General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) Question Paper – UPSC Civil Services Main Exam (Written) 2019

UPSC conducted the General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) Paper, as part of the Civil Services Main Exam 2019 on 21-09-2019.

General Studies Paper 1 (GS1): UPSC Civil Services Mains Examination – 2019

Instructions

• Total Marks: 250 marks, Time duration: 3 hours.
• There are 20 questions printed both in ENGLISH and HINDI.
• All questions are compulsory.
• The number of marks carried by a question/part is printed against it.
• Answers must be written in the medium authorized in the admission certificate which must be stated clearly on the cover of this question-cum-answer (QCA) booklet in the space provided.
• No marks will be given for answers written in a medium other than the authorized one.
• Answers to questions no. 1 to 10 should be in 150 words, whereas answers to questions no. 11 to 20 should be in 250 words.
• Keep the word limit indicated in the questions in mind.
• Any page or portion of the page left blank must be struck off clearly.

Questions

Qn1. Highlight the Central Asian and Greco-Bactrian elements in Gandhara art (Answer in 150 words)

Qn2. The 1857 Uprising was the culmination of the recurrent big and small local rebellions that had occurred in the preceding hundred years of British rule. Elucidate (Answer in 150 words)

Qn3. Examine the linkages between the 19th century ‘Indian Renaissance’ and the emergence of national identity. (Answer in 150 words)

Qn4. Assess the impact of global warming on coral life systems with examples. (Answer in 150 words)

Qn5. Discuss the causes of the depletion of mangroves and explain their importance in maintaining coastal ecology. (Answer in 150 words)

Qn6. Can the strategy of regional-resource-based manufacturing help in promoting employment in India? (Answer in 150 words)

Qn7. Discuss the factors for localization of agro-based food processing industries of North-West India. (Answer in 150 words)

Qn8. What makes Indian society unique in sustaining its culture? Discuss. (Answer in 150 words)

Qn9. “Empowering women is the key to controlling population growth”. Discuss (Answer in 150 words)

Qn10. What are the challenges to our cultural practices in the name of secularism (Answer in 150 words)

Qn11. Many voices had strengthened and enriched the nationalist movement during the Gandhian phase. Elaborate (Answer in 250 words)

Qn12. Assess the role of British imperial power in complicating the process of transfer of power during the 1940s. (Answer in 250 words)

Qn13. Explain how the foundations of the modern world were laid by the American and French Revolutions. (Answer in 250 words)

Qn14. What is water stress? How and why does it differ regionally in India? (Answer in 250 words)

Qn15. How can the mountain ecosystem be restored from the negative impact of development initiatives and tourism? (Answer in 250 words)

Qn16. How is efficient and affordable urban mass transport key to the rapid economic development of India? (Answer in 250 words)

Qn17. How do ocean currents and water masses differ in their impacts on marine life and the coastal environment? Give suitable examples. (Answer in 250 words)

Qn18. Do we have cultural pockets of small India all over the nation? Elaborate with examples (Answer in 250 words)

Qn19. What are the continued challenges for women in India against time and space? (Answer in 250 words)

Qn20. Are we losing our local identity for the global identity? Discuss. (Answer in 250 words)

General Studies Paper 1 UPSC 2019 – Question Paper Analysis by ClearIAS.com

What matters now in the UPSC exam is not how knowledgeable you are, but how quickly can you process the information in your brain to present the different sides of a relevant issue. The General Studies Paper 1 of the UPSC Civil Services Main Exam 2019 is a typical example of this.

Unfortunately, many coaching institutes haven’t yet understood this change. Many of them are still teaching a lot of junk facts to students. Students are overloaded with almost everything under the Sun. However, in the exam hall, aspirants are unsure of what to do with this ‘junk’ information on questions that test their analytical skills in a short span of time.

UPSC is no longer looking at specialized knowledge or information, rather they are looking at your analytical skills. No coaching institutes can do the analysis for you. Only you can do it in the exam hall.

Does this mean the end of coaching institutes or mentors? No. We didn’t mean that. Nevertheless, if they don’t adapt to the changing requirements of UPSC, the methods won’t help candidates.

What should the ideal mentors of UPSC do now? They should guide aspirants on the right path and demonstrate the importance of cultivating analytical skills. Yes, analytical skills are becoming more and more important in UPSC CSE. Not just for Mains, but for Prelims and Interviews as well.

Aspirants should learn to analyze questions within a limited time. You won’t get specific questions where you can just repeat and reproduce what you have mugged up – as you may see in other exams.

Except for 1 or 2 questions, most questions are very general in nature. For example, to answer Question Number 20 – ‘local identity’ vs ‘global identity’ – what you need is not specific knowledge, but rather a clear understanding of multiple dimensions of the identity issue. This is not a topic usually taught in a class, so you need to bring into your answer sheet what you observed, read, learned, and understood – within 8-9 minutes.

This is not at all easy for beginners.  That is why you need to practice with the right kind of model questions. You need proper practice to – think, analyze, understand, and present it on the exam sheet!

As an online UPSC Test Preparation website, we at ClearIAS.com refrain from overloading our students with too much junk information.

Rather our approach is to empower and guide students in the right direction so that aspirants can take care of the challenging nature of UPSC questions themselves.

Feel free to post your feedback about the question paper in the comment section below.

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Also read: General Studies Paper 2 (GS2) Question Paper – UPSC Civil Services Main Exam (Written) 2019