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NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Salient features of the Indian physical geography.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Reference: Insights on India, Down to Earth
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of the General studies paper – 1 and mentioned as part of the Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
Explain how monsoon winds vary with season and why this variation has been erratic in recent years.
Directive word:
Account – Explain in detail the process or its impact
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Give a brief introduction of Indian Monsoon and give IMD data about late withdrawal in recent years
Body:
Give a detailed description of changes in the Indian Monsoon during different seasons and underlying reasons for it e.g. shifting of ITCZ, Jet Streams. Show variation using diagrams/maps.
Give reason for erratic and late withdrawal of monsoon e.g. La Nina, positive IOD, warming sea surface temperature of Arabian and Bay of Bengal Sea
Conclusion:
Conclude by summarising the above.
Introduction
Monsoons are seasonal winds which reverse their direction with the change of season. The monsoon is a double system of seasonal winds. They flow from sea to land during the summer and from land to sea during winter. Monsoons are peculiar to Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia, parts of Central Western Africa etc. Indian Monsoons are Convection cells on a very large scale. They are periodic or secondary winds which seasonal reversal in wind direction.
Body
Seasonal variation in the India monsoons
Late withdrawal and erratic progress of the monsoon winds over the country in recent years
- IMD studies have shown that last 10 years in a row that the primary rainfall season of the country will be withdrawing later than normal.
- The season’s rainfall for IMD ends September 30, when it changes its categorisation of rainfall from monsoon (June to September) to post monsoon (October to December).
- The actual rainfall has not yet stopped. Eighteen states have received excess (20 to 59 per cent excess) or large excess rains (greater than 60 per cent excess) in the first week of October.
- This happened mainly because of a series of five low pressure areas that formed in the Bay of Bengal and moved in a generally westward-north westward direction.
- Two of these systems further intensified to a deep depression and Cyclone Gulab over the Bay of Bengal, before hitting land and causing torrents of rain over eastern, central and western India.
- Factors like a developing La Nina phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, favourable conditions of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the Madden Julian Oscillation may still be the cause for the continuing October rainfall.
Conclusion
Monsoon does play a big role in India. It has social, political, as well as economic implications. Thus, monsoon doesn’t only affect the crops but all the industries in the country. The monsoon-dependent Indian economy needs climate-sensitive budgeting. The excessive dependence on monsoon may be mitigated by the construction of modern irrigation canals, afforestation, and diversification of Indian industries.
Topic: Salient features of the world’s physical geography.
Difficulty level: Easy
Reference: Insights on India, Climatechange.Ita.org
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of the General studies paper – 1 and mentioned as part of the Mission-2022 Secure timetable.
Key Demand of the question:
Give reasons for the change in season and why this change is getting affected by Global Warming.
Directive word:
Explain– This is an all-encompassing directive that mandates us to write in detail and give the reason for the phenomenon.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Briefly describe what seasons are
Body:
Enumerate the reasons for the season e.g. movement of earth, the shape of earth’s axis, etc. Now give in detail how the seasons are getting affected as a result of climate change e.g. early springs, increasing droughts, deadly heatwaves, the late withdrawal of Monsoon, etc.
Conclusion:
Conclude by summarising the above.
Introduction
Earth’s tilted axis causes the seasons. Throughout the year, different parts of Earth receive the Sun’s most direct rays. So, when the North Pole tilts toward the Sun, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. And when the South Pole tilts toward the Sun, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Body
- As the earth spins on its axis, producing night and day, it also moves about the sun in an elliptical (elongated circle) orbit that requires about 365 1/4 days to complete.
- The earth’s spin axis is tilted with respect to its orbital plane. This is what causes the seasons.
- When the earth’s axis points towards the sun, it is summer for that hemisphere.
- When the earth’s axis points away, winter can be expected. Since the tilt of the axis is 23 1/2 degrees, the North Pole never points directly at the Sun, but on the summer solstice it points as close as it can, and on the winter solstice as far as it can.
- Midway between these two times, in spring and autumn, the spin axis of the earth points 90 degrees away from the sun.
- This means that on this date, day and night have about the same length: 12 hours each, more or less.
Impact of climate change on seasons
- The growing seasons are shifting. Spring is arriving earlier, winters are shorter, and the number of freezing days is declining.
- Shifting seasons are directly linked to warmer global temperatures.
- A slight change in temperature is enough to push the spring thaw earlier, and delay the first frost until later in the fall.
- Precipitation patterns have changed, and extreme precipitation events have increased in frequency and severity.
- But it also reduces rainfall in already dry areas like the southwest. This also leads to droughts in the summertime because there is not enough water to sustain soil moisture through the dry season.
- Low soil moisture, in turn, produces the conditions for extremely hot temperatures that we call heat waves. When the sun’s energy hits the ground, it heats up the surface instead of working to evaporate moisture from the air and land. Heat waves are becoming more frequent in the summer, especially in desert areas.
- One of the worst effects of rising winter temperatures is the reduction in snowfall. Snow is a very important water source because desert ecosystems get very little rain throughout the year. Snow gets stockpiled in mountain ranges and slowly melts through the spring and summer, giving the rivers below a steady flow of water during the dry season.
- These environmental changes cause many trees and spring wildflowers to bloom earlier than typical.
- As a result, winters are shorter, spring is earlier, summers are longer and fall arrives later.
- These changes affect the timing of many life cycle events, such as when flowers bloom or when pollinators emerge.
- Disruptions in the timing of these events can have a variety of impacts on ecosystems and human society.
- For example, an earlier spring might lead to longer growing seasons, more abundant invasive species and pests, and earlier and longer allergy seasons.
- Unusually warm weather in late winter can create a “false spring” that triggers the new growth of plants to begin too early, leaving them vulnerable to any subsequent frosts.
Conclusion
Climate change is a global phenomenon, but we can feel its effects on a local scale. Warmer temperatures mean that our seasons will shift in unfamiliar ways, causing harmful changes to our ecosystems, wildlife, and human health.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
The importance of Data in Governance has always been in news
Key Demand of the question:
Highlight the importance, concerns and challenges associated with Public data in policy making process.
Directive word:
Comment– here we have to express our knowledge and understanding of the issue and form an overall opinion thereupon
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
A brief on the statement in question
Body:
First. Mention Why data is needed in Policy making process
Then the challenges associated with Public Data in Governance process, followed by the challenges associated with it
Conclusion:
A relevant closing statement
Introduction
Evidence-based policy making involves synthesising research with policy formulation in a two-pronged manner. First, policy decisions should be backed by sound data from the design stage. Second, evaluation of implementation should be carried out through data-gathering exercises. This involves being open to policy alternatives, the availability of quality research, using this research productively and quantifying the number of changes that can be solely attributed to the introduction of the policy in question
Body
Importance of Reliable and timely public data in Evidence based policy making
- Data can help inform that political consensus- by putting data out there to the general public and helping to nourish the debate out there, so it’s not informing the policymaker, the decision-maker, it’s informing the public.
- In the last decade or so, evidence-based policymaking has gained traction in India, with some governments showing interest in using scientific evidence to devise policies
- Reliable information plays greater role:
- In times of increasing populism and contestation of politics, reliable information plays a vital role for well-informed policy-making based on evidence rather than emotions and fake news.
- The popular legitimacy of any political system around the world depends on its effective capacity to successfully deliver good and targeted outcomes based on facts.
- These outcomes have to be based on reliable data in order to make political decisions understandable, assessable, sustainable and future-proof.
- Within the preparatory and scrutinising processes of policy-making, policy proposals, legislative acts and implementation arrangements are increasingly being assessed and evaluated on the basis of factual evidence and statistical data.
- Such evidence-based monitoring is increasingly recognised as a complex steering mode in itself resulting from changing governance patterns, supranationalisation and globalisation.
- Evidence-based policy-making reflects the need to re-structure the interaction between the political actors of different institutional origin and political levels, and represents an influential policy instrument at the border of the politics and policy dimensions of multilevel political systems.
Issues & challenges with current data collection:
- Increasing delay:
- The huge delay in the release of the collected data, despite the latest data processing technologies. This renders such data less useful for policy intervention.
- The delay also implies less public scrutiny and hence undermines accountability. For instance, the government refrained from releasing the data collected through the Socio-Economic and Caste Census.
- Comparability issues:
- The recent changes introduced by the government in regard to the estimation of GDP had made comparisons over time impossible.
- The revisions undertaken do not improve the quality of estimates.
- They are driven more by political considerations than by the need to improve accuracy.
- Ethics:
- Data collection is increasingly being done by contractual employees and for-profit organisations. Supervising them and ensuring their honesty remains challenging.
- A report in The Guardian in 2017 noted declining trust in official statistics around the world and argued that it damages democracy by jeopardising public knowledge and public argument.
- Employment:
- Absence of data on district-level employment for decentralised planning, data on circular migrant workers; the working and living conditions of women labour.
- Official data and post-truth politics
- According to some political analysts and scholars, post 2014, in the age of post-truth politics there has been instances of manipulating and distorting data by the government. Post truth politics is evoking public emotions and deviation from facts and details of policy.
- Faulty sampling frames
- Identifying respondents and sample selection is poor
- Survey designs, questionnaires are inappropriate in many instances
- For instance The RBI adopts inflation targeting approach to maintain price level-monetary policy. This approach is based on data on inflations expectations of individuals The reliability and validity of the data is a big question as ASER reports highlights extremely low mathematical skills of Indians.
- Delay/ Sporadic nature of Release of Data:
- There is no strict process of monitoring for release of data.
- Delay in publishing data is a persisting problem. However, there has been improvement in recent years
- Discrepancy in data:
- Lack of uniformity in data across government agencies is a major concern
- For instance there is data contradiction on jobs as recently EPFO estimated that 3.68 million jobs were generated till November of fiscal year 2018- much higher estimation than that of other agencies
- Quality/ Accuracy of data is another concern
- In 2011, commerce secretary admitted that India’s export figures for the April–October period were inflated by US$9.4 billion due to a misclassification of certain items and data entry errors.
- There has also been question over the accuracy of the Index of Industrial Production
- Allegations that NSS systematically underestimated household consumption
- Infringement of privacy by the government’s data-collection machinery
Way forward:
- Data-driven politics is only credible if administrative data is complemented by rigorous independent studies and evaluations. Civil society too plays a critical role by demystifying and communicating data, thus empowering citizens with relevant information.
- Harness diverse energies from academic and research institutions such as the ISI, the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute etc.
- Include private sector as well:
- Smaller, technology-savvy private sector organisations may also make important contributions in technology-driven data collection.
- Around the world, in diverse countries such as China, South Africa, Brazil, the U.K. and the U.S., statistical ecosystems consist of universities, research institutions and government agencies working synergistically.
- Scholars from different disciplines should be incorporated for framing samples and questionnaires
- Include takeaways from experiments designed by cognitive anthropologists, and survey design specialists
- Robust survey management structure to ensure quality and honesty in data collection
Conclusion:
The need of the hour is to ensure that the data generation possibilities opened up by new digital technologies are embedded in a robust system of public data production and use. Digital data collection tools need to be adopted to enhance data collection and processing capabilities. The government should focus on ensuring timely and reliable public data along with the adoption of the latest data processing technologies to ensure the usefulness of the collected data.
Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Reference: Indian Express
Why the question:
As the US-India Trade Policy Forum begins, it is critical to address the shortfall in trade ties. The current stakes for a growing economic partnership have never been greater as we experience a volatile and uneven global economic recovery from the pandemic.
Key Demand of the question:
Analyse the present state of bilateral relationship between India and US; and the areas of cooperation required to take it further.
Directive word:
Analyse – When asked to analyse, you must examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them in a summary.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Describe the partnership between the world’s two largest democracies and free-market societies.
Body:
First talk about the need for greater cooperation when the world is experiencing a volatile global economic recovery from the pandemic.
Mention how expanding trade can help in India’s economic recovery.
Talk about the recent decisions taken in India like raising FDI caps in key sectors and the repeal of the retroactive tax law can create a positive momentum in the economic partnership.
Talk about the US-India cooperation in healthcare sector, digital sphere and 5G can accelerate trade.
Conclusion:
Conclude with a way forward for strengthening trade and investment ties.
Introduction
The United States and India have long striven to maintain and deepen bilateral ties, weathering Cold War tensions and antagonisms over India’s nuclear tests to reinvigorate linkages and strengthen cooperation. Today’s modern US-India relationship continues to develop under a broad-based and multisectoral framework nurtured by common strategic interests and an engaged Indian diaspora in the United States, yet advancements in trade relations have faltered in comparison: though US-India trade has grown steadily, from a mere $16 billion in 1999 to a more robust $146 billion in 2019, long-standing disagreements over critical issues and the lack of structural trade agreements between both countries mar attempts to achieve the full perceived potential of the relationship.
Amid these bilateral trade tensions, India’s negotiations to strike a win-win trade deal with the US have been stalled for years. Likewise, negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty have also been unsuccessful due to differences in approaches to investor protection.
Body
Bilateral Trade between India and USA:
- In 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the USA and India stood at USD 88.75 billion.
- The USA is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus.
- India’s trade surplus with the USA increased to USD 17.42 billion in 2019-20 from USD 16.86 billion in 2018-19.
- For the USA, India was the sixth largest supplier of services imports.
- India’s large market, economic growth, and progress towards development make it an essential market for USA exporters.
How better trade partnership will help both countries navigate the post-pandemic landscape ?
- There are hopeful signs that India and USA are now prioritising the bilateral trade relationship by rechartering the Trade Policy Forum.
- Healthcare:
- US-India cooperation in the healthcare sector stands to be one of the most impactful areas for our countries and the global health architecture.
- As our two countries emerge from the global pandemic, this is a unique moment to form a health initiative that removes barriers to the Indian market that harm both American workers and Indian patients.
- Solving WTO issues: India USA can find synergy starting with a resolution of their disputes in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on solar panels.
- As they have dithered in pursuing cases in the WTO and settling them, China has effectively captured the global market, leaving each dependent on a source they view as a threat.
- Strategic convergence must show the path here.
- Energy relations: The two countries could also chart a path that allows trade to flow for transitional energy sources, such as fuel ethanol.
- Take an incremental approach focusing on low-hanging fruit and gradually build up to more significant areas of contention. E.g. Tariff on steel and aluminium etc
- Defence Trade: The United States urges more reforms in India’s defence offsets policy and higher Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) caps in its defence sector.
- Digital sphere
- It represents over $100 billion of bilateral trade, we must address several foundational issues, such as the digital service tax, cross-border data flows and common cellular standards.
- India and the US come to a common ground on 5G standards so that the world’s democracies can operate in an integrated telecommunications ecosystem.
- New data regulations should also facilitate the flow of information and respect internationally recognised intellectual property rights that serve as the cornerstone for innovation worldwide.
Way forward:
- The time is ripe for India to follow through on discussions for the mini-trade deal with the US and bolster its position in the US market.
- India could consider focusing on negotiations for tariff relaxations and partial restoration of GSP benefits, in exchange for specific market access commitments, with due consideration to the impact on sensitive sectors such as agriculture.
- India also needs to dispel its image of being a country with high trade barriers.
- There is also an urgent need to challenge the narrative for market access concerns raised by the US.
- Thus, the negotiation should focus on the resolution of various non-tariff barriers and other market access improvements as early as possible.
- It’s important that on the digital services tax, India accords with emerging global agreements that will accelerate trade.
- To facilitate growth in the healthcare sector and drive investment in research and development, it is essential that the governments embrace market-based approaches on innovative medical products.
- It is also needed to ensure that public procurement policies do not discriminate against foreign firms, and align regulatory structures to speed the approval of medical devices and pharmaceuticals so that critical and lifesaving therapies can get to the market faster.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, Nano-technology, biotechnology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Reference: Live Mint
Why the question:
Recently Russia destroyed one of its old satellites by causing a tail-on collision with an ASAT rocket it had fired. It led to thousands of pieces of space debris.
Key Demand of the question:
Write about the risks posed by Space debris and how countries must act responsibly to mitigate the risk.
Directive word:
Comment– here we must express our knowledge and understanding of the issue and form an overall opinion thereupon
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Write about what are Space debris.
Body:
Write about recent instances and space tests by countries which have resulted into space debris and caused enormous damage.
Mention about India’s actions.
Write about urgent case for a strict international ASAT non-proliferation and test-ban treaty.
Conclusion:
Conclude with a way forward.
Introduction
Space debris is a term for the mass of defunct, artificially created objects in space, most notably in Earth orbit. It includes the fragments from their disintegration, erosion and collisions. The European Space Agency estimates there are currently 128 million pieces of debris smaller than 1cm, about 900,000 pieces of debris 1–10cm in length, and around 34,000 pieces larger than 10cm in Earth orbit.
Body
Causes
- Sources of space debris are dead spacecrafts, spent rocket stages, lost equipment, boosters, weapons etc.
- Space debris has become a pressing issue, with objects in orbit flying out of control, posing a risk to satellites and to astronauts.
Need for a Space debris Mitigation Treaty
- Space debris poses a global threat to the continued use of space-based technologies that support critical functions like communication, transport, weather and climate monitoring, remote sensing.
- Space is a commons, where any nation’s decision to test an anti-satellite weapon, in the process creating gobs of junk, is unpunishable.
- The increasing incidents of testing of anti-satellite weapons has lead to increase in space debris.
- Space junk is a threat to active satellites, unmanned spacecrafts and spaceships.
- The ‘Magna Carta’ of space law is the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. However, its provisions are too generic to deal with the complex problems of space debris with any certainty.
- International space station: Although the ISS uses Whipple shielding to protect itself from minor debris, portions (notably its solar panels) cannot be protected easily.
- There is also the risk, known as the Kessler Syndrome or Kessler Effect, where one piece of debris breaks off and hits another so that it becomes a cascade, which could end up polluting an entire orbit for satellites.
- Although most debris burns up in the atmosphere, larger objects can reach the ground intact. According to NASA, an average of one catalogued piece of debris has fallen back to Earth each day for the past 50 years
Way forward
- An old-fashioned bridge-building between spacefaring nations would help.
- The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, negotiated during an earlier space race with little input from China, is badly in need of an update.
- In particular, provisions that grant countries permanent property rights to their objects in space may complicate efforts to clean up debris.
- Nations across world must actively contribute to the efforts of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) and United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS).
- As more nations join, debris-mitigation protocols like IADC, such as a requirement to specify which country has responsibility for end-of-mission planning, should become routine.
- Orbital-use fees could also help satellite operators get ahead of the space junk problem
General Studies – 4
Topic: Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance.
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Why the question:
The question is part of the static syllabus of General studies paper – 4.
Key Demand of the question:
How emotions influence our decisions and the actions needed to build Emotional Quotient?
Directive word:
Elaborate– To give in more detail, provide more information on
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Begin by describing the influence of Emotions on our actions.
Body:
Mention an incident where your emotions led to undesirable actions.
Further, the steps needed to prevent such things in life.
Conclusion:
A relevant summarising statement
Introduction
Emotions can play an important role in how you think and behave. The emotions you feel each day can compel you to take action and influence the decisions you make about your life, both large and small.
Emotions can “strike” us in response to many events – a catastrophic illness, sudden job loss, political upheaval – and we may experience more long term “storm systems” with feelings such as chronic anxiety. Difficulties regulating your emotions can often lead to all sorts of other problems in your life.
Body
You can quote your personal experience. We have given a generic example.
As public servants work in a mostly tense and stressful environment, they will be more prone to such emotional storms. This is especially common in the events of natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, cyclones or pandemics like the current COVID-19 as well as due to personal life events and everyday stresses like public riots may trigger one.
Steps to be taken to control the emotions
- Learn to distinguish between primary and secondary emotions. Learning the difference between “primary” and “secondary” emotions is an important step in learning to regulate your emotions.
- Learning where your emotional responses come from can help you regulate them. For example, a reaction to an external event might be how you respond to losing a loved one. Or, it might be a reaction to being criticized for something.
- Distract yourself from strong emotions. Sometimes, people experiencing an emotional storm may engage in extreme or damaging behaviors. Creating a productive distraction for yourself will help channel your emotional energy into healthy behaviors.
- Learn assertive communication. Sometimes, unchecked emotions can override your ability to express your needs, thoughts, and feelings. Learning to express yourself assertively can help you state your needs, thoughts, and feelings in an open and honest way
- Learn to listen. Active listening is an important communication skill. It can help you avoid emotional storms by keeping you focused on what the other person is saying, not what you might read into the situation
- Learn self-soothing behaviors. Self-soothing can help reassure you that you will make it through this emotional storm. Self-soothing behaviors are actions that you take to comfort and be kind to yourself. Activities like listening to calming music, eating a comforting meal, Take a warm bath or a hot shower etc.
- Learn to embrace uncertainty. The fear of uncertainty can set off emotional storms. An intolerance of uncertainty can lead you to constantly worry or try to predict the future. It may make you overly reliant on reassurance from others. It might even keep you from doing things you would otherwise enjoy.
- Practice gratitude. Allow yourself to recognize what is good in your life. Take time daily to journal at least 5 things you are grateful for that day.
Conclusion
Emotional intelligence positively influences the motivation of public service workers, which in turn increases the level of their affective commitment. Thus, emotional intelligence becomes an imperative trait for civil servants who deal with public at large day in and day out.
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