Master Answer WritingSign in

UPSC 2019 GS-I · 15 marks · 250 words

What is water stress? How and why does it differ regionally in India?

What “Explain” demands

set out how or why something works, with the mechanism made explicit.

The characteristic failure: stating that it works without showing how.

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”.

  • Definition: annual per-capita availability below 1,700 cubic metres (Falkenmark); scarcity below 1,000. India ~1,486 and falling
  • Regional drivers: monsoon variability and rain-shadow (Marathwada, Rayalaseema), hard-rock aquifers with poor recharge in the Deccan
  • Cropping choices: sugarcane in Maharashtra, paddy in Punjab-Haryana driving groundwater draft; CGWB over-exploited blocks
  • Contrast: Gangetic alluvium's rich aquifers against peninsular crystalline terrain
  • Urban and industrial demand, pollution rendering supply unusable (Yamuna, Bellandur)
  • Responses: Jal Jeevan Mission, Atal Bhujal Yojana, crop diversification, Composite Water Management Index

The band thresholds and the pre-scored sample answers behind this standard stay private — they are the calibration your copy is placed against.

Now write it, and find out what you actually scored

Attempt this question — typed or photographed — and it is marked against the standard above in under a minute: six parameter scores, a blunt verdict, and the points you missed. 50 free credits on signup, no card.

Write this answerSee a marked copy first

More from UPSC GS-I