Social Policy and Planning Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The aims are (a), (b) and (c), so the answer is (a), (b), (c).

The New Economic Policy of 1991 was launched in a balance-of-payments crisis, with inflation in double digits. Its liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation measures aimed to bring inflation down and stabilise the economy (a), to open the economy to foreign direct investment (b), and to lift the economy onto a higher growth path (c).

Statement (d) is the reverse of the policy: it sought to reduce inflation, and the tax reforms that followed cut income tax, corporate tax and customs rates. So any code including (d), or leaving out (b), is wrong.

Answer: B

Social protection does not include doling out alms.

Social protection is the set of public policies and programmes that protect people against poverty and vulnerability across their lives: social insurance, social assistance and labour market measures. Examples are benefits for the unemployed, food subsidies such as the public distribution system, and care and support for vulnerable groups such as older persons, persons with disabilities and children ('core' in the paper is evidently 'care').

Giving alms is private, discretionary charity. It creates no entitlement and offers no security, which is precisely what distinguishes it from rights-based social protection.

Answer: C

The key is both are true but (R) is not correct explanation of (A).

(A) is true: by enrolment, India's higher education system is commonly described as the third largest in the world after China and the United States, yet it is widely judged weak in quality, with faculty shortages, outdated curricula and few institutions of world rank.

(R) is also accepted: low public spending on higher education does hurt the quality of education imparted. But the weaknesses in (A) have many causes, including governance, regulation, the shortage of trained teachers and the uneven quality of affiliated colleges, so budget alone does not explain them. That is why the key treats (R) as true but not the explanation, rather than as the full explanation, or as false.

Answer: B

GDP growth is an indicator of economic development.

Gross domestic product is the value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a year, and its growth rate shows how fast total output is rising. It is therefore a measure of economic performance.

It does not by itself capture socio-economic development, which needs measures of health, education, inequality and well-being, such as the Human Development Index; a country can grow fast while poverty or illiteracy persists. A market index such as the Sensex tracks share prices, and 'Global Economic Index' is not what GDP growth measures.

Answer: C

The Jan Dhan Scheme provides banking facilities to the poor and encourages savings.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, launched in August 2014, is a national mission for financial inclusion. It opens basic savings bank accounts with no minimum balance for households without one, and gives account holders a RuPay debit card, accident insurance cover and access to an overdraft, so that the poor can save and receive payments through the formal banking system.

It is not a scheme of micro-credit for rural women, of farm loans, or of funds for small entrepreneurs; those are the business of other programmes such as MUDRA or self-help group linkage.

Answer: D

All four are part of the agenda, so the answer is (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv).

The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development was adopted in 2012 by the International Federation of Social Workers, the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Council on Social Welfare. Its four themes for 2012-2016 were:

1. promoting social and economic equalities;
2. promoting the dignity and worth of peoples;
3. working toward environmental sustainability;
4. strengthening recognition of the importance of human relationships.

Each narrower option leaves out at least one of these four pillars.

Answer: D

All four are dimensions of quality of life, so the answer is (a), (b), (c) and (d).

Quality of life is measured as a multi-dimensional concept, not by income alone. The widely used framework of the European statistical system, for example, lists material living conditions, productive activity, health, education, leisure and social interactions, economic and physical safety, governance and basic rights, the natural and living environment, and overall experience of life.

Material living conditions, health, education and leisure and social interactions all appear in that list, so the options stopping at (a), at (a) and (b), or at (a), (b) and (c) each leave out an accepted dimension.

Answer: B

The answer is (a) and (c).

Learning Without Burden (1993), the report of the advisory committee chaired by Prof. Yash Pal, found that children were burdened less by heavy bags than by a curriculum of disconnected information, learnt by rote for examinations and unrelated to their own lives. It called for learning that is joyful and that connects school knowledge with the child's everyday experience and environment.

Promoting an examination-loaded system (b) and increasing curriculum content (d) are the very problems the report criticised, so every option containing (b) or (d) is wrong.

Answer: C

UNMDG stands for United Nations 'Millennium Development Goals'.

The eight Millennium Development Goals came out of the UN Millennium Declaration of September 2000 and were to be met by 2015. They covered extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, environmental sustainability and a global partnership for development. They were succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015.

The other expansions replace Millennium with 'Multiple' or Goals with 'Grants'; option D also misspells Millennium. None is the real name.

Answer: C

The scheme without an impact on women empowerment is the ASIDE Scheme.

ASIDE, Assistance to States for Developing Export Infrastructure and Allied Activities, was a Ministry of Commerce scheme that funded infrastructure for exports. It has no women-specific purpose.

The other three are aimed at women. ICDS provides nutrition and health services to pregnant and lactating mothers as well as young children. Swadhar provides shelter and support to women in difficult circumstances. Ujjawala works to prevent trafficking and to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.