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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Critically evaluate: “Railway development in India provides an interesting instance of private enterprise at public risk.”

  • UPSC 2010
  • Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule

The phrase captures a paradox at the heart of colonial infrastructure-building: capital that was nominally private, and risk that was, in practice, borne almost entirely by the Indian public exchequer.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • Dalhousie's Rationale: Why Railways, and Why Private Enterprise
  • The Guarantee System: Mechanics of "Public Risk"
  • Consequences: Financial Burden and Distorted Development
  • Correctives Attempted
  • Critical Evaluation

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