UPSC Mains 2022 GS Paper 2 Q9: model answer
‘India is an age-old friend of Sri Lanka.’ Discuss India’s role in the recent crisis in Sri Lanka in the light of the preceding statement.
What the question wants
Discuss India's role in Sri Lanka's recent economic crisis, testing the claim that India is its age-old friend.
How to structure it
Discuss in the light of: India's help, motives, results.
- The crisis
- India's role
- Motives and results
- Limits
How to think it through
In 2022 Sri Lanka defaulted; queues for fuel, protests, the President fled. India provided about $4 billion: credit lines for fuel, food and medicines, currency swaps and deferrals. India was first, faster than China or the IMF. 'Age-old friend' is shown in action.
Model answer
In April 2022 Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time. Fuel queues stretched for kilometres, and in July protesters stormed the presidential palace. When Colombo needed dollars urgently, India moved first.
India's role
- About $4 billion in 2022: credit lines for fuel, food and medicines, a currency swap, and deferral of Asian Clearing Union payments.
- Shipments of fuel, rice and fertiliser.
- Support for the IMF programme: India was the first creditor to give financing assurances (January 2023), unlocking the IMF's $2.9 billion facility.
- Debt restructuring with other creditors.
Motives and results
- Neighbourhood First and the 'first responder' role.
- Countering Chinese influence after Hambantota.
- Goodwill: Sri Lanka has since signed energy and defence agreements with India (2025).
Limits
Old suspicions remain over fishermen, Tamil issues and Chinese research ships, and Sri Lankan nationalists still fear dependence on India. Aid must be followed by investment, such as the Trincomalee energy hub, to make goodwill last.
India's help in 2022 turned friendship from a phrase into a fact.
Draw: A timeline of 2022–23 with India's assistance at each stage.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
2022 default, Aragalaya, $4 billion assistance, currency swap, ACU deferral, IMF EFF $2.9 billion, financing assurances 2023, Neighbourhood First, 2025 defence MoU.
Where most answers lose marks
- Describing the crisis without India's role.
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22 Oct 2026Learn the concept
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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