Directions (Q.Nos. 1 – 5): In each of the following questions a short passage is given with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent.
1.It is well known that the power sector is a serious drag on India’s competitive cost advantage, with the potential to short-circuit the economic growth story. Industrial power tariffs in India are probably the highest, amongst major emerging markets, around 57% of rural households and 12% urban households still do not have access to electricity; even as most of the downstream distribution continues to be the monopoly of State Electricity Boards, with mounting losses and poor services. (…………………… ) So, the need for urgent corrective action and a holistic development of the power market are assuming increased importance. The overhaul of the current regulatory environment and making investments viable in a sector is crucial. While interventions at resurrecting the sector have mostly followed the top-down approach, plugging the leak right at the bottom holds the key to a sustainable and efficient electricity market. (3)
(1) Yet, the per capita availability of electricity is rising though not evenly distributed
(2) There is no gain saying that the carriage of fast track growth is pulled by horse power
(3) Cold comfort, for a country said to be on the threshold of an economic miracle
(4) A major overhaul of the SEBs is long overdue
(5) Privatisation of the power sector is now being sounded as a panacea to all these ills
2.(…………………….) This question tormented the Russian writer Tolstoy, prompting him to write the popular short story with the same name. Though he sarcastically said it was just six feet that a man needs, what actually he meant was that one should be reasonable and rational. A similar issue, again related to land, being discussed intensely is — what is a reasonable price for seed. The seed in question, obviously, is cotton seed. With the kharif season fastapproaching, seed companies, seed growers and farmers are locked in conflict in Andhra Pradesh. The issue, however, is not confined to the State alone. The entire seed industry and all cotton farmers are keenly watching developments because any decision here could well be a bellwether to the whole country. Ever since it waged a pitched battle with Mahyco-Monsanto on trait value a few years ago, the State began to attract attention on the issue. So much so that other cotton-growing States wait for its call on seed pricing before announcing their own prices. (2)
(1) How much money one needs to be happy?
(2) How much land does a man need?
(3) How tall would you like to grow in your life?
(4) How to use your time the best?
(5) How to keep misery and dejection away from you?
3.(…………………) From this stems its intolerance of any contrary stand on the part of any individual or the country. It has taken extreme forms including torture and other forms of violence to human rights and bumping off of those (Salvadore Allende of Chile, Patrice Lumumba of Congo) who crossed its path. II also suffers from a paranoidal complex that whoever does not toe its line should, on that score alone, he its ill wisher, if not an enemy. Second, a tendency to thrust its own prescriptions forcibly down the throats of other countries by means of conditionality’s attached to its domestic enactments providing for aid, civil or military cooperation and other forms of assistance. Third, arrogating to itself the authority to decide when its interests and values are threatened and launch pre-emptive strikes and overthrow established regimes. In doing so, it doesn’t stick at indulging in even exaggerations and falsehoods as when it flaunted the pretext of non-existent weapons of mass destruction to invade Iraq. (1)
(1) First is America’s unshakeable conviction that what is good for it, must necessarily be good for the whole world
(2) First is America’s exaggerated self-belief that its mode of life is certainly better than what others pursue
(3) First is America’s belief in the perfection of its cultural superiority branding races of other colours as inferior
(4) First is America’s assumed superiority of its foreign policy which picks holes in others in terms of the new world order
(5) First is America’s almost fanatical belief in the righteousness of its approach to other countries with an undertone of superiority complex
4.Senior managers involved in moving goods or services from suppliers to end users would agree their distribution channels are outdated and unwieldy, serving neither customers nor channel partners as well as they should. In a few cases, distribution channels are streamlined and satisfying for all participants. ( …………….. ) But in most scenarios, distribution channels, taken as a whole, seem more like a repository of lost opportunities than an effective delivery system. (3)
(1) However, a lot is still left to be desired
(2) Still operational hitch does exist in a few cases
(3) In a good number of cases these channels are serving the intended purpose
(4) In some cases, technology has improved things dramatically
(5) But these channels, by and large fail to serve effectively either the business or the associates
5.Even as discomfort across the country is palpable, with rising summer temperatures and elevated food prices, the India Meteorological Department’s forecast of a ‘normal’ South-West monsoon for 2011 comes as a relief. The IMD rates low the probability of deficient or excess rainfall during the season. However, the Met Office has conceded that experimental forecasts from the majority of statistical and dynamic models suggest below-normal to normal monsoon rainfall over the country. It also admits that climate forecasts prepared at this time of the year have large uncertainty. (.., ) While the forecast is for the whole country from June to September, what we need are disaggregated forecasts in terms of temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall, especially given the geographical, spread of the country and its varied agro-climatic conditions. (1)
(1) So, not with standing the ‘normal’ forecast, the risk of the monsoon playing truant cannot be ruled out
(2) Even then the forecast of rainfall across the length and breadth of the country is normal
(3) There is a need to upgrade the forecasting mechanism to impart, certainly in the prediction
(4) So, despite a comforting forecast, it cautions farmers and authorities to be prepared for exigencies
(5) After all, who is going to take the beating if nature behaves erratic this time as well
