UPSC Prelims 2020 · CSAT (Paper 2) · Q63

Comprehension

Medium · Validity of assumptions

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

India has considerable potential for offshore wind energy. Everyone agrees fossil-fuel dependence must fall. But several promising turbine and grid-storage technologies are still moving through their own cost curves and learning curves before they can deliver the needed output reliably. The government has firmly committed to reducing emissions substantially by a set target year, and towards this has pushed hard for battery storage while also investing heavily in offshore wind. Yet business houses remain wary of committing too heavily to offshore wind at a stage when the technology is not yet fully mature.

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Governments often provide inefficient and costly support for technologies that may not be ready in the near future.

2. India's emissions-reduction target shall be met on the basis of offshore wind alone.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?