Q8 · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2015 · Essay · 125 marks · 1 min read

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Can capitalism bring inclusive growth?

Topic: Philosophical and ethical quotes. Syllabus: Philosophical and ethical quotes Same official PYQ from year-wise 2015 and Philosophical and ethical quotes.

Essay map

Opening scene

Anecdote

A mall hires a guard from a basti that has no drain. Profit arrived. Inclusion did not. Can capitalism bring inclusive growth? The word is ‘bring’ — as if the machine delivers a public. Write a conditional yes, then the conditions.

Keep this in every paragraph

One stand

  • Capitalism: private property, a market, a firm. Inclusive growth: rising incomes at the bottom, a capability, a dignity. Can: possibility, not destiny. Write East Asia lightly; write an Indian informal.

Use once, in a scene — do not dump names

Quotes to earn

  • Ambedkar

    Social democracy — or the market remains a club.

Turn each heading into a full paragraph in the hall

Heading map

What the line is asking

  • Can: not ‘must’. A possibility.
  • Bring: as a product of the system — be sceptical.
  • Inclusive growth: the last quintile, not an average.

Engine

  • Investment, a job, a cheap good. Capitalism as a growth machine — concede.

Leak

  • Informality, a caste hiring, a spatial club.
  • Profit that does not pay a living or a tax.

Republic’s conditions

  • A school, a union, a competition law, a land right.
  • Ambedkar: without social equality the market is a club.

The counter

Pre-capitalist hunger was not inclusive either. A licence-permit stagnation was not kindness. The stand is not anti-firm. It is: inclusion is a political achievement that uses markets — markets do not replace politics.

Drop one peg where it fits — not a data dump

Value addition

  • Art. 38 / 39 The constitutional conditions.
  • Competition / tax A market that can still be disciplined.
  • PLFS / informal The leak — peg once.
  • MGNREGA / RTE Floors the price system will not gift.

Last 8–10 lines in the exam

Last paragraph

  • Close: let the firm hire; let the republic set the floor and the tax. Expand — this is only the map.

Quick related

Students also ask

  • Is this the full essay?

    No. It is a map. In the exam, each heading becomes a paragraph with one Indian case.

  • Tone?

    Conditional. One mall, one drain. Not a manifesto, not a Chamber of Commerce hymn.

Same topic · past papers

UPSC has asked this before

These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.

  1. 2016 · Q4 · Essay · 125 marks

    Innovation is the key determinant of economic growth and social welfare.

    View answer →

  2. 2016 · Q7 · Essay · 125 marks

    Near jobless growth in India: An anomaly or an outcome of economic reforms.

    View answer →

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