Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : India is the second largest mobile gaming market in the world. Reason (R) : There are more than 950 million internet users in India. Select the correct answer from the code given below :
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false
- (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true
- (d)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
Correct — D, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). The commission treats both statements as true and reads India's enormous connected population as the reason for its gaming rank. Both claims hold on the metrics they actually come from, and it is worth knowing which metrics those are. (A): India is routinely reported as the world's second-largest mobile gaming market, and that is a volume ranking — game downloads and number of players, with India's player base usually put at roughly 590 million. Measured by revenue India is nowhere near second: average spend per player is small, and China, the United States, Japan and South Korea are all ahead. (R): the '950 million' figure is a telecom-regulator number. TRAI reports internet subscriptions rather than unique individuals, and that base crossed roughly 950 million during 2024-25; estimates that count people rather than connections come out lower, because one person may hold a mobile data connection and a home broadband line at once. (R) explains (A) because a mass, cheap-data, smartphone-first user base is precisely what produces a download-led mobile gaming market of that size — the standard causal account — so the code is (d). Treat both figures as orders of magnitude rather than census counts; they are metric-dependent, and what is examinable is the direction, not the decimal.
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A) — The first half is fine — both statements are true — but the denial in the second half does not survive scrutiny. India is described as the world's second-largest mobile gaming market precisely because of the size of its connected, smartphone-owning population: the user base is what drives the download volumes. That is the causal chain the question is built on, so (R) does explain (A).
- (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false — (R) is defensible on the figures the commission is using. On TRAI's subscription counts India's internet base crossed about 950 million in 2024-25. You could quarrel with it only by insisting on unique individuals rather than connections, and even then the order of magnitude stands — this is a question of which measure is being quoted, not of a false claim.
- (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true — (A) is the more widely repeated of the two claims: India's rank as the world's second-largest mobile gaming market by downloads and player numbers appears in industry reports and government material year after year. Calling it false would require reading 'market' as revenue, which is not the sense in which the claim is normally made.
This question is really about how digital statistics are built. Two very different numbers hide behind the phrase 'internet users': the telecom regulator's subscriber figure counts connections on the books of service providers, so one person with a phone SIM and a broadband line is counted twice, while survey-based estimates count people and come out lower. India's gaming rank is measured the same loose way — 'second largest' counts downloads and players, not money spent. India's internet growth has been smartphone-first and price-led since the collapse in data tariffs after 2016, which is why its gaming is overwhelmingly mobile rather than console or PC, and why volume and revenue rankings diverge so sharply.
In an Assertion-Reason item built on a current statistic, the commission marks against the source it is quoting, not against a competing figure you may have read elsewhere. Both halves here are the routinely quoted numbers, and the causal link between a vast connected base and a large mobile gaming market is the obvious one — so (d), the only code that keeps both statements true and connected, is the intended reading. The lesson to carry forward is the caveat rather than the digits: subscriptions always exceed users, and a market can rank second by volume while ranking far lower by revenue.
- India is usually ranked the world's second-largest mobile gaming market by download volume, with a player base commonly put at about 590 million; by revenue it ranks well below China, the United States, Japan and South Korea
- TRAI publishes internet subscriptions, not unique users — that base crossed roughly 950 million in 2024-25, while person-level estimates run lower because one individual may hold several connections
- The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 was passed by the Lok Sabha on 20 August 2025 and the Rajya Sabha on 21 August 2025 and received presidential assent on 22 August 2025 — the legal backdrop in force at the time of this exam
- Piloted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, that Act prohibits online money games and their advertising, recognises and promotes e-sports, and separates permissible skill-based and social games from prohibited betting and wagering games
Both statements are true on the measures the commission is using, and the second is the standard explanation of the first. Learn the direction of these statistics, not the decimal.
- Treating 'internet users' and 'internet subscriptions' as the same number — TRAI publishes the second, and it is the larger of the two
- Assuming 'second largest market' must mean by revenue; India's rank is a downloads and user-base rank, and its revenue rank is much lower
- Rejecting a widely reported figure in an Assertion-Reason item because your own source gives a slightly different one — the commission marks against the figure it is quoting
UPPSC likes the Assertion-Reason wrapper around a current-affairs statistic and expects you to accept the commonly quoted number. UPSC almost never asks for a raw figure; it tests the regulatory or definitional concept behind it — what a regulator publishes, what counts as a game of skill, what a scheme aims to do.
Which of the following is/are the aim/aims of 'Digital India' Plan of the Government of India? 1. Formation of India's own Internet companies like China did. 2. Establish a policy framework to encourage overseas multinational corporations that collect Big Data to build their large data centres within our national geographical boundaries. 3. Connect many of our villages to the Internet and bring Wi-Fi to many of our schools, public places and major tourist centres. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 3 only
The policy side of the same fact. UPSC's key accepts only the connectivity aim — taking the internet to villages and Wi-Fi to schools, public places and tourist centres — which is precisely the programme that built the subscriber base the Reason in this question is counting.
PM VANI Yojna is related with
- (a) Censorship in Print and Digital Media
- (b) Development of Lok Sangeet
- (c) Audio-Visual Release of Lok Sabha
- (d) Availability of Wi-fi in Public places
Answer(d) Availability of Wi-fi in Public places
The same concept from the access side: PM-WANI is the public Wi-Fi scheme meant to push India's internet reach further. UPPSC has asked how the connected base is expanded (2021) and then, in 2025, what that base is large enough to explain.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 was piloted in Parliament by which Ministry?
- (a)Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
- (b)Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
- (c)Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
- (d)Ministry of Home Affairs
Answer(b) Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology — the Act prohibits online money games while recognising and promoting e-sports; it received presidential assent on 22 August 2025.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In India, the widely quoted figure for the number of 'internet users' is most often derived from which of the following?
- (a)Household schedules of the Census of India
- (b)TRAI's telecom subscription reports
- (c)NSSO consumption expenditure surveys
- (d)RBI's payment system statistics
Answer(b) TRAI's telecom subscription reports — which count connections rather than individuals, so the figure runs higher than person-level estimates of internet use.