Comprehension PYQ — Page 14

Read the following passage and answer the item(s) that follow, your answers to these item(s) should be based on the passage only. Individuals, groups and leaders who promote human development operate under strong institutional, structural and political constraints’ that affect policy options. But experience suggests broad principles for shaping an appropriate agenda for human development. One important finding from several decades of human development experience is that focusing exclusively on economic growth is problematic. While we have good knowledge about how to advance health and education, the causes of growth are much less certain and growth is often elusive. Further, an unbalanced emphasis on growth is often associated with negative environmental consequences and adverse distributional effects. The experience of China, with its impressive growth record, reflects these broader concerns and underlines the importance of balanced approaches that emphasize investments in the non-income aspects of human development. With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made: 1. Higher economic growth is essential to ensure reduction in economic disparity. 2. Environmental degradation is sometimes a consequence of economic growth. Which of the above is/are valid assumption/assumptions?

We generally talk about democracy but when it comes to any particular thing, we prefer a belonging to our caste or community or religion. So long as we have this kind of temptation, our democracy will remain a phoney kind of democracy. We must be in a position to respect a man as a man and to extend opportunities for development to those who deserve them and not to those who happen to belong to our community or race. This fact of favouritism has been responsible for much discontent and ill-will in our country. Which one of the following statements best sums up the above passage?

I must say that, beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been of no disadvantage whatever. In fact I can see that, on the contrary, it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk. There is no chairman of a meeting who is not pestered with notes for permission to speak. And whenever the permission is given the speaker generally 'exceeds the time-limit, ask for more time, and keeps on talking without permission. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth. The author says that a thought less word hardly ever escapes his tongue or pen. Which one of the following is not a valid reason for this?

India accounts for nearly a fifth of the world’s child deaths. In terms of numbers, it is the highest in the world-nearly 16 lakhs every year. Of these, more than half die in the first month of life. Officials believe that the reason for this is the absence of steps to propagate basic health practices relating to breast feeding and immunization. Also the large reproductive population of 2-6 crore remains bereft of care during the critical phases of pregnancy and post-delivery. Added to this is the prevalence of child marriages, anaemia among young women and lack of focus on adolescent sanitation, all of which impact child death rates. Which is the critical inference that can be made from the above passage?

The mangroves can shed tone of leaves per acre every year; fungi and bacteria break down this leaf litter and consume it, they then are consumed by tiny worms and crustaceans, which in turn feed small fish, which feed larger fish and birds and crocodiles. Which among the following is the most logical inference of the above statement?

I must say that, beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been of no disadvantage whatever. In fact I can see that, on the contrary, it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk. There is no chairman of a meeting who is not pestered with notes for permission to speak. And whenever the permission is given the speaker generally 'exceeds the time-limit, ask for more time, and keeps on talking without permission. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth. For the author, silence is necessary in order to surmount

The Global Financial Stability Report finds that the share of portfolio investments from advanced economies in the total debt and equity investments in emerging economies has doubled in the past decade to 12 percent. The phenomenon has implications for Indian policy makers as foreign portfolio investments in the debt and equity markets have been on the rise. The phenomenon is also flagged as a thereat that could comparomise global financial stability in a chain reaction, in the event of United States Federal Reserve’s imminent reversal of its ‘Quantitative Easing’ policy. Which among the following is the most rational and critical inference that can be made from the above passage?

The richer States have a responsibility to cut down carbon emissions and promote clean energy investments. These are the States that got electricity, grew faster and now have high per capita income, making them capable of sharing India’s burden of becoming eco-friendly. Delhi, for example, can help by generating its own clean electricity using solar rooftop panels or even help poor States finance their clean energy projects. It is no secret that State Electricity Boards, which control 95% of the distribution network, are neck-deep in losses. These losses further discourage State utilities from adopting renewable energy as it is more expensive than fossil fuels. Which among the following is the most logical and rational assumption that can be made from the above passage?

Governments may have to take steps which would otherwise be an infringement on the Fundamental Rights of individuals, such as acquiring a person's land against his will, or refusing permission for putting up a building, but the larger public interest for which these are done must be authorized by the people (Parliament). Discretionary powers to the administration can be done away with. It is becoming more and more difficult to keep this power within limits as the government has many number of tasks to perform. Where discretion has to be used, there must be rules and safeguards to prevent misuse of that power. Systems have to be devised which minimise, if not prevent, the abuse of discretionary power. Government work must be conducted within a framework of recognised rules and principles, and decisions should be similar and predictable. Which among the following is the most logical assumption that can be made from the above passage?

No Right is absolute, exclusive or inviolable. The Right of personal property, similarly, has to be perceived in the larger context of its assumed legitimacy. The Right of personal property should unite the principle of liberty with that of equality, and both with the principle of cooperation. In the light of the argument in the above passage, which one of the following statements is the most convincing explanation?

Flamingos in large flocks in the wild are social and extremely loyal. The perform group mating dances. Parents are very fond of their chicks, gathering them into crèches for protection while both males and females fly off to search for food. Which among the following is the most logical corollary to the above passage?

Foods travel more than the people who eat them. Grocery stores and supermarkets are loaded with preserved and processed foods. This however, often leads to environmental threats, such as pollution generated by long distance food transportation and wastage of food during processing and transportation, destruction of rain forests, reduced nutritional content, increased demand for preservation and packaging. Food insecurity also increases as the produce comes from regions that are not feeding their own population properly. With reference to the above passage, which of the following statements is/are true? 1. Consuming regionally grown food and not depending on long travelled food is a part of eco-friendly behaviour. 2. Food processing industry puts a burden on our natural resources. Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Open defecation is disastrous when practiced in very densely populated areas, where it is impossible to keep away human faeces from crops, wells, food and children’s hands. Groundwater is also contaminated by open defecation. Many ingested germs and worms spread diseases. They prevent the body from absorbing calories and nutrients. Nearly one half of India’s children remain malnourished. Lakhs of them die from preventable conditions. Diarrhoea leaves Indians’ bodies smaller on average than those of people in some poorer countries where people eat fewer calories. Underweight mothers produce stunted babies prone to sickness who may fail to develop their full cognitive potential. The germs released into environment harm rich and poor alike, even those who use latrines. Which among the following is the most critical inference that can be made from the above passage?

The conflict between man and State is as old as State history. Although attempts have been made for centuries to bring about a proper adjustment between the competing claims of State and the individual, the solution seems to be' still far off. This is primarily because of the dynamic nature of human society where old values and ideas constantly yield place to new ones. It is obvious that if individuals are allowed to have absolute freedom of speech and action, the result would be chaos, ruin and anarchy. The author's viewpoint can be best summed up in which of the following statements?

Read the following passage and answer the item(s) that follow, your answers to these item(s) should be based on the passage only. Individuals, groups and leaders who promote human development operate under strong institutional, structural and political constraints’ that affect policy options. But experience suggests broad principles for shaping an appropriate agenda for human development. One important finding from several decades of human development experience is that focusing exclusively on economic growth is problematic. While we have good knowledge about how to advance health and education, the causes of growth are much less certain and growth is often elusive. Further, an unbalanced emphasis on growth is often associated with negative environmental consequences and adverse distributional effects. The experience of China, with its impressive growth record, reflects these broader concerns and underlines the importance of balanced approaches that emphasize investments in the non-income aspects of human development. With reference to the above passage, consider the following statements: 1. In developing countries, a strong institutional framework is the only requirement for human development and policy options. 2. Human development and economic growth are not always positively inter-related. 3. Focusing only on human development should be the goal of economic growth. Which of the above statements is/are correct?

Read the following passage and answer the item(s) that follow, your answers to these item(s) should be based on the passage only. The existence/establishment of formal financial institutions that offer safe, reliable, and alternative financial instruments is fundamental in mobilizing savings. To save, individuals need access to safe and reliable financial institutions, such as banks, and to appropriate financial instruments and reasonable financial incentives. Such access is not always available to all people in developing countries like India and more so, in rural areas. Savings help poor households manage volatility in cash flow, smoothen consumption, and build working capital. Poor households without access to a formal savings mechanism encourage immediate spending temptations. With reference to the above passage, consider the following statements: 1. Indian financial institutions do not offer any financial instruments to rural households to mobilize their savings. 2. Poor households tend to spend their earnings/savings due to lack of access to appropriate financial instruments. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

By 2050, the Earth’s population will likely have swelled from seven to nine billion people. To fill all those stomachs – while accounting for shifting consumption patterns, climate change, and a finite amount of arable land and potable water – some experts say food production will have to double. How can we make the numbers add up? Experts say higher yielding crop varieties and more efficient farming methods will be crucial. So will waste reduction. Experts urge cities to reclaim nutrients and water from waste streams and preserve farmland. Poor countries, they say, can improve crop storage and packaging and rich nations could out back on resource-intensive food like meat. Which one of the following statements best sums up the above passage?

Many people in India feel that if we cut our defence expenditure on weapon-building, we can create a climate of peace with our neighbours, subsequently reducing the conflict or creating a no-war situation. People who proclaim such ideas are either the victims of war or the propagators of false argument. With reference to the above passage, which of the following is the most valid assumption?

‘If political leadership fails to emerge, there is Q likelihood of military taking over power in developing countries. Radical student groups or labour may try to raise revolution but they are not likely to compete with the military. Military intervention rule and withdrawal from politics is closely related to a society’s level of political development.’ In the context of political development, the assumption in the above passage is that

Read the following passage and answer the item that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. Climate change poses potentially devastating effects on India’s agriculture. While the overall parameters of climate change are increasingly accepted—a 1 °C average temperature increase over the next 30 years, sea level rise of less than 10 cm in the same period, and regional monsoon variations and corresponding droughts—the impacts in India are likely to be quite site and crop-specific. Some crops may respond favourably to the changing conditions, others may not. This emphasizes the need to promote agricultural research and create maximum flexibility in the system to permit adaptations. The key ingredient for ‘drought proofing’ is the managed recharge of aquifers. To ensure continued yields of important staple crops (e.g., wheat), it may also be necessary to shift the locations where these crops are grown, in response to temperature changes as well as to water availability. The latter will be a key factor in a making long-term investment decisions. For example, water run-off from the Himalayas is predicted to increase over the next 30 years as glaciers melt but then decline substantially thereafter. It will be critical to provide incentives to plan for these large-scale shifts in agro-ecological conditions. Indian needs to make long-term investments in research and development in agriculture. India is likely to experience changed weather patterns in future. Consider the following statements: Climate change may force the shifting of locations of the existing crops due to: 1. melting of glaciers. 2. water availability and temperature suitability at other locations. 3. poor productivity of crops. 4. wider adaptability of crop plants. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. Many nations now place their faith in capitalism and governments choose it as the strategy to create wealth for their people. The spectacular economic growth seen in Brazil, China and India after the liberalization of their economies is proof of its enormous potential and success. However, the global banking crisis and the economic recession have left many bewildered. The debates tend to focus on free market operations and forces, their efficiency and their ability for self-correction. Issues of justice, integrity and honesty are rarely elaborated to highlight the failure of the global banking system. The apologists of the system continue to justify the success of capitalism and argue that the recent crisis was a blip. Their arguments betray an ideological bias with the assumptions that an unregulated market is fair and competent, and that the exercise of private greed will be in the larger public interest. Few recognize the bidirectional relationship between capitalism and greed: that each reinforces the other Surely, a more honest conceptualization of the conflicts of interest among the rich and powerful players who have benefited from the system, their biases and ideology is needed; the focus on the wealth creation should also highlight the resultant gross inequity. The apologists of the ‘Free Market System’, according to the passage, believe in:

It is often forgotten that globalization is not only about policies on international economic relationships and transactions but has equally to do with domestic policies of a nation. Policy changes necessitated by meeting the internationally set conditions (by WTO, etc.) of free trade and investment flows obviously affect domestic producers and investors. But the basic philosophy underlying globalization emphasizes absolute freedom to markets to determine prices and production and distribution patterns, and government interventions as processes that create distortions and bring in inefficiency. Thus, public enterprises have to be privatized through disinvestments and sales; sectors and activities hitherto reserved for the public sector have to be opened to the private sector. This logic extends to the social services like education and health. Any restrictions on the adjustments in workforce by way of retrenchment of workers should also be removed and exit should be made easier by removing any restriction on closures. Employment and wages should be governed by free play of market forces, as any measure to regulate them can discourage investment and also create inefficiency in production. Above all, in line with the overall philosophy of reduction in the role of the State, fiscal reforms should be undertaken to have generally low levels of taxation and government expenditure should be kept to the minimum to abide thy the principle of fiscal prudence. All these are policy actions on the domestic front and are not directly related to the core items of the globalization agenda, namely free international flow of goods and finance. According to the passage, the basic philosophy of globalization is to:

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Answers to these should be based on the passage only. In recent times, India has grown fast not only compared to its own past but also in comparison with other nations. But there cannot be any room for complacency because it is possible for the Indian economy to develop even faster and also to spread the benefits of this growth more widely than has been done thus far. Before going into details of the kinds of microstructural changes that we need to conceptualize and then proceed to implement, it is worthwhile elaborating on the idea of inclusive growth that constitutes the defining concept behind this Government’s various economic policies and decisions. A nation interested in inclusive growth views the same growth differently depending on whether the gains of the growth are heaped primarily on a small segment or shared widely by the population. The latter is cause for celebration but not the former. In other words, growth must not be treated as an end in itself but as an instrument for spreading prosperity to all. India’s own past experience and the experience of other nations suggest that growth is necessary for eradicating poverty but it is not a sufficient condition. In other words, policies for promoting growth need to be complemented with policies to ensure that more and more people join the growth process and, further, that there are mechanisms in place to redistribute some of the gains to those who are unable to partake in the market process and, hence get left behind. A simply way of giving this idea of inclusive growth a sharper form is to measure a nation’s progress in terms of the progress, of its poorest segment, for instance, the bottom 20 per cent of the population. One could measure the per capita income of the bottom quintile of the population and also calculate the growth rate of income, and evaluate our economic success in terms of these measures that pertain to the poorest segment. This approach is attractive because it does not ignore growth like some of the older heterodox criteria did. It simply looks at the growth of income of the poorest sections of the population. It also ensures that those who are outside of the bottom quintile do not get ignored. If that were done, then those people would, in all likelihood, drop down into the bottom quintile and so would automatically become a direct target of our policies. Hence, the criterion being suggested here is a statistical summing up of the idea of inclusive growth, which in turn, leads to two corollaries: to wish that India must strive to achieve high growth and that we must work to ensure that the weakest segments benefit from the growth. Consider the following statements: According to the author, India’s economy grown but there is no room for complacency as: 1. growth eradicates poverty. 2. growth has resulted in prosperity for all. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow each passage. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. The Himalayan ecosystem is highly vulnerable to damage, both due to geological reasons and on account of the stress caused by increased pressure of population, exploitation of natural resources and other related challenges. These aspects may be exacerbated due to the impact of climate change. It is possible that climate change may adversely impact the Himalayan ecosystem through increased temperature, altered precipitation patterns, episodes of drought and biotic influence. This would impact not only the very sustenance of the indigenous communities in uplands but also the life of downstream dwellers across the country and beyond. Therefore, there is an urgent need for giving special attention to sustain the Himalayan ecosystem. This would require conscious efforts for conserving all the representative systems. Further, it needs to be emphasized that the endemics with restricted distribution, and most often with specialized habitat requirements, are among the most vulnerable elements. In this respect the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, with rich endemic diversity, is vulnerable to climate change. The threats include possible loss of genetic resources and species, habitats and concomitantly a decrease in ecosystem services. Therefore, conservation of endemic elements in representative ecosystems/habitats assumes a great significance while drawing conservation plans for the region. Towards achieving the above, we will have to shift towards contemporary conservation approaches, which include a paradigm of landscape level interconnectivity between protected area systems. The concept advocates a shift from the species-habitat focus to an inclusive focus on expanding the biogeographic range so that natural adjustments to climate change can proceed without being restrictive. With reference to the passage, the following assumptions have been made: 1. To maintain natural ecosystems, exploitation of natural resources should be completely avoided. 2. Not only anthropogenic but also natural reasons can adversely affect ecosystems. 3. Loss of endemic diversity leads to the extinction of ecosystems. Which of the above assumptions is/are correct?