OPSC Mains Questions (OCS 2024)
Essay Paper
- Freedom is not mere absence of restraints.
- Gender is a social construct.
- Visibility is mistaken for values.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- The Sun is new each day.
General Studies I
- In the age of climate change, global warming plays a critical role in melting of snow and ice cover. Discuss with suitable examples.
- Critically analyse with examples what are tangible heritage and intangible heritage in the context of Odisha.
- Explain how the Bhauma-Kara and Somavamsi dynasties contributed to the political consolidation and cultural transformation of early-medieval Odisha.
- What is social empowerment? Explain how the policies of social empowerment have been implemented in India with the examples from Odisha State.
- Discuss how the Bhakti Movement transformed religious practices and social relations in medieval Odisha.
- Discuss briefly the role of the Archaeological Survey of India.
- What are the different types of forest found in Odisha and how these forests play an important role in biodiversity?
- Explicate the nature of regional development in Odisha State.
- Give a detailed account of the drainage system of Odisha.
- Odisha’s festivals reflect its cultural pluralism and social harmony. Cite some examples.
- Assess the major factors that led to the creation of the separate province of Odisha in 1936.
- Analyse the causes, course and historical significance of the Paika Rebellion of 1817 in Odisha.
- Analyse the role of Odia literature in shaping regional cultural identity.
- Explain how climatic factors play important role for the development of various landforms.
- Indian caste system is paradoxical in nature, characterised both by staticity and fluidity. Discuss.
- Assess the major developments in the final phase of the National Movement and explain why Independence became unavoidable by 1947.
- What are the geomorphic hazards? Discuss various measures to mitigate such hazards.
General Studies II
- Discuss the nature and problems of coalition Governments in India. Analyse the challenges of coalition politics in Indian federal system.
- “Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral rolls is a strategic exercise by the Election Commission of India.” Examine this statement in the context of its significance and challenges.
- What is Presidential Reference? What are its nature and objectives? Discuss the views of the Supreme Court on recent Presidential Reference.
- The Government of India’s initiative is to democratise the training process and address the issues in existing civil service system. Discuss this statement in the light of Karmayogi Mission.
- “Environmental justice in India is feasible through the National Green Tribunal.” Examine this statement in the framework of National Green Tribunal Act.
- What structural challenges are required to be addressed to achieve Viksit Odisha for Viksit Bharat as per the vision document of the Government?
- “The role of Finance Commission in upholding Fiscal Federalism is important.” Critically analyse. Discuss briefly the terms of reference of 16th Finance Commission.
- “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated.” What is constitutional morality vis-a-vis the social morality in the Indian context? Discuss its scope and purpose. Discuss a few landmark judgements of the Supreme Court on constitutional morality.
- Why is the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) considered vital for ensuring an effective governance? What are the constitutional safeguards the CAG enjoys?
- What has been the development index of women in Odisha? What have been the most successful schemes implemented in the recent years for the welfare of women in the State?
- Discuss the causes and consequences of bonded labour in Odisha. Discuss the steps taken by the Odisha Government in tackling the problem. What are the bottlenecks in implementation?
- Discuss the structure and function of the State Election Commission. Suggest measures for its reform.
- Explain the relevant constitutional provisions which underline the strong-centre framework adopted by the Constituent Assembly. Which were the factors which led the Assembly members to have such a federal design?
- Why is a Democratic Government called a limited and responsible Government? Explain the doctrine of checks and balances while mentioning the relevant constitutional provisions as applicable to India’s constitutional democracy.
- Discuss the challenges Panchayati Raj Institutions continue to face in India despite the implementation of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment With special reference to Gram Panchayats in Odisha. Suggest doable reforms in both general terms and in the specific context of Odisha.
- Examine the significance of Cash Transfer Schemes in India. Bring out its positive and negative effects.
- “Despite many e-governance practices, digital exclusion is a reality depriving many from the fruits of governance.” Explain the causes and consequences of digital execution and people affected by it. What remedial measures are required to address the problem?
General Studies III
- What do you mean by ‘Dutch disease’? How do the authors use this concept to explain the Indian economy in their book A Sixth of Humanity?
- Discuss the evolution of India’s biodiversity legal framework and critically examine the key changes and impact of the NBA Regulations, 2025.
- What is space debris? What are its challenges and redressal? How did it affect China’s Spacecraft recently?
- Analyse economies of livestock rearing as a big potential for generating non-farm employment in rural areas. Discuss some measures undertaken by the Odisha Government to promote this sector.
- Discuss the mandate and role of Special Operation Group (SOG) of Odisha Police in combating left-wing extremist problem in Odisha. Has the group achieved its objective? Explain.
- Ethanol blending in petrol is considered one of the promising solutions for reducing dependence on fossil fuels in the transport sector. Discuss the scientific and economic justification for ethanol blending in petrol, its major benefits and key challenges. Evaluate alternative clean transport solutions and compare their long-term sustainability with ethanol blending.
- Discuss the present infrastructure and capacity of India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). What expansion has been planned and what is the future outlook in this regard? Explain.
- Do you think that the small average size of landholdings is an impediment to productivity growth in Indian agriculture? Justify your answer.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in promoting sustainability in India’s infrastructure megaprojects. How can institutional frameworks be strengthened for integrated environmental planning and decision-making?
- India’s border regions face unique security challenges due to their geographical, socio-economic and political conditions. Discuss the security threats in India’s border areas with reference to linkages between organized crime and terrorism.
- How do Google or any other software-based maps work? On what basis, they suggest shortest or less congestion routes?
- Discuss the structure and key priorities of the Odisha State Budget. To what extent does the budget reflect the state’s social development goals and in what ways does it diverge from them?
- Who is a ‘money mule’? How does this happen and what are the consequences? What actions are being taken by the Reserve Bank of India in this regard? Suggest some remedial measures to control it.
- Discuss the road map of Vikshit Odisha for Vikshit Bharat, its core goals and strategies, core pillars and focus areas and its targets. Are the same feasible in a short time period? Give your opinion.
- Critically examine the SHANTI Act, 2025 with respect to its objectives, key provisions and concerns. Will this Act aid India’s nuclear development? Discuss.
- The easing of sulphur emission standards for coal-fired power plants represents a significant rollback of environmental regulation. Critically evaluate its impact on India’s air quality goals, climate commitments and environmental justice, particularly in vulnerable and marginalised regions.
- Discuss the role of micro-irrigation in increasing the water-use efficiency in India. How do you relate the changes in cropping pattern with the development of irrigation system in the country?
General Studies IV
- “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” – Bertrand Russell. In the light of this quote, examine the importance of two qualities viz., open-mindedness and intellectual humility for a public servant.
- Ram and Shyam are twin brothers raised in the same family. They both study in the same school. Ram is a bright student and excels academically. Shyam is not good at studies but is a keen learner otherwise. Later in life. Ram clears a competitive civil services examination and joins Government service in a senior position. Shyam blooms as a successful businessman. Within a few years, Shyam has grown rich, owns a mansion and lives a life of luxury. Ram, who is an honest civil servant, receives a modest salary and cannot afford luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by his brother Shyam. Colleagues and friends of Ram cajole him to turn corrupt and make money. Ram, however, remains convinced that he is ‘servant’ of public and his duty is to serve the nation and people selflessly. His friends dismiss his argument as ‘impractical idealism’. With whom do you agree and why? Would a handsome increase in the salary of public servants be an appropriate response to the problem of corruption in bureaucracy? Discuss.
- Manish is an upright officer of Forest Department. He clears the licence application of a rich timber merchant after observing due procedure. A few days later, the timber merchant sends an expensive wooden sofa-set and a dining table set to the residence of Manish when Manish is away on tour. When Manish returns home, he is upset that the furniture has been gifted to him by the merchant without even mentioning about it to him. He immediately telephones the merchant and conveys his displeasure, asking the merchant to take the furniture away. The merchant explains that the furniture is a ‘small gift’ and there is nothing unusual about it, being a common practice. Wife of Manish, who is overhearing the conversation, suggests that the timber merchant can be paid the price of the furniture as the house badly needed some good furniture. Accordingly, Manish offers to pay the price. The timber merchant reluctantly agrees to accept payment from Manish. He quotes a ridiculously low price for the furniture. The merchant explains that he runs a huge furniture making factory and costs incurred by him are really low. Manish agrees to the offer and pay the quoted price to the timber merchant. What are your views about the ethicality of the conduct of Manish in this incident? Do you think Manish should have acted differently? Has Manish acted in a corrupt manner? Discuss with reasons.
- Mohan is an upright and honest Block Development Officer. But, his honest style of working has generated bad blood with some junior officers who are corrupt. One morning, a destitute woman appears before Mohan and requests him to approve her Ration Card application. She has already approached a junior officer, but her request has been turned down as she does not have Aadhaar Card which is a requirement as per rules. After examining the case, Mohan realises that the woman is entitled to have a Ration Card and non-availability of Aadhaar Card is a mere paper formality. Mohan has the administrative power to grant Ration Card without Aadhaar Card in exceptional cases, using his discretionary powers. He, however, apprehends that in case he approves the Ration Card, he would be accused of using his power for making money through corrupt means. The junior officers who hold a grudge against Mohan are looking for such an opportunity when they can paint Mohan as a corrupt officer. Mohan is wondering if he should run the risk of sullying his reputation for the sake of a poor woman. What advice would you tender to Mohan in this situation and why?
- The Right to Information Act entitles every citizen of the country to seek information from any Government entity, without giving any reason for seeking the information. This has arguably cast a huge burden on the Government departments to satisfy the information seekers. Are you in favour or against this arrangement? Justify your answer with supporting examples.
- Do you think that emotional intelligence is a significant factor in making of a good public servant? Why? Between the intellectual prowess and emotional intelligence, which should get priority while selecting a public servant?
- Several decisions taken by the Government are declared to have been taken in ‘public interest’. (Many laws, regulations and rules provide that the Government can act in a certain manner if warranted by the ‘public interest’) What do you understand by the term ‘public interest’? Can there be any objective criterion to decide what is in public interest and what is not? Explain with an example.
- Conduct rules governing public servants put certain restrictions on them covering social, financial and personal matters. Their right to participate in political activities and right to expression is also circumscribed Do you think that the Government is justified in curtailing the civil rights of the Government servants? Discuss.
- What do you understand by environmental ethics and our duty towards maintaining biodiversity, non-human life on earth and responsible self-sustaining use of natural resources? The Constitution lays down duty to protect and improve the natural environment as one of the Fundamental Duties for every citizen of India, Is this an absolute duty or does it admit of exceptions in consideration of practicality?
- While India is not a signatory to the International Convention relating to Status of Refugees, several persons who have entered India without valid documents keep seeking refugee status in India. In this context, the issue of allowing basic facilities to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar has been before the Supreme Court of India. Do we have a moral obligation to provide shelter to refugees on humanitarian grounds, particularly when a section of our own population is living in poverty? Discuss.
- Some thinkers argue that gender equality is not innate to Indian society as the main stream cultural values and religious beliefs promote misogynist attitudes. How far do you agree with this view? What role can ethical governance play in ensuring gender justice and women empowerment? Suggest some steps that the Government can take to promote gender equality in the country.
- In modern age, several corporate houses have grown huge with their financial outlay being bigger than the budget of many countries. In this context, explain the necessity of ethical decision making in corporate governance? Would your answer be different in case of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)?
- “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to sound of trumpets.” – Voltaire. In the light of this quote, examine the importance of two qualities viz., open-mindedness and intellectual humility for a public servant.
- “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” Examine this quote by Jonathan Swift in the light of our nation’s objective to emerge as a fair, just and egalitarian society. (What effective and practical steps would you take as a public servant to ensure that the law is applied to all in an impartial and non-partisan manner?)
- “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melt away.” – Mahatma Gandhi. In the light of above quote, discuss the role of a public servant in a welfare state. Do you think that the test suggested above by Gandhiji can be applied in all situations faced by a public servant in present day complex world?
- Can scientific temper and traditional cultural values coexist in a society? What can possibly be areas of conflict? Has Indian society been able to reconcile the two? Give some examples.
- A doctor with expertise in organ transplant comes across five different patients needing organ donation. These patients badly need five vital body organs, one each, to survive. The doctor meets a perfectly healthy person, and without obtaining his consent, removes five organs from his body and transplants the organs in his five patients, thereby giving them gift of life. When questioned, the doctor claims his action to be completely ethical as he saved five lives by sacrificing just one life. He quotes the utilitarian theory of ethics given by philosopher Jeremy Bentham that highest good of highest number is the essence of an ethical action. Do you agree with the argument of the doctor? Give your reasons.
Recent Posts
The United Nations has shaped so much of global co-operation and regulation that we wouldn’t recognise our world today without the UN’s pervasive role in it. So many small details of our lives – such as postage and copyright laws – are subject to international co-operation nurtured by the UN.
In its 75th year, however, the UN is in a difficult moment as the world faces climate crisis, a global pandemic, great power competition, trade wars, economic depression and a wider breakdown in international co-operation.
Still, the UN has faced tough times before – over many decades during the Cold War, the Security Council was crippled by deep tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. The UN is not as sidelined or divided today as it was then. However, as the relationship between China and the US sours, the achievements of global co-operation are being eroded.
The way in which people speak about the UN often implies a level of coherence and bureaucratic independence that the UN rarely possesses. A failure of the UN is normally better understood as a failure of international co-operation.
We see this recently in the UN’s inability to deal with crises from the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, to civil conflict in Syria, and the failure of the Security Council to adopt a COVID-19 resolution calling for ceasefires in conflict zones and a co-operative international response to the pandemic.
The UN administration is not primarily to blame for these failures; rather, the problem is the great powers – in the case of COVID-19, China and the US – refusing to co-operate.
Where states fail to agree, the UN is powerless to act.
Marking the 75th anniversary of the official formation of the UN, when 50 founding nations signed the UN Charter on June 26, 1945, we look at some of its key triumphs and resounding failures.
Five successes
1. Peacekeeping
The United Nations was created with the goal of being a collective security organisation. The UN Charter establishes that the use of force is only lawful either in self-defence or if authorised by the UN Security Council. The Security Council’s five permanent members, being China, US, UK, Russia and France, can veto any such resolution.
The UN’s consistent role in seeking to manage conflict is one of its greatest successes.
A key component of this role is peacekeeping. The UN under its second secretary-general, the Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjöld – who was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace prize after he died in a suspicious plane crash – created the concept of peacekeeping. Hammarskjöld was responding to the 1956 Suez Crisis, in which the US opposed the invasion of Egypt by its allies Israel, France and the UK.
UN peacekeeping missions involve the use of impartial and armed UN forces, drawn from member states, to stabilise fragile situations. “The essence of peacekeeping is the use of soldiers as a catalyst for peace rather than as the instruments of war,” said then UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, when the forces won the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize following missions in conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe.
However, peacekeeping also counts among the UN’s major failures.
2. Law of the Sea
Negotiated between 1973 and 1982, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) set up the current international law of the seas. It defines states’ rights and creates concepts such as exclusive economic zones, as well as procedures for the settling of disputes, new arrangements for governing deep sea bed mining, and importantly, new provisions for the protection of marine resources and ocean conservation.
Mostly, countries have abided by the convention. There are various disputes that China has over the East and South China Seas which present a conflict between power and law, in that although UNCLOS creates mechanisms for resolving disputes, a powerful state isn’t necessarily going to submit to those mechanisms.
Secondly, on the conservation front, although UNCLOS is a huge step forward, it has failed to adequately protect oceans that are outside any state’s control. Ocean ecosystems have been dramatically transformed through overfishing. This is an ecological catastrophe that UNCLOS has slowed, but failed to address comprehensively.
3. Decolonisation
The idea of racial equality and of a people’s right to self-determination was discussed in the wake of World War I and rejected. After World War II, however, those principles were endorsed within the UN system, and the Trusteeship Council, which monitored the process of decolonisation, was one of the initial bodies of the UN.
Although many national independence movements only won liberation through bloody conflicts, the UN has overseen a process of decolonisation that has transformed international politics. In 1945, around one third of the world’s population lived under colonial rule. Today, there are less than 2 million people living in colonies.
When it comes to the world’s First Nations, however, the UN generally has done little to address their concerns, aside from the non-binding UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007.
4. Human rights
The Human Rights Declaration of 1948 for the first time set out fundamental human rights to be universally protected, recognising that the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.
Since 1948, 10 human rights treaties have been adopted – including conventions on the rights of children and migrant workers, and against torture and discrimination based on gender and race – each monitored by its own committee of independent experts.
The language of human rights has created a new framework for thinking about the relationship between the individual, the state and the international system. Although some people would prefer that political movements focus on ‘liberation’ rather than ‘rights’, the idea of human rights has made the individual person a focus of national and international attention.
5. Free trade
Depending on your politics, you might view the World Trade Organisation as a huge success, or a huge failure.
The WTO creates a near-binding system of international trade law with a clear and efficient dispute resolution process.
The majority Australian consensus is that the WTO is a success because it has been good for Australian famers especially, through its winding back of subsidies and tariffs.
However, the WTO enabled an era of globalisation which is now politically controversial.
Recently, the US has sought to disrupt the system. In addition to the trade war with China, the Trump Administration has also refused to appoint tribunal members to the WTO’s Appellate Body, so it has crippled the dispute resolution process. Of course, the Trump Administration is not the first to take issue with China’s trade strategies, which include subsidises for ‘State Owned Enterprises’ and demands that foreign firms transfer intellectual property in exchange for market access.
The existence of the UN has created a forum where nations can discuss new problems, and climate change is one of them. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess climate science and provide policymakers with assessments and options. In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change created a permanent forum for negotiations.
However, despite an international scientific body in the IPCC, and 165 signatory nations to the climate treaty, global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase.
Under the Paris Agreement, even if every country meets its greenhouse gas emission targets we are still on track for ‘dangerous warming’. Yet, no major country is even on track to meet its targets; while emissions will probably decline this year as a result of COVID-19, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will still increase.
This illustrates a core conundrum of the UN in that it opens the possibility of global cooperation, but is unable to constrain states from pursuing their narrowly conceived self-interests. Deep co-operation remains challenging.
Five failures of the UN
1. Peacekeeping
During the Bosnian War, Dutch peacekeeping forces stationed in the town of Srebrenica, declared a ‘safe area’ by the UN in 1993, failed in 1995 to stop the massacre of more than 8000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces. This is one of the most widely discussed examples of the failures of international peacekeeping operations.
On the massacre’s 10th anniversary, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote that the UN had “made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality”, contributing to a mass murder that would “haunt our history forever”.
If you look at some of the other infamous failures of peacekeeping missions – in places such as Rwanda, Somalia and Angola – it is the limited powers given to peacekeeping operations that have resulted in those failures.
2. The invasion of Iraq
The invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003, which was unlawful and without Security Council authorisation, reflects the fact that the UN is has very limited capacity to constrain the actions of great powers.
The Security Council designers created the veto power so that any of the five permanent members could reject a Council resolution, so in that way it is programmed to fail when a great power really wants to do something that the international community generally condemns.
In the case of the Iraq invasion, the US didn’t veto a resolution, but rather sought authorisation that it did not get. The UN, if you go by the idea of collective security, should have responded by defending Iraq against this unlawful use of force.
The invasion proved a humanitarian disaster with the loss of more than 400,000 lives, and many believe that it led to the emergence of the terrorist Islamic State.
3. Refugee crises
The UN brokered the 1951 Refugee Convention to address the plight of people displaced in Europe due to World War II; years later, the 1967 Protocol removed time and geographical restrictions so that the Convention can now apply universally (although many countries in Asia have refused to sign it, owing in part to its Eurocentric origins).
Despite these treaties, and the work of the UN High Commission for Refugees, there is somewhere between 30 and 40 million refugees, many of them, such as many Palestinians, living for decades outside their homelands. This is in addition to more than 40 million people displaced within their own countries.
While for a long time refugee numbers were reducing, in recent years, particularly driven by the Syrian conflict, there have been increases in the number of people being displaced.
During the COVID-19 crisis, boatloads of Rohingya refugees were turned away by port after port. This tragedy has echoes of pre-World War II when ships of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany were refused entry by multiple countries.
And as a catastrophe of a different kind looms, there is no international framework in place for responding to people who will be displaced by rising seas and other effects of climate change.
4. Conflicts without end
Across the world, there is a shopping list of unresolved civil conflicts and disputed territories.
Palestine and Kashmir are two of the longest-running failures of the UN to resolve disputed lands. More recent, ongoing conflicts include the civil wars in Syria and Yemen.
The common denominator of unresolved conflicts is either division among the great powers, or a lack of international interest due to the geopolitical stakes not being sufficiently high. For instance, the inaction during the Rwandan civil war in the 1990s was not due to a division among great powers, but rather a lack of political will to engage.
In Syria, by contrast, Russia and the US have opposing interests and back opposing sides: Russia backs the government of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whereas the US does not.
5. Acting like it’s 1945
The UN is increasingly out of step with the reality of geopolitics today.
The permanent members of the Security Council reflect the division of power internationally at the end of World War II. The continuing exclusion of Germany, Japan, and rising powers such as India and Indonesia, reflects the failure to reflect the changing balance of power.
Also, bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank, which are part of the UN system, continue to be dominated by the West. In response, China has created potential rival institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Western domination of UN institutions undermines their credibility. However, a more fundamental problem is that institutions designed in 1945 are a poor fit with the systemic global challenges – of which climate change is foremost – that we face today.