Aspirant Academy

Economy

Predicted Questions with Model Answers

Social Sector: Health, Education, Poverty, Unemployment, Welfare Schemes

Paper I · Unit 2 Section 9 of 11 0 PYQs 30 min
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Predicted Questions with Model Answers

Q1 (5 marks — 50 words): What is Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY? State its coverage and benefit.

Model Answer:

Ayushman Bharat — Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), launched September 2018, is the world's largest government-funded health insurance scheme. Coverage: 55 crore individuals from 10.74 crore bottom-40% families (SECC database). Benefit: Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation across 31,000+ empanelled public and private hospitals. Cashless and paperless; portable across India. In 2024, extended to all citizens above 70 years of age — adding 4.5 crore beneficiaries.

Q2 (5 marks — 50 words): Explain the key structural changes introduced by NEP 2020 in school education.

Model Answer:

NEP 2020 restructures school education from the old 10+2 system to a 5+3+3+4 model: Foundational (ages 3-8, play-based, mother-tongue medium), Preparatory (8-11, experiential learning), Middle (11-14, vocational integration, coding), and Secondary (14-18, multidisciplinary — no rigid arts/science/commerce streams). Board exams reformed to reduce rote-learning stress. It mandates mother-tongue instruction in foundational stages, introduces coding from Class 6, and aims to raise higher education GER to 50% by 2035. CUET standardises college admissions.

Q3 (5 marks — 50 words): What is MGNREGS? State its key provisions and budget allocation for 2025-26.

Model Answer:

MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), enacted under MGNREGA 2005, is India's flagship rights-based rural employment programme. Key provisions: (1) Legal guarantee of 100 days of unskilled manual work per rural household per year; (2) Work must begin within 15 days or unemployment allowance is paid; (3) Works focus on water conservation, land development, rural roads; (4) 57% of workers are women; (5) State-wise statutory minimum wages. Budget 2025-26 allocation: Rs 86,000 crore. FY2024-25: 298 crore person-days generated.

Q4 (5 marks — 50 words): What is Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)? Summarise India's progress.

Model Answer:

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) measures poverty across three dimensions — Health, Education, and Living Standards — using 12 indicators (nutrition, child mortality, schooling, attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets). A household is MPI-poor if deprived in weighted indicators exceeding 33%. India's progress: NITI Aayog's 2023 report shows India reduced MPI poverty from 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23) — lifting 24.82 crore people from multidimensional poverty in 2015-16 to 2019-21, one of the fastest reductions globally.

Q5 (10 marks — 150 words): Discuss India's health sector programmes and challenges. What reforms are needed?

Model Answer:

India's health sector has seen transformative programmes but faces structural challenges in achieving universal health coverage.

Key Programmes:

National Health Mission (NHM, 2005): The umbrella framework for public health. NRHM (rural) and NUHM (urban) — 10.4 lakh ASHA workers form the community health backbone; focus on maternal-child health, immunisation, disease control. MMR reduced from 556 (1991) to 97 (2018-20); IMR from 80 to 27 (2022). NHM budget 2025-26: Rs 38,183 crore.

Ayushman Bharat (2018):

  • Ayushman Arogya Mandirs: 1.75 lakh Sub-Health Centres converted to provide comprehensive primary care — 12 services including mental health, AYUSH, dental, telemedicine.
  • PM-JAY: Rs 5 lakh/family/year health cover for 55 crore (bottom 40%). Over 6.5 crore hospitalisations; Rs 1 lakh crore claims paid. Extended to all 70+ citizens in 2024.

e-Sanjeevani: 310 million teleconsultations (2025) — reaching underserved rural areas without new infrastructure.

Mission Indradhanush: Immunisation coverage expanded to 12 vaccines including pneumococcal, rotavirus, and measles-rubella.

Challenges:

  1. Low public health spending: 1.35% of GDP vs. WHO-recommended 5%; high OOP (47% of total) impoverishes households
  2. Infrastructure gap: Only 0.73 doctors per 1,000 population (WHO: 1 per 1,000); 62% of district hospitals below prescribed bed norms
  3. Urban-rural divide: Cities have 10× more specialists than rural areas
  4. Disease Burden Shift: Non-communicable diseases (diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular) now cause 60%+ of deaths — but primary care system still focused on communicable diseases
  5. Drug Affordability: Branded medicines 3-5× cheaper generics — Jan Aushadhi Kendra (10,000+ stores) is help but not enough

Reforms Needed:

  • Increase public health spending to 2.5% of GDP (National Health Policy 2017 target)
  • Universal Health Coverage — expand PM-JAY to all (beyond bottom 40%)
  • Nursing and allied health worker expansion — trained community health workforce
  • Jan Aushadhi expansion and generic drug mandation at public hospitals

Q6 (10 marks — 150 words): What are the different types of unemployment in India? Discuss government schemes to address rural unemployment.

Model Answer:

India's labour market exhibits multiple forms of unemployment reflecting its structural complexity.

Types of Unemployment in India:

  1. Open/Visible Unemployment: Those actively seeking work but unable to find — urban educated youth; PLFS 2023-24: 6.7% urban rate
  2. Disguised Unemployment: More workers than required — endemic in agriculture; removing them does not reduce output. An estimated 20-30% of agricultural workforce is disguised unemployed.
  3. Seasonal Unemployment: Agricultural labourers unemployed during lean season (October-December after kharif, April-June before kharif); affects over 100 million seasonal agricultural workers
  4. Structural Unemployment: Skills mismatch as economy evolves — IT revolution, gig economy create demand for skills agricultural labourers lack; ~65% of India's workforce is in informal sector
  5. Educated Unemployment: Young graduates unable to find suitable employment — youth unemployment (15-29) ~17-18%; 21 million engineers and management graduates chasing limited formal sector jobs
  6. Cyclical Unemployment: Post-COVID labour market stress — CMIE estimated 120 million temporarily unemployed in April 2020

Government Schemes for Rural Employment:

MGNREGS — The Flagship:
Enacted under MGNREGA 2005, this is India's primary anti-unemployment programme:

  • Legal guarantee of 100 days unskilled work per rural household
  • 298 crore person-days generated in FY2024-25; 57% women participants
  • Wage rates linked to state minimum wages (Rs 267-374/day)
  • Creates productive rural assets: 2.82 crore water conservation works, 89 lakh rural roads, 3.54 crore plantation works (cumulative 2006-2024)
  • Budget 2025-26: Rs 86,000 crore

PM Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP):
Credit-linked subsidy for micro enterprises — 15-35% project cost subsidy; over 64 lakh enterprises supported since 2008; Rs 35,000 crore in loans mobilised.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY-NRLM):
Rural livelihoods mission — 90 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) with 10 crore+ members; Rs 9.3 lakh crore credit mobilised (2024). SHGs linked to banks; enterprise promotion; skill training.

PM SVANidhi: Working capital for 1.5 crore urban street vendors — Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 tiered loans.