CSAT Solved Papers/ 2025/Q11

2025 CSAT — Q11

Verbal Reading comprehension 2.5 marks Medium

Passage

Each State in India faces a distinctive set of challenges regarding the impact of warming, but also offers its own set of opportunities for reducing emissions depending on its natural resources. For example, coastal States need to take action to protect their shores from sea level rise, districts that are drier need to prepare for variable monsoon precipitation. Himalayan regions have their own unique challenges, and selected parts of peninsular India and offshore areas offer great opportunities for harnessing wind power. These various aspects need to be considered for developing clear and sustainable goals for the future.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and pragmatic message conveyed by the author of the passage?

  1. A The mitigation and adaptation strategies to address/tackle the climate change is essentially the responsibility of each State.
  2. B India is too diverse to implement any effective strategy or programme to address/tackle the climate change.
  3. C It is basically the responsibility of the Union Government to implement the climate action plans and ensure net zero emissions.
  4. D India needs to formulate effective climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies at the State/region level. Answer

Thinking pathway

Locate. This asks for the central idea, so read past the examples (coastal shores, drier districts, Himalaya, wind power) to the payoff sentence the examples build toward: “These various aspects need to be considered for developing clear and sustainable goals.” The recurring move is State-specific challenges paired with State-specific opportunities — the anchor.

Test (thesis-vs-detail + scope-fit). The key must restate that “different States need different, locally-fitted strategies” without over- or under-claiming. (d) says exactly: formulate strategies “at the State/region level.” It matches the scope precisely.

Eliminate by anatomy. (a) over-states the case and shifts the passage’s confidence level — it converts the passage’s “each State has opportunities” into a hard allocation of responsibility to States alone, a claim the text never makes. (b) gets the direction backwards — the passage treats diversity as the reason for tailored strategy, not as a barrier that makes strategy impossible. (c) is a claim the passage never actually makes — “Union Government” and “net zero” are imported; the passage assigns no tier of government. Key: (d).

Evidence in the text

“Each State in India faces a distinctive set of challenges… but also offers its own set of opportunities for reducing emissions depending on its natural resources… These various aspects need to be considered for developing clear and sustainable goals for the future.” The passage’s payoff is that strategy must be built State/region-specifically — exactly (d).

Worked rationale

The passage lists State-by-State variation — coastal shores, drier districts, Himalayan regions, wind-power zones — and closes: “These various aspects need to be considered for developing clear and sustainable goals for the future.” The through-line is that effective climate action must be tailored to each State/region’s challenges and resources.

(d) “India needs to formulate effective climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies at the State/region level” captures precisely this. Answer: (d).

Why the other options miss

  • A
    over-states the case: turns “each State has its own challenges and opportunities” into “essentially the responsibility of each State.” The passage describes variation, not an exclusive allocation of duty; a reader over-reads “each State” as “each State alone.”
  • B
    gets the direction backwards: makes diversity an obstacle (“too diverse to implement any effective strategy”). The passage treats diversity as exactly why region-specific strategy is needed — the opposite direction.
  • C
    a claim the passage never actually makes: imports “Union Government” and “net zero emissions,” neither in the text; the passage never assigns the task to a tier of government.

Specialist insight

The contest is between (a) and (d) — both sound “State-level.” The discriminator is over-statement: (a) loads the word responsibility (each State’s duty) which the passage never states, while (d) stays with what the text actually argues — that strategy should be formulated at the State/region level because challenges and opportunities are local. On a central-idea question, the option that adds a duty/verdict the author didn’t give loses to the one that restates the author’s actual recommendation.

The trap, in one line

(a) over-reads "each State" into exclusive State responsibility; the passage only argues strategy be formulated at State/region level — (d).

← All 2025 CSAT questions