totallygiven a secondary

treatment. Thisindicates that the day-

to-day coachingclasses have nothing

to do with theexamination

requirements. Most ofthe questions are factbased and if someonedoes not know aboutthat nothing can bedone. Some of the

questions check yourability to link the

things impromptu, i.e.,at spot orientation offacts and concepts inrelation to the givenscope of the answer.

In this regard, itbecomes necessaryfor the examinee to

understand the scope,context and

dimensions of thequestion. For this, a

thorough study isneeded and traditional

notes cannot beenough to meet such

challenges.





E longitude, covering an area of 31.70 millionhectares, and involving seven states: Rajasthan,Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, and Maharashtra.Source: CST Mains Examination 1, Page No.II. 33, Column 1 and 2.The Space Application Centre in 2007 broughtout the Desertification and Land DegradationAtlas which shows 81.45 million hectare landin the country has turned into arid, semi-aridor dry sub humid region.India has always maintained that desertifica-tion is a function of the interplay of a numberof causative factors and thus only a multi-sec-toral approach alone will be able to arrest andreverse the process of desertification. The threeschemes of Desert Development Programme,Drought Prone Area Programme and Integrat-ed Wasteland Development Programme havebeen consolidated into a single programme ofIntegrated Watershed Management Pro-gramme (IWMP) with effect from 1st April,2008. Other initiatives include sustainable Landand Ecosystem Management (SLEM Program-matic Approach) 2007; Common Guidelines forWatershed Development Programme- 2008;Integrated Watershed Management Pro-gramme (IWMP) and Guidelines for Conver-gence between NREGA and NAP 2009.As a part of the development of Dry zone Ag-riculture, special schemes like National Oil-seeds Development Project and National Puls-es Development Project have also been start-ed. But there are many constraints to these pro-grammes like non-demonstration of the devel-oped technology, unprepared lands beforehand leading to loss of valuable time duringlimited rainfall, non-subsidisation of inputs,least motivation among farmers, lack of NGO’s,non- percolation and extension of innovationetc. Development of cottage and village indus-tries is necessary to minimise the extent andintensity of seasonal and disguised unemploy-ment in the area.Source: CST February 2012, Page No. 28, Col-umn 2 and page No. 29, Column 1.Dry farming areas are rich in natural resources- stone, limestone, khair, medicinal herbs,wood, tobacco leaves and tendu leaves. Thecottage industries in arid and semi-arid areasbased on these natural resources will be help-ful in mitigating rural employment.Appropriate support should be given to de-centralised user- centred approach which pro-vides opportunities for broad- based participa-tion through ‘Pani- Panchayat’ in the Pan-chayati Raj system, including shared control ofwater resources and responsibility particular-ly to women groups.Though global changes of various kinds have

It has to bementioned that

although the number ofquestions were

reduced in 2012 butthe word limit has

remained more or lessthe same. For examplein 2010, there were 44questions and thosequestions were to be

answered in stipulated3,520 words. In 2011,

there were 38questions and were tobe answered in 3,390words and in the year

2012 although thenumbers of questionswere reduced to 33questions but those

questions were to beanswered in 3,150

words. It means thatonce again the

emphasis is shifted on250/150 words writing

instead of 20/50 words.

It has been observedthat proper classifica-

tion of Paper I andPaper II has been notfollowed by the UPSC.

In fact Paper I hasbeen become more

unpredictable in natureand it needs better

reinforcement from thenewspaper update. Allthe recent schemes

and documents of theCentral Government

and even StateGovernments shouldbe carefully compiled.

Besides that all theActs and provisions

should be taken careof. The margin of erroris becoming less andproper understandingof the requirements

and scope of thequestion needs to be

done before theformulations of theanswer. Once the

scope and therequirement is the

question is derailed it isvery difficult to come

back and rectify them.

heightened the bio- physical vulnerability ofthe dry tropical ecologies to natural catastro-phe, unprecedented increase in population,large withdrawals of ground water resources,land degradation, deforestation and movementof capital to high climatic risk areas exposedto periodic droughts have contributed to un-sustainable agricultural production in these ar-eas.Source: CST Mains Examination 1, Page No.II. 32, Column 1 and 2(d)In the context of the growing demands forthe ban of Endosulfan in the country, criticallyexamine the issues involved. What, in yourview, should be done in the matter?Answer: In its response to a petition filed bythe Democratic Youth Federation of India, thecentral government has told the apex court thatendosulfan is unlikely to cause any publichealth concern or hazard and therefore, it is notthe reason behind health problems in Kasara-god, Kerala. In this regard, the central govern-ment told that there is an overall weight of ev-idence from in-vitro and in-vivo screening teststhat Endosulfan is not an endocrine disruptor.It is reported that Endosulfan is either carcino-genic or mutagenic.Source: CST June 2012, Page No. 274, Col-umn 3The centre to the dismal of various sufferers ofthe toxic pesticide Endosulfan has asked thesupreme court in an affidavit to allow the ex-haustion of internationally banned Endosulfanstock for agriculture use in states except Kera-la and Karnataka on the grounds that its incin-eration will cost a whopping 210 crore. Cen-tre has also argued that phasing the pesticideout will not only save the exchequer money butalso help in agriculture production.Endosulfan pesticide is an Organochloride in-secticide that was banned globally in May 2011under the Stockholm convention but is stillused extensively in countries like India andChina, in India it is manufactured by threemajor companies namely Excel crop care, Coro-mandal fertilizers and state owned Hindustaninsecticides limited(HIL). it is used in variousplantations crops in India such as cotton, cash-ew, ornamental plants etc and is seen to in-crease the yield output because of its superioreffectiveness again major pests. NonethelessEndosulfan has various harmful side effectssuch as reproductive and developmental dam-age in animals and humans alike, it has alreadytaken lives of more than 500 people due to ex-cess use in cashew plantation in Kasargod,Karnataka. Conidering all these developments,the use of endosulfan should be banned.Source: CST September 2012, Page No. 129,Column 1 and 3





(e) “The Indian independence movement wasa mass—based movement that encompassedvarious sections of society. It also underwentthe process of constant ideological evolution?Critically examine.Answer: The tribals participated due to thetheir disruption of communal mode of produc-tion was perturbed with introduction of Brit-ish legal concept of private property;Source: July 2012, Page No. 33, Column 1The new land tenures originated new types ofland ownership and new social classes emergedin rural India. Land became a marketable com-modity. The circumstances drove the peasantinto the clutches of the moneylenders and thetrader. Thus, the peasant was pushed deeperinto the depth of poverty. India witnessed anumber of peasant revolts.Source: July 2012, Page No. 33, Column 2The first half of 20th century saw workers andmiddle class alongwith middle class got an or-ganizational character and pressurized the co-lonial regime to change its policy.(a) The emergence of new trends in the nation-al movement – particularly, the shift to masspolitics and mass mobilization. (b) The econom-ic and social consequences of the First WorldWar which adversely impacted different sec-tions of the Indian people. (c) The impact ofBolshevik Russia and the growth of socialisticideas in India.Source: CST Mains Examination 1, Page No.I. 63, Column 2The extremists had developed systematic cri-tique of moderates and rightly emphasized therole of the masses and the need to go beyondprayer, petition and procession. What they said,what they believed, what they conceived wasvery much different from moderates but whatthey did was what moderates had alreadydone. Therefore, they were ideologically dif-ferent but almost same in practice.Source: July 2012, Page No. 55, Column 1The revolutionary terrorists have consciouslyor unconsciously sent a message of failure toboth Moderates and Extremists and proved thata vacuum had been created and thereby a newreorientation was needed. Thus they contrib-uted to some extent to the emergence of Gan-dhism. They also gave the message to theyounger generation that role of patience is morepowerful than role of impatience in Indian con-text and for a long drawn movement thishelped Gandhiji.Source: July 2012, Page No. 59, Column 1Gandhism was the most pragmatic solution tothe existing problems. It was a blend of mod-eratism, extremism and revolutionary terror-ism. The revolutionary terrorism was the lasttrend before the Gandhism. Its limited success

proved that it requires a different orientationin the national movement. The new trend mustbe a conglomeration and combination of thepast trend and for this Gandhism was created.Source: July 2012, Page No. 59, Column 2(f) The issue of tourism in core areas of tigerreserve forests in the country is a subject mat-ter of debate. Critically examine various aspectsof this issue, keeping in view relevant recentjudicial pronouncements.Answer: In an important judgement, the Su-preme Court has banned all tourism in the "coreareas" of the country's 41 tiger parks. On itsface value the decision of the Court is worthwelcome but we cannot deny the fact that thejudgement will ultimately harm the tiger pop-ulation in the country. The presence of touristand their support staff is a deterrent for poach-ers involved in the trading of tiger teeth, skin,and bones, which is a business worth millionsof dollars. Along with forest officials, touristsprovide the additional eyes and ears to keeppoachers away. A complete lack of human pres-ence in the core zones would mean no surveil-lance and would give poachers easy access totigers by co- opting forest officials. Finally, theeconomic disadvantage that comes with thisban is that many local people depend on tour-ism for their livelihood and hence stoppage oftourism in core areas of tiger reserves wouldresult in loss of such income leading to discon-tent which may pose a threat to wildlife andforest. Thus, we need to strictly regulate andcontrol the wildlife tourism in the country, andplacing a complete ban on any kind of tourismactivities in the core areas will certainly not helpthe wildlife of the tiger reserves.Source: CST October 2012, Page No. 88 andColumn No. 2

2. Answer any seven of the following in about150 words each: 15X7=105(a) “There is an urgent need for the PlanningCommission to revise the chapter on health inthe 12th Plan document.” Comment.Answer: Definitely, considering the poorhealth condition and malnutrition, the 12thPlan must take following measures like:1. Care needs to be given right from the preg-nancy levels, by addressing all the critical stag-es of the birth and development of the baby.This is at present taken by integrated child de-

In the year 2012, wesaw that the UPSC didnot ask any question

on historical personali-ties. The questions on

culture were utterlyunpredictable and

unmanageable. Someof the questions were

very specific and it wasalmost impossible to

control them. Thispromotes conjecturalanswers and sans thepurpose the examina-

tion. The examineemust try to consolidate

the predictablequestions and doesnot heed to much to

those speculative andremote questions.

Overall, thesequestions do not make

a huge sense ingetting the paper done.

Once again therelevance of ModernIndia is on a decliningtrend but it should not

be treated as abenchmark and a deepand wide study of the

material should beneeded and for thisalong with NCERT

Class XI and XII, oneshould also refer

Grover and Mehtaalong with Tara Chand

Vol. 3 and 4. BipanChandra's India's

struggle for indepen-dence is still the basic

text. The area wisespread of mass

movement, along withtribal, caste, civil

rebellion should bedone from SumitSarkar. The trendindicates that the

questions are basicallyasked on wider

perspective and itrequires immediate

ability to sum up thosedevelopments within

limited time and space.

CST performance: 125/125 i.e 100 percent because except the first question, allthe other questions were directly asked

from CST. The candidates had to answerany 5 question out of 6 questions,

therefore, it is 100 per cent performancefrom CST.





velopment centres across the country.2. Iron fortification and iodine supplements inthe stage of pregnancy and early childhood.3. Improvement In the governance structures,political will food security enhancement andbringing women into the development processwith decision making powers.4. Improvement in the infant feeding, sanita-tion, clean water, affordable and accessiblehealth services.5. Community participation and grass root lev-el approaches must be promoted.6. Separate strategies for rural and urban areasmust be chalked out. It is pertinent to involvethe local government agencies viz. PRIs andother stakeholders with expertise and interestin nutrition and health; this will decentralizethe operations of our hunger and poverty ele-vation programmes.7. Coordination, convergence and monitoringof all government programs on poverty andmalnourishment related issues.8. Use of neo-natology and pre-natal care tech-nologies.9. We need to think on lines of national nutri-tion strategy.Source: CST September 2012, Page No. 18, col-umn 1 and 2.(b) The Union Cabinet recently cleared the pro-posal to rename and amend the Child Labour(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. Whatare the salient features of the proposed amend-ments?Answer: A proposal to put a complete banon employment of children up to the age of 14both in hazardous and non-hazardous work byamending an anti-child labour Act has been ap-proved by the Union Cabinet. In an importantdecision the Union cabinet has given its nod toamend the Child Labour Act and put a com-plete ban on employment of children up to theage of 14 in any industry. As per the existingAct, children below 14 years of age are allowedto work in industries not considered to be haz-ardous. Any violation will be a cognizable of-fence, punishable with a maximum three yearsimprisonment or fine up to a maximum of Rs.50,000. It should here be noted that Census 2001says that there were 12.6 million economicallyactive children in the age-group of 5-14 yearswhile the National Sample Survey data said thechild workforce during 2004-05 was estimatedat 9.07 million. Banning any employment ofchildren below 14 years will go a long way inenforcing the Right to Education Act, 2009which mandates free and compulsory educa-tion of all children in the age group of 6-14years. Cabinet’s decision to ban child labourbelow age of 14 will also enable India to ratifyILO Convention 138 (minimum age for entry

to employment) and Convention 182 (prohibi-tion of employment of persons below 18 yearsin hazardous occupations).Source: CST November 2012, Page No. 126and column 1.(c) “Domestic resource mobilization, thoughcentral to the process of Indian economicgrowth, is characterized by several constraints?Explain.Answer: Fiscal management in the Indianeconomy has been a challenge for the govern-ment since the beginning of economic reformsin 1991. Retirement of public debt, managingthe extent of fiscal deficit and presenting ex-cessive crowding out of investment has beenthe main target.Amongst the structural weaknesses that marthe efficient management of fiscal situation inIndia, underdeveloped capital markets are im-portant. Improper channelisation of savingshas led to widening gap between savings andinvestment. This gap needs to be financed bypooling in of the resources in the form of debt.RBI raises debt on behalf of GOI from its cap-tive markets. Funds those should have tendedto move into retiring government debt. Thiscrowding out of investment has made the pro-cess of Gross Domestic Capital Formation(GDCF) even more difficult.Taxes which could be used to retire a part ofdebt have not yielded enough. The general ten-dency in a developing nation like India withrespect to indirect taxes has been on the regres-sive side. Even direct taxes are not sufficient topool in resources.Resources could be pooled in from the under-developed exports market have rendered ex-ports less competitive. Quality-wise the exportscan’t compete.Moreover, frequent fluctuations in the valueof currency also create weaknesses in the man-agement of fiscal programme.Targeting public expenditure in programmeswith long gestation lags causes the resourcesto be blocked for a long time. These tendenciesagain add to the fiscal crunch. Inflationary ten-dencies owing to supply side bottlenecks ordemand-crunch have led to variations in ratesof interest and liquidity.Again the Government has to intervene intothe market. Deficit financing, if done, furtheradds to the disadvantages involved under in-efficient fiscal management.Source: CST August 2012, Page No. 83, col-umn 2 and Page No. 84, column 1.(d) The ‘flute-playing Krishna’ theme is verypopular in Indian art. Discuss.Answer: In Indian culture, Lord Krishna isportrayed as the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Krish-na's favourite musical instrument was a flute

In the Geographysection, there is muchemphasis has been

given on drylandfarming, arid and semi-

arid zones, agro-forestry, organicfarming, contractfarming, rainfed

farming system, slum,urbanisation, sanita-

tion, migration,demography and rural

settlement. Only adetailed compilation ofIndian physiographicdivision is the mostimportant chapter inthis context. Besidesthat questions related

to multipurposeprojects, sanctuaries,

infrastructure -especially roads,

greenfield airports,commercial ports,

census, tribals,urbanization, urban

planning, crop pattern,different revolution in

production needsspecial treatment.

The source-materialfor the preparation of

Indian geographyshould relied upon thevarious reports of theMinistry of Agriculture,

Ministry of Environ-ment and Forests, Dr D

R Khullar's IndianGeography, RS Tiwari's

Indian Geography,NCERT class VII to XII.

Nonetheless, thecurrent developments

published in Hindunewspaper may bealso supplemented.





and in all his forms he is mainly represented asa flute player. His flute is considered the mostimportant epitome of our art, culture and alsohas many social manifestations attached to it.His flute teaches us three important lessons i.e.(a) A flute speaks only when we want it tospeak. (b) Whenever it speaks, it speaks sweet-ly, (c) It always remains empty inside. Sincethe times of Lord Krishna, the flute has beenenvisaged as an embodiment of Indian culture.All major ragas of Indian music have some con-nection with Krishna's flute. In Indian art forms,Krishna's flute symbolizes the sound of seren-ity and love. The flute playing Krishna is alsoan important embodiment in Indian danceforms and it had shown its impact on Indianpainting since the Bhakti Vedanta period. It canbe concluded that flute-playing Krishna sym-bolizes his involvement in human affairs, feel-ings, and Indian art forms. Thus a beautifulmelody that Krishna plays can span all theemotions of a human lifetime in mere minutes.(e) What are the salient features of the Con-sumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2011 in-troduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011?Answer: The amendment is aimed at speedi-er redressal of consumer grievances by over-coming several shortcomings in implementingthe existing Consumer Protection Act.In fact, Delay in complying with the orders ofconsumer courts could invite a fine of Rs 500,or 1.5 per cent of the amount of the penalty, asthe government is planning to amend the con-sumer act. This modification (imposition ofmonetary penalty) is considered essential inview of experiences gained during implemen-tation of the Act and is intended to deter will-ful offenders, an official statement said heretoday. Another amendment aims at makingprovision for online filing of complaint.The amended bill seeks to rationalise the qual-ifications and procedure of selection of presi-dents and members of the National Commis-sion, State Commission and District Forum.Accordingly, if members of Commission orForum continue to be office bearer of any po-litical party even after appointment to the fo-rum or commission, they shall face disqualifi-cation.The minimum age for membership of the statecommission has been raised to 45 years and incase of National Commission, to 55 years.Besides, it also proposes to increase the periodof experience for appointment as member inthe case of State Commission from 10 years to20 years and in the case of National Commis-sion from 10 years to 30 years. This is proposedin order to improve the quality of persons ap-plying for these posts. It also gives powers tothe national and state commission to direct any

expert of organization to assist it in the in thecases of large consumer interest.Source: CST March 2012, Page No. 54, Column1 and 2.(f) What do you understand by the term“Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis” {MDR-TB)? What measures would you advocate forits containment and what are the implicationsof its spread in the community?Answer: As per recent World Health Orga-nization estimates, India has recorded about63,000 cases of notified multi-drug resistanttuberculosis (MDR-TB) in 2010, the highest inthe South East Asia region. As per data releasedby WHO, the percentage of MDR in newly re-corded TB cases in India, estimated to about2.1 (1.7- 2.5) per cent, while the percentage ofMDR among previously treated cases was 15(13 -17) per cent.Source: CST May 2012, Page No. 86, Column2 and 3.(a) political and administrative commitments;(b) good quality diagnosis; (c) good qualitydrugs; (d) the right treatment, given in the rightway; and (e) systematic monitoring and ac-countability.Controlling TB in India is a tremendous chal-lenge. The TB burden in India is still stagger-ing. Every year, 1.8 million persons develop thedisease, of which about 800,000 are infectious;and, until recently, 400,000 died of it- 1,000 ev-ery day. The disease is a major barrier to socialand economic development. An estimated 100million workdays are lost due to illness. Soci-ety and the country also incurred a huge costdue to TB.Source: CST Science and Technology 2012,Page No. 375.(g) Given the accelerated pace of developmentand demand for energy, would you considerrenewable energy as a viable option for India’sfuture?Answer: Energy in India: India faces an acuteenergy scarcity which hampers its industrialgrowth and economic progress. Setting up ofnew power plants is inevitably dependent onimport of highly volatile fossil fuels. Thus, it isessential to tackle the energy crisis through ju-dicious utilization of abundant the renewableenergy resources, such as biomass energy, so-lar energy, wind energy and geothermal ener-gy. Apart from augmenting the energy supply,renewable resources will help India in mitigat-ing climate change. India is heavily dependenton fossil fuels for its energy needs. Most of thepower generation is carried out by coal andmineral oil-based power plants which contrib-ute heavily to greenhouse gases emission. En-ergy is a necessity and sustainable renewableenergy is a vital link in industrialization and

Although theproportion of Indian

polity was exceptionalless during 2012 butthis section always

occupies an importantposition in the

preparation for GS. Inthe Indian Polity

section, both traditionaland contemporary

issues are importantand for each and every

topic a personalopinion is needed andfor this best source isTMH's Laxmikanth's

Indian Polity along withSubhas C Kashyap's

Current Perspective onIndian Polity and PM

Baskshi's IndianConstitution.

Through writingpractice, one has tointerrelate constitu-tional issues with

general issues andcurrent issues.

The current trendhas supported that all

the relevant socio-politico-economictopics should be

prepared from opinionbased point of view.The strategy to dealwith opinion-based

questions is to weighboth positive and

negative facets of theconcerned topic andthen point out your

conclusion by bringingout the real state of the

concerned topic andthis shows your ability

to analyse andunderstand by

interlinking relevantpoints in arriving at a

particular point.





development of India. A transition from con-ventional energy systems to those based on re-newable resources is thus necessary to meet theever-increasing demand for energy and to ad-dress our environmental concerns.The available renewable energy sources in In-dia: (a) Solar Energy- It is a clean renewableresource with zero emission, has got tremen-dous potential of energy which can be har-nessed using a variety of devices. With recentdevelopments, solar energy systems are easilyavailable for industrial and domestic use withthe added advantage of minimum maintenance.Solar energy could be made financially viablewith government tax incentives and rebates. (b)Wind Energy: Wind power is one of the mostefficient alternative energy sources. There hasbeen good deal of development in wind tur-bine technology over the last decade with manynew companies joining the fray. Wind turbineshave become larger, efficiencies and availabili-ties have improved and wind farm concept hasbecome popular. It could be combined withsolar, especially for a total self-sustainabilityproject. (c) Bio-mass Energy: Biomass energycan play a major role in reducing India’s reli-ance on fossil fuels by making use of thermo-chemical conversion technologies. In addition,the increased utilization of biomass-based fu-els will be instrumental in safeguarding theenvironment, creating new job opportunities,sustainable development and health improve-ments in rural areas. Biomass energy could alsoaid in modernizing the agricultural economy.(d) Waste-To-Energy: Waste-to-energy plantsoffer two important benefits of environmental-ly sound waste management and disposal, aswell as the generation of clean electric power.Waste-to-energy facilities produce clean, re-newable energy through thermo-chemical, bio-chemical and physicochemical methods. More-over, waste-to-energy plants are highly efficientin harnessing the untapped sources of energyfrom a variety of wastes.Conclusion: There is an urgent need for transi-tion from petroleum-based energy systems toone based on renewable resources to decreasereliance on depleting reserves of fossil fuels andto mitigate climate change. In addition, renew-able energy has the potential to create manyemployment opportunities at all levels, espe-cially in rural areas. An emphasis on present-ing the real picture of massive renewable ener-gy potential, it would be possible to attract for-eign investments to herald a Green Energy Rev-olution in India.Sources: CST September 2011, Page No.102colum 1, 2 3 and Page Page 103 column 1 and2..(h) Many food items contain “trans fats”. What

do you understand by this term? Which Indi-an food items contain trans fats? What are theimplications of Trans fats on human health?Answer: Unsaturated fats may be convertedto saturated fats by adding hydrogen atoms ina process known as hydrogenation. This pro-cess creates saturated fats called trans-fattyacids.Sources: CST General Science, Page No. 63.Trans fats are by-products of hydrogenation, achemical process used to change liquid unsat-urated fat to a more solid fat. Structurally sim-ilar to saturated fat, trans fatty acids may havea great impact on raising total and LDL choles-terol levels. The examples include stick marga-rine and fats found in commercially preparedcakes, cookies, and snack foods. Total fat in-take should be no more than 30 percent of yourdaily calorie intake.Sources: CST General Science, Page No. 55.The research, funded by the British Heart Foun-dation (BHF), found that ‘ultra-bad’ cholester-ol, called MGmin-low-density lipoprotein(LDL), which is more common in people withtype 2 diabetes and the elderly, appears to be‘stickier’ than normal LDL. This makes it morelikely to attach to the walls of arteries. WhenLDL attaches to artery walls it helps form thedangerous ‘fatty’ plaques’ that cause coronaryheart disease (CHD).Sources: CST June 2012, Page No. 113, Col 2

3. Answer the following in about 50 wordseach: 5X11=55(a) What is the ‘Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalat’?Answer: The NCW received a large numberof complaints and acted suo-motoin several cas-es to provide speedy justice, took up the issueof child marriage, sponsored legal awarenessprogrammes, Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalatsand organized workshops/consultations, con-stituted expert committees on economic em-powerment of the women, conducted work-shop/seminars for gender awareness and tookup publicity campaign against female foeticide,violence againstwomen, etc. in order to gener-ate awareness in the society against these so-cial evils.Sources: CST 2 and 5 Marker, Page No. IX 7,and Column 2(b) List the main objectives of the NationalManufacturing Policy (NMP), 2011.

There is no specifictrend of asking

questions related togeography, polity andhistory and the best

way is to prepare themthoroughly irrespective

of the trends of thequestion and their

weightage in the paper.CST believes in text

book reading becausewithout this one cannotbuild specific opinion

about the subjectmatter.

For the Arts andCulture section, youhave to rely on theGazetteer of India,

Volume II, published byPublications Division.

The matters areexhaustive and

comprehensive andmake diagrammaticnotes of the various

patterns and architec-tural designs. The

architectural terms andconcepts must be

properly understood.There should be

special emphasis topaintings, sculpture,

temples, architecturalstyle, literature and

epics.For Arts and Culture,CST 2 and 5 Markermay be sufficient butprefer Gazetteer of

India, Volume II, if youhave enough time.

Nevertheless, in the2012 GS paper, thequestiosn related to

culture was veryunexpected.

CST performance: 105/105 i.e 100 percent because except the fourth question,

all the other questions were directlyasked from CST. The candidates had to

answer any 7 question out of 8 questions,therefore, it is 100 per cent performance

from CST.





Answer: (a) The policy aims to create indus-trial enclaves that will offer lower taxes, fasterpermits, and easier labour laws to boost theshare of manufacturing.(b) The policy aims to increase the sectoral shareof manufacturing in GDP to 25 per cent by 2025from exisitng 16 per cent.(c) The policy seeks to empower rural youthby imparting necessary skill sets to make thememployable.(d) Sustainable development and technologi-cal value addition in manufacturing have re-ceived special focus in the NMP.(e) The policy envisages specific interventionsbroadly in the areas of industrial infrastructuredevelopment and improvement of the businessenvironment through rationalization and sim-plification of business regulations.(f) A defining feature of the policy has been theendeavour to improve the business regulatoryenvironment by providing single windowclearances.(g) The new policy proposes developing Na-tional Investment and Manufacturing Zones,or mega-industrial parks that will reduce thecompliance burden on industry.Sources: CST May 2012, Page No. 163, and Col-umn 3(c) Comment on the significance of Rasarnavain studying the history of Indian Chemistry.Answer: Rasarnava by an unknown author,11th-12th century AD text, basically describeda large number of equipment or apparatus, cru-cibles, furnaces etc., for processing of mineralsand metals. Procedures were described formaking metal from maksika vimala, sasyakaetc., the first two being pyrites bearing copper,and the third copper sulphate, and the won-derful observation was made that all the threered, products seemed to be identical: Cantra orcopper. In fact, Rasarnava had arranged sixmetals: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and leadin the order of increasing rate of corrosion andpoetically described high reactivity of sulphurwith most of the metals.(d) What are the Rights within the ambit of Ar-ticle 21 of the Indian Constitution?Answer: (1) Right to live with human digni-ty: In the Maneka Gandhi’s case SC added an-other dimension to Article 21. It held that theright to ‘live’ is not merely confined to physi-cal existence but it includes within the ambitthe right to live with human dignity.(2) Right to livelihood: In 1993 in the case ofDK Yadav v. JMA Industries the SC held thatthe right to life enshrined under Article 21 in-cludes the right to livelihood. The procedureprescribed for depriving a person of livelihoodmust meet the challenge of Article 14 and so itmust be right, just and fair and not arbitrary

and illegal.(3) Right to privacy: In 1997 in a historic judge-ment in People’s Union for Civil Liberties v.Union of India (Phone tapping case) the SC heldthat telephone tapping should not be restoredto by the State unless there is public emergen-cy or interest of public safety requires.(4) Right to die: In P.Rathinam v. Union of In-dia (1994): SC held that the right to live in Arti-cle 21 of the constitution includes the right notto live therefore the Section 309 of the IPC wasviolative of Article 21 and hence it is void. Butin 1996 in the case of Gian Kaur v. State of Pun-jab SC overruled the P.Rathinam’s case and heldthat right of life under Article 21 of the consti-tution does not include right to die or right tobe killed. “The right to die, inherently incon-sistent with the right of life as is death with life.The apex court made it clear that the right tolife including the right to live with human dig-nity would mean the existence of such a rightup to the end of natural life.(5) Right to get pollution free water and air: In1991 in the case of Subhas Kumar v. State ofBihar, it has been held that public interest liti-gation is maintainable for ensuring enjoymentof pollution free and air which included theright to live under Article 21 of the constitu-tion.(6) Protection of Ecology and EnvironmentalPollution.(7) Right of Education:(8) Prisoner’s Right and Article 21: Even a con-vict is entitled to the precious right guaranteedby Article 21 and he shall not be deprived ofhis life or personal liberty except according toprocedure established by law.(9) Right to free legal aid: The right to free legalaid and speedy trial are guaranteed FRs underArticle 21. Article 39 A provides ‘equal justice’and free legal aid’. It means justice accordingto law.(10) Right against solitary confinement: SC inthe case of Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration(1978) held that whether solitary confinementimposed upon prisoners who were under sen-tence of death was violative of Articles 14, 19,20 and 21 of the Constitution.(11) Right to Speedy trial: Speedy trial is theessence of criminal justice. In the case of ARAntuley v. RS Nayak in 1992 the SC held thatthe accused couldn’t be denied the right ofspeedy trial merely on the ground that he hadfailed to demand a speedy trial.Sources: CST Indian Political System, PageNo. 168 and 169.(e) Comment on the significance of the Pream-ble contained in the Right to Information Act.Answer: The basic object of this Act is toempower the citizens, promote transparency

In the section oftopics of national

importance, you havemaintain a regular

register to mention thedevelopments and anyincomplete and withoutupdated information,

the preparation isincomplete and

therefore maintaintopic wise register and

with the passage oftime you update themthrough newspapersand newsmagazines.

For the rural-development andpoverty alleviation

schemes, consult theEconomic Survey ofIndia, chapter 10, i.e.Social Sector; India

Year Book 2012 and ifyou have enough time

then Yojana andKurukshetra maga-zines. The topics of

social relevance couldbe also studied from

CST’s 2 and 5 Marker.These topics require

micro-level factcompilation and

orientation.

NOTETime-management hasbecome very crucial inthese exams not only

at the preparation levelbut also at the writing

of answers in theexamination hall.

Therefore, don't killyour time and firstprepare and then

appear. In other words,first prepare Mains and

then go for CSATbecause the amount ofinformation cannot be

tackled in a fewmonths. CST’s sloganis ‘First Prepare then

Appear’.





and accountability in the working of the Gov-ernment and make our democracy work for thepeople in real sense. It goes without saying thatan informed citizen is better equipped to keepnecessary vigil on the instruments of gover-nance and make the government more account-able to the governed. The Act is a big step to-wards making the citizens informed about theactivities of the Government allowing to theshare power with the humblest and poorest ofthe society.Sources: CST Indian Political System, Page53, and Column 1(f) To implement one key recommendation ofthe Mohini Giri Committee, the Governmenthas recently announced the constitution of aNational Council. Highlight the compositionand the mandate of this National Council.Answer: In order to improve the social sectorreforms, the Union government has given itsapproval to constitute the National Council forSenior Citizens to advise the Central and Stategovernments on issues relating to the welfareof senior citizens. In order to improve the qual-ity of life of senior citizens, the council will formsuitable policies, programmes, and legislativemeasures. The major aim of the council will beto promote the physical and financial stabilityof our senior citizens so that they are able tolive a dignified life. It is here mentioned thatsetting up of such a council was one of the rec-ommendations made by an experts committeeheaded by Mohini Giri in the draft NationalPolicy on Senior Citizens.The Council will be chaired by the Social Jus-tice and Empowerment Minister and will in-clude the Minister of State in the Social Justiceand Empowerment Ministry, oldest membersof the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, representa-tives of five state governments (one each fromthe North, South, East, West and North-East-ern regions) and one union territory by rota-tion, five representatives each from senior citi-zens’ associations. The Council will be an-chored in the Social Justice and EmpowermentMinistry.Source: CST April 2012, Page No. 127, Column1 and 2.(g) Comment on the recent launching of theNational Mission on Libraries (NML).Answer: The government of India haslaunched the National Mission on Libraries(NML) with the aim and intention to modern-ise and digitally link almost 9000 librariesacross the country in a bid to provide readersaccess to books and information. The launch ofNML is very important for India because it willassist in preparing long term plans and strate-gies for development of the library sector, in-cluding conceptualization and approval of

projects and preparation of a "National policyon Library and Information Systems for India".The NML will focus on improvement of thepublic library system of the country particu-larly concentrating on the states where librarydevelopment is lagging behind. For the success-ful execution of NML it is quite important thatthe state governments, and municipalities andpanchayats pay special attention towards set-ting up and maintenance of public libraries,including community, locality, and village li-braries.(h) What are the groups into which musicalinstruments in India have traditionally beenclassified?Answer: 'Instruments must speak' was theaxion and if any instrument failed to producewhat the human voice could, it was contemp-tuously referred to as Suska Vadyam-dry in-strumentalism. Govind Dikshit fixed the fretsof the southern vina, so that all the ragas couldbe played. Prior to this, the frets were movableand their numbers varied.A large number of instruments particularly ofthe stringed variety were evolved out of the oldforms. Tradition links names of certain musi-cians with some of these instruments like vici-tra vina with Abdul Aziz Khan and Surabaharwith Omrao Khan. There is also some evidenceto the effect that dilruba, esraj and sarod wereevolved during this period and sarangi was lift-ed from its place in the folk music and estab-lished as a respectable court instrument. Vinahas always been the foremost traditional instru-ment.The nom-tom in raga-alap of Hindustani mu-sic, the tanam in Karnataka music, the bols oftarana, the various gamaks or graces and othermusical accents in both Hindustani and Kar-nataka music are obviously based on nuanceswhich appeared in the perfecting of the accom-panying instruments.Source: CST Mains Examination 2, Page No.VI.36 and Column No. 1 and 2(i) Comment on the significance of fire in Zo-roastrianism.Answer: Fire, the provider of heat and lightplays an important role in the religious cere-monies of Zoroastrians. In Zoroastrianism, Fireis scrupulously tended with sandalwood andfrankincense and is kept burning in a silver urnin the inner sanctum of every Zoroastrian 'fire-temple' also called a 'Darbe Mehr'. For Zoroas-trians Fire is a symbol of Illumined Mind, En-lightenment, and Truth.(j) Why is Laurie Baker called ‘the consciencekeeper of Indian architecture’?Answer: Laurie Baker, an Indian architect ofBritish origin is aptly called the consciencekeeper of Indian architecture because he add-

At the preparationlevel, the important

aspect is the review ofthe previous question

papers of the last thirtyyears. This gives a lot

of ideas about thechanging trends of thepaper and also yourrequirement of the

material and its qualityto meet the standardsof the question. This

will enable you toassess your prepara-tion level will discour-age a 'touch and go

approach' of thecandidates and theircoaching institutes. A

complete self-preparation is neededunder the guidance of

newspapers andnewsmagazines.

NOTEThe coaching instituteshave an instrumentalrole to play in shapingyour preparation but

their role is limited anddon't give them

importance if theyoverstretch their role to

confuse you. In thisrealm you must clarify

the requirements of theexamination and aspecific source and

material to tackle them.Ask them to match the

required level of thematerial and mind it in

UPSC nothingguaranteed and

nobody can claimone's mastery and

UPSC gives every timea lot of lessons to learn

and act.





ed modernity to Indian sense of architecture.India will always remain in debt to him as hefocused on converting or replacing asylum intocost effective architecture style. He gave theconcept of building affordable homes for thepoor; he was also a unique creative artist, whoalways had in mind the concept to createunique sense of space for building low costyield high architectural quality homes for ev-eryone.(k) You are stationed in a small district townin the plains of Northern India, the summer hasbeen severe. Suddenly, a colleague, who hadbeen out since morning, returns to the officecomplaining of headache, restlessness and con-fusion. Shortly, he becomes unconscious. Hisbody temperature is 40°C. What first aid stepswould you take to revive him?Answer: My first task will be to identify whatprecisely has happened to my colleague. Judg-ing by his conditions I will not waste a singleminute to identify that he is suffering from heatstroke because when the body temperaturereaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degreesCelsius), a person is believed to be sufferingfrom a serious condition called heat stroke.(i) First aid must be immediate and consist ofmeasures to bring the temperature below atleast 102° F.(ii) I will move my colleague out of the sun andinto a shady or air conditioned space.(iii) This will be accompanied by rubbing thevictim's skin with cold water or alcohol.(iv) I will give him plenty of cold water or oth-er non-alcoholic beverage to drink, if he is ableto.(v) Meanwhile, I will also call an ambulance torush him to hospital for proper medication.

4. Comment on each of the following in about20 words each: 2X5=10(a) The significance of Patharughat in the In-dian freedom struggleAnswer: 140 unarmed peasants who fell tothe bullets of British military police in 1894. Itwas J R Berington, officiating commandant ofthe military police, who ordered the firingagainst hundreds at Patharughat in Darrangdistrict when they protested against the Brit-ish government policy of imposing exorbitanttaxes.(b) Bagurumba folk dance

Answer: Bagurumba is the most attractivedance of the Bodo community. Girls dressed incolourful attires perform this dance in tune ofBodo traditional musical instruments.(c) Determining the ‘value’ assigned to the voteof a Member of a State Legislative Assemblyand of a Member of Parliament in the IndianPresidential elections.Answer: Value of each MP’s vote =Total value of all MLAs / Elected MPsor 5,49,474 / 776 = 708

(Lok Sabha + Rajya Sabha)Total value of votes for Parliament = 776 x 708= 5,49,408Total value of votes for MLAs = MLAs (4120)+ M.Ps (776) = 4896Total value of 4896 electors for the Presidentialelection 2012 = 549474 + 549408 = 1098882Value of vote of each Member of LegislativeAssembly (rejecting the remainder less than 500but in creasing the number by one if the remain-der is five hundred and more).Source: CST September 2012, Page No. 25,Box.(d) Significance of the SPOT-6 rocket launchfor ISRO.Answer: The PSLV in its 22nd flight (PSLVC-21) launched the French earth observationsatellite SPOT 6 along with a micro satellitefrom Japan in to a 655 km polar orbit inclinedat an angle of 98.23 degree to the equator. Witha lift-off mass of 712 kg, SPOT 6 is the heaviestsatellite to be launched by PSLV for an interna-tional customer.Source: CST November 2012, Page No. 126,Box.(e) Issues highlighted through the work ofPalagumrni SainathAnswer: An Indian journalist and photojour-nalist has mainly focused on social problems,rural affairs, poverty and the aftermaths of glo-balization in India and supoose to be a greatexperts on famine and hunger.

5. Why have the following been in the newsrecently?. (Answer to be in one sentence only).

1X5=5(a) P.V. Sindhu: The 17-year-old took a giantleap towards confirming that status with anincredible victory over newly-crowned Olym-pic champion Li Xuerui, 21-19, 9-21, 21-16, inthe quarterfinals of the China Masters SuperSeries in Changzhou.

For the last four-fiveyears, UPSC has

emphasized on variousActs and amendmentbills and even those

bills which wereenacted before three-four years back and

are pending in differentHouses. This is a big

challenge for us. EvenCST has decided to listand give details of thevarious acts and bills

of the last five years. InMarch 2012 and April2012 issues we had

tried to list theschemes and Acts andultimately this time, wehave managed perform

relatively better.

NOTEThe recent trend of

UPSC paper indicatesthat days of classroomteaching is over. The

roles of preparedmaterials are limited.

Besides, them one hasto go for broad-based

opinion on any subject-matter. There should

not be any inconsisten-cies or discrepancies

at the perception level.A very clear and

relevant perceptionhas to be evolved incourse of time. The

UPSC believes that thecandidates must have

a sense of properawareness and

originality..

CST performance: 30/55 i.e around 55per cent as six questions were directly

asked from CST. The candidates had toanswer outrightly 11 questions. Therewere no options. This makes the third

segment very tough and besides that thequestions on culture were really chal-

lenging.

CST performance: 04/10 i.e around 40per cent as two questions were directlyasked from CST. The candidates had toanswer five out of five questions. Therewere no options. This makes the fourth

segment very unpredictable and intracta-ble.

(b) Aditya Kumar Mandi: Winner of the Sa-hitya Akademi Award, 2011 for Banchao Lar-hai in Santali.Source: CST June 2012, Page No. 135 and Col-umn 2.(c) Cyrus Mistry: Cyrus Mistry: Cyrus Mis-try, the Managing Director of Shapoorji PallonjiGroup has been announced by Tata Sons tosucceed Ratan Tata, when Ratan Tata retires.Cyrus Mistry, the son of Pallonji Mistry, Chair-man of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group that holds18 per cent stake in Tata Sons, will take overthe reins when Tata retires in December, 2012.Source: CST June 2012, Page No. 159 and Col-umn 1.(d) Ashoke Sen: Ashoke Sen, a theoreticalphysicist and string theorist at Allahabad’sHarish Chandra Research Institute, has beenawarded with one of the world’s most presti-gious and richest academic awards of $3 mil-lion, which is almost three times higher thanthat of Noble Prize.Source: CST October 2012, Page No. 132 andColumn 3.

UPSC has intro-duced situational

questions in which theyask for your opinion

and action over a givensituation. CST

suggests that bring outpractical suggestionand always maintainrelations with existing

resources and anysuggestion beyond the

level availableresources should bediscouraged. At the

same time, youranswer should be

based on bothpreventive and curativelevel and the sugges-

tion should not beutopian. It tests the IQand rational faculty of

the candidate.

NOTEFor current personalityand short news, onecan rely on newspa-

pers andnewsmagazine. For

this maintain a regularnote to mention the

newsmakers and theirdetails. Unlike commonview, this time UPSChas covered till 16thSeptember 2012, i.e,almost 15-20 days

before the GS paper.Therefore, span ofcurrent news has

further widened. CSTadvises all candidatesremian in touch with

current news especiallythe personalities till the

last week of theexams.

CST performance: 04/5i.e around 80per cent as four questions were directlyasked from CST. The candidates had toanswer five out of five questions. It hasto be noted that the news on P V Sindhuwas taken on 15th September 2012 whichmeans that the questions were set only afew days before the examination and not

a month before.

1. Answer any four of the following in about250 words each: (25×4=100)(a) Do you think that China’s emergence as oneof the largest trading partners of India had ad-versely affected the settlement of the outstand-ing border problem?Answer: China is India’s largest trading part-ner. China and India have agreed to endeav-our to raise the volume of bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2015. China is India’s largest trad-ing partner in merchandise.India and China have agreed to stay commit-ted to deepening bilateral investment coopera-tion, further opening markets, and improvingthe investment environment in India and Chi-na so as to lay a solid foundation for pragmaticcooperation between the businesses of the twocountries on the basis of complementarities,mutual benefits and win-win outcomes.India wants to increase its exports to China, andChina hopes to raise the issue of allowing itscommodities with a competitive edge to enterthe South Asian country. India and China haveagreed to enhance co-operation in infrastruc-ture development, particularly in the railwaysector on the basis of mutual complementari-ties and benefit. The two sides also agreed tostrengthen communication on macro-econom-ic policies, share development experiences andenhance coordination in addressing economicchallenges.The Strategic Economic Dialogue which is part-ly aimed at boosting mutual trust, will enhance

(e) Mario de Miranda: Legendary cartoonistof India Mario Miranda, who left an indeliblestamp of the Goan ethos on the national con-sciousness, has died. He was conferred India’shighest civilian awards - the Padma Shri in 1988and the Padma Bhushan in 2002. Source: CSTJune 2012, Page 178 and Column 3.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE268 out of 300 i.e around 90 percent of the First Paper. We have

excluded the opinion-based ques-tions. We expect that a candidatewho has attempted 260 effectively

can be satisfied.

GENERAL STUDIES - Paper TWO





cooperation between China and India in vari-ous fields and help the two countries find so-lutions to common problems. This will helppromote the long-term economic developmentof the two economies and will have a profoundimpact on people in China and India.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India, Page No.140-141.Considering developments at diversified lev-els, one can say that the border disputes havebecome irrelevant and taken a back seat. It can-not be said that the recent economic and stra-tegic developments have affected the outstand-ing border issues. Nonetheless, the 15th roundof boundary talks with India had yielded "pos-itive progress" by upholding the need to main-tain peace in border areas and giving a push tothe process of framework negotiations to set-tle the longstanding border dispute. The talksresulted in the signing of an agreement for set-ting up a mechanism to avert any untowardincident on border.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India, Page No.148.(b) Discuss the globalization of R&D and itsimpact on India’s development. Provide an il-lustration from at least one sector such as In-formation Technology or Health.Answer: In the era of globalization no nationis in isolation. Similarly in the field of researchand development (R&D) globalization hascaught its grip on each patent, innovation, re-search, invention and development taking





Paper IIGeneral Studies Paper

II represents aclassical combinationof facts and concepts.It requires the ability toformulate, coordinate

and articulate the factswithin word limit. Thebasic requirement is

the time management.In addition, for this, a

lot of practice isneeded. In 2012, the

paper was veryspecific and needed

much greatercompression of points

and facts thanprevious year’s

questions.

In nutshell, it canbe concluded that

UPSC has started tobalance theconceptual,

contextual andfactual orientations ofa candidate and anyimbalances between

these threecomponents may

acquire dangerousproposition. For this

one has to read, writeand internalize the

information. In otherwords, the

preparation of UPSChas three stages: (a)acquiring of facts and

figures; (b)internalizing them

through reprocessingto develop a natural

link between twoconcepts; and (c)

reproducing them onpaper through writing

practice for betterarticulation.

place in any part of the globe. Various coun-tries have to conform to the rules of world in-tellectual property organization (WIPO) re-garding patent laws. This has huge implicationsfor the Indian pharmaceutical companies whichare known worldwide for their cheap and af-fordable drugs. In India the apex body for for-mulating, coordinating and promoting biomed-ical research is Indian council of medical re-search (ICMR) situated in Delhi. Some of themajor centers/institutes working under theaegis of ICMR are institute of pathology, cen-tre for research in medical entomology, nationalinstitute of virology, vector control researchcentre, national aids research centre etc. Paral-lel to ICMR there are councils such as centralcouncil for research in ayurveda and sidha(CCRAS), central council for research in unanimedicine (CCRUM), central council for re-search in homeopathy(CCRH) and centralcouncil for research in yoga andnaturopathy(CCCRYN) that engage in conduct-ing clinical research in health care , drug re-search , toxicology, drug standardization etc.The breakthrough development in R&D relat-ing to international standards came when In-dia and United States of America signed amemorandum of understanding (MOU) forsetting up a global disease detection centre inNew Delhi for research in detection and re-sponse to emerging infections. Globalizationhas helped in not only mitigating certain trop-ical diseases such as malaria , cholera, typhoidetc via new researches and development butalso by setting up institutions to enhance hu-man capacity in R&D.(c) Discuss the contentious issues that havecaused the prolonged constitutional logjam inNepal.Answer: The parties failed to revive the oldCA due to the impasse created on the questionof federalism as proposed by the old CA. Par-ties stuck to their stated positions on the names,numbers, and boundaries of federal states. TheMaoists and Madhesi parties stood for either10 or 14 primarily identity-based states, as rec-ommended by the CA committee and StateRestructuring Commission concerned. The NCpushed for 11 states, which would have carvedout the Tarai plains into five provinces, and theUML argued in favour of a seven-state model.Though ruling partners in the coalition govern-ment, UCPN (Maoist) and UDMF, had pro-posed to settle the disputes related to the con-stitution writing and revive the CA for a shortperiod to promulgate new constitution, butthey could not forge consensus on the reinstate-ment as no parties showed flexibility on theirstances, mainly on the restructuring of the state.NC and UML leaders put strong reservation

on the Maoist proposal to reinstate the CA.Conducting fresh elections to select a new Con-stituent Assembly is the only available solu-tion to Nepal’s constitutional deadlock. Freshelections will end the debate whether the dis-solved CA should be revived or not. Anotherpoint of disagreement among the political par-ties is regarding the formation of national uni-ty government and under whose stewardshipthe fresh elections should be held. While theruling coalition wants Maoists to continueheading the government with other parties join-ing it, NC is insisting on taking that role.Source: CST November 2012, Page No. 23, Col-umn 2 and Box.(d) The human population is slated to grow to9 billion by 2050. In this context, many scien-tists predict that plant genomics would play acritical rule in keeping out hunger and preserv-ing the environment. Explain.Answer: The establishment of the Centre fol-lowed several years of intensive research onvarious facets of both fundamental as well asapplied aspects of plant molecular biology,under the auspices of the DBT-sponsored Cen-tre for Plant Molecular Biology (CPMB) in theSchool of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-versity, New Delhi. Consequently the researchprojects of four principal investigators who ini-tiated the CPMB constitute the ongoing re-search programme of the Centre. With the iden-tification of chickpea (Cicero arietinum) as amandate crop of the Centre to pursue genomicstudies, the focus of the research is slowly shift-ing to chickpea genomics.Source: CST Science and Technology 2012,Page No. 735-736.

New studies have been launched on signaltransduction, floral development and root dif-ferentiation. A Solanaceae Genome initiativehas also been launched focusing on sequenc-ing of chromosome 5 of tomato and functionalgenomics studies for nutritional quality, dis-ease resistance and fruit ripening.

Studies are also being supported on someimportant floricultural crops-chrysanthemum,orchids, carnation, rose and gladiolus. In plan-tation crops, demonstration of tissue cultureraised black pepper is being conducted in 4states, 63 ha has already been covered.

Under Horticulture crops, the thrust has beenon post harvest improvement through molec-ular approaches for important crops such astomato, banana and grapes. Protocol is beingstandardised for large-scale multiplication ofapple rootstock.

In the area of plant tissue culture studies con-tinued for protocol refinement of identifiedpriority species and large scale production fordemonstration of bamboo, eucalyptus and arid-





CST has been toldby some people that

we give too muchemphasis on interna-tional developments

and internationalrelations.

In an era of globaliza-tion and economicdriven world, the

politics and policies aredeeply governed by

imperatives ofeconomic relations.

For this, Foreign Policyof India of CST mayprovide a strategicbase to your knowl-

edge level from whereyou can develop your

own understanding andstart co-relating with

the contemporary andcurrent developments.In this section specialemphasis should be

made on neighbouringcountries and shiftingIndian foreign policyespecially 'Look East

Policy', Look WestPolicy' and South-south cooperation.

For internationalrelations Hindu

newspaper is may beregarded as a veryauthentic source tokeep pace with the

current development ofthe events. Theeditorials of the

newspaper must beread and summaryshould be written in200 words. This will

enhance your power ofcomprehension.

zone species.A new network programme has been initiat-

ed on production and demonstration of quali-ty planting material of bamboo in different lo-cations.

In the case of coffee, 150 molecular markershave been developed. Complete morphologi-cal and molecular characterisation of 150 clonesof tea has been completed.

Transformation studies have been support-ed on Populous and Leucaemia for developingtransgenics with desirable characteristics main-ly with reduced lignin content.

Projects have also been supported on genet-ic diversity characterisation of Eucalyptus, teak,Pinus and Casuarina.Source: CST Science and Technology 2012,Page No. 741.(e) “ The situation today is far different to thatprevalent fifty years back when the Indus Wa-ter Treaty was signed.” Highlight the complex-ity of the current challenges on both sides ofthe border in this regard. Do you think that areview of the Treaty is in India’s best interests?Answer: The bilateral water disputes like theWullar barrage-Tulbul project, Kishangangaproject, Nimoo-Bazgo hydroelectric plant stillpending. It seems that Pakistan feels that ifthere would development of the region in termsof electricity and water management, then theirdesigns would be deeply affected and there-fore, they have tried to misinterpret the provi-sions of Indus water treaty to inhibit the growthand development of the region.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India 2012, PageNo. 88.But Pakistan must change this attitude towardsusing IWT against Indian projects as both na-tions should realize that coexistence and coop-eration should be the guiding principles. Thatterrorism is a curse that both the countries aresuffering from. It is in this context both need toact more responsibly and read through the ne-farious designs of the trouble makers. Pakistanon the one hand should act more responsiblyand address India’s concerns while Indiashould resist from making any blatant and teas-ing statements during the painful moments ofPakistan. The post - Osama period needs to betreated with utter care. India must help Paki-stan to mend their ways by going all out againstall the terrorist camps and India must convincePakistan that if the old policy of giving protec-tion to terrorists is continued then their entiresovereignty would be jeopardized.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India 2012, PageNo. 93.Therefore, considering the global imperativesthe Indus Water Treaty must be made morefeasible to solve the growing energy demands

and water scarce management of both nations,especially for emerging nations like India.

2. Answer any five of the following in about150 words each: (15×5=75)(a) Write a short analytical note on Indian Di-aspora. How is the “New Diaspora” differentfrom the “Old Diaspora”?Answer: NRIs have always played a pivotalrole in shaping modern India. Great leaders andfreedom fighters like Gandhi, Nehru andAmbedkar were NRIs, at some point of theirlives, who’ve led their country towards free-dom and beyond. NRI scholars have been bring-ing accolade to their home country over andover again. Every one of these people havesomething in common - love for their mother-land. They’ve always aspired to see India as agreat nation with every citizen realizing theirdream- taking our nation ahead globally byleaps and bounds. Also, their important eco-nomic contribution to the nation cannot be ig-nored.Source: CST Indian Political System, Page No.128.Unlike the old Diaspora, the new Diaspora iscontributing more to Indian foreign exchange.Remittances are an important source of finan-cial flows and, as per World Bank estimates,remittance flows into developing countries in2011 were to the tune of US $ 351 billion. Re-mittance flows into India are estimated to be ofthe order of US $ 58 billion. In 2010, remittanc-es into the country accounted for 3 per cent ofGDP.Source: CST May 2012, Page No. 242, and col-umn 2.(b) Why have the resource rich African andSouth Asian countries remained poor for de-cades? Explain.Answer: Besdies colonial past, populationexplosion, the global warming and climatechanges are phenomena to which developingcountries like the ones in Africa and SouthAsian have contributed the least but from whichthey suffer the most. The vagaries of climatechange are faced to the greatest extent by theworld’s poorest, who do not have the financialand technological capacity to protect them-selves from the fury of Mother Nature, a furystoked to no insignificant extent by the greedof developed countries. Herein lies the inher-ent injustice in the phenomenon of climate




from CST.





In the internationalsection, a diary of all

the major issuesshould be maintained

continent wise andevery month the statusshould be checked bythe Internet because inthis context magazines

and newspaperssometimes fail to

maintain the follow upevents. We have to

follow certain interna-tional development like

in Somalia, Sudan,Middle-East, Far-Easteven till the last weekof the examination.

The myth that UPSCcovers a month beforethe examination has

been terminated againas a number of

questions were askedwhich has taken place

during the wholemonth of September

2012.The various interna-

tional reports, summits,joint statements,

should be reviewed torefer in your opinionand perception to

substantiate your pointof view.

The trend of Mainsquestions have also

indicated that not onlybilateral relations are

important but alsotrilateral relations areimportant, especiallythose countries whichare important to us likeChina and Bangladesh

or any otherneighbouring

states.This year someof the questions were

not very relevant and itis very difficult to have

cognizance of suchinformation during the

preparation.

change.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India 2012, PageNo. 791.Therefore, the absence of surplus productionfailed to create capital accumulation needed forindustrialization rendering the resources re-dundant.(c) Does Putin’s return as President of Russiamark a shift to a confrontationist stance in in-ternational diplomacy towards the West?Answer: The Arab spring, the Syrian, and Ira-nian crises, the deployment of the missile shieldin Turkey and instability in the Caucasus arebound to be the starring themes in Putin’s for-eign policy strategies. Vladimir Putin’s thirdterm as president is definitely going to augmentpressure on Russia from Western nations thathave overtly and covertly sought to fomentunrest throughout the Russian Federation. Butthere is one area where Putin is not going tochange – foreign policy. Throughout his presi-dential campaign he made it clear that he wasnot going to sacrifice on his foreign policy standand the world is going to witness the same Pu-tin. It is also expected that Putin’s Russia willwitness enhanced partnership with China. Byand large, Russia's bottom line is no foreignintervention (even by humanitarian corridors)and no external demand for regime change (theSyrians must themselves decide. Putin seemsto be strongly maintaining these lines in com-ing future.Source: CST May 2012, Page No. 34, Column2 and 3.(d) Analyse critically the interlinkages betweenthe Convention on Biological Diversity andFAO Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources forFood and Agriculture.Answer: Plant genetic resources for food andagriculture are crucial in feeding the world'spopulation. They are the raw material thatfarmers and plant breeders use to improve thequality and productivity of our crops. The fu-ture of agriculture depends on international co-operation and on the open exchange of thecrops and their genes that farmers all over theworld have developed and exchanged over10,000 years. No country is sufficient in itself.All depend on crops and the genetic diversitywithin these crops from other countries andregions.The CBD entails provisions which have simi-larities and parallels to the FAO resolutionsfrom 1989 and the later International Treaty onPlant Genetic Resources for Food and Agricul-ture. With Article 8(j), the Parties to the CBDagree to respect, preserve and maintain tradi-tional knowledge, innovation and practices, asfar as possible, as appropriate and subject totheir national legislation. Reference is made to

indigenous and local communities embodyingtraditional lifestyles relevant for the conserva-tion and sustainable use of biological diversi-ty. The Parties also agree to promote the widerapplication of such knowledge, innovation andpractices.(e) Critically review the international concernin achieving the targets set for the MillenniumDevelopment Goals.Answer: According to the Millennium Devel-opment Goals Report 2010, launched on 23 June,the economic crisis took a heavy toll on jobsand incomes around the world, but its impactdoes not threaten achievement of the Millenni-um Development Goals (MDGs) target of cut-ting the rate of extreme poverty in half by 2015.The share of people in the developing worldwho subsist on less than $1.25 a day, in con-stant US dollars, dropped from 46 per cent inthe baseline year of 1990 to 27 per cent in 2005 –led by progress in China and Southern andSouth Eastern Asia – and is expected to tumbleto 15 per cent by the target year of 2015.Source: CST June 2011, Page No. 19, Column3.The Millennium Development Goals, 2012, re-port, released by the United Nations, India'spoverty rates has come down from 51 per centto 37 per cent between 1990 and 2008. But thereport has expected that the required MDG tar-get Poverty Headcount Ratio (percentage ofpopulation below the national poverty line) of23.9 per cent could not be achieved by 2015. Atpresent, the national HCR stands at 47.8 percent, and India will achieve poverty HCR levelof 26.72 per cent by 2015. India's MDG countryreport says that 49.2 per cent of Indian house-holds lack toilets of any kind. There is a sharprural-urban divide with this amounting to 65.2per cent in villages and 11.3 per cent in townsand cities in 2008-09. Schedule castes (SCs) andscheduled tribes (STs) appear to be worst off,with 76.3 per cent SC and 75 per cent ST house-holds lacking toilets.Source: CST August 2012, Page No. 12, Col-umn 1.(f) Discuss the likely negative impact of the pro-tectionist measures proposed by the US on In-dia’s software industry.Answer: This decision is bound to affect In-dia’s nearly $60-billion outsourcing industry.1. Software companies association Nasscom hassaid that ending tax-breaks for companies thatship American jobs overseas would hardly im-pact the tech and BPO (business process out-sourcing) sectors.2. In any case, the issue would not have a greatimpact on the Indian IT industry. It has beenbelieved that companies get tax benefits on thefunds they repatriate back from overseas oper-





In the IBRD, IMF andWIPO and WTO

section, only superficialinformations will not doand for this you have to

do each and everycomponent and theirrelations with India.The Indian economyhas basically becomethe India's economicinteraction with the

world. For this sectionall the micro and

macro informationsand developmentsmust be taken into

considerations. All thefollow ups related toPTAs, FTAs, RTAs

must be fully analyzedwith an eye over future

prospectus. Thecurrent newsmakersare very important toscore better in the

examination.

A coherent materialonly provides basis on

which you have toupdate and develop

your own perception todefend your individualopinion. In this regard,the Foreign Policy ofIndia, 4th edition hasonce again emerged

as an effectivecompilation to tackle

the specific as well asconceptual questions.

ations. The difference is minimal. In the worstcase scenario, those who are thinking about off-shoring for the first time may decide not to goahead. Those who have already tasted the ben-efits of offshoring will continue.3. India will have to develop their own marketby strengthening the domestic market as wellas diversifying foreign markets and in any casethe dependability to American market has togo.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India 2012-13,Page No. 571.

3. Answer any six of the following in not morethan 100 words each: (10×6=60)(a) In the context of Assisted ReproductiveTechnologies, India has emerged as a hub ofcommercial surrogacy. What key biological,legal and ethical issues merit considerationwhile framing the regulation to govern surro-gacy in India?Answer: Being the second largest populouscountry in the world and having cheap and af-fordable medical industry commercial surro-gacy is becoming a viable option for childlesscouples around the world .In such a scenario itbecomes imperative to create a law on the is-sue so that misuse does not occur. The lawshould be framed while keeping in mind thevalues and ethics of the Indian patriarchal so-ciety. The law should make sure that the healthand nutrition needs of surrogate mother aresatisfied. It should be noted that even thoughthe concept provides financial empowermentto women but can have implications on herhealth and social status. The law should alsoclarify the citizenship of the child born.

orCommercial surrogacy is a controversial issueand is banned in many countries. But in India,surrogacy has thrived since the SC legalised thepractice in 2002. While formulating a law oncommercial surrogacy the government shouldset some "national guidelines" to regulate thebiological, legal, and ethical issues related withthis issue. Following points thus may be keptinto consideration in this regard(a) Surrogacy is an exercise of reproductivechoice and the freedom to contract but whileformulating a law on surrogacy it should al-ways be kept in mind that the practice shouldnot be allowed to play with women's health andtheir poverty.

(b) The law must be effective enough to tacklethe problem of black marketing of fertility ser-vices. The practice should create a war of com-petitive prices and should not be allowed tocompromise the compensation aspect and safe-ty standards.(c) Biologically speaking, a baby soaks up nu-trition from its host's body and though the'mother' might have a better diet during thepregnancy because of the money and care pro-vided by the biological parents, her health maynot be that good enough to begin with.In conclusion it can be said that the law on sur-rogacy must meet all the three pillars of medi-cal ethics i.e. autonomy, beneficence, and non-malfeasance.(b) Why is international trade perceived tohave failed to act as an “engine of growth” inmany developing countries including India?Answer: According to the TDR, 2011 the vol-ume of international trade, particularly in de-veloped economies, is expected to return to asingle-digit growth rate in 2011, from 14 per-cent in 2010.Regarding South Asia, of whichIndia is a part, the report said the region is likelyto be among the best performers with a growthof 7 percent in 2011.With several factors hin-dering growth, recent developments across theMiddle East have also contributed to and beenaffected by the global economic crisis. The de-veloping nations have witnessed a strong eco-nomic expansion but the nations of North Af-rica and some West Asian nations failed toshow rapid economic progress due to politicalunrest in the region that adversely affected in-vestment and tourism.The TDR highlights that emerging markets in-cluding Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Indiahave all had to cope with the challenge of shortterm capital inflows, attracted by higher inter-est rates that reflect higher inflation rates ortight monetary policies. According to the re-port, these inflows have been putting enormousappreciation pressure on their domestic curren-cies, and tend to weaken their export sectorsand widen their current-account deficits. Inorder for developed countries to stride past thison-going global economic crisis, they have towork together.Source: CST May 2012, Page No. 138, Column3 and Page No. 139, Column 1.(c) Despite strict prohibitory regulations, “dop-ing” has become increasingly common amongstathletes. Name five commonly used perfor-mance-enhancing drugs. What are the risks as-sociated with their use?Answer: The National Anti-Doping Agency(NADA) has banned seven athletes include sixquartermilers —Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, MaryTiana Thomas, Priyanka Pawar, Jauna Murmu




from CST.





In the Science andTechnology section, avast information levelhas to be developedand facts should becarried out till the

coming out ofexamination hall and

therefore, it isnecessary to revise thenotes at least 10 times

before writing theexaminations.

The important topicmay be enumerated as Information Technol-ogy, Energy Conven-

tional and Non-Conventional, Nuclear

TechnologyAlternate Source of

Energy,Health and Family

Welfare,Environment, Ecologyand National Heritage,

Space Technology,Defence and Allied

Services, Robotics andArtificial IntelligenceSuper Conductivity,Laser and Maser,

Nanotechnology, FiberOptics

Biotechnology andGenetic Engineering,Contributions of Nobel

Award Winners

In 2012, CST hasperformed well and

has surpassed morethan 92 per cent. It has

been generallybelieved that the

newsmagazine is onlygood at covering

international relationsand international

developments, but inthe last 10 years wehave continued to

perform more than 80per cent in both thepapers. Therefore,

continue to support usto manage the best inthe forthcoming exams

too.

and Akkunji — and long jumper Harikrishan-an Muraleedharan — who flunked dope testsfor banned steroids.They include: diuretics, desmopressin, plasmaexpanders (e.g. glycerol; intravenous adminis-tration of albumin, dextran, hydroxyethylstarch and mannitol), probenecid and othersubstances with similar biological effect(s).Source: CST February 2012, Page No. 128, Col-umn 2 and 3.(d) Compare the significance of IBSA andBRICS in the context of India’s multilateral di-plomacy.Answer: India’s Stand IBSA Summit Indiaparticipated at the 5th IBSA summit at Preto-ria to get the forums focus on increased coor-dination on a host of global issues, includingthe UN reforms, the international economic sit-uation, and climate change. India used the plat-form to show the world that global financialand capital markets are now showing signs ofacute distress due to the negative signals sentby the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and re-cessionary trends in the traditional engines ofglobal economy- the USA, Europe, and Japan.Source: CST October 2012, Page No. 42, Col-umn 2.No doubt, the BRIC (Brazil–Russia–India–Chi-na) and IBSA (India–Brazil–South Africa) coun-tries need to continue working together to im-prove and assert their dominance. This mustnot come at the expense of the principles ofSouth–South co-operation, which are meant toprotect and to advance the development of theweaker states. It is therefore imperative forcountries of the South, and particularly Africaas the most vulnerable continent, to be circum-spect and not take these new South–South alli-ances at face value.Source: CST October 2012, Page No. 42, Col-umn 3.(e) The safe landing of the “Curiosity” Roverunder NASA’s space programme has sparkedmany possibilities. What are those and howcould humankind benefit from them?Answer: NASA has launched its Mars rover,to investigate whether the Red Planet couldever have hosted microbial life. NicknamedCuriosity, the robot would scour Martian soilsand rocks for any signs that current or past en-vironments on the planet could have support-ed microbial life. The nuclear-powered mobilelaboratory — holding 10 science instruments,including one designed and built in Canada —will sample Martian soil and rocks, and ana-lyze them right there on the surface. The mis-sion is expected to last for at least two years.With a length of 3 metres and weighing 899kilograms, Curiosity dwarves the golf cart-sized Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers that

landed in 2004.Source: CST June 2012, Page No. 109, Column2 and 3.(f) How have the US sanctions against Iran af-fected India’s bilateral relations with Iran?Answer: India’s crude oil imports from Irandeclined by about 38 percent in May from a yearago a second month of steep cuts as they switchsuppliers to cushion the impact of new U.S.sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclearprogramme. Crude imports from Iran have asteadily declining share in India’s total oil im-ports dropping from a level of over 16 per centin 2008-09 to almost 10 per cent in 2011-12. UShas exempted India and six other countriesfrom tough new financial sanctions on Iran’soil trade citing significant reduction in importsof Iranian oil by them. Iran is the second larg-est crude supplier to the country after SaudiArabia and accounts for about 12 per cent ofIndia’s annual oil needs.Source: CST Foreign Policy of India, Page No.478.(g) What is Permaculture? Give at least threecommon examples where permaculture con-cepts are being put to use.Answer: The permaculture (permanent agri-culture) experiments of Bill Mollison and Hol-men in the 1970s gave hope to many farmersthe world over. The permaculture wave hadits impact in Kerala too and since then manyfarmers have started experimenting with thismethodology and they found that this is one ofthe best practices for Kerala with its topograph-ical peculiarities and high rainfall so as to con-serve soil and water and improve productivityof their farms.Aranya has developed Permaculture farms in11.5 acres(5 hectares) in Bidakanne village, Jha-rasangam mandal, Medak district, AndhraPradesh with Ecofriendly methods,i.e farmingwithout disturbing the laws of nature.Punarvasu is an emerging permaculture site.A traditional family farm that is becoming amodel of how traditional practices and culturecan thrive while evolving into a model of sus-tainability in our globalized world. People willstay in the traditional family home or convert-ed barn, and eat Amma’s delicious traditionalvegetarian Udupi food.

4. Answer the following in not more than 50words each: (5×6=30)

CST performance: 5/6 i.e 83 per centbecause except the first and seventh

question, all the other questions weredirectly asked from CST. The candidates

had to answer any 6 question out of7questions, therefore, it is 83 per cent

performance from CST.





Statistics section inGS (Paper-II) aims to

check basic knowledgeof statistics and data

interpretation ofcandidates. This

particular section ismost direct and pieceof cake in comparisonwith other descriptive

sets of question.Statistics is a relation-ship between data anddecision making in the

following manner:· summarizing,· presenting,· analyzing,

· interpreting, and· drawing conclusionsLooking into the utilityof Statistics, one can

summarize andsimplify large amounts

of numerical datausing this tool. One

can draw conclusionsabout data. Statisticsmay reveal underlying

patterns in data notnormally observable

(especially true inmultivariate analyses).

One of the sub-sections, CORRELA-TION is a disciplinethat examines dataand can calculate

numerical estimates ofso called estimated/probable/true values.

The estimation orcorrelation comes

along with the conceptof PROBABILITY, as

one cannot proveanything- estimates

are normally presentedin probabilistic terms

(e.g. we are 95% sure...)

Statistics can beuseful tools for helping

professionals ofdifferent backgrounds

while taking anydecisions. Research-

ers and scientists oftenuse tables and graphsto report findings from

their research. Innewspapers, magazine

articles, and ontelevision they are

often used to supportan argument or point

of view.

(a) The Sequoia supercomputer was launchedthis year. What are its specific features and whatis its purpose?Answer: The Sequoia performed 16 quadril-lion calculations per second, or 16.32 petaflops-trillions of floating-point calculations per sec-ond – using more than 1.5m processor cores.Sequoia is a Linux IBM BlueGene/Q system —a range which has an impressive history whenit comes to supercomputers — and is made upof 96 computer racks and powered by PowerBQC 16-core, 1.6 GHz processors. The comput-er will be used carry out simulations to helpextend the life of nuclear weapons, in a bid toavoid real-world underground tests.Source: CST August 2012, Page No. 115, Col-umn 1.(b) What is meant by the G8+5 group?Answer: The G5 accounts for 42 per cent ofthe world's population and 11 per cent of theglobal economy, measured by real exchangerates. The Group of Eight industrialised nations- the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, Britain, France,Canada and Russia - makes up about 13 percent of the world's population and 62 per centof its economy. While the G8 countries haveunderlined their resolve to halve global green-house gas emissions by 2050, the developingcountries represented largely by the Group ofFive countries (G5)- India, China, Brazil, SouthAfrica and Mexico- are not ready to accept anytimeline-driven targets on cutting emissionsgiven that it may slow progress on the devel-opment front.Source: CST September 2008, Page No. 35.(c) The Human Papilloma Virus vaccine hasbeen making the headlines in the recentmonths. Who make the ideal candidates forreceiving this vaccine and what are its bene-fits?Answer: In April 2010, the Indian Council ofMedical Research suspended research on thefeasibility and safety of HPV vaccine in AndhraPradesh and Gujarat amid public concernsabout its safety. A recent study has shown thatthe current available data on human papillo-mavirus (HPV) type and cervical cancer inci-dence do not support the epidemiologicalclaims made by the Programme for Appropri-ate Technology in Health (PATH) regardingIndia having a large burden of cervical cancer.The bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV)vaccine (Cervarix, GlaxoSmithKline), which isindicated for the prevention of cervical diseas-es caused by infection with HPV-16 and HPV-18, also provides "strong protection" againstanal infection with these HPV types in youngwomen.(d) What are India’s stakes in the South ChinaSea?

Answer: The Chinese aggressive nature couldbe easily seen when India in collaboration withVietnam started oil joint venture in the SouthChina Sea. Despite the fact that India had con-veyed to the Chinese leader that India consid-ers its oil joint venture with Vietnam in theSouth China Sea to be a purely commercial en-terprise, devoid of any political intent, the Chi-nese continued to pursue its efforts to counterIndia in Indian and Pacific Ocean. India has alsoclarified that if there is a dispute, it should besettled peacefully under the terms of interna-tionally recognised principles and laws.Source: CST October 2012, Page No. 19, Col-umn 2.(e) Explain the concepts “Environmental Sus-tainabilty” and “Sustainable Development ofPeople”.Answer: Sustainable development is the man-agement and conservation of natural resourcebase and the orientation of technical and insti-tutional change in such a manner as to ensurethe attainment and continued satisfaction ofhuman needs for present and future generation.Such sustainable development conserves land,water and future generation animal genetic re-sources, is environmentally non-degradingtechnologically appropriate, economically vi-able and socially acceptable.Source: CST April 2011, Page No. 75, Column1.(f) Explain briefly the “Clean DevelopmentMechanism” as provided under the UnitedNations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (UNFCCC).Answer: The Clean Development Mechanismis a program under the United Nations Frame-work Convention on Climate Change (UNFC-CC), which allows greenhouse gas emission-reduction projects in developing countries toearn certified emission reduction (CER) cred-its, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. TheseCER credits can be traded and sold, and usedby industrialized countries to meet a part oftheir emission reduction targets under the Ky-oto Protocol. CDM projects can be developedin different sectors like energy, transport, for-estry etc. In the forestry sector, afforestation andreforestation are the only activities permitted.Source: CST Science and Technology 2012,Page No. 583.

CST performance: 5/6 i.e 83 per centbecause except the third question, all theother questions were directly asked from

CST. The candidates had to answer allthe six questions; therefore, it is 83 per

cent performance from CST. In thissegment all the questions were mandato-ry and there were no choice. One ques-

tion was dated back to 2008.





Statistics isimportant in the field of

engineering by itprovides tools to

analyze collected data.For example, a

chemical engineer maywish to analyze

temperature measure-ments from a mixing

tank. Statisticalmethods can be used

to determine howreliable and reproduc-ible the temperaturemeasurements are,

how much thetemperature varieswithin the data set,

what future tempera-tures of the tank maybe, and how confidentthe engineer can be in

the temperaturemeasurements made.

There are somecommon terminologiesfollowed in statistics:· Population: Popula-

tion is a collection of allsubjects possessing acommon characteristicthat is being studied.

The total set ofmeasurements.

· Census: Census isthe collection of datafrom every element in

a population.· Sample: A subgroup

or subset of thepopulation. Collectionof objects which are asubset of the popula-

tion of interest and aretaken as representa-tive of the population.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE250 out of 265 i.e around 94.33 percent of the Second Paper. We haveexcluded the opinion-based ques-

tions as well as Statistics. Weexpect that a candidate who hasattempted 250 effectively can be

satisfied.5. (a) The following table gives the number ofmistakes made by 16 data entry clerks who en-ter medical data from case report forms. Thecolumn Enteredindicates the number of valuesentered, and the column Errors gives the num-ber of coding errors that were detected amongthese.

i. Make a scatter-plot of these data. Which doyou choose for the response and which for theexplanatory variables? Describe any patterns.ii. Does the scatter-plot indicate any relationbetween the two variables?iii. One analyst concluded,”The clerks who en-ter more values make more mistakes. Evident-ly they become tired as they enter more val-ues.” Is this an appropriate conclusion? (9marks)Solution:i. Scatter plot: In this data base, the decidingfactor is the errors and then the data entered.Data is extracted in such a manner in mannerto correlate the errors with respect to the num-ber of data entered. Hence the Explanatory vari-able or the Independent variable (x) is "Dataentered" and the responsive variable or the de-pendent variable (y) is "Errors".

Pattern: Directly no perfect correlation is ob-servable in the above scattered area. However,if we discard some values from the above plot,a positive correlation between x and y is ob-servable.ii. No direct correlation is there.iii. Partially appropriate as explained in answerto Q i.5 (b) The following table provides the Ruraland Urban population of West Bengal accord-ing to the Censuses of 1921-1951. (Populationin Lakhs) :

(i) Construct a suitable diagram to compare thepopulation figures.(ii) Comment on the changes in populations. (6marks)i. Graph:

ii. Rate of growth of population:

Rate of growth in Rural areas, grew at fasterrate in 1941 with respect that in 1931. Howeverthe same got stagnant for the next 10 years.Rate of growth in Urban areas, grew at veryfast rate in 1941 with respect that in 1931. How-ever the same decreased for the next 10 years.5 (c) Suppose milk is being sold at the rates of18, 20, 22 and 25 rupees per litre in four differ-ent months. Assuming that equal amounts ofmoney are spent on milk by a family in the fourmonths, using a suitable measure, determine





the average price in rupees per litre. (2 marks)Solution: Assuming a total of Rs. T is spent onmilk every month. Then volume (liter) of milkin 4 months would be T/18, T/20, T/22 andT/25.Average unit price=

= 20.94 Rs. per liter6. (a) (i) Determine the median and mode forthe following distribution of monthly incomefor 580 middle-class people of a country:

(ii) Also obtain an approximate value of themean income from the values of median andmode.(iii) Comment on the nature of the income dis-tribution. (8 marks)Solution: (i) and (ii)Monthly income for 580 middle-class peopleof a country:

Arithmetic mean

Median

Median = Size of or 290th item

which lies in (40 - 45)

Empirical relationship between, M and Z -

(iii) Nature of the income distribution:Positively skewed

6 (b) From the frequency distribution of heightfor 177 Indian adults given below, draw the‘more than type’ ogive. Also locate the posi-tion of the median. (3 marks)

Solution: The frequencies of the succeedingclasses are added to the frequency of a class.The greater than cumulative frequency table isgiven below.

Now we draw the horizontal and vertical axesand label them. Plot the cumulative frequen-cies corresponding to the lower limit of eachclass and join the points using a smooth curve.The more than cumulative frequency curve isshown below.

Data Interpretationand Graphs

This type of questionsaims at converting thedata (in form of table

or language) intoGraphical mode andvice-versa. A basic

practice of DataInterpretation section

for the CSAT paper willprove a big advantagein the mains examina-

tion. DI questionsevaluate the testtakers’ ability to

interpret the given dataone way or the otherby forcing him to use

mathematicalcalculations to reach

the desired result. Thequestions are

calculation-intensiveand hence pose a lot

of problems forindividuals who cannot

calculate andapproximate the given

data fast.A graph is a visual wayto display informationfrom different areas

including engineering,sciences, economics

etc. A basic knowledgeof all varieties of graphis essential in order to

same time.Following points mustbe taken care-of, while

playing with data orgraphs,

· Never ignore theunits given for the

variables (in milliondollars, in thousands

etc.)· Instead of wasting

time in doing lengthycalculations, you must

try to solve thequestions using

approximations. Usedirect per cent to ratioconversions, to speed

up the calculations.· Read the question aswell as the Graph axestitles, accurately. The

common errors are likeabsolute difference vs.relative difference etc.

NOTEWe are presenting the model answers of

the Mains GS 2012 and some of the answersof the opinion-based questions may differfrom the candidates and in this case CSTwants to clarify that those answers are

subject to the evaluation of UPSC.





For median calculation we need to draw theless than ogive curve also.

Median= 164 cm6 (c) A survey of 1000 large U.S. companiesconducted by a Research Organisation askedtheir level white collar jobs to countries out-side the U.S. The following table shows thepercentage that indicated a certain action. Thedata for 2003 are real, the data for 2008 are spec-ulative. (7 marks)

The following Bar chart with side-by-side col-umns summarizes the data:i. Does the Bar chart compare the impressionof any anticipated in outsourcing of the whitecollar jobs?ii. Does the mode differ from the median forthe distribution of percentages in 2003 and2008?Solution: (i) Since the Total number of com-panies remains same for both years, we can di-rectly compare the % numbers. In order to ex-

plain the above, we will categorize the sameinto 3 fields:I: Do virtually no white-collar off shoringII: Offshore white-collar work to some extentIII: offshore any white-collar work possibleThe downfall in I and the subsequent growthin II and III clearly indicates that the percep-tion is changing towards off shoring the Whitecollar job works.(ii) It remains same and equal.It will be demostrated by a bar chart:

Tables vs. Graphs:Although both are form

of data only but stillboth possess a

peculiarity of their own.Tables and graphs areboth ways to organizeand arrange data sothat it is more easilyunderstood by theviewer. Tables andgraphs are visual

representations. Theyare used to organizeinformation to show

patterns and relation-ships. A graph shows

this information byrepresenting it as a

shape.Tables and graphs are

related in the sensethat the information

used in tables isfrequently also used

for the basis of graphs.It is important to know

how to create andinterpret tables andgraphs as they are

used in manyimportant areas of

research, and used tohelp people in decision

making.Tables and graphs arerelevant to almost allareas of the curricu-

lum. The conventionsof tables and graphsare consistent acrossall curricula. It is thecontext in which they

are used that identifiesthem as science,social sciences,geography, etc.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF CSTPaper ONE - 268/300Paper TWO - 250/265

Complete GS: 518/565

Column: This graph shows the differencesin individual values vertically. It can be usedto show the differences between values in dif-ferent time periods or other data groupings.Examples include showing the total numberof phone calls each month for the past year orthe number of orders received by each ordermethod (fax, phone, e-mail, web, walk-in)over the last month. This graph works bestwith fewer (1-3) data series. Column graphsare similar to bar graphs and line graphs. Allthree have grid lines going horizontally andvertically. The column graph is more similarto the bar graph in that it is used more for onetime or single events rather than continuousevents. In the column graph the data is liter-ally presented in columns. The categorynames can be on the graph or underneath thecolumn. It is not necessary to assign differentcolors to the columns although one could doso and then attach a legend that would ex-plain the different colors and which categorythey stood for.

Documents

Solved Mains General Studies CIVIL SERVICES MAIN ...civilservicestimes.co.in/files/cst-mains-solution-2012.pdf · Solved Mains General Studies 2012 27 ... 2008: The Act came into