Direction (1-5): In each question below a sentence is given with three blanks in each. Each question is followed by four options with three words in each. You have to select that option as your answer which can fill the blanks of the sentence.
- With the BJP making rapid strides in Odisha, a BJP-BJD alliance is unlikely. However, it remains to be seen whether this _____________ floor coordination among Opposition parties during voting or while debating on policy issues. Until recently, the Opposition _____________ the majority in the House and was able to stall legislation. This may change if the BJD sees a longer term interest in coordinating with the BJP on specific issues. In _____________ , the Congress might have missed a trick in not making the effort to win over the BJD and the Aam Aadmi Party.
impacts, endured, reminiscenceinfluences, enjoyed, retrospectauthorities, wanted, revisionprejudices, loathed, reminisceNone of theseOption B
- At the peak of the havoc, about 60,000 people whose dwellings _____________ damage were lodged in relief camps. In the northern districts, damage to houses, roads and other structures has occurred owing to landslips caused by _____________ showers. There is genuine concern that a temporary respite in rainfall may be followed by another _____________ downpour from nascent weather systems; the India Meteorological Department has forecast rain until August 17.
exhilarated, periodical, temperategladdened, occasional, moderatesuffered, incessant, intensesolemnized, absconding, superficialNone of theseOption C
- It’s the way with great writers, and Naipaul’s _____________ to being among the greatest of them was settled long before he won the Nobel prize in 2001 — but he defied simple _____________ more than anybody else. To read Naipaul, to listen to him, to follow his life story, was to be perpetually _____________ to reassess not just him, but also his subject matter and one’s own view of the world.
relinquish, estimates, pushedwaiver, considerations, proddedabdicate, appraisal, jostledclaim, appraisals, nudgedNone of theseOption D
- Two years after accepting the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee’s recommendations, the Supreme Court has now extended some concessions to those aggrieved by the _____________ rules, which aimed to _____________ cricket administration in the country. The reasoning given in the order of a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra suggests that it is a pragmatic modification rather than a significant _____________.
rigorous, revamp, climbdownlax, refurbish, ascendnegligent, rehabilitate, improverelaxed, rejuvenate, achieveNone of theseOption A
- The attack on a bus in a crowded market in northern Yemen that killed at least 45 people, most of them children, is the latest _____________ in the military intervention led by Saudi Arabia that began over three years ago. During this period, Riyadh has paid little attention to growing international criticism of its use of excessive force in Yemen, which _____________ the country, among the poorest in West Asia, into what the United Nations calls the world’s most severe humanitarian _____________.
compassion, hesitated, predicamentatrocity, plunged, crisisdecency, emersed, contingencyleniency, fall, crunchNone of theseOption B
- Farm distress has been a sadly persistent feature for the past five years, the initial two years on account of failed rains, ________________. That it shapes electoral outcomes has also been known since, at least, the Gujarat elections. But what is new with the recent five state elections is that a particular palliative, farm loan waivers, is now seen as a necessary promise for electoral victory. There are some curious features to this.
that crippled the ability of urban municipalities to collect the only tax that falls within their fiscal domainbut in the last three years because of policy failure on a number of fronts, including, most visibly, unremunerative prices for farm produceby virtue of having the necessary ownership documents—commonly estimated at 30% of farmersthe issue of interest is why farm loan waivers carry such widespread electoral support among themNone of theseOption B
- Mobile connectivity and declining data costs have dramatically spurred internet usage. Over 80% households have access to mobile phones and approximately 300 million Indians use smartphones. India is now WhatsApp’s biggest market, with approximately 250 million monthly users. Bank account penetration has surged due to the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana. About 1.1 billion Indians have a unique digital identity, Aadhaar. Elements of India Stack—e-signature, eKYC, DigiLocker and consent layer—on top of Aadhaar will continue to grow. ________________.
We have a large and low-cost set-up for electronic payments in place, including wallets, new payments banks and Unified Payments Interface (UPI)Despite affordability constraints, they find innovative ways to consume data—in Mumbai’s lower-income neighbourhoodsThese positive changes offer an opportunity to reimagine our approach to social impact for a digital and aspiring IndiaThe segment of “aspirers” comprises approximately 150 million households with monthly household incomeNone of theseOption A
- If desires are truly nourished by delays, then the government’s overdue, albeit tacit acknowledgement of the havoc wreaked by demonetisation, communicated via a flurry of remedial measures announced over the past couple of weeks, ________________. But that might be wishing for too much, besides being, perhaps, a bit too late.
such a burst of activity so close to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is bound to generate scepticismthough designed only as a feel-good gesture, involved setting up of an export promotion cell within the MSME ministrydouble whammy led to distress and defaults on bank loansshould definitely gladden the hearts of millions of small-scale units that bore the brunt of this unprecedented and unilateral actionNone of theseOption D
- The data on wages/incomes of manual casual workers clearly suggests that not only have they seen a secular deceleration in growth rates of wages since this government took over, but also that there does not appear to be any sign of these improving, despite the signs of recovery suggested by the aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) numbers. Unlike other data sources on employment and GDP, the data on wages from the Labour Bureau based on the Wage Rates ________________.
For construction workers, who form among the largest group of workers outside agriculturethe crisis in the countryside is not just for the farmers who cultivate but also for wage workers who depend on availability of jobs in agriculture and outside agricultureIn Rural India series remains credible and provides information on trend in wage rates in rural IndiaDeclining crop prices continue to remain a worry for agricultural incomeNone of theseOption C
- Economic theory suggests that waiving debts via such a scheme will lead to debt overhang (essentially stagnated investments due to any new income being used largely for paying back old debts). However, Kanz, in another study with co-author Xavier Gine, ________________: increasingly, farmers shifted away from formal credit to risky informal credit and banks redirected credit to less risky avenues. Thus, the scheme resulted in a double whammy despite being well-intentioned and perhaps even well-targeted.
who is eligible for loan waivers faces two problems well-documented in finance and economicsfinds no evidence of loan waivers alleviating this phenomenonbecause the farmer knows that the loan will be waived in the futureas suggested by Chicago behavioural economist Sendhil Mullainathan and colleagues, could exacerbate debt cycles for poor farmers in particularNone of theseOption B
Directions(6-10): In each of the following questions a passage is given in which there is a blank. Choose the most logical and appropriate option from the five options given that can be filled in the blank.