Directions (1- 7): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below them. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Agriculture forms the problematic nucleus of the macroeconomic knot which ties us up. It called out for attention even before the pressing necessity of having to cope with a 10-day farmers’ agitation starting 1 June. Agriculture (along with agricultural taxation) is on the state list of the Constitution. Strictly speaking, there should never have been a Union ministry of agriculture at the Centre. After the egregious neglect of agriculture by the Nehruvian focus on big industry, which was transmitted to the states, we hit the wall of foodgrain insufficiency in the 1960s. It was the Centre’s trespassing on to agricultural territory that solved the cereal sufficiency problem, even if the problem itself was largely a result of priorities set at the Centre. Cereal anxiety led the Centre to offer minimum support prices (MSPs) for the major cereals, which distorted cropping patterns into the “cerealization” of agriculture, as it is called.
Fast forward to the present time. The cost of food is an ever present threat to the acceptable inflation limits (4% with a 2% band on either side) adopted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and even without that, runs up against the low inflation tolerance of the Indian consuming public. We continue to follow the long-standing policy of trying to keep down the price of foodstuffs by subsidizing agricultural inputs. Zero pricing of power for agriculture has indeed led to enhanced land productivity, but at the expense of over-mining ground water and seriously threatening our survival in the not too distant future. The burden of zero-priced power for farmers was meanwhile borne by the state power sector utilities, leading to a build-up of power sector debt and default to the banking sector. The problem was finally sought to be resolved by shifting the debt build-up to state governments under the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme formulated by the Centre in 2015. State governments which have opted for it are mandated to absorb a stated percentage of annual losses of power utilities, to incentivize them into right pricing of power for farmers. The evidence so far suggests that states prefer to shoulder the fiscal costs rather than charge farmers a non-zero price for power.
In the Union Budget 2018, for the first time, there was a national commitment to MSPs across the board for all crops. Disregarding the debate over how cultivation costs will be configured, this was for the first time a national policy of crop neutrality in agriculture, although the responsibility for actually delivering on the MSP promise is split in a confusing way between Centre and states, depending on the crop. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) posts MSPs on its website for foodgrains, oilseeds, sugarcane and some non-food commercial crops (23 in all, not counting variants). State governments can optionally announce a further enhancement to the MSP for their farmers for these crops. The whole picture is muddied by the fact that the open-ended commitment to absorb all produce at the announced price, implicit in an MSP, is most usually not honoured, on account of either fiscal or warehousing limits. There is the further problem that the MSP is payable to owners and not to tenants actually cultivating the land.
When the price of onions in Madhya Pradesh crashed at the time of the rabi harvest in 2017 to 50 paise per kg, there were farmer riots, which were quelled by police firing. The state government re-constituted price support into a Bhavantar (price differential) scheme—the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana—with a commitment to top up the farm gate price in case it fell below a threshold level. This year, the farm gate price of the onion harvest is reported to have fallen further, to a low of 30 paise per kg. The announced threshold price for onions was Rs8 per kg.
With that kind of a market price crash, Bhavantar has basically morphed into a full-fledged MSP, the only difference being that there is no government procurement, and therefore no need for public warehousing. Before onions this year, there was the garlic price crash. Both onions and garlic are storable crops which have been bought by traders at throwaway prices for slow release later.
Q1. According to the passage, what had led to the terrible state of farmers?
(a) Negligence in agriculture sector by the government.
(b) insufficient food grains
(c) Excessive fall in prices of food grains
(d) distorted cropping pattern
(e) All of the above
Q2. According to the passage, Zero pricing power leads to?
(I) increase in costs of the crops productivity.
(II) increase in land productivity
(III) increase in power sector debt
(a) Only (I)
(b) Only (III)
(c) Both (I) and (II)
(d) Both (II) and (III)
(e) All are correct
Q3. How is it correct to say that the MSP structure of the CACP is fairly ragged at the margins?
(a) As it leads to cereal anxiety among the farmers.
(b) As MSP is payable to owners not to tenants.
(c) The prices of crops set by the government is not obeyed by all.
(d) both (b) and (c)
(e) All are correct
Q4. Which of the following sentences is/ are correct for Minimum support prices in context of the passage?
(I) It is announced first time in Union budget 2018 to set the prices for all crops.
(II) Minimum support prices can uplift the condition of farmers.
(III) It is decided by the central government only.
(IV) It is defined as the rise in the cost of production of all the crops.
(a) Only (I) and (II)
(b) Only (II) and (III)
(c) Only (I), (II) and (IV)
(d) Only (II), (III) and (IV)
(e) All are correct
Q5. The appropriate title of the passage is
(a) The cereal sufficiency problem
(b) Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices
(c) The Union Budget announcement 2018
(d) The Minimum support prices for farmers.
(e) Agricultural core of macroeconomic problem
Q6. Which of the following alternatives among the five provides the most similar meaning(s) of the word given in BOLD as used in the passage?
Egregious
(I) flagrant
(II) heinous
(III) nefarious
(IV) atrocious
(a) Only (I) and (II)
(b) Only (II) and (III)
(c) Only (I), (II) and (IV)
(d) Only (II), (III) and (IV)
(e) All are correct
Q7. Which of the following alternatives among the five provides the most similar meaning(s) of the word given in BOLD as used in the passage?
Quell
(I) rile
(II) thwart
(III) quench
(IV) annihilate
(a) Only (I) and (II)
(b) Only (II) and (III)
(c) Only (I), (II) and (IV)
(d) Only (II), (III) and (IV)
(e) All are correct
Directions (8-10): Given below the sentences each of which has been divided into four parts. Each of the questions is then followed by the five options which give the sequence of the rearranged parts. You must choose the option which gives the correct sequence of the parts. If the sentence is already arranged in the correct sequence or the correct sequence doesn’t match with any of the given sequence, mark option (e).i.e. “None of the above” as your answer.
Q8. the RBI’s statement that it would (A)/maintain an accommodative stance as (B)/ clearly signals its commitment to growth (C)/ long as necessary to revive growth (D)
(a) ADCB
(b) DCBA
(c) ABDC
(d) DABC
(e) None of the above
Q9. The report by a German cybersecurity firm (A)/ available on the Internet is worrying (B) / patients were leaked and are freely (C)/ that medical details of millions of Indian (D)
(a) ADCB
(b) DCBA
(c) ABDC
(d) DABC
(e) None of the above
Q10. claimed was a move to provide (A)/significant relief to individual taxpayers (B)/by simplifying the income tax law (C)/ Ms. Sitharaman announced what she (D)
(a) ADCB
(b) DCBA
(c) ABDC
(d) DABC
(e) None of the above
Solutions
S1. Ans. (e)
Sol. All the statements are correct. We can deduce our answer from first paragraph of the passage in which it has been mentioned the condition of agriculture sector and farmers in India.
Hence All the given sentences are correct.
S2. Ans. (d)
Sol. Refer the second paragraph of the passage in which it has been clearly mentioned the effects of Zero pricing power. Hence only statements (II) and (III) are correct.
Refer the lines “Zero pricing of power for agriculture has indeed led to enhanced land productivity, but at the expense of over-mining ground water and seriously threatening our survival in the not too distant future. “
“The burden of zero-priced power for farmers was meanwhile borne by the state power sector utilities, leading to a build-up of power sector debt and default to the banking sector.”
S3. Ans. (d)
Sol. Refer the third paragraph of the passage, from which we can deduce our answer as sentences (b) and (c). It has been clearly mentioned there the issues related to the MSP structure.
Sentence (a) is irrelevant in context of the passage.
Hence option (d) is the most appropriate choice.
Refer the lines “The whole picture is muddied by the fact that the open-ended commitment to absorb all produce at the announced price, implicit in an MSP, is most usually not honoured, on account of either fiscal or warehousing limits. There is the further problem that the MSP is payable to owners and not to tenants actually cultivating the land.”
S4. Ans. (c)
Sol. Only Sentences (I), (II) and (IV) are correct. With respect to the passage, we can conclude that Minimum support prices is the price which is set above the costs of production of all the crops by the central and state government considering the condition of farmers.
Sentence (III) is incorrect as state government can further make amendments to the prices.
Hence option (c) is the correct answer choice.
Refer the third paragraph of the passage.
S5. Ans. (e)
Sol. “Agricultural core of macroeconomic problem” is an appropriate title of the passage.
S6. Ans. (e)
Sol. Egregious means outstandingly bad; shocking. Hence all the words are similar in meaning to it.
S7. Ans. (d)
Sol. Quell meaning put an end to (a rebellion or other disorder), typically by the use of force. Hence it has same meaning as quench, thwart and annihilate.
Rile means make annoyed or irritated.
S8. Ans. (c)
Sol. The correct sequence is ABDC. The sentence after rearrangement is,
The RBI’s statement that it would maintain an accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive growth clearly signals its commitment to growth.
Hence, option (c) is the right answer choice.
S9. Ans. (a)
Sol. The correct sequence is ADCB. The sentence after rearrangement is,
The report by a German cybersecurity firm that medical details of millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely available on the Internet is worrying.
Hence, option (a) is the right answer choice.
S10. Ans. (d)
Sol. The correct sequence is DABC. The sentence after rearrangement is,
Ms. Sitharaman announced what she claimed was a move to provide significant relief to individual taxpayers by simplifying the income tax law.
Hence, option (d) is the right answer choice.
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