UPSC Mains 2024 Question Paper with Model Answer Frameworks

Paper analysis

UPSC Mains 2024 Paper Analysis: Themes and Question Types

• Polity led GS II. Nine of the twenty GS II questions were on polity, from simultaneous elections, Lok Adalats and the CAG to the cabinet and Parliament, local bodies, privacy and DNA tests, Centre-State relations, public interest litigation and secularism.
• Society and geography in GS I. GS I had eight questions on Indian society, from the demographic winter and gender concepts to intercaste marriages, affirmative action and migrant women, and six on geography: Cyclones and sea temperature, migration to big cities, cloudbursts, groundwater, auroras and tornadoes.
• New laws and schemes in GS III. GS III asked about the four Labour Codes, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the UDAN scheme, GNSS-based tolling, buffer stocks and irrigation, alongside asteroids and alternative water technologies.
• Three internal security questions. Narco-terrorism, the China and Pakistan borders with the border-development schemes, and the security risks of social media and encrypted messaging each had a question.
• Thinkers and dilemmas in ethics. GS IV quoted Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Patel and Immanuel Kant and asked about AI in decision-making and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita; its case studies covered AI emissions, terror recruitment, a naxal operation, a hospital purchase, a district water crisis and a drug trial.
• Philosophical essays. Seven of the eight essay topics were statements such as "Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow them"; one, on social media and the fear of missing out, was a direct social topic.