Social Policy and Planning Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The sign that is not one of social health is not having confidence to meet others.

Social health is the ability to form satisfying relationships and to adapt to social situations. Its signs include pleasant manners and helpfulness, getting along well with the people around you, and fulfilling one's responsibilities towards others.

Lacking the confidence to meet people points instead to social anxiety or withdrawal, which is the opposite of social health, so it is the odd one out.

Answer: B

Atal Pension Yojana was introduced in 2015.

Announced in the Union Budget of 2015-16 and launched in May 2015, Atal Pension Yojana is a voluntary contributory pension scheme mainly for workers in the unorganised sector. Subscribers aged 18 to 40 contribute until 60 and then receive a guaranteed monthly pension of between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000. It replaced the earlier Swavalamban scheme.

2014 was the year of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which preceded it; 2013 and 2016 are not the year APY was introduced.

Answer: A

The National Nutrition Policy was adopted in 1993.

The Government of India adopted the National Nutrition Policy in 1993 under the then Department of Women and Child Development. It recognised that malnutrition has many causes and set out direct interventions, such as ICDS and nutrition for vulnerable groups, and indirect policy measures in food production, health and education. The National Plan of Action on Nutrition followed in 1995.

1995 is the year of the plan of action, not the policy. 2011 and 2015 do not mark the adoption of the policy.

Answer: A

The National Policy on Education was approved by Parliament in 1986.

The NPE 1986, under Rajiv Gandhi's government, was approved by Parliament in May 1986. It stressed removing disparities, Operation Blackboard for primary schools, and open universities; it was modified in 1992 with a Programme of Action.

1985 was the year of the 'Challenge of Education' document that preceded it, and 1990 and 1984 are not the years of approval. The first NPE dates from 1968.

Answer: A

The key's answer is the first code: both are correct and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

The United Nations describes the Sustainable Development Goals as 'the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all', and explains this by the fact that they address the global challenges of poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Tackling those challenges together is what makes them the blueprint.

The first code is printed 'Both correct but (R) is the correct explanation', an awkward wording, but it is the only option that makes the reason explain the assertion.

Answer: D

The concept was incorporated in the Brundtland Report, 1987.

The World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, published Our Common Future in 1987. It defined sustainable development as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.

The World Development Report is the World Bank's annual report, the Dunkel draft of 1991 concerned the GATT trade negotiations, and the SDG reports of 2018 came long after the concept was established.

Answer: A

The Kaka Kalelkar Commission was set up in January 1953.

The first Backward Classes Commission, chaired by Kaka Kalelkar, was appointed on 29 January 1953 under Article 340 of the Constitution. It submitted its report in 1955, which the government did not accept.

January 1955 is the trap, being the year of its report. The dates in 1978 and 1980 belong to the second Backward Classes Commission, the Mandal Commission, which is asked about in Q70.

Answer: D

The definition was given by P. D. Kulkarni.

Kulkarni, writing on social policy in India (Social Policy and Development in India, 1978), is the author to whom study materials in social work attribute this definition of social policy as a strategy of action with means and methods for successive phases towards declared social objectives. A study unit on social policy quotes it under his name.

S. N. Ranade, M. S. Gore and K. D. Gangarade are other Indian social work writers, but they are not credited with this definition. I could not open the 1978 book itself, so the attribution rests on that study unit.

Answer: C

The Human Development Index is a statistical tool.

The HDI, introduced by UNDP in 1990, is a composite statistic that combines measures of life expectancy, education (years of schooling) and income per head into a single index between 0 and 1, used to rank countries' overall human development.

It is not a mechanical tool, and it measures far more than physical 'human growth'. 'Social science tool' is too vague; what defines the HDI is that it is a statistical index.

Answer: B

The Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved by 2030.

The 17 SDGs were adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets 2030 as the target year for its 169 targets.

2021, 2025 and 2031 are not the target year. The earlier Millennium Development Goals ran to 2015, when the SDGs replaced them.