UPSC Mains 2014 GS Paper 1 Q24: model answer
Critically evaluate the various resources of the oceans which can be harnessed to meet the resource crisis in the world.
What the question wants
Critically explain which ocean resources can help solve global resource shortages, and their limits.
How to structure it
Critically elucidate: resources plus limits.
- Scale
- Food
- Minerals and energy
- Water and other
- Limits
- Conclusion
How to think it through
The oceans are the planet's last big storeroom. Fish, oil, nodules, wind, tides, even drinking water. But a storeroom can be looted. Pair every resource with its catch.
Model answer
Oceans cover about 71% of Earth's surface. India's own Exclusive Economic Zone is over 2 million sq km, larger than many countries.
Resources
- Food: fish and seaweed supply protein to billions; aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector.
- Energy: offshore oil and gas (Mumbai High, KG basin), offshore wind, tidal and wave energy, ocean thermal energy.
- Minerals: polymetallic nodules with manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper on the deep sea floor; India has rights in the Central Indian Ocean Basin through the ISA.
- Water: desalination for arid countries.
- Medicines: marine biotechnology, from anti-cancer compounds to enzymes.
- Transport and tourism: shipping lanes carry about 90% of world trade by volume.
Limits
- Overfishing: FAO estimates over a third of fish stocks are overfished.
- Ocean warming, acidification and plastic pollution reduce productivity.
- Deep-sea mining's damage to unknown ecosystems.
- High cost and technology gaps, and disputes over who owns the high seas (the 2023 BBNJ Agreement tries to answer this).
India's Deep Ocean Mission (2021) shows the promise; sustainable use under a blue-economy framework is the answer.
Draw: Ocean cross-section with labelled resources from coast to deep floor.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
EEZ, polymetallic nodules, ISA, Deep Ocean Mission, Samudrayaan, OTEC, blue economy.
Where most answers lose marks
- A one-sided list without the critical part.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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