Insights Revision Plan for Prelims 2016: Test – 40

Passage – 1

The Himalayan ecosystem is highly vulnerable to damage, both due to geological reasons and on account of the stress caused by increased pressure of population, exploitation of natural resources and other related challenges. These aspects may be exacerbated due to the impact of climate change. It is possible that climate change may adversely impact the Himalayan ecosystem through increased temperature altered precipitation patterns, episodes of drought and biotic influences.

This would not only impact the very sustenance of the indigenous communities in uplands but also the life of downstream dwellers across the country and beyond.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for giving special attention to sustain the Himalayan ecosystem. This would require conscious efforts for conserving all the representative systems.

Further, it needs to be emphasized that the endemics with restricted distribution, and most often with specialized habitat requirements, are among the most vulnerable elements. In this respect the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, with rich endemic diversity, is vulnerable to climate change.

The Threats include possible loss of genetic resources and species, habitats and concomitantly a decrease in ecosystem services. Therefore, conservation of endemic elements in representative ecosystems/habitats assumes a great significance while drawing conservation plans for the region.

Towards achieving the above, we will have to shift towards contemporary conservation approaches, which include a paradigm of landscape level interconnectivity between protected area systems. The concept advocates a shift from the species-habitat focus to an inclusive focus on expanding the bio-geographic range so that natural adjustments to climate change can proceed without being restrictive.

Consider the following statements:

According to the passage, the adverse impact of climate change on an ecosystem can be a

1. Permanent disappearance of some of its flora and fauna.
2. Permanent disappearance of ecosystem itself.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Which one of the following statements best implies the need to shift toward contemporary conservation approach?

What is the most important message conveyed by the passage?

With reference to the passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. To maintain natural ecosystems, exploitation of natural resources should be completely avoided.

2. Not only anthropogenic but also natural reasons can adversely affect ecosystems.

3. Loss of endemic diversity leads to the extinction of ecosystems.

Which of the above assumptions is/are correct?

Passage – 2

It is often forgotten that globalization, is not only about policies on international economic relationships and transactions, but has equally to do with domestic policies of a nation. Policy changes necessitated by meeting the internationally set conditions (by WTO etc.) of free trade and investment flows obviously affect domestic producers and investors. But the basic philosophy underlying globalization emphasizes absolute freedom to markets to determine prices and production and distribution patterns, and view government interventions as processes that create distortions and bring in inefficiency. Thus, public enterprises have to be privatized through disinvestments and sales; sectors and activities hitherto reserved for the public sector have to be opened to the private sector. This logic extends to the social services like education and health. Any restrictions on the adjustments in workforce by way of retrenchment of workers should also be removed and exit should be made easier by removing any restrictions on closures. Employment and wages should be governed by free play of market forces, as any measure to regulate them can discourage investment and also create inefficiency in production.

Above all, in line with the overall philosophy of reduction in the role of the state, fiscal reforms should be undertaken to have generally low levels of taxation and government expenditure should be kept to the minimum to abide by the principle of fiscal prudence. All these are policy actions on the domestic front and are not directly related to the core items of the globalization agenda, namely free international flow of goods and finance.

 According to the passage, under the globalization, government interventions are viewed as processes leading to

According to the passage, the basic philosophy of globalization is to

According to the passage, which of the following is/are necessary for ensuring globalization?

1. Privatization of public enterprises

2. Expansionary policy of public expenditure

3. Free play of market forces to determine wages and employment

4. Privatization of social services like education and health.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

According to the passage, in the process globalization the State should have

Passage -1

In recent times, India has grown fast not only compared to its own past but also in comparison with other nations. But there cannot be any room for complacency because it is possible for the Indian economy to develop even faster and also to spread the benefits of this growth more widely than has been done thus far. Before going into details of the kinds of micro-structural changes that we need to conceptualize and then proceed to implement, it is worthwhile elaborating on the idea of inclusive growth that constitutes the defining concept behind this Government’s various economic policies and decisions. A nation interested in inclusive growth views the same growth differently depending on whether the gains of the growth are heaped primarily on a small segment or shared widely by the population. The latter is cause for celebration but not the former. In other words, growth must not be treated as an end in itself but as an instrument for spreading prosperity to all. India’s own past experience and the experience of other nations suggests that growth is necessary for eradicating poverty but it is not a sufficient condition. In other words, policies for promoting growth need to be complemented with policies to ensure that more and more people join’ in the growth process and, further,· that there are mechanisms in place to redistribute some of the gains to those who are unable to partake in the market process and, hence, get left behind.

A simple way of giving this idea of inclusive growth a sharper form is to measure a nation’s progress in terms of the progress of its poorest segment, for instance the bottom 20 per cent of the’ population. One could measure the per capita income of the bottom quintile of the population and also calculate the growth rate of income; and evaluate our economic success in terms of these measures that pertain to the poorest segment. This approach is attractive because it does not ignore growth like some of the older heterodox criteria did. It simply looks at the growth of income of the poorest sections of the population. It also ensures that those who are outside of the bottom quintile do not get ignored. If that were done, then those people would in all likelihood drop down into the bottom quintile and so would automatically become a direct target of our policies. Hence the criterion being suggested here is a statistical summing up of the idea of inclusive growth, which, in turn, leads to two corollaries: to wish that India must strive to achieve high growth and that we must work to ensure that the weakest segments benefit from the growth.

 The author’s central focus is on

The author supports policies which will help

Consider the following statements:

According to the author, India’s economy his grown but there is no room for complacency as

1. growth eradicates poverty.

2. growth has resulted in prosperity all.

Which of the statements given above is/a correct?

Passage -2

It is easy for the government to control State-owned companies through nods and winks. So what really needs to be done as first step is to put petrol pricing on a transparent formula – if the price of crude is x and the exchange rate y, then every month or fortnight, the government announces a maximum price of petrol, which anybody can work out from the x and Y. The rule has to be worked out to make sure that the oil-marketing can, in general, cover their costs. This will mean that if one company can innovate and cut costs, it will make greater profits. Hence, firms will be more prone to innovate and be efficient under this system. Once the rule is announced, there should be no interference by the government. If this is done for a while, private companies will re-enter this market. And once a sufficient number of them are in the fray, we can remove the rule-based pricing and leave it truly to the market (subject to, of course, the usual relations of anti-trust and other competition laws).

Consider the following statements: According to the passage, an oil company can make greater profits, if a transparent formula for petrol pricing is announced every fortnight or month, by

1. promoting its sales.

2. undertaking innovation.

3. cutting costs.

4. selling its equity shares at higher prices.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Consider the following statements:

According to the passage, private oil companies re-enter the oil producing market if

1. a transparent rule-based petrol pricing exists.

2. There is no government interference in the oil producing market.

3. subsidies are given by the government.

4. regulations of anti-trust are removed .

Which of the statements given above are correct?