Mentors Comment: 1. Give the definition of desertification and various dimensions of it 2. List various causes of desertification and analyze them 3. Mention the steps that can be taken to address the growing desertification Link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/wap.business-standard.com/article-amp/current-affairs/as-india-hosts-desertification-meet-30-of-its-land-is-already-degraded-119090200088_1.html Answer: Desertification is the process by which the biological productivity of drylands (arid and semiarid lands) is reduced… Continue reading What do you understand by desertification? What are it’s causes and what steps can be taken to address it? (250 Words)

a.) Identify three crucial problems that are an obstacle to practical solutions. Also discuss why these are ‘crucial problem’. Such problems arise because of ‘indifference’ of the hospital administration, failure of the relevant agencies to fulfill their duties such as cleaning and waste management department and law enforcement agencies and also whistleblowers and lastly lack… Continue reading There is a dispensary in a rural area. It is the sole medical center in the region and provides health care facilities to people. But the dispensary is not following the biomedical rules and disposes a large quantity of waste in its backyard, which is affecting the health of the nearby people and is also affecting the animals. You are health inspector of the region and got the complaint related to it. This hospital is governed by family members of the district collector under which you work. Even public do not care much about this problem, as this is the sole hospital in that vicinity and they trust hospital as treatment and hospitality is good. Media and NGO’s staff gets treatment at low charges and sometimes free also. You have already warned hospital about their responsibility but they don’t take you very seriously. (a) Identify three crucial problems that are obstacle to practical solution. Also discuss why these are ‘crucial problem’. (b) Find different steps for solution to this problem and argue their capacity to achieve desired results. (c) Suggest the best course of action, that can help addressing the problem in this case. Why?

Mentors Comment: In the first part of the question, the requirement is simple: Describe what is convective storms and what are its basic characteristics. In the second part, you have to describe how convective storms are unlike other climatic phenomenons (Because of unpredictability and nature) and how it affects things on Earth. Discuss the effects… Continue reading What do you understand by ‘convective storms’? Why are they climatically atypical? (250 Words)

Mentors Comments: 1. Define fiscal federalism 2. What are the various constitutional provisions, laws and institutions for ensuring FF? 3. What challenges does the FF in India face? How to resolve them? Answer: Fiscal federalism, financial relations between units of governments in a federal government system. It is part of the broader public finance discipline.… Continue reading What do you understand by fiscal federalism? Why is it needed in India? What are the challenges we face in realizing this objective? (250 Words)

Answer: (a) As a minister, when the public is expecting something from you, what would you do to safeguard the Indian cultural ethos regarding teachers and women on dress matters? Dress code is a matter of discipline as well as cultural ethos and identity. The Minister should suggest the stakeholders to seek a consensus with… Continue reading You are an education minister of a state. Recently, lot of reports on how women teachers of secondary school dresses up came and emphasized that many teachers wear ungracious and western type of attire which are against Indian cultural ethos while they are in school. People from one cultural group meet you and wants you to clear your mind about that to the public. There is an opinion in air that such things put indelible mark on the impressionable minds of the adolescent students about ‘image of teachers’ in general and ‘women’ in particular. Public expects something from you in the given situation. Answer the following questions related to it: (a) As a minister, when public is expecting something from you, what would you do to safeguard the Indian cultural ethos regarding teachers and women on dress matters? (b) You are a minister in official capacity and a public representative, but you must also have your personal opinion than the public expectations. Do you think that dress is a matter of personal choice and there should be no official dictate regarding it? (c) Also, can you say that what matters is the quality of education and not the type of dress teachers wear? (d) There must be views from both the sides, one may go with you and other will criticize you. Give arguments for and against the dress code for teachers in schools. (250 Words)

Mentors Comment: Briefly discuss the reasons for the weakening of rupee in the intro and then in the next subheading, discuss the recent scenarios of industrial growth and employment in India. These two will form your first part of the answer. Then discuss how a weak Indian rupee is helpful for our industry as well… Continue reading Fall in Rupees is a blessing in disguise for Indian economy which is suffering from double cancer of stagnant industrial growth and lack of job creation? Critically discuss. (250 Words)

Answer: (a) All those involved in the manual scavenging and others ad hoc safai karamchari went on strike and demanded for better livelihood. When you called all the community members for a meeting to discuss the issue, no one turned up. Actions should start from “building trust” and not “aggravating suspicion”. This point should be… Continue reading Manual Scavenging is quite a common social stigma attached with them in the society. One day few manual scavengers, employed to clean sewer and toilets inside the District Court complex by the Public Works Department,were neither given any safety equipment, nor gloves. When the advocates in the court premises opposed this, the engineer ignored them by denoting the manual scavenging as “a small work” with no hazards involved. When opposed by few advocates, it led to a fight between PWD workers and advocates. Later advocates called a press conference and raised the issue – “We saw few workers who were clad in their inners and were inside the drain cleaning it with bare hands. We (lawyers) got together and opposed it but the engineers did not listen to us. Despite the Supreme Court passing a judgment on this issue, it is shocking that even in court complexes manual scavenging continues. Even government organizations are not following the government rules.” You are a district administration head. Due to the above stated case, following situation arises: (a) All those involved in the manual scavenging and others ad hoc safai karamchari went on strike and demanded for better livelihood. When you called all the community members for a meeting to discuss the issue, no one turned up. (b) Advocates came to you and demanded for stringent action against the official and threatened to go on strike. (c) When you called to PWD official for understanding their version of the issue, they told you that it was an urgent assignment pressurized from above; thus they did not have time going for scheduled procedure. They felt very demotivated. What are the best options available to solve the above stated problems? How will you effectively address all the issues? And also discuss limitations of each course of action. (250 Words)

Mentors Comment: UBI is not a new concept in Indian history and before Economic Survey pondered about it, erstwhile Planning Commission had already discussed the idea couple of decades ago. Simply put, the question asks about the rationale behind UBI and doing away from subsidies. Whether it is good for India? If not then what… Continue reading Instead of a Universal Basic Income, what India needs is rationalization of subsidies, better targeting, and operational efficiency. Comment. (250 Words)