English Quiz for Upcoming IBPS Bank Exams - Set 55 | Passage Completion

Directions (Qs. 1-10): 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. There are many industries where India has an advantage because of relatively lower Costs of all forms of manpowerwhether it is professional or factory labour. However, while this can give initial advantage, it should not be taken for an enduring advantage due to the following reasons. One as products become more sophisticated, labour as cost factor becomes less and less important. Two, the differences in costs are narrowed down through higher level of automation. There, in processes that require large number of cheap labour, the industry is bound to shift its operation along; the line of the ever-declining scale of poorer countries. So a poorer country than India can eventually overtake us with yet cheaper labour. Therefore, when one has established an export market on the basis of cheaper manpower …………..

(a) One has to be vigilant to make sure that one builds up other advantages to compensate for the inevitable loss of this temporary advantage.

(b) One has to be vigilant to make sure that this advantage should not be given away

(c) One need not be vigilant as there is no competition in near future

(d) There is need of caution to see the variations in labour charges of other countries

(e) There is need to build this cheap labour on regular basis

2. Standards and standardization, quality systems, certification and inspections, measurement systems, testing laboratories, their accreditation and calibration service, production and supply of standard reference materials etc, are all important building blocks. Quality control through the agency of the Export Inspection Agency leaves much to be desired. It is often alleged that EIA is actually playing a retrograde role, although inadvertently. ……………….. (I) The list of items subject to compulsory export inspection need to be reviewed and shortened. A trimmer EIA list essential for a modicum of efficiency. (II) EIA should use international agencies to train people and update the equipment available for those limited items. (III) The quality development process need to be professionalized by making use of quality development skills and managerial methods available around the world. Overall, per-export inspection needs to be greatly simplified, both in the interests of speedier clearance and less harassment for the exporters as well as better administration.

(a) EIA is to be scrapped and new council should be made with following improvements.

(b) This is happening in absence from a guiding international agency which can suggest a number of measures.

(c) This needs to be corrected.

(d) EIA is short of experience and therefore such a negative effect.

(e) Why was EIA formed in the first place …?

3. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the International Trade Organization were conceived at the Breton woods Conference in July,1944 as institutions to strengthen international economic cooperation and to help create a more stable and prosperous global economy. While the IMF and the World Bank come into existence and started functioning from 1946, the International Trade Organization could not be set up. Instead, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was set up in 1947. Through successive round of negotiations, the GATT got transformed into what has come to be known as the World Trade Organization (WTO) that started functioning from January1, 1995. The various institutions have set up to govern international economic relations. While all the institutions work in close coordination with each other……………..

(a) Each of the institutions is independent

(b) Each of the these institutions works with different focus in different direction

(c) Each of these institutions has its own specific area of responsibilities

(d) Each of these institutions has major role to play in each other’s work

(e) Each of these institutions has imprint of its work on other’s performance

4. ADB finances principally specific projects in the region. It may make loans to or invest in the projects concerned. It may also guarantee loans granted to the projects. Most of the loans granted are hard loans or tired loans. However, loans form special funds set aside by the ADB up to 10 per cent of its paid-up capital are granted under soft loan term for which purpose it has set up a separate window known as the Asian Development Fund (ADF). Soft loans are normally granted to projects of high development priority requiring longer periods of repayment with lower rates of interest. ADB normally finances foreign exchange cost of the project and the loan in repayable in the currency in which it is made. India has been eligible for assistance both under the ADB and its soft loan window, ADF……………... However, it has been getting large assistance under the ADB.

(a) But India does not need any assistance from ADB.

(b) But India is not a member of ADB

(c) But India is not interested in ADB aids.

(d) But India has stayed away from the ADB

(e) But India is against ADB.

5. In the planned economy of India, foreign capital has been assigned a significant role, although it has been changing over time. In the earlier phase of planning, foreign capital was looked upon as a means to supplement domestic investment. Many concession and incentives were given to foreign investors. Later on, however, the emphasis shifted to encouraging technological collaboration between India entrepreneurs and foreign entrepreneurs. In more recent times, efforts are on to invite free flow of foreign capital …………………..

(a) It would be instructive in this background to examine the Government’s policy towards foreign capital.

(b) It would be instructive in this background to examine the World Bank’s policy towards foreign capital in India

(c) Let us keep our fingers crossed and look for the next parliamentary session for debate on the issue

(d) Issue of Foreign capital is fragile and can be discussed only with relevant statistical figures in hand

(e) New changes are waiting in the line.

6. FDI may actually be harmful to the recipient country if the economy is highly protected and foreign investment takes place behind high tariff walls. This type of investment is generally referred to as the tariff-jumping’ variety of foreign investment, whose primary objective is to take advantage of the protected markets in the host country. The longer the Government shields its home market with tariffs…………… and more acute will be the conflict between it and the domestic entrepreneur. In view of this, an appropriate policy framework must respond to two conflicting objectives: the need to liberalize rules governing such investment in view of the growing integration of the world economy, and the need to ensure that such investment has positive effects on the country’s economy and does not lead to negative welfare effects.

(a) The more the foreign countries to apply pressure on India

(b) The more the foreign money to come in India

(c) The more the foreigner will come to exploit that protected market

(d) The more the foreigner to protest against that government

(e) The more the foreigner will raise the issue on international platform

7. The Indian constitution provides for demarcation of functional responsibilities and finances between the Centre and the States. The provision of public services has been largely entrusted to the States. These mainly relate to law and order, public health, sanitation, water supply and agriculture. The States have to concurrently take certain functions in areas such as education, infrastructure. Their share in combined expenditure (Centre and States) on social services is about 85 per cent, while in the case of economic services; it is about 60 per cent. Thus, the States have the primary responsibility to undertake tasks pertaining to developing social and economic infrastructure. However, their ability to undertake such development functions is critically determined by their financial position. The growing importance of state finances in the macro-economy is evident from the fact……………... The size of overall development expenditures of the states has always been higher than that of the Centre and the difference has got widened rather significantly in the 1990s.

(a) That the States have overrun their planned expenditures and lacking freedom of further development

(b) That the States have reached at the peak of their finances and overtaken Centres in revenues

(c) That Centre borrows money from the states for its expenditures on educational and social welfare programmes

(d) That the total expenditures of State governments has even undertaken those of the Centre

(e) That the total expenditures of State and Center has widened unprecedentedly in 1990s.

8. A budget is a statement containing a forecast of revenues and expenditures for a period of time, usually a year. It is a comprehensive plan of action designed to achieve the policy objectives set by the Government for the coming year. A budget is plan and a budget document is reflection or what Government expects to do in future. While any plan need not be a budget, a budget has to be necessarily a pan. It shows detailed allocation to resources and proposed taxation or other measures for their realization. A budget is, however, not a balanced sheet (exhibiting total assets and liabilities) of the Government on a particular date- is a financial blueprint for action and is, therefore, of great advantage to Government departments, legislatures and citizens. The budget of government expresses its total activity in figures…………………………..

(a) A budget reflects what the Government is doing or intends to do.

(b) A budget is a legal document

(c) A budget is a promise of Government to its people

(d) A budget is a guideline for State Governments

(e) A budget is only a plan on papers that have never been achieved

9. For a federal country like India, the budget of the Government of India is the most important instrument for implementing various economic and social objectives. The budgets of state government affect local activities. The Government of India budget influences the whole economy. The latter tries to bring about growth with social justice through its budget; it influences regional, functional and overall distribution of income and wealth through its expenditure (transfer) payments, investments and tax policies. The provisions of grants and loans to State governments and Union Territories and to the private sector and various subsidies (such as for export promotion, food grains distribution, etc.) are some of the elements of Central government budget policy for promoting growth and income distribution. …………………. Its significance lies in its ability to promote the various objectives of a modern state which has assumed the role of a welfare state and of a catalytic agent for promoting growth with social justice.

(a) A budget in modern times should, therefore not be judged sound or otherwise merely on the basis of its ‘deficit’ or ‘surplus’ or ‘balanced’ position

(b) A budget is therefore not only instrument of implementing the economic and social objectives but it is also about growth with social justice

(c) A budget is a reflection of success or failure of a government

(d) A budget in modern times should, therefore not be judged on its face value

(e) A budget in this turbulence time cannot be judged on basis of monetary indices of ‘surplus’ or ‘deficits’

10. After the East Asia crisis, the World Bank conducted a study on the underlying reasons for the crisis. It was found that at least a major part of the fundamental responsibility was on banks, which had understated their non-performing accounts by as much as 47%. Since this was a study and not an investigation…………….. Nevertheless, the Basel committee on supervision did take cognizance, and issued circulars and directives not only on supervision, but also on Internal Functional Management. It will be remembered by those interested that Basel committee had also acted expeditiously after the Barring Bank’s failure, to separate treasury and lending operations from the decision making processes. Bank failures are nothing new in the world, although we in India have been insulated from such traumas for more than two decades.

(a) The findings were not taken note of

(b) The findings were not taken seriously

(c) The findings were not legally binding on any one

(d) The fallout from this revelation was only taken note of

(e) The fallout from this revelation was seriously taken