GS (General Studies) Paper 3 UPSC Mains 2015

See Essay Paper Here | See GS Paper 1 Here | See GS Paper 2 Here

Date: December 21

Duration: 3 hours

Instructions: Answer the following questions in not more than 200 words each. Contents of the answers are more important than their length. All questions carry equal marks.

Note: Each question carries 12.5 Marks (12.5×20 = 200 Marks )

Q.1) The nature of economic growth in India in recent times is often described as a jobless growth. Do you agree with this view? Give arguments in favour of your answer.

Q.2) Livestock rearing has a big potential for providing non- farm employment and income in rural areas. Discuss suggesting suitable measures to promote this sector in India.

Q.3) In the view of the declining average size of land holdings in India which has made agriculture non – viable for a majority of farmers should contract farming and land leasing be promoted in agriculture? critically evaluate the pros and cons.

Q.4) How can the Digital India program help farmers to improve farm productivity and income? What step has the government taken in this regard?

Q.5) In what way could replacement of price subsidy with direct benefit Transfer (DBT) change the scenario of subsidies in India? Discuss.

Q.6) What are the impediments in marketing and supply chain management in developing the food processing industry in India? Can e-commerce help in overcoming this bottleneck?

Q.7) Craze for gold in Indian has led to surge in import of gold in recent years and put pressure on balance of payments and external value of rupee. In view of this, examine the merits of Gold Monetization scheme.

Q.8) “Success of make in India program depends on the success of Skill India programme and radical labour reforms.” Discuss with logical arguments.

Q.9) To what factors can be the recent dramatic fall in equipment cost and tariff of solar energy be attributed? What implications does the trend have for thermal power producers and related industry?

Q.10) There is a clear acknowledgement that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are a tool of industrial development, manufacturing and exports. Recognising this potential, the whole instrumentality of SEZs require augmentation. Discuss the issue plaguing the success of SEZs with respect to taxation, governing laws and administration.

Q.11) What do you understand by “Standard Positioning System” and “Precision positioning system” in the GPS era? Discuss the advantage India perceives from its ambitious IRNSS programme employing just seven satellites.

Q.12) What are the areas of prohibitive labour that can be sustainably managed by robots? Discuss the initiatives that can propel the research in premier research institutes for substantive and gainful innovation.

Q.13) Discuss the advantage and security implication of cloud hosting of servers vis-a-vis in house machine based hosting for government business.

Q.14) India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) which has a database containing formatted information on more than 2 million medicinal formulations is proving a powerful weapon in country’s fight against erroneous patents. Discuss the pro and cons of making the database available publicly available under open source licensing.

Q.15) Discuss the Namami Gange and National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) programmes and causes of mixed results from the previous schemes. What quantum leaps can help preserve the river Ganga better than incremental inputs?

Q.16) The frequency of earthquakes appears to have increased in the Indian subcontinent. However, India’s preparedness for mitigating their impact has significant gaps. Discuss various aspects.

Q.17) Human right activists constantly highlight the fact that the Armed forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is a draconian act leading to cases of human right abuses by security forces. What sections of AFSPA are opposed by the activists. Critically evaluate the requirement with reference to the view held by Apex Court.

Q.18) Religious indoctrination via social media has resulted in Indian youth joining the ISIS. What is ISIS and its mission? How can ISIS be dangerous to the internal security of our country.

Q.19) The persisting drives of the government for development of large industries in backward areas have resulted in isolating the tribal population and the farmers who face multiple displacements. With Malkangiri and Naxalbari foci, discuss the corrective strategies needed to win the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) doctrine affected citizens back into mainstream of social and economic growth.

Q.20) Considering the threats cyberspace poses for the country, India needs a “Digital Armed Forces” to prevent crimes. Critically evaluate the National Cyber Security Policy, 2013 outlining the challenges perceived in its effective implementation.


Comments

47 responses to “GS (General Studies) Paper 3 UPSC Mains 2015”

  1. i need 19th question answer key can any one provide it for me plzz…..
    urgent

  2. BombayBoy Avatar
    BombayBoy

    Most questions appeared in the GS – 3 sectional papers of Vision IAS. Those who wrote it sincerely have a good chance at scoring high especially in this paper.

  3. ALL THE BEST FRNDS.

  4. hmmm. well…

  5. but u shd decide optional sub before starting GS itself.
    combined study of optional and GS will be better i think… soo…

  6. lets do it Avatar
    lets do it

    UPSC wants to say: don’t dare to leave YOJNA 😀

    someone asked CA from which month, sir/mam CA from August to the month before u r writhing the exam(pre/mains)

  7. lets do it Avatar
    lets do it

    mam nothing is ‘sufficient’ for UPSC.
    anyways also refer ‘explained’ section of indian express and one magazine on CA, so that u’ll get consolidated things there.

  8. lets do it Avatar
    lets do it

    hindu’s thursday issue covers a page on s & t.

  9. shreya banga Avatar
    shreya banga

    Not started preparing for it yet 😮 it’ll be sociology/psychology

  10. shreya banga Avatar
    shreya banga

    ^Yes sir

  11. dec 15 – dec 16 shd be better frd… for 2016 preparation. also HINDU paper u must to see.
    your optional sub ?

  12. you are preparing for 2016 ? right ?

  13. aviral pandey Avatar
    aviral pandey

    January

  14. Seeing kind of question a holistic view of all the topics are needed !! To ask Hindu is enough – it is !! But not just editorials the whole paper !! I have been following ForumIAS 9 PM brief for few days now !! It seems to cover news from Hindu and from other newspapers in brief manner which might be very helpful. Also morning they publish must read articles of newspaper which is also a nice initiative.

  15. Born Single Avatar
    Born Single

    me too starting . and finding little difficult to cope up.
    start now…. till feb end. and switch on insights. it will tell important ones.

  16. shreya banga Avatar
    shreya banga

    Current affairs starting from which month should be preferred for answer writing? January ? Or later (as seen in paper-1 where questions have been asked from recent happenings) ?

  17. aviral pandey Avatar
    aviral pandey

    Ya .. Plus insights answer writing

  18. shreya banga Avatar
    shreya banga

    I’m extremely new to preparation for 2016. Can anyone tell if Hindu’s editorial columns are sufficient for preparation of mains answer writing questions(for topics based on current affairs ie)?

  19. shreya banga Avatar
    shreya banga

    I’m extremely new to preparation for 2016. Can anyone tell if Hindu’s editorial columns are sufficient for preparation of mains answer writing questions(for topics based on current affairs ie)?

  20. I am also new bro. I only started 2-3 months back. In my building there are 4 people writing Mains, so thats why I know a little bit.

  21. Thank you!

  22. Ok 🙁

  23. nishant kumar mehta Avatar
    nishant kumar mehta

    Most of the questions were from Indian economic development (text book).

  24. Jedi Mind Tricks Avatar
    Jedi Mind Tricks

    bhai jaan this year also it was in news. Colgate tried to use a desi formula in its mouthwash. So TKDL question, I feel is still current. Moreover, the pros and cons can be concocted :p

  25. How to prepare for Science and Technology ??

  26. Pradeepreddy Gajullapalli Avatar
    Pradeepreddy Gajullapalli

    It is there in news as well. MHRD commented – research funded from the public resources should be kept in open space(licencing) – still debatable. UPSC is strictly trying to avoid traditional questions. this is one another example to curb coaching centres.
    thumbs up UPSC…. please look across bro

  27. Yes!!Detail newspaper reading is a must..

  28. Almost all of the topics were covered in detail in Hindu.Rather than skimming through newspaper daily, I think
    more detail oriented study is required using the newspaper than the books.

  29. Paper is relatively good and most of the questions are factual.

  30. Dr. Mrs Sushma Joiya Pandit Avatar
    Dr. Mrs Sushma Joiya Pandit

    Traditional as well as Historical knowledge must for IAS aspirants

  31. National Security policy, AFSPA are vry much in news and the Hindu has covered these two topics in great details. As far as TKDL is concerned though it was not as highlighted but covered in Jan or Feb 2015.

  32. Prashant Tiwari Avatar
    Prashant Tiwari

    The time has come where we shouldn’t rely more on books. It’s newspaper all the way. But the dilemma of uncertainty will be always there. 🙂

  33. they might have changed there mind of curbing coaching classes haha
    sorry iam new in this preparation and not taking any coaching so I dont know about TKDL

  34. gughapriya Avatar
    gughapriya

    thanks friend!

  35. TDKL, National Cyber security Policy, AFSPA. Old topics, not very highlighted this year.

  36. gughapriya Avatar
    gughapriya

    yes friend.

  37. New entry means? New to ForumIAS or UPSC preparation? Are you writing for 2016?

  38. gughapriya Avatar
    gughapriya

    true!!

  39. Dont worry, you are not alone. My flatmates who write Mains also found this paper as the toughest. This was more factual than all other papers. Other papers had facts, but with some knowledge, you could push some analysis and opinion and *still* write the answer. The scope of doing that in this paper is much less.

  40. gughapriya Avatar
    gughapriya

    can u plz name some? sorry i am a new entry.

  41. Haha, but TDKL is there in almost every typical coaching notes! I dont understand how UPSC wants to curb coaching when they ask questions from 3-4 years ols, which only veterans know , or coaching wallas teach in class!

  42. Yaa its difficult and again some old topics have asked in this paper

  43. gughapriya Avatar
    gughapriya

    finding it difficult than paper 1 and 2. how abt you all?

  44. India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) was topic that flashed in hindu in 2012 and they are asking now I think they are in support of student studying from 3-4 years haha

  45. Discuss the advantage and security implication of cloud hosting of
    servers vis-a-vis in house machine based hosting for government
    business.

    – Very practical application question!

  46. Livestock rearing was in syllabus, finally they asked it this year!

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