UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

Statements A, B, C and E are correct because they describe key ethical positions and the idea that some natural capital is non-substitutable, which underpins strong sustainability. Statement D is false since inter-generational equity is a central ethical concern about obligations to future generations. Statement F is false because ethical debates have shaped environmental principles, rights and legal frameworks. Thus, the combination including A, B, C and E and excluding D and F is correct.

Option A:
Option A is incorrect as it omits E and therefore ignores strong sustainability, which is an important link between ethics and resource economics in this unit.

Option B:
Option B is incorrect because it includes F, which denies the influence of ethics on law and policy, even though many legal principles arise from ethical arguments about rights and duties.

Option C:
Option C is correct since it integrates different strands of environmental ethics and their implications for non-substitutability and inter-generational concerns, while rejecting statements that suggest ethics are irrelevant.

Option D:
Option D is incorrect as it includes D, which dismisses the relevance of ethics for inter-generational equity, and omits A, thereby losing the concept of anthropocentric but conservation-supporting reasoning.

Strong sustainability argues that certain components of natural capital are non substitutable because they perform unique life support functions. It holds that these critical stocks must be maintained intact rather than traded off against increases in produced capital. The stem’s insistence that natural capital cannot always be substituted and should not fall below thresholds captures this view,so strong sustainability is the correct term. Option B is therefore right.

Option A:
Weak sustainability assumes natural capital losses can be offset by increases in man made capital,which contradicts the stem.

Option B:
“Strong” completes “strong sustainability,”the view that critical natural capital must be maintained and is not fully substitutable,matching the stem.

Option C:
Partial sustainability is not a standard category describing substitutability/thresholds in sustainability theory.

Option D:
Random sustainability has no recognised meaning and does not describe a coherent strategy.