UPSC Prelims 2019 CSAT Paper II · Q23 of 79 Comprehension medium

Passage

With the digital phenomenon restructuring most social sectors, it is little surprise that global trade negotiations are now eyeing the digital area in an attempt to pre-emptively colonise it. Big Data is freely collected or mined from developing countries, and converted into digital intelligence in developed countries. This intelligence begins to control different sectors and extract monopoly rents. A large foreign company providing cab service, for instance, is not a network of cars and drivers; it is digital intelligence about commuting, public transport, roads, traffic, city events, personal behavioural characteristics of commuters and drivers and so on.

Which of the following is most definitively implied by the above passage ?

  1. (a) Big Data is the key resource in the digital space. ✓ UPSC's answer
  2. (b) Big economies create Big Data.
  3. (c) Access to Big Data is the prerogative of developed countries.
  4. (d) Access to and possession of Big Data is a characteristic of developed countries.

Why the answer is (a)

• The passage states that global trade negotiations are targeting the digital area to 'pre-emptively colonise' it, indicating a strategic race for control over this sector.

• It explicitly describes the process where Big Data is mined from developing countries and converted into 'digital intelligence' in developed countries.

• This intelligence is then used to 'control different sectors' and 'extract monopoly rents,' establishing it as the primary asset driving economic power in the digital economy.

• The example of a cab service company illustrates that the value lies not in the physical assets (cars/drivers) but in the 'digital intelligence' derived from data.

• Therefore, the passage definitively implies that Big Data is the central, key resource that determines control and profit in the digital space.

Why the other options are wrong

(b) Big economies create Big Data.
The passage states that Big Data is collected from developing countries, not that big economies create it.
(c) Access to Big Data is the prerogative of developed countries.
The passage describes a flow of data from developing to developed countries, not that access is an exclusive prerogative of developed nations.
(d) Access to and possession of Big Data is a characteristic of developed countries.
The passage focuses on the extraction and conversion of data into intelligence for control, not merely on possession as a static characteristic of developed countries.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019, held on 2 June 2019. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

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