QUESTION 16
GS2
15 marks
Besides the welfare schemes, India needs deft management of inflation and unemployment to serve the poor and the underprivileged sections of society. Discuss.
WRITE IN
11 min
250 words
What the examiner wants
Explain why managing inflation and unemployment matters as much as welfare schemes for protecting the poor.
DiscussExplain the different sides of the issue, use evidence, and finish with a balanced view.
Demand-wise check
- 1Inflation hurts the poor most: food share in consumption, no indexation, erodes savings≈65 words
- 2Unemployment and underemployment: informal work, youth unemployment≈65 words
- 3Policy tools: inflation targeting, supply-side food measures, employment-intensive growth, MGNREGA as a buffer≈65 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Link welfare with macro stabilityInflation's impact on poorUnemployment's impactPolicy toolsConclusion
Where marks usually go
- Turning it into a list of welfare schemes
- Not mentioning the RBI's inflation targeting framework
Draw this
- Diagram: inflation and unemployment as two pressures on household welfare
Value addition
- FactRBI's flexible inflation target is 4% CPI with a band of 2–6%, under the amended RBI Act (2016).Reserve Bank of India
- DataFood makes up about 46% of the CPI basket, which is why food inflation hurts poorer households most.MoSPI CPI weights (2012 series)
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 15 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Aditya Srivastava · AIR 1 · Page 15 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 38 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Aditya Srivastava · AIR 1 · Page 5 ↗Same syllabus reference
Links open original public sources. MainsBuddy does not host these answer sheets.
Next: plan for one minute, write it in 11 minutes, then get it checked.