How To: Writing the same answer in different ways

How to write a good answer?
There is no one method of writing a good answer. Just like beauty has no defined parameter, even a good answer does not have any defined benchmarks. For example, take girls. A beautiful girl could be tall or short, fatty or thin, white or black, introvert or extrovert, bob-cut or long haired and other similar extremes. There is no one definition. Similarly a beautiful answer can also be varied in its presentation. It may be essay type or it may be in point format. It could be factual or it could be analytical and argumentative. It could be lengthy or it could be short.
Just like beauty lies in the eyes of beholder, similarly beauty of the answer lies in what examiner is looking for? Now We may think that UPSC grades people randomly. But given the consistency in the marks of toppers in last few years, and consistency with which people crack this exam, I tend to think otherwise. UPSC answer evaluation is predictable. There is certain level of uniformity in the way copies are evaluated. So a moot question is what is it that examiner is looking for?

A simple answer is he is looking for precisely what is being asked? Therefore understanding the crux and demand of the question is one of the important characteristics of preparation. For this there are certain strategies like underlining the most important points or keyword of the question and restrict your answers to those dimensions. A second requirement of a good asnwer is decided by the personality of eveluator. He is checking 100 of copies each day. Therefore, he is also bored of reading same answer again and again. Thus, a good answer should reflect all the points clearly and in most easy to read and simple fashion. However, it is easier said than done. Simplicity is one of the difficult thing to achieve. More so when we live in this age of information overload where we know 100 other things related to answer.

The same content could be represented in n different ways fetching differnt marks each time. Here I am presenting the same answer in four different ways. You can yourself judge the goodness and badness of an answer.

Different model of answers:

The problem of e-waste has assumed greater scale in contemporary times. Discuss the nature of problem and various challenges associated with e-waste management?

Style 1:

One way of answering it is: [Essay type approach of asnwering]
Historically Indian economy was slow at adopting technology due to british oppresion, post-independence poverty and technological expansion. However 1991 reform turned Indian image from a raw material supplier to huge market thus attracting MNC to operate in India.
This has led to fast dissemination of technology (use of white goods, mobile boom teledensity 140 in urban areas), leading to large scale technology inclusion however with appreciation of goods and growing obsolescence rate of electronics, country is saddled with huge toxic waste problem.

This problem is associated with various challenges like economic cost of resource wastage of recoverable material, health hazard related to non- scientific disposal of toxic metal like mercury, cadmium leading to diseases like minamata, iitai-itai, Ecological challenges like ground water dissemination, soil contamination. Further increasing population means scale of problem is increasing, lack of legislative framework (only executive order like e-waste disposal rule 2005), inadequate trained manpower to deal with disposal problem, lack of awareness, social dilemma and individual apathy has proved to be bigger issue.

Elctronics is need of hour. It is the microprocesssor that could lead to take-off of our economic plane. It is our link to elevate from developing to developed world and elad to inclusive development but as highlighted in 12th plan, such development needs to be sustainable, long term paradigm too. Recent national electronics policy target that industry grow to $400B by 2020 thus point towards the scale of problem that is currently in nascent, manageabl stage.

E-waste disposal is as essential as electronics manufacturing. Just like nuclear waste disposal forms integral part of nuclear technology, we need to elevate our efforts in all dimension economic, technological, legislative, ecological, educational to deal with this problem at any scale.


Style 2:
India is witnessing the boom in telecom sector. It is estimated that more number of people have access to mobile phones than toilets. Further access to appliances like white goods (refrigerator, Fridge, Washing machine etc), Computer has increased. This has given rise to problem of e-waste management.

E-waste management problem is increasing at exponential scale with faster technology dissemination however country does not have many e-waste disposal facilities. Electronics goods contain harmful material like lead battery. Other toxic metal which could lead to fatal diseases thus creating health and envirionmental hazard. people are not aware of such lacunae and after effects and thus ignorance lead to suffering.

Country also lacks human resources and necessary technical expertise to deal with issue. According to an estimate, atleast 50%of those metals are recyclable but careless disposal of such toxic metal lead to resource wastage, ground water contamination, lack of appropriate, robust legislative framework further aggravates the problem, though in recent time some executive order (e-waste management rules) are passed. While most of the seller have comprehensive mechanism of sale but mechanism for collection of e-waste is non-existent.

Thus e-waste mismanagement leads to economic, ecological, health, human resources etc relate problem. While electronic good have proved to be tool of empowerment but associated waste may prove to be big danger if not tackled comprehensively by legislative, social, executive, and individual level efforts.

The program of national sustainable habitat (under NPACC) should enact measure to tackle the problem. India could learn from global experience in disposal and collaborate in related research and development. Spcial measure to protect the vulnurable section (child, people living close to land-fill sites) should be taken to avoid health epidemic that could be caused by mercury (leading to minamata disease) or cadmium(Itai-Itai), asbestos(asbesteosis).

Electronics is our connection from developing to developed world thus it can not be sidelined but it certainly needs to be managed.



Style 3:
In the last decade, India witnessed a boom in usages of IT, electronic, telecom appliances leading to generation of huge e-waste which have proved to be a ecological, economical, health challenge due to lack of legislative, social, technological inadequacy to understand and address the nature of problem.

The generation of huge e-waste and insouicent disposal of such material has led to accumulation of toxic metal (mercury, cadmium, lead and asbestos) etc in lithosphere. This has caused ground water contamination, socil erosion and further lead to prolem of bioaccumulation and biomagnification. This could provide to be ecological disaster and disturb the balance of development vs. environment paradigm.

According to estimates and technological research, 50% of such metnals and minearals resources could be recycles from land-fil sites, thus reducing the non-reneable resource waste and saving the economic cost thus leading to fiscal consolidation as well.

Thus careless, unwise disposal may prove to be harmful to people living close to landfill sites, Children and population in general. This may lead to health hazard like minamata(Mercury) and Itai-Itai(Cadmium), asbesteosis thus creating health management challenges.

Our population is increasing and thus our resource usage too. However country has finite land area and thus large scale use without adequate waste disposal may lead to wastage of precious land resource too.

The problem mainly arise due to lack of legislative framework, inadequate trained man power, lack of aware among people regarding potential hazard and resources, non-recognition of moral ethical, social responsibility on part of seller to arrange waste-disposal facilities.

Thus a robust legislative framework, building related skill develop,emt, educational drives through multimedia, drama companies and law enforcement(e-waste management rule 2005) should form part of solution apart fom national and international collaboration at bilateral and multilateral level.

In the light of recent national electronic manufacturing policy (target $400B by 2020) time is ripe to act on this problem otherwise it may prove to be bigger challengethan population expansion and become global congestion of lithosphere.


Style 4: (Toppers style)




This post needs to be refined further but for now, overcoming the inertia is of utmost importance. I will discuss the detail pros and cons of each style in the book.