Daily Mains Answer Writing – 22 September 2025

Model Answer

Introduction

India faces a dual challenge of addressing developmental deficits and tackling the rising health impacts of climate change, including heat stress, malnutrition, and respiratory illnesses. Interestingly, welfare schemes not explicitly aimed at climate action have produced significant climate-health co-benefits, highlighting the value of intersectoral policy design.

Body

1. Evidence of Intersectoral Success in India

PM POSHAN: Beyond nutritional security for 11 crore children across 11 lakh schools, it promotes millets and traditional grains → reduces malnutrition, lowers agricultural vulnerability, and builds climate-resilient food systems.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Tackled sanitation, improved dignity, reduced open defecation-related illnesses, and supported environmental sustainability.
MNREGA: Environmental works (water conservation, afforestation, soil restoration) simultaneously improved rural livelihoods and restored degraded ecosystems.
PM Ujjwala Yojana: Transition to LPG reduced household air pollution (a major cause of respiratory illness), empowered women, and cut carbon emissions.

2. Insights for Climate–Health Framework

These programmes show that non-health interventions can generate substantial health outcomes.
They demonstrate the power of intentional intersectoral integration, linking health, environment, livelihoods, and community engagement.

3. Challenges and Limitations

Siloed bureaucracies: Divergent mandates between ministries dilute long-term outcomes.
Affordability barriers: High LPG refill costs under PMUY persist due to oil market dynamics.
Cultural barriers: Behavioural inertia hinders sustained adoption (e.g., sanitation practices).

4. Way Forward

Embed health impact assessments into climate policies (as environmental clearances are for projects).
Strengthen community institutions (ASHA workers, SHGs, panchayats) to advocate climate-health links.
Build institutionalised mechanisms that measure outcomes, not just outputs.

Conclusion

India’s welfare policies highlight that intersectoral design is not only possible but transformative. Embedding climate-health linkages into all major schemes can produce synergistic outcomes across nutrition, livelihoods, and sustainability. However, institutional rigidity, affordability gaps, and cultural barriers must be overcome to operationalise a truly resilient climate–health framework.

Model Answer

Introduction

Climate change has emerged as a public health crisis, aggravating diseases such as heat stress, vector-borne illnesses, malnutrition, and respiratory disorders. India’s welfare programmes and the National Action Plan on Climate Change and Human Health (NAPCCHH) show that integrating health considerations into climate governance can create political traction, institutional coherence, and community mobilisation.

Body

1. Why Health at the Centre of Climate Governance?

Immediate relevance: Communities grasp health benefits (clean air, safe water, nutrition) more intuitively than abstract metrics like carbon accounting.
Political traction: Framing policies in terms of women’s health (PMUY) or child nutrition (PM POSHAN) ensures high-level prioritisation.
Co-benefits: Addressing health simultaneously advances climate, livelihood, and social equity goals.

2. India’s Policy Experience

Leadership framing: PMUY gained acceptance by linking clean fuel to women’s empowerment. Climate action framed in health terms could achieve similar resonance.
Institutional integration: NAPCCHH emphasises embedding climate-health linkages across energy, agriculture, transport, and urban planning. Yet bureaucratic silos persist.
Participatory implementation: Swachh Bharat succeeded by invoking cultural symbolism and grassroots engagement; similar cultural anchoring is needed in climate action.

3. Gaps and Constraints

Structural inequities: High refill costs and unequal access to LPG hinder sustained adoption.
Weak monitoring: Output-based measurement (toilets built, LPG connections distributed) overshadows long-term health outcomes.
Fragmented governance: Climate, health, and development often remain separate domains despite interconnections.

4. Way Forward

Institutionalise health impact assessments for all climate-relevant policies.
Strengthen climate-resilient healthcare infrastructure (flood-proof hospitals, heatwave preparedness).
Mobilise community health workers and SHGs as climate-health advocates at the grassroots.

Conclusion

Placing health at the centre of climate governance transforms climate action from a technocratic agenda into a people’s movement. India’s policy experience reveals that leadership framing, institutional integration, and participatory mobilisation are essential for scaling up climate-health solutions. Embedding health in climate governance not only improves resilience but also ensures that policies resonate with citizens’ everyday concerns.

Model Answer

Introduction

India’s long-standing pursuit of strategic autonomy is challenged by its heavy dependence on major powers. As highlighted in The Indian Express (Sept 22, 2025), India faces a paradox: despite multi-alignment diplomacy, it remains economically and strategically tied to China, Russia, and the United States. This multi-dependence restricts foreign policy manoeuvrability and creates vulnerabilities in critical sectors.

Body

Dependence on China

India imports active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), rare earths, semiconductors, and solar inputs from China. Even India’s pharmaceutical sector, often called the “pharmacy of the world,” would collapse without Chinese APIs. Such reliance on adversarial supply chains heightens risks, as seen during COVID-19 disruptions.

Dependence on Russia

Arms dependence remains substantial, with 60–70% of key platforms sourced from Russia. Despite diversification towards France, Israel, and the US, legacy dependence persists. Oil imports surged from 4% in 2022 to nearly 40% in 2023–24, exposing India to Western sanctions pressure.

Dependence on the US

The US is India’s largest export destination, primary source of visas for professionals and students, and a supplier of critical defence technologies like GE engines for the Tejas fighter. Any policy shift in Washington—such as visa fee hikes—can directly affect Indian economic and social mobility interests.

Strategic Constraints

These dependencies mean New Delhi cannot afford to offend any of the three simultaneously—whether on the Ukraine war, Indo-Pacific strategy, or border tensions with China. This “strategic corner” undermines the very essence of autonomy.

Way Forward & Conclusion

Domestic manufacturing push under PLI schemes to localise electronics, APIs, and solar components.
Defence indigenisation, leveraging initiatives like defence corridors, while gradually reducing Russian reliance.
Energy diversification across renewables and multiple suppliers to avoid single-source shocks.
Technology and R&D investment, alongside trade diplomacy to expand export markets.

Strategic autonomy in the 21st century lies not in isolation, but in diversifying dependencies, strengthening domestic capacity, and fostering resilient global partnerships. India’s path forward demands the same determination as the 1990s reforms—difficult, but essential for national security and global credibility.

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