UPSC 2017 GS-I · 10 marks · 150 words

“In spite of adverse environmental impact, coal mining is still inevitable for development.” Discuss.

What “Discuss” demands

present several distinct facets of the issue and connect them into an argument, giving the competing views real weight rather than one line each.

The characteristic failure: a list of points with no argument running through them.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

Dependence: coal supplies about 70% of India's electricity generation and is the feedstock for steel, cement and sponge iron
Adverse impacts: overburden and land degradation, acid mine drainage, fly-ash ponds, particulate pollution, displacement in the Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh coalfields
Forest conflict: the Go/No-Go and inviolate-forest classification, Hasdeo Arand, Forest Rights Act consent requirements
Why substitution is slow: renewables' intermittency, storage cost, and coal's role in base-load until pumped storage and batteries scale
Reconciling instruments: washed coal, the coal cess and the National Clean Energy Fund, ultra-supercritical plants, just-transition planning for coal districts

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“In spite of adverse environmental impact, coal mining is still inevitable for development.” Discuss.

What a top answer must contain

Now write it, and find out what you actually scored

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