Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
The Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-GRAM G), 2025, has been replaced by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The goal of this modification is to improve Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to life. MGNREGA has improved socioeconomic conditions by facilitating wage payments, providing unemployment benefits, and promoting equal earnings. There has been sustainable development, and research has confirmed the impact of this program to raise earnings, alleviate poverty, and encourage school enrollment. In the past five years, women have comprised 58% of the workforce, significantly contributing to rural development, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given these factors, it is important to assess both the benefits and current challenges of the system.
Despite MGNREGA’s successes, the program has faced implementation challenges, mainly due to inadequate funding, as acknowledged by the Ministry of Finance. Delays in wage payments and fewer work opportunities have resulted from this lack of funds. Recent rules, such as introducing an attendance application that uses photos, have created new problems and made corruption easier. Due to these issues, the VB-GRAM G Act has introduced important changes, including sections 5(1) and 4(5), which give the Union Government greater control over the public works program.
What might be the author’s overall purpose for discussing the development from MGNREGA to the VB-GRAM G Act?
- (a)Argue that a transition from a rights-based framework to an AI-based system is necessary to achieve efficient results for rural communities.
- (b)Argue that technology-based interventions will necessarily increase the levels of transparency and accountability associated with public programs
- (c)Emphasize how institutional reforms try to maintain constitutionally provided rights while recognizing administrative weaknesses
- (d)Argue that a decrease in the role of government can logically solve the inherent shortcomings in rural employment patterns
Answer
Why
Correct — C. The passage ties the change to a constitutional right: 'The goal of this modification is to improve Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to life.'
It then admits weaknesses: 'the program has faced implementation challenges, mainly due to inadequate funding'.
Rights kept, weaknesses recognised is exactly what option (c) says the author is doing.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Argue that a transition from a rights-based framework to an AI-based system is necessary to achieve efficient results for rural communities. — The passage never mentions AI, and it never proposes leaving a rights-based framework. Its one piece of technology, a photo attendance app, sits among rules that 'made corruption easier'.
- (b)Argue that technology-based interventions will necessarily increase the levels of transparency and accountability associated with public programs — The passage says the reverse. The photo-based attendance rule 'created new problems and made corruption easier', and nothing claims technology will necessarily bring transparency.
- (d)Argue that a decrease in the role of government can logically solve the inherent shortcomings in rural employment patterns — The reform goes the other way: sections 5(1) and 4(5) 'give the Union Government greater control'. Nowhere does the passage argue for a smaller role for government.
Concept
An overall purpose question asks what the whole passage is doing, so the answer must cover both paragraphs.
Paragraph one gives MGNREGA's benefits and ties the change to Article 21. Paragraph two lists the problems — inadequate funding, wage delays, easier corruption — and ends with the VB-GRAM G Act's changes.
A purpose that holds both halves, rights plus weaknesses, beats one that stretches a single detail.
As printed, the passage opens by saying VB-GRAM G 'has been replaced by' MGNREGA.
The question reads the change the other way, 'from MGNREGA to the VB-GRAM G Act', and so does the passage's last sentence, where the VB-GRAM G Act 'has introduced important changes'. The keyed purpose does not depend on that first sentence's direction.
Key facts
- Article 21 of the Constitution protects life and personal liberty, and the passage names it as the goal of the change.
- As the passage describes them, sections 5(1) and 4(5) give the Union Government greater control over the public works program.
- An overall-purpose answer must fit both paragraphs, not one sentence.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing option (b) because the passage mentions technology — it mentions the photo app only to criticise it.
- Choosing option (d) because the passage criticises how the program ran — its remedy is more central control, not less.
At 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.16 a whole-passage question is also won by the balanced option, 'contextually shaped and not always just', against absolutes such as 'always aligned with morality' and 'based solely on religious values'.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.