DAY – 67 (InstaTest-67): Insta 75 Days Revision Plan-2020: Topic – Economy, Previous year UPSC papers – 2009, August 2019 CA

Solution: A

Annual study of state-level budgets is released by RBI.

Important Observations:

• Except during 2016-17, state governments have regularly met their fiscal deficit target of 3% of GDP
• However, most states ended up meeting the fiscal deficit target not by increasing their revenues but by reducing their expenditure and increasingly borrowing from the market
• States now have a greater role to play in determining India’s GDP than the Centre.States now spend one-and-a-half times more than the Union government
• If a state, or all the states in aggregate, find it difficult to raise revenues, a rising mountain of debt — captured in the debt-to-GDP ratio — could start a vicious cycle.

Extra Reading

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act

The Act was enacted in 2003 which set targets for the government to reduce fiscal deficits. The targets were put off several times.

Hence, in May 2016, the government set up a committee under NK Singh to review the FRBM Act.

The committee recommended that the government should target a fiscal deficit of 3% of the GDP in the years up to March 31, 2020, cut it to 2.8% in 2020-21 and to 2.5% by 2023.

https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/AnnualPublications.aspx?head=State%20Finances%20:%20A%20Study%20of%20Budgets

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/rbi-state-budget-explained-gdp-economy-6056708/

Solution: D

Comparative entrepreneurial intensity: Between 2006 and 2016, the mean (median) number of new firms registered per year per 1000 workers was 0.10(0.11). In contrast, the mean (median) entrepreneurial intensity for the United Kingdom and the United States was 12.22 (11.84) and 12.12 (11.81) respectively.

 Dominance in Informal sector:

India has low rates of entrepreneurship in the formal economy. In contrast to the other countries, a large number of India’s enterprises operate in the informal economy which is not captured in these data.

Entrepreneurship and GDP: The entrepreneurial activity is related to economic growth as it acts as an engine of economic growth and change in India. Regarding this survey observes the following:

 A 10 per cent increase in registration of new firms per district-year yields a 1.8per cent increase in GDDP(Gross Domestic District Product)

 Though the peninsular states dominate entry of new firms, entrepreneurship is dispersed across India and is not restricted just to a few metropolitan cities.

 Spatial Heterogeneity exits in distribution of Entrepreneurial Activity in India i.e. varied level of entrepreneurial activity across the districts. The survey finds that all four regions except certain eastern states in India demonstrate strong growth in entrepreneurial activity over time.

 While Gujarat’s labour reforms are viewed as pro-worker, the state has also passed other regulations that improve ease of doing business, including reduction in compliance burden, transparent and timely processing of approval and renewal of applications, etc.

 Rajasthan too has introduced several reforms that are viewed as pro-employer. For example, to reduce the influence of trade unions, the state has increased the costs of union formation by increasing the minimum membership requirement to form a union to 30 per cent of the total workforce at an establishment, up from 15 per cent earlier.

Solution: A

Pro-Business, Creative destruction and Wealth creation

Other than the SENSEX growth, pro- business sentiments also led to the following:

 The years following 1991 liberalization saw the rapid emergence of new firms, new ideas, new technologies and new operating processes, causing a steep revision of the Sensex in 1996.

 New sectors like banks and financials entered the index for the first time, eroding the predominance of the manufacturing sector on the index, placing the services sector on the map for the first time.

 The diversity of sectors in the Sensex steadily increased over time following market reforms. The initial Sensex of 1986 was dominated by the Materials and Consumer Discretionary sectors, accounting for two-thirds of the firms on the Sensex. Sectors like financials, telecommunications and information technology were non-existent in the index then. With the entry of these new sectors, today’s Sensex is far less concentrated than the Sensex of the 1980sand 1990s, and mirrors the far lower sectoral concentration of the Indian economy as a whole.

 Over the years, the share of services sector in the total number of companies on the Sensex has changed from being negligible in the 1980s to the dominant status today. The rising share in market capitalization has been accomplished by a rise in number of companies rather than a rise in size of incumbents, suggesting greater competition within these sectors.

 The difference between the sizes of the largest and smallest firms is rapidly shrinking, and consequently monopoly power in the economy is declining and making way for more competitive markets. In 1991, the size of the largest firm was nearly 100 times the smallest firm which got reduced to 12 in 2018.

Solution: B

About IFC- IOR:

1. The IFC-IOR was established with the vision of strengthening maritime security in the region and beyond,by building a common coherent maritime situation picture and acting as a maritime information hub for the region.
2. The IFC has been established at the Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram,which is the single point centre linking all the coastal radar chains to generate a seamless real-time picture of the nearly 7,500-km coastline.
3. Through this Centre, information on “white shipping”, or commercial shipping, will be exchanged with countries in the region to improve maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean.

https://www.insightsonindia.com/2019/10/07/information-fusion-centre-ifc-for-the-indian-ocean-region-ior-4/

Solution: C

Economic freedom enhances wealth creation by enabling efficient allocation of entrepreneurial resources and energy to productive activities, thereby promoting economic dynamism.

Facts:

 The Index of Economic Freedom, which is brought out by the Heritage Foundation, India was categorized as ‘mostly unfree’ with a score of 55.2 in2019 ranking the Indian economy 129th among 186 countries, i.e., in the bottom 30 per cent of countries.

 The Global Economic Freedom Index, which is brought out by the Fraser Institute, India ranks 79th among 162 countries with 108th rank in business regulation.

The low rank in economic freedom makes it evident that India chains opportunities for wealth creation by shackling economic freedom for its citizens.

Solution: D

Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955Features:

 Controls the production, supply and distribution of, and trade and commerce in, certain goods such as vegetables, pulses, edible oils, sugar etc., which are treated as essential commodities by Imposing Stockholding limit, restrict movement of goods, and mandate compulsory purchases under the system of levy.

 The powers to implement the provisions of the Act are delegated to the States.

 The purported aim of this Act is to ensure affordability of essential commodities for the poor by restricting hoarding.

Impact: Creates Market Distortions: As agriculture is a seasonal activity, it is essential to store produce for the off-season to ensure smoothened availability of a product at stable prices throughout the year.

Therefore, producers face an inherent tradeoff between building an inventory in the harvest season and drawing down inventory in the lean season. ECA interferes with this mechanism by disincentivizing investments in warehousing and storage facilities due to frequent and unpredictable imposition of stock limits.

Solution: A

Green Crackers
They are less harmful and less dangerous than the conventional ones. They are the crackers with reduced emission and decibel level.

They are known as ‘green’ firecrackers because they have a chemical formulation that produces water molecules, which substantially reduces emission levels and absorbs dust.
It promises a reduction in particulate matters and harmful gases, like nitrous oxide and sulfur oxide, by 30- 35 per cent and the green crackers will be 25-30 per cent cheaper to manufacture.
Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed green crackers, which are new and improved formulations of the previous sound-emitting crackers and other fireworks

Solution: B

Facts on India’s Export scenario:

 Post the 1991 reforms, India’s share in merchandise (goods) exports has grown at 13.2 per cent per annum.

 India’s share in world exports has increased from 0.6 per cent in 1991 to 1.7per cent in 2018. Yet, even by 2018, India’s world market share remains paltry compared to 12.8 per cent for China.

 Imports of merchandise have grown faster (at the rate of 14.9 per cent per annum during 1993-2018) than exports, resulting in increasing trade deficits.

World Exports of Network Products: Trends and Patterns

 World exports of NP increased steadily from US$ 2.01 Trillion in 2000 to US$5.41 Trillion in 2018. On an average, NP accounts for about 42 per cent of world manufactured exports.

 Asia’s share in world exports of NP increased phenomenally from about 37 percent in 2000 to 51 per cent in 2018. East Asia accounted for the bulk of total Asian exports followed by Southeast. Rest of Asia (including South, Central and Western Asia) accounted for just 3 per cent of the total Asian exports.

 India’s export of NP increased from about US$2 billion in 2000 to US$32 billion in 2018, its participation in this market remains miniscule compared to that of other Asian countries. Despite some increase, NP exports accounts for a very small share (10 per cent in 2018)in India’s export basket. In contrast, these products account for about one half of the total national exports of China, Japan and Korea.

 Main category of NP exported by India is Road vehicles with a share of 4.9 percent in its total exports in 2018 (up from 1.3 per cent in 2000). In contrast, Electrical machinery, which accounts for the largest share in the export baskets of China (16.8 per cent) and Korea (30.5 per cent), accounts for less than 3 percent of India’s total exports.

Solution: B

Banking structure: Since Nationalization till today

 The modern banking system in India has its roots in the colonial era starting in the 1800s. PSBs in India were formed through two waves of nationalizations, one in 1969 and the other in 1980.

 After the 1980 nationalization, PSBs had a 91 per cent share in the national banking market with the remaining 9 per cent held by “old private banks”(OPBs) that were not nationalized. However, the share of PSBs has reduced to70% in recent times. Reduced stake has been absorbed by New Private Banks(NPBs) which came up in early 1990s after liberalization.

The government exercises significant control over all aspects of PSB operations ranging from policies on recruitment and pay to investments and financing and bank governance including board and top management appointments.

The majority ownership by the government also subjects PSB officers to scrutiny of their decisions by the central vigilance commission and the comptroller auditor general. With no real restrictions on what can be investigated and under what circumstances, officers of state-run banks are wary of taking risks in lending or in renegotiating bad debt, due to fears of harassment under the veil of vigilance investigations.

Solution: D
The Mahamastakabhisheka, refers to the abhiṣheka of the Jain images when held on a large scale. The most famous of such consecrations is the anointment of the Bahubali Gommateshwara Statue located at Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, India. It is an important Jain festival held once in every 12 years. (UPSC 2009 Prelims).

Solution: B

Receipts Highlights for 2020-21

 Total receipts (including borrowings) in 2020-21 are estimated to be Rs30,42,230 crore and net receipts (excluding borrowings) to be Rs 22,45,893 crore. Receipts (without borrowings) are estimated to increase by 16.3% overthe revised estimates of 2019-20.

 Gross tax revenue is budgeted to increase by 12% over the revised estimates of 2019-20, which is higher than the estimated nominal GDP growth of 10% in 2020-21. The net tax revenue of the central government(excluding states’ share in taxes) is estimated to be Rs 16,35,909 crore in2020-21.

 Devolution to states from center’s tax revenue is estimated to be Rs7,84,181 crore in 2020-21. In 2019-20, the devolution to states reduced by19% from an estimate of Rs 8,09,133 crore at the budgeted stage to Rs6,56,046 crore at the revised stage.

 Non-tax revenue is expected to be Rs 3,85,017 crore in 2020-21. This is11.4% higher than the revised estimate of 2019-20.

 Capital receipts (without borrowings) are budgeted to increase by 175.7%over the revised estimates of 2019-20. This is on account of disinvestments, which are expected to be Rs 2,10,000 crore in 2020-21, as compared to Rs65,000 crore as per the revised estimates of 2019-20.

Solution: B

The expenditure on major subsidies, which is a significant component of non committed revenue expenditure was pegged at 1.4 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 BE. The budgetary expenditure on major subsidies has shown a declining trend over the past years.

Expenditure on Subsidies

In 2020-21, the total expenditure on subsidies is estimated to be Rs2,62,109 crore, a decrease of 0.5% from the revised estimate of 2019-20.This is largely due to a decrease in expenditure on fertilizer subsidy. Details are given below:

 Food subsidy: Allocation to food subsidy is estimated at Rs 1,15,570crore in 2020-21, a 6.3% increase as compared to the revised estimate of2019-20. In 2019-20 budget, Rs 1,84,220 crore was allocated to food subsidy. However, the revised estimate is much lower than the budgeted estimate at Rs 1,08,688 crore. This is due to a 41% cut (Rs 75,532 crore in amount) in the allocation to food subsidy for 2019-20 from the budgeted stage to the revised stage.

 Fertilizer subsidy: Expenditure on fertilizer subsidy is estimated at Rs71,309 crore in 2020-21. This is a decrease of Rs 8,689 crore (10.9%) from the revised estimate of 2019-20.

 Petroleum subsidy: Expenditure on petroleum subsidy is estimated to increase by 6.1% to Rs 40,915 crore in 2020-21. Petroleum subsidy consists of subsidy on LPG (Rs 37,256 crore) and kerosene subsidy (Rs 3,659 crore). In 2020-21, while the LPG subsidy is estimated to increase by Rs 3,170crore over the previous year, kerosene subsidy is estimated to decrease by Rs 824 crore.

 Other subsidies: Expenditure on other subsidies includes interest subsidies for various government schemes, subsidies for the price support scheme for agricultural produce, and assistance to state agencies for procurement, among others. In 2020-21, the expenditure on these other subsidies has decreased by Rs 1,987 crore (5.5%) over the revised estimate of 2019-20. Table 4 provides details of subsidies in 2020-21.

Solution: C

National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) Project:

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, gave details on the status of implementation of National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) Project.

e-Vidhan:

• It is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) comes under the Digital India Programme.
• Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (MoPA) is the ‘Nodal Ministry’ for its implementation in all the 31 States/UTs with Legislatures.
• The funding for e-Vidhan is provided by the MoPA and technical support by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MietY).
• The funding of NeVA is through Central Sponsored Scheme i.e. 60:40; and 90:10 for North East & hilly States and 100% for UTs.

Aim of NeVA:

• It aims to bring all the legislatures of the country together, in one platform thereby creating a massive data depository without having the complexity of multiple applications.
• Paperless Assembly or e-Assembly is a concept involving of electronic means to facilitate the work of Assembly.
• It enables automation of entire law making process, tracking of decisions and documents, sharing of information.
• Through the cloud technology (Meghraj), data deployed can be accessed anywhere at any time.
• The live webcasting of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV is also available on this application.
• Doordarshan has already been enabled with provision to incorporate similar facility in respect of State Legislatures.
• Himachal Pradesh is already the first Digital Legislature of the country.

Solution: C

In the import basket of 2019-20 (April-November), crude petroleum had the largest share followed by gold and petroleum products. However, between2011-12 and 2019-20, imports of Electronics grew the fastest from a negligible share to 3.6 per cent (Figure 15).

China continues to be the largest exporter to India followed by USA, UAE and Saudi Arabia. In recent times, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore have also emerged as significant exporters to India (Figure 16).

Solution: C

The bilateral trade position with respect to top trading partners over a period of time is shown in Table 3. With two top trading countries i.e. USA and United Arab Emirates, India has consistently run trade surplus since 201415. On the other hand, India has trade deficit continuously since 2014-15with respect to other major trading partners i.e. China PRP, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Germany, Korea RP, Indonesia and Switzerland. India had trade surplus with Hong Kong and Singapore till 2017-18, before it changed to trade deficit in 2018-19. The bilateral imbalances have remained stable in most cases.

Solution: C

Institutions of Eminence scheme:

• The scheme of IoE was rolled out by University Grants Commission (UGC).
• It aims to project Indian institutes to global recognition.
• The selected institutes will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.
• The selection shall be made through challenge method mode by the Empowered Expert Committee constituted for the purpose.
• Eligibility: Only higher education institutions currently placed in the top 500 of global rankings or top 50 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) are eligible to apply for the eminence tag.
• The private Institutions of Eminence can also come up as Greenfield ventures-provided the sponsoring organisation submits a convincing perspective plan for 15 years.
• There will be no financial assistance to the private institutions.

Solution: A

Net Services: India’s net services surplus has been steadily declining in relation to GDP since it reached its peak to about two-thirds of merchandise deficit in 2016-17.

Services Exports: An increase in service exports to GDP ratio has a net positive impact on the BoP position.

 India’s service exports have consistently hovered between 7.4 to 7.7per cent of GDP.

 Software services constitute around 40-45 per cent, followed by business services at about 18-20 per cent, travel at 11-14 per cent and transportation at 9-11 per cent of service exports.

Service Imports: An increase in service imports to GDP ratio has a net negative impact on the BoP position.

 Over the years, service imports in relation to GDP has been steadily rising given arising level of FDI and a gradual up scaling of the Make in India program.

 Business services constitute about a third of service imports and the component of travel services has been steadily increasing reflecting the growing attractiveness of global destinations to the domestic tourists in the country.

Solution: C

Net Remittances: An increase in net remittances improves the BoP position.

 Net remittances from Indians employed overseas has increased withthe amount received in the first half of 2019-20 being more than 50per cent of the total receivables in 2018-19.

 The Migration Report 2019 released by the United Nations has placed India as the leading country of origin of international migrants in2019 with a Diaspora strength of 17.5 million.

 Further, as per the October 2019 report of World Bank, India remained the top remittance recipient country in 2018 followed by China.

Solution: B

Price stabilization fund:

• It is Central Sector Scheme
• Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) refers to any fund constituted for the purpose of containing extreme volatility in prices of selected commodities
• The amount in the fund is generally utilized for activities aimed at bringing down/up the high/low prices say for instance, procurement of such products and distribution of the same as and when required, so that prices remain in a range.
• Many countries use such dedicated funds for stabilization of major petroleum product prices, particularly if they are importers.
• Some countries use such funds for stabilizing not just commodity prices but a variety of key macroeconomic variables such as the exchange rate (which is nothing but the price of the domestic currency expressed in terms of an external currency), benchmark stock indices etc.
• It aims to support market interventions for price control of perishable agri-horticultural commodities.

Solution: D

Developments in G-sec Market: Initially yield on G-Sec hardened marginally on account of rise in crude oil prices.

Thereafter, it largely followed a downward trend which may be attributed to various reasons:

 Change in monetary policy stance of the U.S. Fed (on global growth concerns and ongoing trade tensions).

 Easing of liquidity condition of the banking system.

 Consecutive policy rate cuts by the RBI along with change of stance from neutral to accommodative.

 Benign crude oil prices aided the sentiment.

 Transfer of RBI surplus to the Government.

 Significant and sustained surplus liquidity.

 Special Open Market Operation (purchase of long-term securities and simultaneous sale of short-term securities) by Reserve Bank of India also helped bring down the yield slightly on 10-year G-Secs.

Solution: B

PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation):

• Context: The Prime Minister recently chaired his thirtieth interaction through PRAGATI – the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.
• PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) is a unique integrating and interactive platform.
• The platform is aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments.
• The PRAGATI platform uniquely bundles three latest technologies: Digital data management, video-conferencing and geo-spatial technology.
• It also offers a unique combination in the direction of cooperative federalism since it brings on one stage the Secretaries of Government of India and the Chief Secretaries of the States.
• With this, the Prime Minister is able to discuss the issues with the concerned Central and State officials with full information and latest visuals of the ground level situation. It is also an innovative project in e-governance and good governance.
• It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States).
• Issues to be flagged before the PM are picked up from the available database regarding Public Grievances, on-going Programmes and pending Projects.

Solution: D

India’s progress towards SDGs

 NITI Aayog has come up with a single measurable SDG index to track the progress of all the States and UTs across 13 out of 17 SDGs(excluding Goal 12, 13, 14 and 17 on account of unavailability of comparable data across States/UTs), it helps in informed policy formulations.

 The SDG score varies from 0 to 100. A score of 100 implies that the States/UTs have achieved the targets set for 2030; a score of 0implies that the particular State/UT is at the bottom of the table.

 States with scores equal to/greater than 65 are considered as Front-Runners; in the range of 50-64 as Performers and as Aspirants if the score is less than 50. Kerala and Himachal Pradesh are the frontrunners amongst all the states. It is noteworthy that none of the States/ UTs fall in the Aspirant category in 2019.

 Success – India’s growth trajectory for achieving SDG 10 (Reduced Inequality) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) is impressive as compared to the other SDGs as several states have achieved 100 in these SDGs. This may be due to performance in worthy initiatives such as PMJDY, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA), the National Environment Policy, National Agro-forestry Policy and Green Highways Policy.

 Struggling – India is struggling to achieve its targets of SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG. 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) as large number of states are in the ‘Aspirants’ category’. Goa, a front runner among all the States and UTs in SDG 11, has been doing exceptionally well in waste management.

Solution: B

GI Atal for Dindigul lock and Kandangi saree:

• Two products from Tamil Nadu — Dindigul lock and Kandangi Saree — have been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by The Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai.
• The Dindigul locks are known throughout the world for their superior quality and durability, so much so that even the city is called Lock City.
• The Kandangi sarees are manufactured in the entire Karaikudi taluk in Sivaganga district. They are characterized by large contrast borders and some are known to have borders covering as far as two-thirds of the saree which is usually around 5.10 m-5.60 m in length.

Solution: A

Food processing sector

A well-developed food processing sectorwith higher level of processing helps in the reduction of wastage, improves value addition, promotes crop diversification, ensures better return to the farmers, promotes employment as well as increases export earnings. Growth in the food processing sector is also expected to open up opportunities for players having strong linkages in the agri-value chain. During the last 6 years ending 2017-18, Food Processing Industries sector has been growing at an average annual growth rate of around 5.06 per cent.The sector constituted as much as 8.83 per cent and 10.66 per cent of GVA in Manufacturing and Agriculture sector respectively in 2017-18 at 2011-12 prices. 7.32 According to the Annual Survey of Industries for 2016-17, the total number of persons engaged in registered food processing sector was 18.54 lakhs. 7.33 Unregistered food processing sector supports employment to 51.11 lakh workers as per the NSSO 73rd Round, 2015-16 and constitutes 14.18 per cent of employment in the unregistered manufacturing sector. The value of processed food exports during 2018-19 was of the order of US $ 35.30 billion accounting for about 10.70 per cent of India’s total exports (total exports US $ 330.08 billion). The value of import of processed food during 2018-19 was US $ 19.32 billion which is 3.76 per cent of India’s total imports.

Solution: A

An advance pricing agreement (APA) is an ahead-of-time agreement between a taxpayer and a tax authority on an appropriate transfer pricing methodology (TPM) for a set of transactions at issue over a fixed period of time (called “Covered Transactions”).

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/cbdt-inks-300th-advance-pricing-agreement/articleshow/71395453.cms?from=mdr

Solution: B

From the information given above, we can deduce the following facts:

Eight boxes made of different materials- Aluminum, Iron, Gold, Plastic, Platinum, Silver, Steel, and Wood.

They also weigh different weights – 50,100,150,200,250,300,350 and 400gm not necessarily in the same order.

Two boxes are placed between the boxes weighing 200gm and 400gm.

The number of boxes below Steel box is more than the number of boxes above Steel box. Therefore, steel box has to be placed between top and 4 th from the top. (i.e 1, 2, 3 or 4 th place from top to bottom direction)

There is only one box between Steel box and Gold box. (hence, respective possible positions of Steel box and Gold box from the top to bottom are (1, 3) or (2, 4) or (3, 1 or 5) or (4, 2 or 6)

There are three boxes between Iron Box and Aluminum box. Hence, possible respective positions of Iron Box and Aluminum boxfrom the top to bottom are (1, 5) or (5,1) or (2, 6) or (6, 2) or (3, 7) or (7,3) or (4, 8) or (8,4)

The difference between weights of Platinum box and the Plastic Box is 350gm. The only possible way is either of one box must be 400gms and other is 50gms. Thus one is heaviest and other is lightest.

There are two boxes between Aluminum box and box which weighs 150gm. Thus, Aluminum box do not weigh 150 gm or 400gms or 50 gms.

The Platinum box is placed below Plastic box.

There are three boxes between Wooden Box and Box which weighs 300gm. Hence, Wooden box do not weigh 300gms or 400gms or 50 gms.

The difference between weights of Silver and the Wooden box is 250gm. Hence, weights of wooden and silver box has to be either (350 gms and 100 gms) or (100 gms and 350 gms)

Now looking back at previous data we can say that Aluminum weigh either 200gms or 250gms or 300 gms.

Box weighing 350gm is below Gold box. Hence, gold box do not weigh 350gm and also it cannot weigh 400gms, 50gms, 100gms.

The 100gm box is placed above 50gms.

The heaviest box is either at the top of all boxes or at the bottom of all boxes.

From the above it is clear that heaviest box is at the bottom. And also since, the Platinum box is placed below Plastic box, it clear that platinum is heaviest and placed at the bottom. Also, plastic box is lightest.

The steel box is placed just above the box weighing 200gms.

Iron box is just above the Gold box.

Number of boxes between boxes weighing 350gm and 50gm is more than two.

From the above given data we can draw a following table:

Box                                                             Weight (in gms)

Solution: D

Box                                                             Weight (in gms)

Solution: A

Box                                                             Weight (in gms)

Solution: D

Box                                                             Weight (in gms)

Answer. C.

Option a is wrong as it is says that veganism is the only way to prevent animal cruelty. The statement in option b is correct but is away from the central theme of the passage. Statement D is extrapolatory. The summary is best described through statement c