Attempts to operate a tokamak at qa < 2 are normally found to terminate with a major disruption. In the SINP tokamak, however, it has been found possible to operate at qa < 1 with comparative ease. In this letter, an attempt is made to quantify the rate of current rise required to set up discharges having qa < 2 and qa < 1 by comparing the risetime with the resistive diffusion timescale. It has been observed that discharges with qa less than a particular value can be obtained if the time taken to cross the previous qa barrier is less than the resistive diffusion time. When the resistive diffusion time is less than the time taken to cross a particular qa barrier, it becomes extremely difficult to cross the next lower qa barrier