UPSC Insta–DART (Daily Aptitude and Reasoning Test) 10 June 2026

In democratic societies, social media platforms are often praised for widening access to information and amplifying voices that were once excluded from mainstream public debate. Yet this apparent democratization of communication has introduced a deeper paradox. The same platforms that enable expression also privilege speed over reflection, virality over verification, and emotional intensity over reasoned judgment. Public opinion, once shaped through slower institutions of deliberation, is increasingly influenced by algorithmic systems designed not to cultivate truth but to maximize attention. This does not merely distort information; it alters the habits of citizenship itself. When visibility becomes a substitute for credibility, and repetition for evidence, democratic discourse begins to lose its capacity for self-correction. The danger is not simply that falsehood spreads faster, but that the conditions necessary for thoughtful disagreement and public reason are gradually weakened from within.

Which of the following statements best reflects the central argument of the passage?

Consider the following statements:

Statement I: Social media platforms strengthen democracy because they always promote informed and reasoned public discussion.
Statement II: The passage argues that algorithmic amplification may erode the conditions necessary for thoughtful disagreement and public reason.

Which of the above is correct?

Climate adaptation is often evaluated through visible interventions such as flood barriers, elevated roads, heat shelters, and drought-management systems. These measures can reduce immediate exposure to environmental stress, yet their effects are not distributed evenly across populations. A drainage upgrade that protects commercial districts may redirect water toward low-lying settlements; a relocation scheme may reduce physical risk while weakening access to work, schools, and informal support networks; an insurance mechanism may reward those with documented assets while leaving insecure households outside its protection. In this setting, adaptation is not only a question of technical capacity, but also of how risk is classified, whose losses are counted, and which forms of security public institutions are prepared to sustain. A policy may appear resilient when judged by infrastructure performance and still leave patterns of vulnerability largely rearranged rather than reduced.

Which of the following statements best captures the core argument of the passage?

Based on the passage, which of the following can be logically inferred?

1. An adaptation project may be considered successful in engineering terms even when it leaves socially vulnerable groups exposed in new ways.
2. The meaning of resilience depends partly on institutional choices about whose risks and losses receive recognition.
3. Insurance-based adaptation is likely to protect all climate-vulnerable households so long as environmental forecasting improves.

Select the correct answer using the code below:

The sum of the ages of 6 members of a family, 2 years ago, was 78 years. The average age of the family today is the same as it was 2 years ago because a baby was added to the family during this period. How old is the baby?