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General Studies 2026 GS Paper I 15 marks 250 words Compulsory Comment

GS Paper I — Q13

The model of planned economy was adopted in India to address the regional imbalances left behind by colonial rule. Comment…

The model of planned economy was adopted in India to address the regional imbalances left behind by colonial rule. Comment. (Answer in 250 words) 15 marks

हिंदी में प्रश्न पढ़ें

भारत में योजनाबद्ध अर्थव्यवस्था का मॉडल अपनाया गया ताकि औपनिवेशिक शासन द्वारा छोड़े गए क्षेत्रीय असंतुलनों को मिटाया जा सके। टिप्पणी कीजिए। (उत्तर 250 शब्दों में दीजिए)

Q13 of the 2026 UPSC Mains General Studies GS Paper I, as printed
The question as printed in the 2026 General Studies paper
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Model answer

Written by UPSC Answer Check against this question's marking rubric, to the 250-word length. UPSC does not publish answers for Mains — this is one way to score well, not an official key.

Colonial economic policy created acute spatial distortions by concentrating industrial capital, commerce, and railway infrastructure around coastal port enclaves—Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras—while systematically reducing the vast interior hinterland into a de-industrialized, agrarian periphery. To correct this historical asymmetry, independent India established the Planning Commission in 1950, adopting a state-led, mixed-economy framework centered on Five-Year Plans to orchestrate balanced regional development.

Strategic Interventions under Planning

The state deployed public investments to decentralize industrial and agrarian capacity:

  • Public Sector Industrialization: Under the Second Five-Year Plan, heavy industries were deliberately established in underdeveloped, resource-rich regions, as seen in the public-sector steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela, and Durgapur, designed to serve as regional growth poles.
  • Agrarian Infrastructure: Multipurpose river valley projects such as the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and the Bhakra-Nangal project—celebrated as the "temples of modern India"—were instituted to provide irrigation, hydro-power, and flood control across neglected river basins.

Critical Assessment of Outcomes

Despite these targeted measures, planning achieved limited success in closing regional divides:

  • Enclave Development: Heavy industrial plants functioned largely as isolated capital-intensive enclaves, failing to foster robust local forward-backward linkages or generate widespread downstream employment.
  • Widening Divergence: Over successive decades, regional disparities widened. While western and southern states transitioned rapidly into industrial and service hubs, the central and eastern BIMARU states continued to lag behind, constrained by institutional bottlenecks and execution deficits.

The planned economic model confronted colonial-era imbalances with ambitious egalitarian intent; however, structural and implementation gaps rendered its actual correction of regional disparities partial and uneven.

What "Comment" is asking you to do

Take a position on the statement and support it. Comment usually attaches to a quoted line in the short slots, so the reasoning must be compressed — an opening view, a few load-bearing reasons, and the limit of the claim.

Structure that answers it

Unpack what the statement asserts → your stance → two or three supporting reasons → the qualification that limits it

Where marks are lost

Neutral summary; a comment without a stance has not answered. Equally costly is accepting the quoted line wholesale and never testing where it fails.

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How this answer will be evaluated

Approach

Framework: GS1 Economic Development. comment: context > arguments both sides > judgment > close Full marks: Precisely identifies colonial imbalances, explains the planned economy's corrective mechanism, and offers a nuanced judgment on its legacy.

Key points expected

  • Identify specific colonial regional imbalances (e.g., Bengal vs. UP, industrial vs. agrarian)
  • Explain the mechanism of Five Year Plans in resource allocation
  • Mention specific regional development instruments (e.g., DFC, NITI Aayog)
  • Provide a balanced judgment on the model's success and limitations

Evaluation rubric

Each sub-part is marked on its own, against the marks and word limit printed on the paper.

  1. The answer Contextualize colonial imbalances, explain the planned economy's role, and provide a balanced judgment on its efficacy. 15 marks · 250 words

    comment— context → arguments both sides → judgment → close

    Must cover

    • Identify specific colonial regional imbalances (e.g., Bengal vs. UP, industrial vs. agrarian)
    • Explain the mechanism of Five Year Plans in resource allocation
    • Mention specific regional development instruments (e.g., DFC, NITI Aayog)
    • Provide a balanced judgment on the model's success and limitations

    Loses marks

    • Narrating the history of the Planning Commission without linking to regional issues
    • Failing to define the 'colonial imbalances' specifically
    • Using emotive language instead of economic analysis

    Earns more

    • Reference to the Planning Commission's role
    • Mention of the shift from Planning Commission to NITI Aayog
    • Discussion of the 'trickle-down' effect vs. targeted regional policies
    • Reference to specific Five Year Plans (e.g., 1st or 2nd Plan focus)

    Extra mark

    • Citing a specific statistic on regional disparity (e.g., GSDP per capita)
    • Mentioning the 'Backward Regions Grant Fund' (BRGF)

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