Read the passage carefully:
The Rise of Urban Farming in Indian Cities: A Sustainable Future or Fleeting Trend
Introduction:
(1) As India’s metropolises swell under the weight of population growth, pollution and food insecurity, a quiet revolution is unfolding on rooftops and balconies: urban farming. Once seen as a hobby for the eco-conscious elite, urban agriculture is now being explored as a practical solution to city-based food shortages, environmental degradation, and even mental health challenges.
Methodology – survey – explanation:
(2) In 2024, a survey by the Indian Institute of Sustainable Agriculture revealed that 1 in 7 urban households in Tier-1 cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, now practise some form of food cultivation ranging from herbs on kitchen shelves to aquaponic systems on terraces. The motivations are varied: some grow spinach and tomatoes to escape pesticide exposure, while others experiment with hydroponics as a side hustle. Municipal authorities are also catching on; in Chennai and Pune, tax rebates and community grants are now offered to promote green roof tops.
Results:
(3)
| Year | City | % of Households Engaged | Notable Initiatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Bengaluru | 9% | ‘Grow Your Own Food’ Campaign |
| 2023 | Delhi | 11% | Rooftop farming subsidy scheme |
| 2024 | Pune | 15% | Terrace Garden Tax Rebate |
| 2025 | Hyderabad | 18% (projected) | App-based Micro Farm Programme |
Data Table: Urban Farming Trends (2022-2025)
Effects:
Advocates urge that farming reduces ‘food miles’ (the distance food travels from farm to fork), improves air quality, and reconnects city dwellers with the rhythms of nature. Critics, however, are skeptical. They argue that lack of space, high initial costs for equipment, and unreliable yields make urban farming unsustainable at scale. Moreover, without regulation, concern about rooftop safety and water use efficiency persists.
Implications:
(4) Still, the momentum is growing. NGOs like ‘Haryali’ and start-ups like ‘Rangeen’ have emerged, offering seed kits, app-based guidance and balcony farming workshops. For young professionals navigating fast-paced lives, this offers something tangible: control, calm and climate action, all from a window ledge.
Conclusion:
(5) Whether urban farming becomes a permanent fixture of Indian city life or remains a well-intentioned trend will depend not just on individual choices but on how cities plan, regulate and integrate agriculture into their concrete jungles.
Complete the following suitably: In the introduction (Para 1), the writer emphasizes on the transformative potential of a quiet revolution by _______.
What would the following be classified as?
‘In Chennai and Pune, tax rebates and community grants are now offered to promote green roof tops’.
Based on the passage, why might people opt to grow spinach and tomatoes on their own at home rather than purchasing them? (Para 2)
If the current trend as depicted in the table continues, which Indian city is most likely to emerge as a national model for tech-integrated urban farming by 2026? Give your reasoning.
Analyze from the given data, what distinguishes Pune’s approach from Hyderabad’s in encouraging urban farming?
Write any two major challenges that have catalyzed the rise of urban farming.
Name two incentives provided by NGOs or start-ups that encourage urban farming. How does this movement benefit the urban workforce? (Para 4)
Which of the following is NOT a challenge associated with urban farming, according to the passage?
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow :
New Forms of Publication
By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape. With the setting up of an increasing number of printing presses. visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Poor wood gngravers who made woodblocks and were employed by print shops. Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their homes or places of work. These prints began shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics, and society and culture. By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers, commenting on social and political issues. Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians’ fascination with Western tastes and clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change. There were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as pationalist cartoons criticising imperial rule.
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow :
Sacred Groves — a wealth of diverse and rare species
‘Nature worship is an age old tribal belicf based on the premisc that all creations of nature have to be protected. Such beliefs have preserved several virgin forests in pristine form called Sacred Groves (the forests of God and Goddesses). These patches of forest or parts of large forests have been left tintouched by the localpeople and any interference with them is banned, Certain socicties revere from time region worship (cadamba) trees. and the tribals (Tamarindus indica) and and Bihar worship the tamarind weddings. To many of us, (Mangifera indica) trees during o o peepal and banyan trees are considered sacred. Cly comprises several cultures, each with its own set of traditional methods of conservion are often nature and its creations.The mountain peaks, plants and animals which around many temples.“I” find troops of macaques. They are fed daily and treated as a part of temple devotees In and around Bishnoi villages in Rajasthan, herds of blackbuck. nilgai and peacocks can be seen as an integral part of the community and nobody harms them.
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow :
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The local government structure goes right up to the district level. A few gram panchayats are grouped together to form what is usually called a panchayat samiti or block or mandal. The members of this representative body are elected by all the panchayat members in that arca. All the panchayat samitis or mandals in a district together constitute the zilla (district) parishad. Most members of the zilla parishad are clected. Members of the Lok Sabha and MLAs of that district and some other officials of other district level bodies are also its members. Zilla parishad chairperson is the
political head of the zilla parishad. Similarly, local government bodies exist for urban areas as well. Municipalities are set up in towns. gi.ig cities are .Conslilulcd into municipal corporations. Both municipalities and municipal corporations are controlled by clected bodies consisting of people’s representatives. Municipal chairperson is the political head of the municipality. In a municipal corporation, such an officer is called the mayor. This new system of local government is the largest experiment in democracy conducted anywhere in the world.