Contemporary Social Issues and Current Events: Globalisation, Digital Society and Rights
What this domain tests
This domain requires applying sociological concepts to current issues rather than offering opinions: globalisation at the local level, the digital society and misinformation, climate and risk, gender and sexuality rights, migration, mental health, and the SDGs. Answers must link a named issue to a named concept, law or event.
Core rules and concepts
- Globalisation: liberalisation of 1991 integrated India into world markets; McLuhan's 'global village'; effects include outsourcing, consumerism, cultural homogenisation and the digital divide.
- Digital society: Digital India (2015), UPI payments, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023; cyber crime is prosecuted under the IT Act 2000 (sections such as 66C and 66D). Misinformation spreads through echo chambers and filtered networks rather than through ignorance alone.
- Risk and environment: Beck's 'risk society'; India's net-zero pledge for 2070 announced at COP26, 2021; the Paris Agreement 2015; 17 SDGs monitored by NITI Aayog.
- Rights: Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018) decriminalised consensual same-sex relations under Section 377; Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019; Mental Healthcare Act 2017.
- Representation: the 106th Constitutional Amendment (2023) reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies - not to be confused with the 73rd and 74th Amendments on local bodies.
Worked example
'Fake news is a sociological problem - discuss.' Reasoning: define the issue; link it to the media as an agency of secondary socialisation and to in-group homogeneity that reinforces existing beliefs; note consequences for communal harmony and electoral choice; then evaluate remedies - media literacy, fact-checking by the Press Information Bureau, and legal action under the IT Act 2000. Each paragraph pairs one concept with one verified fact.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing personal opinion with no sociological concept attached.
- Presenting only harms; balanced answers note benefits such as digital access and employment.
- Mixing the 106th Amendment (2023) with the 73rd/74th (1992–93).
- Quoting a law with the wrong year, or a court judgment with the wrong case name.