Banking Sample Paper IBPS PO (Main) Sample Test Paper-2

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    Direction: Read the following passage divided into five paragraphs carefully and answer the questions that follow. Paragraph 1. Ask the man on the street, or the CRO of a Sensex company what India needs to do to lift itself out of sluggish growth and the answer is likely to be that overused term — 'reforms'. But it is in agreeing on what those reforms entail that businessmen, think tanks, political parties and economists are divided right down the middle. Paragraph 2. So, to kick start job creation, should the Government woo foreigners or invite local businessmen? To help the poor, should the Centre build more toilets or open bank accounts? To ensure investment revives, do we need more government or less? In his book India: Priorities/or the Future, former RBI governor Bimal Jalan keeps away from such fruitless micro-level debates and trains his analytical prowess on recommending reforms to fix the political and governance systems that run the country. Paragraph 3. Jalan posits quite early in the book that India has an over-abundance of plans and schemes. But what keeps the nation from attaining its always-high potential is that all of them remain on paper. Nothing about its governance framework — the electoral system, the working of Parliament, Centre-State relations, the 'steel frame' of civil services, the public delivery system—works as it should. The growing divide between politics and economics, where a government's performance on growth or poverty alleviation matters little to its winning elections, is another big problem. He argues for deep-rooted reforms to fix the broken workings of these institutions. Paragraph 4. The first seven chapters of the book are many devoted to diagnosing the problems that hamstring, the implementation of India's development agenda. The solutions, summarised in the final chapter, are very specific. For instance, the current anti-defection laws, the author argues, provide incentives for the fragmentation of political parties, often resulting in situations where even four-member parties join a coalition government, threaten often to leave it, and hold the entire elected government to ransom. He suggests amending the anti-defection law to ensure that elected representatives who willingly join a coalition, should not be able to switch camps without seeking re-election. The author rues the tendency of recent governments to pass new laws without bothering about the niceties of a full parliamentary debate and the unruly behaviour which disrupts the House. He suggests a legislative cap on the number of adjournments permitted during a session. Paragraph 5. The book is critical of the declining administrative capacity of the bureaucracy to implement the grand plans of the Government. It thus prescribes greater autonomy for the civil services from ministerial whims. But it also suggests doing away with the special legal protection to civil servants under Article 311 of the Constitution and the Official Secrets Act. The delivery of public services could be made vastly more efficient if the Government delegated the job to private agencies. Such public-private collaboration worked fine in the case of the Public Call Offices and the Sulabh Shauchalays: two key public services delivered by the private sector, the author points out. Overall, the book cuts a wide swathe across economics, politics and public administration. But then, Jalan has been in a unique position to observe the workings of multiple institutions by virtue of his varied stints in policymaking roles within the Government and outside of it. His prescriptions are quite specific, as a result.

    Find the incorrect statement on the basis of paragraph 5.         

    A)  Civil servants should be given greater autonomy from ministerial whims.

    B)  Civil servants should be given special legal protection.

    C)  To make the delivery of public services more efficient public-private collaboration can be more effective.

    D)  Only (a) and (b)

    E)  Only (b) and (c)

    Correct Answer: B


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