51.The tax which is not shared between the Centre and
the States is
(a) Corporation Tax
(b) Sales Tax
(c) Income Tax
(d) Central Excise Duty
52.Which one of the following pairs is not correctly
matched?
(a) LERMS - Rupee convertibility
(b) EXIM scrips - Export subsidy
(c) EXIT policy - Import controls
(d) EPZ - Export promotion
53.Devaluation means
(a) Rise in the general level of prices
(b) Decrease in the value of money in terms of foreign currency
(c) Decrease in the purchasing power of money
(d) Quantity of money is exceeding the amount of goods
54.Japan has signed its first security pact other than
US, with which among the following countries?
(a) India
(b) Russia
(c) Australia
(d) China
55.‘Falcon-I ‘ which was recently in the news is
(a) A mission of NASA to Mars
(b) A space shuttle
(c) A two-stage rocket launched by private firm Space Exploration Technologies
(Space X)
(d) None of these
56.The death of the cricket coach of which among the
following countries during the 2007 World Cup has created a suspicion?
(a) India
(b) Pakistan
(c) Sri Lanka
(d) Bangladesh
57.The XIX Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held
at Delhi in
(a) October 2010
(b) October 2008
(c) October 2009
(d) November 2010
58.Which among the following satellites was successfully
launched in March 2007 by ISRO?
(a) INSAT-3E
(b) INSAT-4A
(c) INSAT-4B
(d) INSAT-4C
59.The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand is
(a) N.D. Tiwari
(b) B.C. Khanduri
(c) Ibobi Singh
(d) None of these
60.Tagline ‘Empowering People’ is linked with which
brand ?
(a) Acer
(b) Compaq
(c) HCL
(d) Wipro
61.Which among the following movies was given the Best
Picture Award at the 97th Oscar Awards 2007
(a) The Queen
(b) The Last King of Scotland
(c) The Departed
(d) Happy Feet
62.The theme for the 21 st National Science Day 2007 was
(a) 50 years of DNA and 25 years of lVF
(b) More Crop Per Drop
(c) More Water Drop by Drop
(d) None of these
63.The mascot of the 33rd National Games was
(a) Mello
(b) Veera, the ongole bull
(c) Rongmon, the baby rhino
(d) None of these
64.A Nuclear-Risk Reduction Treaty was recently signed
between
(a) India and Pakistan
(b) China and Pakistan
(c) India and USA
(d) India and China
65.For years, the contents of a child’s sandbox have
confounded some of the nation’s top physicists. Sand and other granular materials,
such as powders, seeds, nuts, soils, and detergent, behave in ways that seem to
undermine natural laws and cost industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to
agribusiness and mining, billions of dollars.
Just shaking a can of mixed nuts can show you how problematic granular material
can be. The nuts do not ‘mix’; they ‘unmix’ and sort themselves out, with the
larger Brazil nuts on top and the smaller peanuts at the bottom. In this
activity and others, granular matter’s behaviour apparently goes counter to the
second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy, or disorder, tends to
increase in any natural system.
Mimicking the mixed-nut conundrum with a jar containing many small beads and
one large bead, one group of physicists claimed that vibrations causing the
beads to percolate open up small gaps rather than larger ones. Thus, when a
Brazil nut becomes slightly airborne, the peanuts rush in underneath and
gradually nudge it to the top. Another group of physicists colour coded layers
of beads to track their circulation in a container and achieved a different
result. Vibrations, they found, drive the beads in circles up the centre and
down the sides of the container. Yet downward currents, similar to convection
currents in air or water, are too narrow to accommodate the larger bead,
stranding it on top.
One industrial engineer who has studied the problem says that both the
‘percolation’ and ‘convection current’ theories can be right, depending upon
the material, and that percolation is the major factor with nuts. Given the
inability of scientists to come up with a single equation explaining unmixing,
you can see why industrial engineers who must manage granular materials go a
little, well, ‘nuts’! Take Pharmaceuticals, for instance. There may be six
types of powders with different sized grains in a single medicine tablet.
Mixing them at some speeds might sort them, while mixing at other speeds will
make them thoroughly amalgamated. One aspirin company still relies on an
experienced employee wearing a latex glove who pinches some powder in the giant
mixing drum to see if it ‘feels right’.
Granular material at rest can be equally frustrating to physicists and
engineers. Take a tall cylinder of sand. Unlike a liquid, in which pressure
exerted at the bottom increases in direct proportion to the liquid’s height,
pressure at the base of the sand cylinder doesn’t increase indefinitely.
Instead, it reaches a maximum value and stays there. This “quality allows sand
to trickle at a nearly constant rate through the narrow opening separating the
two glass bulbs of an hourglass, thus measuring the passage of time.
Physicists have also found that forces are not distributed evenly throughout
granular material. It is this characteristic that may account for the frequent
rupturing of silos in which grain is stored. In a silo, for instance, the
column’s weight is carried from grain to grain along jagged chains. As a result
the container’s walls carry more of the weight than its base, and the force is
significantly larger at some points of contact than at others. Coming up with
equations to explain, much loss, predict the distribution of these force
chains” is extremely difficult.
Again, using beads, physicists developed a simple theoretical model in which
they assume that a given bead transmits the load it bears unequally and
randomly onto the three beads on which it rests. While the model agrees well
with experimental results, it does not take into account all of the mechanisms
of force transmission between grains of sand or wheat.
In the struggle to understand granular materials, sand-studying physicists have
at least one thing in their favour. Unlike particle physicists who must secure
billions of dollars in government funding for the building of super-colliders
in which to accelerate and view infinitesimal particles, they can conduct
experiments using such low-cost, low-tech materials as sand, beads, marbles,
and seeds. It is hoped that more low-tech experiments and computer simulations
will lead to equations that explain the unwieldy stuff and reduce some of the
wastage, guesswork, and accidents that occur in the various industries that
handle it.
|
[1]
|
The percolation theory of unmixing is bout illustrated by
which of the following examples?
(a) Contents settling in a bag of potato chips so that the package appears less full after handling. (b) Currents of small beads blocking the upward movement of large beads in a shaken container. (c) Larger rocks rising to the surface in a garden after a period of frost. (d) Largo nuts blocking the upward movement of small nuts in a shaken container. |
|
[2]
|
In saying that the percolation and convection current
theories may both be right, the industrial engineer means that.
(a) though the theories have different names, they describe same physical mechanism. (b) both theories are still unproven, as they have not been tested on a variety of materials. (c) neither theory is supported by an adequate mathematical basis. (d) the mechanism causing unmixing varies depending upon the type of granular material. |
|
[3]
|
Which of the following appears to be the best solution for
combating the ‘unmixing’ problem faced by pharmaceutical manufacturers that
must prepare large quantities of powders?
(a) To mix all the powders together at the same speed. (b) To craft powders in which every grain weighs the same amount. (c) To craft powders so that all the grains have similar sizes and shapes. (d) To hire engineers who have years of experience in powder mixing. |
|
[4]
|
The passage implies that if the top bulb of an hourglass
were filled with water instead of sand the pressure pushing the water through
the opening would
(a) remain constant as water trickles through the opening. (b) decrease as water trickles through the opening. (c) increase as water trickles through the opening. (d) be directed at the walls of the container rather than the base. |
66.There are a few instances of diseases that have laid
waste huge tracts of forests throughout India. Caused mainly by pathogens and
pests, these diseases are deadly and are capable of wiping out entire forests
and plantations, causing immense economic as well as ecological loss.
Meanwhile, forest pathologists and entomologists are grappling with new
maladies that are surfacing almost every year. But with meagre resources and
just a few experts working on the issue, things are heading virtually towards a
culde-sac.
Moreover, no assessment has been made so far to quantify the devastation. While
large chunks of forests fall prey to maladies, it is also an opportunity for
some politician and timber merchants to cash in on it. Research and
documentation on forest disease, particularly on forest pathology, began in
India way back in 1929, by pioneering pathologists KD Bagchi and BK Bagchi.
Although it has been eight decades since then, not much headway has been made
in this; direction. The forestry sector today is ailing due to its misplaced
priorities, resource crunch, and mismanagement. “Forest management lacks
scientific approach,” says Surendra Kumar, director of the Himalayan Forest
Research Institute (HFRI), Shimla.
The scientific community involved with forest diseases is today a dispirited
lot. With only a few stalwarts left in this field, forest disease is a
neglected area of research. Moreover, bureaucracy is increasingly taking over
the scientific institutions and scientists in most of these institute arc a
marginalised group.
To top it all, there are no institutions dedicated to forest diseases. Although
the ministry of environment and forests is the facilitator for such research,
it is not paying enough attention to promote scientific research of forest
diseases;. In fact, the government’s lackadaisical approach came to the fore
with the Sal borer epidemic in Madhya Pradesh in 1998. While forest bureaucracy
slept, the beetles merrily continued to wipe out entire tracts of precious Sal
forests. Eventually, with no solution in sight, thousands of valuable trees
were hacked. There were also allegations that the Sal tragedy was a chance for
the timber mafia in the state to cash in on timber through the legal loophole,
with the nexus of politicians.
Today, things haven’t changed one bit. India’, forest department and research
institutes have yet to formulate contingency plans to face any assault of
similar dimensions.
Forest diseases are elusive. Although experts claim that they know quite a lot
about forest diseases, there are still aspects of the maladies that are not
completely understood. Says RS Bhandari, entomologist in the Forest Research
Institute (FRI), Dehradun, “We know about all the important pests and insects,
their life cycles and their development. But there are a few diseases which
remain an enigma.” According to Jamaluddin, head of the pathology department in
the Tropical Forest Research Institute (TERI), Jabalpur, “Due to micro climatic
changes, we are discovering new aspects of the same disease every year.
Diseases have also increased manifold.” Another FRI scientist points out that
although forest diseases are increasing, there is no study to estimate the
economic and ecological damage caused by these pests and pathogens.
Varying with different geophysical regions and climatic conditions, pathogens
and pests are essentially responsible for the tree maladies and their
mortality. When the pristine, natural and mixed forests existed, forest
diseases acted as a natural control measure to check the proliferation of a
particular species that could threaten the balance of the ecosystem. Perhaps,
this is why forest diseases paled into insignificance in the past. But today,
with shrinking forests and increasing monoculture plantations, any outbreak of
disease takes on a virulent form.
To top this, changed climatic and forest patterns and environmental pollution
have given rise to newer forms of forest diseases. While trees are forced to
take an additional load of human-induced environmental changes, the
introduction of mono culture has substantially increased the problems. Whatever
little we know about forest diseases today comes primarily through mycology,
the study of forest pathogens. Mycology explains that the prime pathological
reasons for forest disease are fungi, bacteria and viruses. “Among these, fungi
playa major role, while the other two are relatively less significant. There
are 150 to 200 major pathological infections in central India. Out of these,
only five per cent are bacterial. The rest are fungal,” says Jamaluddin.
Most of these pathogens stay close to a tree, waiting for a chance to
infiltrate. Their entry points are small openings or wounds in the tree.
However, invasion is not always easy. Like human beings, trees also have
antibodies that fight anything alien. In case of invasion from the trunk of a
tree, the sapwood acts as a shield and secretes enzymes to fight pathogens. But
when attacked and conquered, there are tell-tale signs in the form of knotty
growths of fruit bodies that are extensions of the fungi in the tree.
|
[1]
|
Which of the following is the author most likely to agree
with?
(a) The ministry responsible should take a more serious view towards research in forest diseases. (b) There is a likelihood of another forest disease epidemic, similar to the Sal Borer epidemic, spreading the country. (c) There needs to be a more coordinated effort to wards dealing with forest diseases in India. (d) All of these |
|
[2]
|
Which of these incidents discourages the government to
formulate any kind of concrete plans?
(a) India lacks specialists in this area of forestry. (b) The government is not able to work in concomitance with specialists, like entomologists and pathogenists. (c) The prevalence of malpractices, such as the alleged nexus of politicians with some of the forest officials. (d) None of these |
|
[3]
|
Which of these statements cannot be inferred from the
passage?
(a) With the variation of different climatic conditions, pests responsible for forest tree degradation, disappear. (b) There are hardly any committed institutions in India, for the promotion of research in forest diseases in India. (c) It is possible that the timber mafias could spread their network with help from vested interest in the political and bureaucratic brass. (d) None of these. |
|
[4]
|
The discussion on the present condition of forest diseases
proves that
(a) there must be a cooperative endeavour by scientists, government officials and politicians to weed out the possibilities of forest diseases. (b) a lot more needs to be done by the government for sustaining the ecological balance. (c) hitherto forestry has been a neglected area of research. (d) None of these |
67.All men by nature, desire to know. An indication of
this is the delight we take in our senses: for even apart from their usefulness
they are loved for themselves; and above all others, the sense of sight. For
not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything,
we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else. The reason is that this,
most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences
between things. By nature, animals are born with the faculty of sensation, and
from sensation, memory is produced in some of them, though not in others. And
therefore, the former are more intelligent and apt at learning than those which
cannot remember; those which are incapable of hearing sounds are intelligent
though they cannot be taught, e.g. the bee and any other race of animals that
may be like it; and those which, besides memory, have this sense of hearing can
be taught. The animals other than man live by appearances and memories, and have
but little of connected experience; but the human race lives also by art and
reasonings. Now from memory, experience is produced in men; for the several
memories of the same thing produce finally the capacity for a single
experience. And experience seems pretty much like science and art, but really,
science and art come to men through experience; for ‘experience made art’, as
Polus says, ‘but inexperience luck.’ Now art arises, when from many notions
gained by experience, one universal judgement about a class of objects is
produced. For to have a judgement that when Callias was ill of this disease
that did him good, and similarly, in the case of Socrates and in many
individual cases, is a matter of experience; but to judge that it has done good
to all persons of a certain constitution, marked off in one class, when they
were ill of this disease, e.g. to phlegmatic or bilious people when burning
with fevers – this is a matter of art.
With a view to action, experience seems in no respect inferior to art, and men
of experience succeed even better than those who have theory without
experience. (The reason is that experience is knowledge of individuals, art of
universals, and actions and productions are all concerned with the individual;
for the physician does not cure man, except in an incidental way, but Callias
or Socrates or some other, called by some such individual name, who happens to
be a man. If, then, a man has the theory without the experience, and recognizes
the universal but does not know the individual included in this, he will often
fail to cure; for it is the individual that is to be cured.) But yet we think
that knowledge and understanding belong to art rather than to experience, and
we suppose artists to be wiser than men of experience (which implies that
wisdom depends in all cases rather on knowledge); and this because the former
know the cause, but the latter do not. For men of experience know that the
thing is so, but do not know why, while the others know the ‘why’ and the
cause. Hence we think also that the master workers in each craft are more
honourable and know in a truer sense and are wiser than the manual workers,
because they know the causes ofthe things that are done (we think the manual
workers are like certain lifeless things which act indeed, but act without
knowing what they do, as fire bums, but while the lifeless things perform each
of their functions by a natural tendency, the labourers perform them through
habit); thus we view them as being wiser not in virtue of being able to act,
but of having the theory for themselves and knowing the causes. And in general,
it is a sign ofthe man who knows and ofthe man who does not know, that the
former can teach, and therefore, we think art is more truly knowledge than
experience is; for artists can teach, and men of mere experience cannot.
Again, we do not regard any of the senses as Wisdom; yet surely these give the
most authoritative knowledge of particulars. But they do not tell us the ‘why’
of anything, e.g. why fire is hot; they only say that it is hot. At first, he
who invented any art whatever, that went beyond the common perceptions of man
was naturally admired by men, not only because there was something useful in
the inventions, but because he was thought wiser and superior to the rest. But
as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life,
others to recreation, the inventors of the latter were naturally always
regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of
knowledge did not aim at utility.
Hence, when all such inventions were already established, the sciences which do
not aim at giving pleasure or at the necessities of life were discovered, and
first in the places where men first began to have leisure. This why the mathematical
arts were founded in Egypt; for there the priestly caste was allowed to be at
leisure. We have said in the Ethics what the difference is between art and
science and the other kindred faculties; but the point of our present
discussion is this, that all men suppose what is called Wisdom to deal with the
first causes and the principles of things; so that, as has been said before,
the man of experience is thought to be wiser than the possessors of any
sense-perception what ever, the artist wiser than the men of experience, the
masterworker than the mechanic, and the theoretical kinds of knowledge to be
more of the nature of Wisdom than the productive.
Clearly then, wisdom is knowledge about certain principles and causes.
|
[1]
|
What is the relationship between sensation and memory?
(a) Human beings are intelligent as they can reason, whereas animals do not have the capacity of reasoning. (b) Human beings have sensation and memory both. (c) All animals have sensation but some animals do not have memory. (d) When sensation is remembered, it becomes a memory experience and this leads to connected experience, which in turn’ gives rise to reasoning. |
|
[2]
|
What is the difference between art and experience?
(a) Art does not give the cause and effect of things, whereas experience gives the cause and effect of things. (b) Experience and art give rise to one another and they are complementary and supplementary to each other. (c) Art explains the cause of things together with its effects, whereas experience gives us just the effect of things, not the cause. (d) Both experience and art are views of a contradictory time and space and this is where the difference between the two lies. |
|
[3]
|
Why, according to the author, were the mathematical arts
founded in Egypt?
(a) Because the sciences which do not cater to necessities or pleasures develop only after the previous two have been invented and only then, men have time for themselves. So was the case in Egypt where the priestly caste had ample leisure time. (b) Because the inventors of luxuries were considered more important than the inventors of necessities and in Egypt, the kingly and priestly class had developed great standards in luxurious tastes and attitudes. (c) Because they were men of experience and had wisdom and knowledge about certain principles and causes. (d) Because Egyptians were considered to be connoisseurs of art and crafts and had superior civilization as opposed to the other ancient civilizations. |
|
[4]
|
Which of the following can be considered to be the central
idea of the passage?
(a) Art is superior to experience. (b) What actually is “Wisdom”? (c) “Experience made art, but inexperience luck”. (d) Knowledge is wisdom. |
68. P. Chidambaram might have rubbed Corporate India the
wrong way by putting the big-bang reforms on the backburner, but he has
definitely tried to buy peace with the aam aadmi by increasing investment in
big-ticket projects like Bharat Nirman and National Rural Employment Guarantee
Programme (NREG). While the outlay for Bharat Nirman has been hiked by 31.6%,
allocations for the education sector and health and family welfare schemes have
gone up by 34.2% and by 21.9%, respectively. Chidambaram also surprised many by
increasing the education cess to 3%, from 2%, to fund secondary and higher
education. The government also proposed to increase funding for the midday meal
scheme from the primary level to the upper primary classes in 3,427
educationally backward blocks. However, it has pruned allocation for the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) – a scheme started by the NDA government. To arrest the
dropout ratio after eighth standard, a means-cum-merit scholarship scheme
covering one lakh students has been announced. The first year of the Eleventh
Plan period will also see the appointment of two lakh teachers and construction
of five lakh classrooms.
As the saying goes, well begun is half done. But how many of these noble
intentions will translate into actions? There are many unanswered questions.
One, are the increased outlays enough to achieve the social goals enumerated in
the UPA government’s common minimum programme (CMP)? Two, is the greater
allocation to the flagship programmes in proportion to the GDP growth?
And more importantly, will the increased allocation also fix the lacuna in the
delivery mechanism? The CMP, for instance, has set a 6% target for education
spend (as a proportion of the GDP). However, the spend has hardly touched the
halfway mark as the coalition government moves closer to the end of its tenure.
The education cess has also been swelling the general pool without any firm
commitment from the government on incremental spending to meet specific
objectives. Experts also question the success of the Bharat Nirman project
touted as “the cornerstone of the UPA government’s policies” to fight rural poverty.
The IDFC, for instance, raises doubts about the sustainability of the project
in its India Infrastructure Report 2007. According to Prof Jean Dreze, one of
the architects of the NREG and member of the Central Employment Guarantee
Council, the two big disappointments in the Budgets are the allocations for
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Rural Employment Scheme.
“Both are virtually unchanged as a proportion of GDP. If anything, they have
declined,” points out Dreze. The universalisation of ICDS, one of the core
commitments of the CMP, assumes importance from another angle. The Supreme
Court in a December 2006 directive called for the doubling of operational
anganwadis by 2008 and wanted the government to ensure that all ICDS services
be extended to all children under six. “This cannot be done without increasing
financial allocations. The absence of any such increase in the Budget is an
alarming indication of lack of political commitment to this programme. It is
also, in effect, a violation of the court’s order,” he says.
In the case of Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes, it was estimated by the
now-defunct National Advisory Council (NAC) that at least around Rs 20,000
crores would be required for the fair implementation of the NREG Act in the
country’s 200 poorest districts. However, only Rs 6,000 crores has been spent
as of January 2007 and the implementation is also tardy in many states, says
Dreze “The need of the hour is not only to expand the number of districts
covered by NREGA, but also to raise expenditure levels much close, to the NAC
projections. Instead of this, the government proposes to extend NREGA to 330
districts without any increase in expenditure. This is another sobering
indication of lack of commitment to flagship programmes and to the rural poor,”
says Dreze. TV Mohandas Pai, Director and HR Chief, Infosys, says that the
government, instead of so many incremental steps, should have undertaken
certain path-breaking initiatives in irrigation and health insurance for the
poor. “The government should think of revolutionary steps to catapult the
economy into a much higher orbit. For instance, the subsidies for food,
fertilizers, kerosene and LPG, which account for about Rs 75,000 crore, can be
done away with, and instead, a direct income transfer of Rs 1,000 each, to say
10 crore below-poverty-line families, which the government has already
identified, could have been done,” he says. This way, at one stroke, nearly 50
crore people (assuming five people in a family) will get a kind of social
security, Pai argues.
While it is debatable whether the government would go in for such innovative
methods to address social inequalities, a reality check would be in order.
Otherwise, the ghost of India Shining would come back to haunt the UPA
government as well.
|
[1]
|
Which one ofthe following statements is incorrect?
(a) The implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has not been fair. (b) The mid-day meal scheme has been proposed to be extended to upper primary classes in certain educationally backward blocks. (c) During the period 2007-08, it is planned to construct five lakh classrooms. (d) None of these |
|
[2]
|
Which one ofthe following statements is/are true?
(a) The education cess has also been swelling the general pool without any firm commitment from the government on incremental spending to meet specific objectives. (b) The outlay for Bharat Nirman has been hiked by 31.6%. (c) The CMP has set a 6% target for education spend. (d) All are true |
|
[3]
|
Experts question the success of the Bharat Nirman project
touted as the cornerstone of the UPA government’s policies to
(a) develop rural employment scheme. (b) integrate child development. (c) develop rural areas. (d) fight rural poverty. |
|
[4]
|
In the case of Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes, it is
estimated by the now-defunct National Advisory Council (NAC) that at least
around ................crore would be required for the fair
implementation of the NREG Act in the country’s 200 poorest districts.
(a) Rs 25,000 (b) Rs 20,000 (c) Rs 10,000 (d) Rs 15,000 |
69.The Indian steel industry, in line with global
trends, is at a crossroads, witnessing a resurgent phase of modernization,
expansion and consolidation, mainly through mergers and acquisitions. A sector
that was moribund just about five years ago because of a worldwide slump in
steel prices, the industry has turned the corner and has in fact been vibrant
over the past two years. Domestic steel companies, both public and private, are
surging ahead on the strength of an unprecedented buoyancy in the economy and
the resultant boom in real estate and various infrastructure sectors such as
roads and highways, ports and airports. The official figures speak for
themselves. Powered by an increased demand for steel from neighbouring China,
which has been clocking a 15 per cent sectorial growth annually on account of
construction projects in preparation for the Olympics, the steel industry in
India has grown by about 10 per cent in the past two years, compared with the
global growth rate of about 6 per cent a year. The country’s production of
crude steel in 2005-06 stood at 42.1 million tonnes, reflecting an increase of
per cent over the previous fiscal. On the other hand, the consumption of steel
during the year was pegged at 41.43 million tonnes, a massive growth of 13.88
per cent when compared with the 2004-05 figures. Likewise, the production of
sponge iron also increased sharply by 25 per cent, from about 10.3 million
tonnes in 2004-05 to 12.9 million tonnes in 2005-06. Currently, India is the
largest sponge iron producer in the world and ranks seventh among steel
producing countries. The growth in domestic steel consumption is, by and large,
in keeping with the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) forecast of a
10 per cent increase in steel use in 2006. While the IISI has projected the
global demand for steel to grow by 4.9 per cent in the medium term up to 2010,
it has pegged its forecast for the 2010-15 period at 4.2 per cent annually for
the entire world. The IISI says India will lead the consumption growth story
with an annual demand of 7.7 per cent, followed by China with 6.2 per cent.
More heartening is the indication that the exciting phase in the domestic steel
industry is expected to continue for the next five to seven years at the least,
in terms of both consumption and production. Already, the growth in steel
consumption, as projected by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government
in the National Steel Policy (NSP) formulated in 2005, stands exceeded by a
huge margin. The NSP had conservatively estimated the country’s steel
production to grow by 7.3 per cent, with an annual consumption growth of 6.9
per cent. Considering that the past two years have already witnessed a demand
growth of over 10 per cent, the government expects the healthy trend to
continue during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), provided an annual gross
domestic product (GDP) growth of 9 per cent is achieved during the period as
projected by the Planning Commission. Clearly, for primary steel producers,
India is the place to be in as it has the greatest growth potential. Coupled
with this are two other major factors. One, India is bestowed with the largest
reserves of high-quality ironore in the world. Secondly, the annual per capita
consumption of steel in the country is still one of the lowest in the world, at
35 kilograms against the global benchmark of 250400 kg. In effect, the growth
story in India is here to stay for quite a few decades in view of the sheer
disparity in consumption levels. Not surprising, then, that when the three
ore-rich states – Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh– threw open their doors,
steel-makers of all hues jumped into the fray to sign memoranda of
understanding (MoUs) with more than one state government. In all, more than 116
MoUs have already been inked, pledging a total investment of a whopping Rs
3,57,344 crores in the coming years. If all the pledges materialise, the
country’s installed steel production capacity will surge to anywhere between
150 million and 180 million tonnes by 2014-15, compared with the conservative
NSP target of 110 million tonnes by 2019-20. Orissa signed 43 MoUs to hike its
production capacity to 58.04 million tonnes. Not to be left behind,
Chhattisgarh entered into 42 MoUs to augment its steel capacity to 19.32
million tonnes, while Jharkhand signed 31 MoUs to increase its capacity to
68.67 million tonnes. The extensive availability of rich iron-ore– the basic
raw material for steel-making – in the three states has attracted big global
names too who, at the outset, made it clear that they would require captive
iron-ore mines to feed their greenfield steel projects. Initially, it was the
home-grown Tata Steel that signed an MoU with the Orissa government, in
November 2004 for setting up a six-million-tonne plant at an estimated cost of
Rs 15,400 crores after the government made a commitment that its ore
requirement of 250 million tonnes for a period of 25 years would be met. By the
time Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO), the South Korean major and third largest
global steel producer, approached the Orissa government, the terms turned out
to be far sweeter. Under the MoU signed in June 2005, POSCO plans to set up a
12-million-tonne plant at Paradeep, with an investment of Rs 51,000 crores. The
initial proposal was for a 10-milliontonne plant. But there is a catch here.
The government has committed itself not only to provide 600 million tonnes of
ore on a captive basis for a period of 30 years but also allowing POSCO to
export the quality domestic ore for use in its steel plants in Korea. It has
demanded the raw material from mines in Sundergarh and Keonjhar districts.
Lakshmi N Mittal, the non-resident Indian (NRI) tycoon and world’s biggest
steel-maker following the merger of Mittal Steels with the Luxembourg-based
Arcelor in June last year, did still better. He put Jharkhand and Orissa in
competition by proposing a steel venture in either state, depending upon the
terms and incentives and the swiftness in approvals. Jharkhand lost out–owing
to litigation over its Chiraia ore mines and for other reasons – to Orissa,
which signed an MoU with Mittal Arcelor in December last year for a
12-million-tonne steel plant at Keonjhar.
The state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) also undertook a major
exercise to retain its position as the leading integrated steel producer in the
country. The steel behemoth announced its “Corporate Plan- 2012,’ envisaging an
outlay of Rs. 37,000 crores to upgrade its plants and modernise its operations.
Under the plan, expansion programmes are under way in various SAIL units to
enhance the total production capacity to 22.9 million tonnes of hot metal from
the present 12.5 million tonnes by 2011-12. Late last year, following the
merger of IISCO with SAIL, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation
stone for the modernisation and expansion of ISP (IISCO Steel Plant) with an
investment of Rs 9,592 crores. Mergers of a few more state-owned units with
SAIL are on the cards with a view to consolidating public sector share in the steel
market. The other public sector steel enterprise, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd
(RINL), is already in the process of implementing an ambitious expansion
programme for increasing its liquid steel capacity from the current three
million tonnes to 6.3 million tonnes at an estimated cost of Rs 8,692 crores.
Launched on May 20, 2006, the project is scheduled for completion by 2008-09.
Needless to say, the demand for iron-ore has surged in view of the long-term
supply commitments being given by the State governments at a time when the
international market prices for the raw material are at a high.
This sparked off a debate among domestic steel-makers on whether liberal ore
exports should he permitted, as in the past, or the ore should be conserved to
the extent possible in view of the projected demand for steel. The government
set up a committee under the Planning Commission, headed by Anwarul Hoda, to
recommend changes in the National Mineral Policy. The existing policy permits
free exports of iron ore with a ferrous content of less than 64 per cent. For
export of high-grade ore with higher ferrous content, a licence is required and
is currently canalised through the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation
(MMTC). The Hoda Committee recommended free exports of iron ore with a ferrous
content of less than 65 per cent but advocated discontinuation of the existing
regime of canalisation and export licensing for the high-grade ore. Instead,
the panel suggested free exports of quality ore lumps with ferrous content of
more than 65 per cent on payment of an export duty.
|
[1]
|
According to the passage, the steel industry in India has
grown by ................. in the past two years and In dia ranks
................. among steel-producing countries.
l) 12%, sixth (b) 10%, seventh (c) 8%, first (d) 6% eighth |
|
[2]
|
............. per cent is the projected global demand for
steel to grow in the medium term up to 20 10.
(a) 6.9 (b) 5.9 (c) 4.9 (d) 3.9 |
|
[3]
|
According to the International Iron and Steel Institute,
India will lead the consumption growth with an annual demand of
.............. per cent, followed by China with percent.
(a) 6.2, 5.7 (b) 8.7, 6.7 (c) 5.2, 3.2 (d) 7.7, 6.2 |
|
[4]
|
Which one of the following statements is incorrect?
(a) The licence for export of high-grade iron ore is being canalised through MMTC. (b) With the merger of Mittal Steels with Arcelor, LN Mittal is the world’s biggest steel-maker. (c) A South Korean company is the world’s third largest steel producer. (d) As per Corporate Plan-20l2 of Steel Authority of India Limited, the total production capacity will be enhanced to 12.5 million tonnes by 2011-12. |
70.The Secretary General of the United Nations is
(a) Ban Ki-Moon
(b) Kofi Annan
(c) Boutros Boutros-Ghali
(d) None of these
71.Which among the following matches is incorrect?
(a) World Health Organisation (WHO) - Washington
(b) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - Rome
(c) International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Geneva
(d) United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)- New York
72.Internet was developed upon which among the following
operating systems?
(a) LINUX
(b) UNIX
(c) Windows 98
(d) Sun Solaris
73.The three core values of the Commonwealth Games
movement are
(a) Equality, Brotherhood and Unity
(b) Humanity, Equality and Destiny
(c) Humanity, Equality and Brotherhood
(d) Unity, Humanity and Equality
74.The Chairman of the National Development Council
(NDC) is the
(a) Minister of Information Technology
(b) Finance Minister
(c) Prime Minister
(d) Speaker of Lok Sabha
75.The novel which is not the work of Orhan Pamuk, the
2006 Nobel laureate in Literature, is
(a) Kar(Snow)
(b) Istanbul Memories
(c) Kara Kitap (The Black Book)
(d) Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
76.What is the percentage of India’s population with
respect to the World population?
(a) 26 per cent
(b) 16 per cent
(c) 6 per cent
(d) 36 per cent
77.The Planning Commission of India is
(a) a constitutional body
(b) an advisory body
(c) a statutory body
(d) an independent and autonomous body
78.On the basis of the size and composition of external
debt, World Bank has classified India as a
(a) heavily indebted country
(b) moderately indebted country
(c) less indebted country
(d) severely indebted country
79.What is the purpose of the India Brand Equity Fund?
(a) To organise trade fairs
(b) To promote in-bound tourism
(c) To make ‘Made in India’ a label of quality
(d) To provide venture capital to IT sector
80.The National Stock Exchange functions from
(a) New Delhi
(b) Kolkata
(c) Mumbai
(d) Chennai
81.RBI holds .............. equity in National Housing
Bank
(a) 75%
(b) 60%
(c) 50%
(d) 100%
82.2007 is being celebrated as ‘Friendship year’ between
India and
(a) Nepal
(b) China
(c) Japan
(d) Russia
83.‘Aero India 2001’ was organised during February 2007
at
(a) Kolkata
(b) New Delhi
(c) Mumbai
(d) Bangalore
84.Central Government has declared 2007 as
(a) Water year
(b) Sanitation year
(c) Poverty Alleviation year
(d) None of these
85.For attaining 9% growth rate during 11th Plan,
investment level has been estimated to be
(a) 30% of GDP
(b) 25% of GDP
(c) 20% of GDP
(d) 35% of GDP
86.According to the UNCTAD report, India has acquired
the .............. Place in the world, for receiving the largest FDI in 2006.
(a) Fourth
(b) Third
(c) Second
(d) Fifth
87.Which is India’s largest private sector bank?
(a) UTI Bank
(b) ICICI Bank
(c) HDFC Bank
(d) IDBI Bank
88.Who finally approves the draft five-year plans?
(a) President
(b) Planning Commission
(c) Prime Minister
(d) National Development Council
89.What is ’Super 301'?
(a) A French news channel
(b) An American trade law
(c) A British anti-aircraft missile
(d) None of these
90.The State Government’s agency ‘Housewell’ has
constructed 500 flats for the middle class but inspite of a shortage of houses,
it has not even received 100 applications.
Which of the following, if true, could explain this?
(a) A private builder’s scheme which has come up on the adjacent plot is
overbooked in spite of higher cost and 100% advance payment.
(b) The flats are not accessible either by bus or by train.
(c) The quality of construction of ‘Housewell’ is reported to be very poor.
(d) The cost and conditions of payment are quite demanding and are slightly
higher than the usual government housing schemes.
91.“If you want a hassle-free holiday package for city
M, then join only our tour. Hurry up; only a few seats available” - An
advertisement of XYZ Tourist Company.
If the above statement is true then which of the following has been assumed
while making the statement?
(a) No seats may be available with other tour operators for city M.
(b) Nowadays people have a lot of money to spend on their comforts.
(c) Travel packages offered by other tour operators are neither cheap nor
comfortable.
(d) Many people desire convenience and comfort while going for a holiday.
92.“Cases of food-poisoning have been reported from
village X. After a dinner party arranged for 100 people, 68 were admitted to
the hospital, and 36 were reported to be out of danger. The food, which was
cooked and stored in an open space for almost 12 hours, was served after
reheating. Investigation is going on.” A news report.
Which of the following can be hypothesised from the above information?
(a) Cases of food-poisoning need to be handled carefully.
(b) Stale food is likely to be the cause of food-poisoning.
(c) Late-night dinner parties for a large number of people result in
food-poisoning.
(d) Cases of food-poisoning are not reported in urban dinner parties.
93.In order to qualify in an examination having 6
subjects, a student has to get at least 50% and above marks separately in any 4
subjects and 35% and above in each of the 6 subjects. If a total of 25%
candidates have qualified in the examination, then which of the following is
definitely true?
(a) 50% of the students got 50% and above in 4 subjects but only half of them
could get 35% and above in all the subjects.
(b) 75% ‘of the students could not get at least 35% marks in all the 6 subjects
taken together.
(c) 25% of the students have secured 50% and above in all the 6 subjects.
(d) At least 25% of the students could get at least 35% and above marks in each
of the subjects.
94.Statement: There are many Indians who are honest.
Mohan is an Indian.
Conclusions:
I. Mohan is honest.
II. Mohan is not honest.
(a) Both I and II are implicit
(b) Only II is implicit
(c) Only I is implicit
(d) Neither I nor II is implicit
95.Statement:
All birds are dogs and some dogs are cats.
Conclusions:
I. Some cats are not dogs.
II. All dogs are not birds.
(a) Both I and II are implicit
(b) Only II is implicit
(c) Only I is implicit
(d) Neither I nor II is implicit
96.Statement: There is one thing as important as
studying and that is how much is understood.
Assumptions:
I. Studying and understanding go hand in hand.
II. Understanding is as important as studying.
(a) Both I and II are implicit
(b) Only II is implicit
(c) Only I is implicit
(d) Neither I nor II is implicit
97.Statement: A good system of education in a country is
the flower of economic development; it is also its seed.
Assumptions:
1. Economic development leads to educational development in a country.
II. Educational development leads to economic development in a country.
(a) Both I and II are implicit
(b) Only II is implicit
(c) Only I is implicit
(d) Neither I nor II is implicit
98.A situation and the outcome are presented. Four
statements follow thereafter. Each statement is to be separately evaluated in
relation to the situation and outcome.
Situation: Abhijit Roy is training for a national swimming meet. His event is
800m freestyle. In winning the last five races, his time has never exceeded 8
minutes. His practice performances, in which he studiously attempts to
duplicate all actual racing conditions, have been better. He is a strong
favourite among local sportswriters to win the meet, and his coach Prabhu Dayal
predicts that he will win in record time. Speed Swimming Gear, in the hope of
capitalising on his upcoming victory, has persuaded Roy to be photographed with
their goggles, which he always wears in competition.
Outcome: Roy clocks his worst time ever and finishes fourth.
|
[1]
|
The Speed Swimming Gear company was confident that Roy
would win the race.
(a) if the statement is deducible from the situation, the outcome or both together. (b) if the statement presents a possible adequate explanation of the outcome. (c) if the statement is inconsistent with, or contradicts, the situation, the outcome, or both together. (d) if the statement does not support a possible explanation of the outcome. |
|
[2]
|
Roy’s coach had cautioned him not to expect to do as wel1
as he had in past races.
(a) if the statement is deducible from the situation, the outcome or both together. (b) if the statement presents a possible adequate explanation of the outcome. (c) if the statement is inconsistent with, or contradicts, the situation, the outcome, or both together. (d) if the statement does not support a possible explanation of the outcome. |
|
[3]
|
After the race, several swimmers complained about the high
chlorine content of the water in the pool.
(a) if the statement is deducible from the situation, the outcome or both together. (b) if the statement presents a possible adequate explanation of the outcome. (c) if the statement is inconsistent with, or contradicts, the situation, the outcome, or both together. (d) if the statement does not support a possible explanation of the outcome. |
|
[4]
|
It was revealed after the race that the national swimming
meet was fixed.
(a) if the statement is deducible from the situation, the outcome or both together. (b) if the statement presents a possible adequate explanation of the outcome. (c) if the statement is inconsistent with, or contradicts, the situation, the outcome, or both together. (d) if the statement does not support a possible explanation of the outcome. |
99.Given below are pairs of events I and II. Read both
the events and decide the relationship. Assume that the information given is
true in deciding the answer.
Event (I): This year Bank M has celebrated its silver jubilee.
Event (II): More customers are getting attracted to the market branch of Bank
M.
(a) if I is an effect but II is not its immediate and principal cause.
(b) if I is the immediate and principal cause and II is its effect.
(c) if I is an effect and II is its immediate and principal cause.
(d) if II is an effect but I is not its immediate and principal cause.
100.Given below are pairs of events I and II. Read both
the events and decide the relationship. Assume that the information given is
true in deciding the answer.
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