PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Planning & Economic Development

Examine the various causes of agrarian crisis in India.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 visible distress (suicides, marches, migration) crisis of profitability

Route 2 farming no longer viable causes structural & policy-driven, not natural

Body flow

unreformed land base (failed reforms, fragmentation, tenant exclusion / PM-Kisan) state retreat (falling investment, weak irrigation, no extension) Dhanagare: dependence shifts landlords markets, state fails to regulate liberalisation exposure (WTO, subsidised imports, price shocks, input costs, moneylenders) Gulati: farmer gets ~25% of consumer price climate stress (drought, groundwater) rainfed suicides Maharashtra/Karnataka

Counter-view

Sen & Bhagwati: subsidies mainly aid rich farmers, remove them fault is misdirected support, not its absence

Conclusion routes

Route 1 Sainath: neoliberal policy + corporate input costs, not natural failure

Route 2 Swaminathan’s remedy: procurement + C2+50% MSP as the corrective

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2018, Planning & Economic Development