Social Policy and Planning Questions and Answers

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.

Answer: D

The key's answer is December 1978.

The Janata government under Morarji Desai decided to set up the second Backward Classes Commission, chaired by B.P. Mandal, and announced it on 20 December 1978; the formal order constituting it took effect on 1 January 1979. Its report followed in December 1980.

January 1953 and January 1955 are the dates of the Kalelkar Commission and its report. March 1980 is neither the setting up nor the report of the Mandal Commission.

Answer: D

The key treats punishments as not a tool of public policy.

Governments carry out policy through instruments such as legislation (rules that require or forbid conduct), subsidies (financial incentives for desired activity) and taxes (charges that discourage some activity and raise revenue). These are the standard tools named in public policy texts.

Punishment is a sanction applied to individuals who break the law, enforced through courts after the event. It supports legislation but is not itself a policy instrument in the same list.

Answer: B

The correct matching is 1-c, 2-a, 3-b.

• First Five Year Plan (1951-56): target 2.1 per cent, achieved about 3.6 per cent, helped by good harvests.
• Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), the Mahalanobis plan: target 4.5 per cent, achieved about 4.27 per cent.
• Third Five Year Plan (1961-66): target 5.6 per cent, achieved only about 2.4 per cent, because of the wars of 1962 and 1965 and the drought of 1965-66.

Option A gives the Second Plan the Third Plan's poor result. Options C and D give the First Plan the Second Plan's higher figure.

Answer: A

The quotation describes The Residual Welfare Model of Social Policy.

Richard Titmuss distinguished three models of social policy. In the residual model, the private market and the family are the natural channels for meeting needs, and the state steps in only temporarily when they break down. That is exactly the assumption quoted.

In the industrial achievement-performance model, welfare is a handmaiden of the economy, with benefits tied to merit, work performance and productivity. In the institutional redistributive model, welfare is a normal, universal institution that redistributes resources according to need. 'The Private Market and the Family Model' is not one of Titmuss's three; it merely repeats words from the quotation.

Answer: C

SDG 4 is Quality Education.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Its targets include free primary and secondary schooling, early childhood education, and equal access to technical and higher education by 2030.

The other options are different goals: No Poverty is SDG 1, Zero Hunger is SDG 2, and Gender Equality (printed 'Gender and Equality') is SDG 5. Remembering the order of the first five goals, poverty, hunger, health, education, gender, settles the question.