RC (Reading Comprehension) is a significant component of CAT’s VARC Section, as almost 16 out of 24 questions in VARC are based on Reading comprehension. Students who are weak in this section often believe in certain myths about the CAT RC Preparation.
So before discussing the preparation strategy, we will bust certain myths about CAT RC.
Myths Around CAT RC Preparation
- The number one myth is that understanding CAT RC Passages requires you to know the author’s intent: however, this is only true to a certain extent. You can review the passage according to your attitude and perceptions and try to answer the questions that follow, and most often, answering them would not require a complete alignment with the author’s intent.
- One needs to read every word in the passage: this is not true as reading comprehension often has certain filler words and sentences. Therefore, a proper reading comprehension strategy for CAT would require you to understand the crux of the passage, so do not worry if you omit any words. All of this can be taken care of as long as you focus on the type of questions asked below the passage. Just read and understand at your speed, and everything will go smoothly for you, without worrying about anything else.
- The other myth surrounding the RC passages is that you need to have an exceptional English vocabulary. This, however, is also not entirely true. Although you might be required to have some knowledge of the vocabulary, non-native speakers can’t have a comprehensive knowledge of each word. It is natural not to know every word. In such cases, what is recommended is that you understand the meaning of any word by referring to the complete sentence and making a guess according to the direction and flow of the sentences. Frequently you will see that your guess will come out to work your way. Just understand the context.
- Also, not every line in the reading comprehension is essential. The only important thing is to know the condensed meaning of the passage required to answer the questions that follow.
After busting the myths let us discuss now discuss the most common problems faced in CAT RC Preparation.
Also Read : CAT 2024 Preparation Strategy
Problems Faced in CAT Reading Comprehension
- The number one problem that the CAT aspirants might face in Reading Comprehension is Reading itself! That might sound silly and obvious. However, this is the case because for most of the CAT aspirants, English is not their native language, and they do not converse or write in the language frequently. They are not habitual of reading. The solution to this problem is that you develop a reading habit. Read as much as you can and from as diverse topics as possible. It would be best if you familiarised yourself with topics of different nature and quality. Start by reading in easier language and gradually move towards more academic writing. However, most comprehensions in CAT can be solved if you have a dedicated reading habit.
- Another issue aspirants face in CAT Reading Comprehension is having poorer vocabulary. Having a weak knowledge of vocabulary is a significant disadvantage in RCs. This is why it is recommended that you read frequently and mark the complex and unfamiliar words. This will help you in enriching your vocabulary.
- Inability to understand the questions: this is the other issue the aspirants face in their RC preparation. Usually, the Reading Comprehension strategy for CAT requires you to handle tricky questions which are to confuse the test-takers. It is crucial to read through them and answer perfectly. Again this can be resolved if you practice past year papers and familiarise yourself with the paper pattern. Also, do not panic when you are not able to understand the nature of the questions; usually, anxiety will cover your rational mind and force you to commit mistakes in the exam.
- Slower reading speed in RC for CAT: Most aspirants do not have a reading habit, and they struggle to read passages in a time-bound manner. To be able to read on time, a regular reading habit is required. You can refer to resources like The Economist. Make sure that you read at least one or two long passages daily.
Also Read : CAT 2024 Timetable
Where to Read from?
One can improve CAT RC Preparation through diverse reading. Initially one should start with newspapers as they offer simpler language when compared to complex articles. Reading newspapers can improve the familiarity of an individual with diverse topics, and build a base for more complex passages.
As a newspaper can only help you to a certain level, hence iQuanta has come up with a comprehensive 250 Genre-wise reading articles for CAT for the benefit of all CAT aspirants. The articles are attached with the Summary.
CAT Reading Comprehension Strategy
- Know the structure: most of the reading comprehension passages follow a set structure. There is an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Look for sentences that change the English passage’s topic. Mark them as important. Highlight the essence of each topic, and what they are talking about.
- Identify keywords: each passage must have certain keywords around the central idea that you must include in your reading comprehension strategy. Mark such keywords in your CAT exam and move ahead with your reading. They will help you in answering the questions that will follow.
- You can also try to predict what the author might say in the next paragraph as you’re reading. This will reinforce your understanding of the passage.
- Central idea: always focus on the main idea of the passage. Do not focus much attention on the minor details of the paragraph. As the passages are full of fillers, ignoring them while reading would save you a lot of time in the end.
- Build a good vocabulary: by reading enough comprehension passages and memorizing the meaning of difficult words, you will easily answer the RCs. You can start by learning about root words, as they will help you identify the meaning of the unknown words, then gradually move on towards antonyms and synonyms of complex/common words.
CAT RC Practice Questions!
CAT RC 1
‘Nothing is so much to be shunned as sex relations,” said St. Augustine, and American psychotherapy has lately taken up his cry, at least regarding therapists’ relations with their patients. Rightly so, says Susan Baur in her new book, “The Intimate Hour: Love and Sex in Psychotherapy.” But, she asks, if everyone opposes it, even to the point of making it a crime, “why do sexual intimacies continue among persons who say they are against them?”
Ms. Baur continues, “We have a group of professions whose members are in condemning sex between therapists and their current clients — 98 percent say it is wrong — yet among the I .2 million or so individuals out there who Offer advice in consulting rooms, hospitals, clinics, churches, prisons, and halfway houses, many more than 2 percent enter into erotic relations.”
Could it be that sexual feelings are part of what makes a successful therapy possible? As the author asks, “How do two people sit across from each other in therapy, becoming closer and more intimate by the hour, without sometimes giving in to the full and natural expression of love?” Seeking answers to these questions, she finds, reports grow scarcer, more formulaic in describing
predatory males who prey on vulnerable females, and more one-sided in their condemnation. But, she writes, with the increasing feminization of the therapeutic professions, abuse is likely to diminish. And with the rise of managed care, the rules against transgression are hardening. So strict is prohibition growing that “serious considerations of the physical attraction that develops so often between doctor and patient” are getting “swept under the rug” and becoming “undiscussable.’’
This distresses her because even in some of the most extreme cases she considers, she can’t help detecting certain benefits in the intrusion of sex. As often as patients feel abused, they also feel cared for, She insists, And as much as they are hurt, they are also helped, In short, as she writes in a footnote, “to say love makes a mess of therapy is not the same as saying it doesn’t exist.”
This is not to suggest that Ms. Baur believes “that sex can coexist with therapy.” She warns, “Some readers will confuse my desire to understand what happens when doctor and patient are strongly attracted to each Other with approval Of such liaisons, and others will be so certain that men are always abusive or women always hysterical that they will have difficulty imagining a Story that can respect the feelings of both.”
But she is also afraid that the imposition Of stricter rules and regulations will inevitably backfire. She writes, “As teachers, therapists, and clergy bid a distracted farewell to intimacy, and as both the helper and the helped feel the frustration of being in a managed relationship instead of real one, it is possible that the rate of blatant sexual exploitation could rise rather than fall.”
Q1: Who is the author of this passage?
A. A therapist
B. Author Susan Baur
C. A victim
D. Book Reviewer
Q2: Why does Ms. Baur feel that blatant exploitation would rise with stricter rules and regulations?
A. The rules will instigate a rebellious attitude in clients to be further taken advantage of by the therapist.
B. The mutual intimacy that resulted from the strong connection between the patient and the therapist would be replaced by frustration leading to less consensual and more exploitative sex.
C. Patients will be less likely to speak up openly as they would be unwilling to subject their therapist to the extremely harsh consequences.
D. The lack of intimacy in sex would make the patients feel exploited even though the therapist cares for them and wants to help them.
Q3: Which of the following if true would negate the argument that stricter rules are making physical attraction between doctor and patient undiscussable?
A. Stricter rules are needed to protect the patient from predatory therapists.
B. 98 percent of the therapists have condemned sex between therapist and patient.
C. The incidents of physical intimacy are few as more than 88 percent of those in the therapeutic profession are women.
D. The reports of such cases are scarcer making it more difficult to understand the nature of physical attraction.
Q4: Which of the following statements is Ms. Baur most likely to agree with?
A. It is inevitable for the therapist and their clients to grow intimate over time.
B. Sexual relationships are essential to successful therapy sessions.
C. Incidents of sexual exploitation would rise as more stringent rules and laws are enacted to prohibit relationships between therapists and clients.
D. There is absolutely nothing to gain from mixing romance in therapy other than to just make a mess out of it.
CAT RC 2
Civilization emerges from the lawless jungle riding on the back Of a juridical system that resolves disputes through non-violent means. India has had an uneven history in this regard but the relatively stable structure that we had inherited from the British is crumbling because people are now, often, taking the law into their own hands. Justice is being denied to large sections of the population simply because of abnormal delays, There are so many examples of this sorry situation that it is pointless to give specific instances. The fact is too well known. The question is: What can we do about it?
Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually, to improvement. Everyone of those 3 crore and more cases needs to be captured in a searchable database. This is not as intractable a problem as it sounds. Every court in the country publishes a daily cause-list that has the essential details of every case that is scheduled to be heard on a day. Fortunately, all this data is in digital format and most of it can be found online. A reasonably sophisticated text analysis software can be developed to extract this data and convert it into a form that can be stored in a structured searchable database for subsequent analysis.
The next step would be to track changes in the cause-list over successive dates and determine the “speed” at which a case is moving through the system. The biggest cause of delay in the system is because hearings are postponed, often on trivial grounds, and the next date of hearing is months away. So, by tracking cause-lists over a couple of months, it would be possible to determine, how many times each case comes up for hearing and what is the interval between these hearings. From this, it would be possible to build a life history of every case.
Some people may baulk at the sheer volume of the task and the fact that the difference-processing must be done every day, but thanks to open source technologies like Iladoop, this problem can be addressed very comfontably.
Within a short period of time, this will create a real-time picture of the topology of juridical delay across the entire country. Where are the hot spots? Where are the biggest bottlenecks? What kinds of cases are held up the most?
Which courts are the biggest culprits?
Instead of crying hoarse about delay in general, we can now seek out troublesome areas and focus the best minds in the juridical system to come out with specific solutions to the most difficult problems. Solutions will emerge, once the contours of the problem are clearly visible.
One specific approach to the de-bottlenecking problem would be to motivate judges to improve the efficiency or throughput of the system. Judges have immense authority to allow or disallow adjournments based on their personal perception of the situation on the ground and this in turn has a direct impact on juridical delay.
However, they are not motivated to expedite matters. Continuing with our belief in measurements, we may consider a mechanism to monitor their performance and Offer a set Of performance-related rewards—though this may be unheard of in government service.
Those with a deeper understanding of the judicial process may produce a better metric but one can begin with a simple one that depends on just two factors. First, the number of final judgments that a judge delivers every month, and second, the number or fraction Of judgments Of a judge that are subsequently overturned on appeal at the next level, The first would be a measure of speed and the second would be a measure of quality or reliability of the work done by a judge. By creating a composite metric that gives an appropriate weightage to both factors, it should be possible to measure the performance Of most judicial omeers in the country.
This simplistic measure may not be appropriate for judges, who are seized of complex matters like constitutional law or international jurisprudence but should be good enough for almost all those involved in more run-of-the-mill cases—and this would constitute most cases that are clogging the system.
Such a mechanism is no different from a formal performance appraisal system that is used by most well-managed corporate organizations to evaluate all but the most senior members of the management.
It should not be beneath the dignity of any judge to be evaluated in a similar manner, especially because the evaluation would be done within the framework of the juridical system Of the country and not by any external agency that may have a mala fide agenda.
Going along With the corporate analogy, it may be a good idea if judges were to view themselves less as lofty dispensers of justice and more as providers of dispute resolution services. From this perspective, a litigant is no more a supplicant begging for relief but a customer who, through his court fees and taxes, is paying for the resolution Of a dispute.
If judges can reconcile themselves to the fact that the relationship between a litigant and a judge is no different from that between a customer and a vendor, then many Of the best practices Of the corporate world can be transferred to the rather archaic corridors of the judiciary.
Q1: Which of the following best describes the author’s opinion on the current judicial system?
A. Legal Infrastructure is inadequate to handle the volume of cases reaching the courts.
B. IT department within the judicial machinery is archaic and inept to perform its tasks.
C. There are abnormal delays in the judicial system due to lack of visibility and Accountability.
D. The immense autonomy that lies with judges allows them to act as per their whims and fancies.
Q2: The tone of the passage can be best described as:
A. Laudatory
B. Searing
C. Didactic
D. Persuasive
Q3: What is most likely to be the source of this passage?
A. Law Commission Report
B. Research Paper on Judicial Reforms
C. Letter to Editor of a Daily Newspaper
D. Opinion Editorial of Journal
Q4: Which of the following qualities is shown by the judges according to the author?
A. They are quite high-headed and don’t see themselves as public servants.
B. They are incompetent and keep adjourning the cases.
C. They are not motivated enough to carry out their duties.
D. They are apathetic to hardships faced by litigants.
CAT RC 3
There has been much debate over the expansion of nuclear energy in India, the arguments covering a gamut of angles from safety and environmental concerns to liability, security, and affordability. However, whether India should go down the nuclear path is a moot question. The issue is not if India needs nuclear energy but how quickly it can expand its capacity. To understand this, a few data points about its present situation need to be kept in mind.
As of November 2014, India generates 255 GW of electricity. Of this, some 71 percent comes from thermal energy, 15 percent from hydroelectric power, 12 percent from renewable energy, and a mere two percent from nuclear energy. Industry consumes 45 percent of the total capacity, agriculture takes 17 percent, domestic consumption is 22 percent, and the rest goes to railways, commercial use, and other odds and ends. India’s per capita consumption of power is approximately 917 kWh and over 300 million people in India still have no access to electricity. By way of comparison, the United States consumes over 13,000 kWh per capita, and the countries of Western Europe such as France, Germany, and Britain approximately 8,500 kWh-
The connection between energy consumption and economic growth cannot be overemphasized. The demand for electricity will only increase as India’s economy and population grow, with greater manufacturing capability and a more prosperous citizenry desirous of the many comforts of life. Several studies have predicted that India’s electricity needs will rise some eight times by the middle of this century.
In a 2006 study by Ravi Grover and Subhash Chandra, both then of the Strategic Planning Group within the Department of Atomic Energy, a seven percent growth trajectory was calculated to require an electricity generating potential of 1,400 GW by 2060. This would still be around 5,300 kWh per capita, considerably less than the consumption in other developed countries. Even with a robust, easily achievable, and sustainable growth target of six percent, India’s energy needs would still more than quintuple over the next half-century.
These numbers do not sound like much out of context; adding capacity will be a challenge, but surely not one beyond India’s reach. The final data point that must be considered in this regard is the limitation of traditional energy sources such as coal. Presently, India consumes some 2.5 percent Of the world’s hydrocarbons and Six percent of its coal; those figures will rise to 10 percent and 45 percent, respectively, by the mid-21st century.
Over 45 percent of the cargo by way of tonnage on India’s railway network is coal. The entire network is already creaking due to these massive shipments and it is difficult to envision even greater volumes of coal being transported by Indian Railways without completely paralyzing all other services. Expanding the network is not a complete solution either for two reasons: the sheer quantity of coal required will render all but the most ambitious railway network expansions are inadequate, and the subservience of the Railways to the country’s energy needs will restrict other services and goods transport that need to be improved in their own right.
Environmental and all other considerations aside, this purely physical bottleneck is one of the greatest arguments for the aggressive expansion of nuclear power in India. The difference in the energy release of chemical and nuclear processes is several orders of magnitude higher for the latter. The fission of one atom of uranium releases as much energy as the combustion of 33 million atoms of carbon. This means that uranium is far more energy-dense than carbon, making transportation far easier.
The rapid expansion of nuclear power and a gradual shift from coal will free enormous capacity in Indian transportation infrastructure, saving billions in unnecessary expansion costs for roads, railroads, and ports. This is from merely the logistical benefits of shifting from coal to nuclear—other equally compelling factors have not been considered for reasons of brevity and focus.
If India is to have ample energy for its economic growth, it cannot afford not to get bearish on nuclear power. At present, some 40 reactor projects are ongoing or have been stalled due to legal complications, but Delhi should not be thinking about 30 or 40 reactors—it should be considering 300 or 400. Even with such a massive investment over the next 50 years, nuclear power will still amount to less than 35 percent Of India’s total energy mix. Indeed, the United States represents a similar energy mix today with a hundred reactors for its 315 million people. That awaits India.
Q1: Why does the author make a comparison between energy consumption in India and other developed economies?
A. Author wants to show that India is lagging far behind in terms of developmental growth.
B. Author wants to build a connection between energy consumption and economic prosperity.
C. Author wants to highlight the India is far more conservative than other developed economies when it comes to electricity consumption.
D. Author emphasizes the need for increasing energy production as we move towards becoming a developed economy.
Q2: Which of the following would be the best summary for the passage?
A. Infeasibility of other energy sources will make India reconsider its position on nuclear energy.
B. India needs 8 times the Nuclear Energy by mid 21st century to meet its growing energy demands.
C. The logistical barrier to thermal energy along with a growing energy demand from increasing manufacturing capacity and household consumption makes a strong case for nuclear power.
D. All A, B, and C distort the meaning of the passage.
Q3: Which one of the following statements weakens the author’s central argument the most?
A. The growth (in miles) of the Railway Network has been at 7% for the past one decade.
B. More and more people will take to air travel in the future, freeing up the railway to cater to the energy needs of the country.
C. Renewable energy sources will reduce the reliance on coal. Thus, the threshold of our logistical capacity will be never be breached.
D. None of them
Q4: Why does the author say that the real question with regards to India’s Nuclear Energy is ‘how quickly can its capacity be expanded?’
A. Author does not want to get into the other aspects of the debate as they have already been well discussed and remain a subject of other debates.
B. Author wants to focus on India increasing its nuclear energy targets to meet the needs of the future.
C. Author believes in the inevitability of nuclear energy adoption and thus moves to the subsequent issue.
D. All of the above
CAT RC 4
At the very outset, the very idea of “Indian Muslims” being clubbed together under one umbrella is highly suspicious; it reeks of a political agenda and divisionism, and the rejection of diversity. In fact, it is so unacademic in approach that it shocks me no one has yet bothered to denounce it. Indian Muslims are divided not only along
lines of belief. but also along linguistic and cultural and geographical lines. And even further along economic lines. So, to refer to them as some amalgamated whole is speciesism at best.
We always identify people by their religion and caste first. This is a serious mistake. For this tarm of identification becomes set in our minds so deeply that we try to force all overflowing differences into these slots even on our ownselves. This allows external political forces and internal power-driven religious forces to take advantage of the conditions and snatch away our freedoms.
We have done by our peculiar way of classification using religion as a guideline or criterion is that we treat human groups almost as different species that exist across geographies. So, there is a need to challenge the very parameters within which we undertake studies of societies and cultures.
The power-hungry within and without communities struggle tirelessly to push individuals and groups of individuals into identifiable categories and homogenous globs to dominate them and use them to their own ends.
The external forces trying to coerce these masses into shapes and specific forms stem clearly from political machineries. These political machineries make use of religious leaders and religious bodies to bring diverse entities under a single head or leadership type. The latter constitute the internal forces at play that help the external forces in their endeavors to flatten all individual particularities.
Religion is used to generate fear and insecurity so the individuals themselves huddle together in terror of social ostracism, abandonment, and repercussions in the afterlife. Thus sheep-like they are herded and securely penned.
These people who can be herded, penned, and exploited, belong to the lower economic strata and those who have not had the privilege Of an education that helps them understand their own rights, freedoms, and possibilities, For any community to have a future where there is wellbeing socially and economically, they must be liberated from the shackles of a narrow and coercive religious leadership. This can only happen if communities have access to education, nutrition, healthcare, skill development, and other means of uplifting their self-esteem and sense of citizenship, of belonging, and security. The last is extremely important as, without a sense of someone being there to look out for their interests, they either get herded and penned or they can also alternatively espouse rebellion and take up arms against the State.
Having made my stand clear, let us see if we can make any general statements about the condition and future of Muslims as a religious minority in India.
The majority of Muslims in India are poor and backward. They are at par with the Dalits, State powers must work towards the uplift of all communities that are disadvantaged; the Muslims included. But because of our classificatory tendencies, it seems there is a serious level of hostility towards Muslims, and in Muslims themselves. The minority syndrome helps keep them alienated from the mainstream. They take refuge in stereotypes created for them by religious leaders. They do not open up to the mainstream.
What can the Muslims do? They must work towards overcoming their fears as a minority. They must take pride in their own identities as Indian Muslims, who speak Indian languages, wear Indian clothes, and follow diverse regional customs. They must battle the homogenizing political and religious forces that wish to lump them together and destroy their diversity and hence their special identities, talents, and richness. They must work against their alienation from the mainstream which comes as much from within as from without. They must stop identifying with the Arab world and looking up to the Arabs for guidance and support, but instead know and ask for their rights from the Indian State.
‘IO end, the future is bleak as long as the moment anyone hears my name, he/she slots me and pins all Of his/her preconceived notions onto me and interacts with me through a prism that defies clarity and distorts reality.
Q1: Which of the following will be the most appropriate title for the passage?
A. Perils of religion
B. Socio-economic growth of the minorities
C. Exploitation: A religious narrative
D. Dismissing religious classification
Q2: Why does the author feel the need to challenge the very parameters within which studies of societies and cultures is undertaken?
A. The author feels that the current parameters do not acknowledge more consequential differences such as linguistic, economic and cultural differences that exist between the people.
B. It provides grounds for politically motivated and power-driven religious forces to reorganize the individuals into categories dominate them.
C. Both A & B
D. None of the above
Q3: What is the tone of the passage?
A. Introspective
B. Speculative
C. Cynical
D. Both A and B
Q4: Why does the author appeal Indian Muslims to shop identifying with Arab world?
A. It exposes them to be misled by Arab countries which do not have their best interests at heart.
B. It keeps their identity as Muslims at the fore and alienates them from the mainstream.
C. It doesn’t allow them to recognize the rights given to them by the Indian State and demand for more.
D. Both B and C
CAT RC 5
My father would have made a great environmentalist. He is a Republican who voted for Donald Trump, rolls his eyes at anything involving the words “climate change” and has no qualms about taking his Mustang out for joy rides every weekend.
But before “Democrat” meant environment and “Republican” meant industry, my dad composted in the backyard. He was meticulous about fixing things rather than buying them new. He loved national parks. Through nature walks, stargazing and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” series, he introduced me to a love of the natural world and an appreciation for its interconnectedness that has fueled my environmentalism.
I come from a long line of true salt-of-the-earth people who worked in feed mills, on farms and in steel foundries. They were also wood carvers, bird watchers and amateur astronomers. My parents raised my sister and me in the same Pennsylvania town where our family first settled almost 300 years ago. Even today, my parents do little long-distance traveling and did not have a passport until they came to visit me in France during my college study abroad. They may not drive an electric vehicle, but with their local lifestyle, my parents naturally have an low- carbon footprint.
I have spent most of my adult life surrounded by concrete, not nature. I have racked up over a million miles of flying during my work in the aid industry and wore it like a badge of honor. I have moved in and out of apartments and cities, finally settling down on the opposite coast from my family and closest friends, forcing a cross-country flight anytime my parents want to see their grandchildren.
And through it all, I judged them for what I deemed a parochial lifestyle, blind to the environmental impacts of my global one. I did this with little respect for the connection to the natural world around them that they may have, and without acknowledging the low-carbon footprint of their local ways of life. Yes, cities are the future for sustainable living, and being exposed to the world is important. But I now realize that not seeing the benefits of my parents’ lifestyle was short-sighted and hypocritical.
Most in the environmental movement are typically unaware of this hypocrisy. Environmentalism has evolved to make little room for people such as my father, whom the great writer Aldo Leopold probably would have called a naturalist. Leopold draws a subtle but important distinction between environmentalists and naturalists. He sees environmentalism as a primarily urban movement, concerned mostly with politics, and intrinsically defensive.
Naturalism is as old as humankind itself, as it comes from an innate affinity for nature. Environmentalism is generally acquired through experience or education while naturalism is something people are born with.
In his masterpiece “Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth,” Edward O. Wilson uses the term naturalist to refer to the type of person that he believes will be central to preserving the diversity of life on earth. To Wilson, naturalists include hunters, fishermen and agriculturalists. Wilson believes that those that have a deep understanding of and connection to nature are most likely to be successful in protecting it.
If things had gone differently since the first Earth Day in 1970, the fight against climate change easily could have been led by ranchers and fishermen. These leaders may have been Boy Scouts like my dad was, they may not have had fancy degrees but probably could identify almost any leaf or animal species at first sight. They may have led a movement to protect biodiversity for self-interest and not necessarily for social good. But does the intention really matter if it increases the number of people who act and vote for environmental protections?
The environmental movement has not yet fully tapped into the sense of history and sustenance that naturalists might provide. In doing so, we exclude a huge number of people who care about the earth and are deeply connected to it. We need to reconcile across the naturalist-environmentalist divide to bridge political differences that will hasten the transition to a sustainable world. To do this, we must recognize the hypocrisy of the environmental movement to date. We might then embrace the connection to nature and rootedness that many “non-environmentalists” have. The result will be a new, more inclusive movement of people who will act against climate change.
Q1: Which of the following statements about Naturalists is the author most likely to agree with?
A. Naturalists have a deeper appreciation for the environment due to their closeness to it.
B. Naturalists are better equipped to transition the world to a sustainable place.
C. Naturalists understand the necessity of the environmental movement because of their love for the natural world.
D. Naturalists view the environmental movement as being primarily urban and politically driven.
Q2: Which of the following solutions to make the world a sustainable place would the author most likely support?
A. Slowing down the rate of urbanization
B. Advocating a change in lifestyle to reduce individual carbon footprint
C. Expand the environmental movement to become more inclusive and involve people who are co-dependent on nature.
B. Bring naturalists to spearhead the environmental movement since they are motivated by self-interest to preserve the environment as they depend on it.
Q3: The main concern of the passage is:
A. To highlight the hypocrisy of the environmentalist
B. To demonstrate a problem with environmental movement as it is today and suggest a more effective way forward.
C. To outline the difference between an environmentalist and a naturalist.
D. To rectify the popular misconception about conservatives and naturalists.
Q4: Which of the following is not mentioned as a reason due to which naturalists feel combative towards the environmentalists?
A. Politization of the environmental movement
B. Condescension towards the naturalist lifestyle
C. Othering of naturalists by environmentalists
D. All of the above
CAT RC 6
Why does financial inclusion matter for the economic prosperity of a nation? Put simply, once the financially weak are part of the mainstream financial system, they have access to microcredit to generate additional income streams; to channel their savings into investments and create assets; to buy insurance products that protect them financially in times of disease, disability and death; and to help fund their children’s education.
In the last seven years, India has taken massive strides towards financial inclusion. When the first Global Findex Database was released by the World Bank in 2011, it stated that 40% of adult Indians had a bank account. An overwhelming majority of Indians, especially in rural areas, were financially weak and were effectively excluded from the formal economy. Seven years later, almost 80% of adult Indians have bank accounts, according to the Global Findex Database published in April 2018.
Powering this dramatic rise has been a series of financial inclusion measures launched by the government. These include Aadhar, a biometric database that provides a unique identity to each Indian citizen; no-frills savings bank accounts called Jan Dhan; the direct transfer of social benefit payments into these Jan Dhan accounts; and a digital payment infrastructure called BHIM.
Today, 90% of India’s 1.3 billion population have a unique Aadhar identity, which is vital for meeting anti-money laundering “know your customer” (KYC) requirements. In the last four years, 330 million new Jan Dhan bank accounts have been opened. Mobile penetration is expected to reach 90% by 2020. Internet penetration has soared, and the use of digital payments is also rising significantly.
These are creditable achievements for the country. However, getting a unique identity, having a bank account, and using digital payments are just the foundations of financial inclusion. Now these basics have been addressed, the government and private sector must take the next steps to build a superstructure of economic prosperity.
What are the key elements of true financial inclusion?
First, financial firms must understand the market and structure products accordingly. For example, agricultural income is seasonal and lumpy. So, if you are lending to a farmer so he can buy a tractor, you need to structure a loan product where the repayment cycle is seasonal and not monthly.
In a country as vast and diverse as India, a deeper understanding of the market can only come if firms have a widespread distribution and recruit locally. To serve their customers better, financial services firms need to be present in local markets and have employees who are familiar with the cultural and economic nuances of the community in which they work.
Second, is financial literacy. Unfortunately, this is one area where India still needs to do a great deal of work. According to a Standard and Poor’s survey, basic financial literacy in India is sub-par. The good news is that, driven by the government and regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India, as well as voluntary efforts by companies through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, this is changing quite rapidly.
Third, partnership between the government and providers of various financial products, so the risks and rewards of working with marginal populations are shared. A good example is rural housing. Powered by a government programme that provides financial support and participation from the private sector, 70 million new houses have been built in the last five years, up from about 400,000 previously.
The industry body Association of Mutual Funds of India has been running a successful campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of investing in mutual funds to create long-term wealth. The last decade’s growth rate of investment in mutual funds in India is now double that of the rest of the world. Interestingly, digital flows into mutual funds have increased 12 times in the last two years.
Admittedly, most of this growth has come from urban areas. But as financial inclusion takes hold, and more of the rural population can meet basic needs such as housing, they will look at investing their surplus to create long-term assets through financial investments.
In recent times, agrarian distress in India caused by the splintering of agricultural land holdings into unviable sizes and by unremunerative prices for agri-commodities has led to calls for the waiver of farm loans. At best, this can only be a short-term solution. The permanent solution to this lies in extending financial inclusion to the farmers in India.
Q1: The doubling of the financial inclusion in the past decade is not attributed to which of the following reasons?
A. Direct benefits transfer to Jan Dhan accounts, the no frills savings bank accounts
B. Nationalization of banks brining banks under governmental control
C. Aadhaar, a biometric database providing unique identity to each Indian citizen.
D. BHIM, a digital payment infrastructure
Q2: Which of the following is not one of the benefits of financial inclusion?
A. Access to microcredit to start small businesses and create alternate streams of income
B. Ability to conserve the savings and create assets
C. Assists in the children’s marriages which is a big expense in Indian households
D. Purchase insurance to protect against financial adversities
Q3: If the passage continued what would the author be talking about?
A. An elaboration or an example of how financial inclusion can relieve agrarian distress.
B. The challenges government might face in making microcredit available to the agrarian community.
C. Another example much like agrarian distress where financial inclusion is playing or can play a role.
D. Can’t be determined
Q4: According to the passage, what role should the private sector play in financial inclusion?
A. Design financial products considering the cultural and economic nuances of community towards which they are targeted.
B. Partner with the government so that they more effectively cater to the marginal populations of the country sharing the risks and rewards of doing so.
C. Make efforts to increase financial literacy through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.
D. All the above
CAT RC 7
The Narendra Modi government deserves compliments for finally introducing reforms in the country’s agri- marketing system. What excites me are the last three points in Finance Minister’s speech pertaining to Agri- reforms. They relate to amending the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) of 1955, bringing a Central legislation to allow farmers to sell their produce to anyone, outside the APMC mandi yard, and having barrier-free inter-state trade, and creating a legal framework for contract farming — the buyer can assure a price to the farmer at the time of sowing. Let me explain each one of these, and why I consider them as game-changers.
First, the ECA of 1955 has its roots in the Defense of India Rules of 1943, when India was ravaged by famine and was facing the effects of World War 11. It was a scarcity-era legislation. By the mid-1960s, hit by back-to-back droughts, India had to fall back on PL480 imports of wheat from the US and the country was labeled as a “ship to mouth” economy. Today, India is the largest exporter of rice in the world and the second-largest producer of both wheat and rice, after China. Our granaries are overflowing. But our legal framework is of the 1950s, which discourages private sector investment in storage, as the ECA can put stock limits on any trader, processor, or exporter at the drop of a hat. As a result, the country lacks storage facilities. When farmers bring their produce to the market after the harvest, there is often a glut, and prices plummet. All this hurts the farmer. In the lean season, prices start flaring up for the consumers. So, both lose out because of the lack of storage facilities. The amendment announced last week, if implemented in the right spirit, will remove this roadblock, and help both farmers and consumers while bringing in relative price stability. It will also prevent wastage of agri-produce that happens due to lack of storage facilities.
Second, the proposed Central law to allow farmers to sell to anyone outside the APMC yard will bring greater competition amongst buyers, lower the mandi fee and the commission for arhatiyas (commission agents) and reduce other cesses that many state governments have been imposing on APMC markets. Our farmers suffer more in marketing their produce than during the production process. APMC markets have become monopolistic with high intermediation costs. The proposed law will open more choices for the farmers and help them in getting better prices. So, their incomes should improve. By removing barriers in inter-state trade and facilitating the movement of agri-goods, the law could lead to better spatial integration of prices. This will help farmers of regions with surplus produce to get better prices and consumers of regions with shortages, lower prices. India will have one common market for agri-produce, finally. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee can no longer stop the movement of potatoes from her state to Odisha — as she did some time ago. Third, the legal environment for contract farming, with the assurance of a price to the farmers at the time of sowing, will help them take cropping decisions based on forward prices. Normally, our farmers look back at last year’s prices and take sowing decisions accordingly. The new system will minimize their market risks.
However, one must bring in some supplementary notes for optimal results. Big buyers like processors, exporters, and organized retailers going to individual farmers is not a very efficient proposition. They need to create a scale, and for that, building farmer producer organizations (FPOs), based on local commodity interests, is a must. This will help ensure uniform quality, lower transaction costs, and improve the bargaining power of farmers vis-a-vis large buyers. NABARD must ensure that all FPOs get their working capital at a 7 percent interest rate — a rate that the farmers pay on their crop loans. Currently, most of them depend on microfinance institutions and get loans at 18-22 percent interest rates. This makes the entire business high cost.
Another thing to watch out for is the fine print of the legislation. I have heard rumors that if the prices of perishables go up by 100 percent and that of non-perishables by 50 percent, the stocking limits under the ECA can be re-imposed. Would the government impose stocking limits on onions if the price goes up from Rs 22/kg, the price right now in Safal kiosks, to Rs 44/kg after a month? That would be unreasonable, and all the reforms would be undone. One needs to understand how much is the “extra burden” inflicted by the price increase on the food budget of a household.
The government has surely shown a willingness to walk the right path and deserves compliments. The reforms announced last week could be a harbinger of major change in agri-marketing, a 1991 moment of economic reforms for agriculture. But before one celebrates it, let us wait for the fine print to come.
Q1: What is the tone of the passage?
A. Critical
B. Appreciative
C. Biased
D. Cynical
Q2: Which of the following is not an intended outcome of amending the Essential Commodities Act 1955 (ECA 1965)?
A. It will bring agri-commodity price stability for farmers as well as the consumers.
B. It will reduce wastage of agricultural produce by creating more storage facilities.
C. It will improve the quality of the agricultural produce available to the consumer.
D. It will lead to spatial integration of process across the country.
Q3: Why does the author say ‘one must bring in some supplementary notes for optimal results’ (Paragraph 4)?
A. He doesn’t believe that the amendment covers all the necessitated changes to the central law.
B. The author needs extra information to make full sense of the proposed amendments.
C. Author believes that additional framework is needed to fully and effectively realized the intended benefits of the amendment.
D. Author wants the fine print to know the details of how the government plans to carry out the proposed amendment.
Q4: What is the author’s view towards the proposed amendment?
A. He is suspicious of its outcome.
B. He is cautious in commending it as he awaits details.
C. He is laudatory of the spirit of the amendment and believes it to be a move in the right direction.
D. Both B & C
CAT RC 8
If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you must stop eating animals. An astonishing six out of 10 counties that the White House itself identified as coronavirus hot spots are home to the very slaughterhouses the president ordered open. Sick workers mean plant shutdowns, which has led to a backlog of animals. Some farmers are injecting pregnant sows to cause abortions. Others are forced to euthanize their animals, often by gassing or shooting them. Despite this grisly reality —only around half of Americans say they are trying to reduce their meat consumption. Meat is embedded in our culture and personal histories in ways that matter too much, from the Thanksgiving turkey to the ballpark hot dog. Meat comes with uniquely wonderful smells and tastes, with satisfactions that can almost feel like home itself. And what, if not the feeling of home, is essential? And yet, an increasing number of people sense the inevitability of impending change.
Animal agriculture is now recognized as a leading cause of global warming. According to The Economist, a quarter of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 say they are vegetarians or vegans, which is perhaps one reason sales of plant-based “meats” have skyrocketed, with Impossible and Beyond Burgers available everywhere from Whole Foods to White Castle.
Our hand has been reaching for the doorknob for the last few years. Covid-19 has kicked open the door. At the very least it has forced us to look. When it comes to a subject as inconvenient as meat, it is tempting to pretend unambiguous science is advocacy, to find solace in exceptions that could never be scaled and to speak about our world as if it were theoretical.
Some of the most thoughtful people I know find ways not to give the problems of animal agriculture any thought, just as I find ways to avoid thinking about climate change and income inequality, not to mention the paradoxes in my own eating life. One of the unexpected side effects of these months of sheltering in place is that it’s hard not to think about the things that are essential to who we are.
We cannot protect our environment while continuing to eat meat regularly. This is not a refutable perspective, but a banal tmism. If cows were a country, they would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.
According to the research director of Project Drawdown — a nonprofit organization dedicated to modeling solutions to address climate change — eating a plant-based diet is “the most important contribution every individual can make to reversing global warming.”
Americans overwhelmingly accept the science of climate change. Most of both Republicans and Democrats say that the United States should have remained in the Paris climate accord. We do not need new information, and we don’t need new values. We only need to walk through the open door.
We cannot claim to care about the humane treatment of animals while continuing to eat meat regularly. The farming system we rely on is woven through with misery. Modern chickens have been so genetically modified that their very bodies have become prisons of pain even if we open their cages. Mother cows have their calves ripped from them before weaning, resulting in acute distress we can hear in their wails and empirically measure through the cortisol in their bodies. No label or certification can avoid these kinds of cruelty. We don’t need any animal rights activist waving a finger at us. We don’t need to be convinced of anything we don’t already know. We need to listen, We cannot protect against pandemics while continuing to eat meat regularly. Much attention has been paid to wet markets, but factory farms, specifically poultry farms, are a more important breeding ground for pandemics.
Further, the C.D.C. reports that three out of four new or emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic — the result of our broken relationship with animals. It goes without saying that we want to be safe. We know how to make ourselves safer. But wanting and knowing is not enough.
These are not my or anyone’s opinions, despite a tendency to publish this information in opinion sections. And the answers to the most common responses raised by any serious questioning of animal agriculture aren’t opinions.
Don’t we need animal protein? No. We can live longer, healthier lives without it. Most American adults eat roughly twice the recommended intake of protein — including vegetarians. People who eat diets high in animal protein are more likely to die of heart disease, diabetes, and kidney failure.
People of color disproportionately self-identify as vegetarians and disproportionately are victims of factory farming’s brutality. The slaughterhouse employees currently being put at risk to satisfy our taste for meat are overwhelmingly brown and black. Suggesting that a cheaper, healthier, less exploitative way of farming is elitist is in fact a piece of industry propaganda.
With the horror of the pandemic pressing from behind and the new questioning of what is essential, we can now see the door that was always there. As in a dream where our homes have rooms unknown to our waking selves, we can sense there is a better way of eating, a life closer to our values.
One meal in front of the other, it is time to cross the threshold. On the other side is home.
Q1: Based on the information in the passage, it would be least likely for which of the following persons to turn to a vegetarian diet?
A. Americans belonging to the millennial generation
B. Someone from the Black, Hispanic or Asian community
C. Author of the passage
D. A traditionalist born in the 20th Century
Q2: It can be inferred from the passage that people who consume meat do so because:
A. Science highlighting the negative effects of meat consumption is ambiguous.
B. People do not give much thought to animal agriculture.
C. People do not care about climate change as the consequences are far in the future.
D. People are not aware of the inhumane treatment metted out to animals in the meat industry.
Q3: According to the passage, what role has Covid-19 played towards altering our meat consumption?
A. It has accelerated the rate at which Americans are switching to plant-based diets.
B. Increased consciousness about the adverse impacts of meat consumption.
C. It has made us question the essentiality of meat in our diets.
D. Both A & B
Q4: What does the author mean by the expression “one meal in front of the other, it is time to cross the threshold”?
A. It is time that we watch how much we are consuming and if that much is needed to be consumed
B. We need to make sure that our meal is not something which consumes food that could directly have been our meal.
C. We need to gradually change our eating behavior to transition to a more sustainable diet.
D. None of the above.
CAT RC 9
Relaxing Sunday trading laws is an abominable idea. You’d think that any measure that would help to get people out of spending would be all to the good, wouldn’t you? Well, not so. The government’s latest genius idea for rebooting the retail sector is to abandon Sunday trading laws for a year, at least in the case of the larger supermarkets. Those laws at present mean that Brits cannot spend the entire day of rest shopping; just six hours of it. Rishi Sunak and Dominic Cummings are both said to be all for the idea, which, I suppose, makes it a shoo-in.
Personally, I think it’s an abominable idea. For starters, the likelihood that at the end of the year, Britain will revert to the status quo ante is precisely nil. It’s far more likely that the laxity will extend to the entire retail sector. Me, I’m all in favor of some kind of day of rest, some break from the frenetic round of bloody shopping that characterizes national life outside the pandemic. Already, Sunday is the second busiest trading day of the week; is the ambition to make it the actual busiest? Retail workers have rights too, one of them being to have one day on which they don’t have to start early and on which they can start slightly later and finish slightly earlier, a little more time with their families on a day when the children are home.
And don’t tell me that it’s up to the workers whether to work on a Sunday or not. For a couple of years, after the old restrictions on Sunday trading were abandoned by a Tory government, I went out of my way to ask shop assistants what chance they had of asking not to work Sundays, on account of it being a day of rest. The answer invariably was a cackle of laughter, and not a nice laugh either. In a competitive environment, you must rely on the laws for protection from your employer setting your hours at their convenience, not yours. The notional protections in the legislation for employees who wanted to opt out of working on a Sunday was in practice zero. It was one of the issues that brought home to me the very real gap between political promises and lived reality.
Sir Keir Starmer has made clear that Labour doesn’t see the case for change and he’s right. And Conservatives who respect stuff like traditional values, churchgoing, and family life — you know, the kind of thing they’re meant to believe — should back him. Tory rebels saw off the last bid to undermine the Sunday trading laws; they can do it again.
Q1: Which of the following represents the purpose of the author?
A. The author is appealing to a section of Tory Party to oppose the change in Sunday Trading Law.
B. The author wants the Labour to mobilize retail workers to protest the relaxation in trading laws.
C. The author doesn’t want Sunday to become the busiest trading day.
D. The author wants to protect the traditional values and practices of the British families.
Q2: According to the author, relaxing Sunday trading laws in an abominable idea because:
A. It will become a new normal though it is conceived as a temporary measure.
B. The relaxation will expand beyond large supermarkets to entire retail sectors.
C. It took away the rest day from the workers.
D. All the above
Q3: Which of the following if true would strengthen the case for relaxing Sunday Trading Laws?
A. During the World War, factory laws were relaxed allowing manufacturing to continue Sundays which stopped after the World War ended.
B. Economists have unanimously supported the idea because it is needed to invigorate the subdued demand in the post pandemic economy.
C. The Worker’s association has supported the idea as they have been assured that Sunday open hours would be run in two six- hour shifts with change of staff between the shifts.
D. Germany which relaxed its Sunday Trading Laws has seen workers opting in to work on Sundays even though the laws protected them from being fired, giving them an option to opt out without any risk.
Q4: Based on the information in the passage, which of the following statements regarding Rishi Sunak and Dominic Cummings is most likely to be true?
A. They are leading economic minds in the country.
B. They represent the retail worker association in Britain.
C. They are lobbyists for large retailers and have a lot of sway over the British Government.
D. They are heavyweight political leaders in the British Government.
CAT RC 10
India needs aircraft carriers — large ones with assisted take off at that, to secure the seas of the Indo-Pacific, to maintain peace, secure trade routes, provide security to the region, and in the event of a war, bring in lethal firepower. However, due to resource crunch with a slowing economy which has been further impacted by Covid- 19, there is now a question mark over the acquisition of the proposed 65,000 ton aircraft carrier called Vishal with the Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat saying that the navy will have to prioritize between submarines and aircraft carriers. The navy has made it clear that it needs three carriers so that it has always at least two in operation — one for each of India’s seaboard.
India will be the world’s third-largest economy in less than a decade. Trade constitutes 40% of its GDP, and nearly 20 million of its people live in foreign lands, many of which are in volatile regions. The navy needs all the resources to secure the country’s interests. Asking it to prioritize submarines over aircraft carriers is like asking the Air Force to prioritize air defense systems over fighter jets. While submarines are best for sea denial, aircraft carriers are for sea control and power projection. Both are important and needed for a major power like India.
The arguments against aircraft carriers are, that they are expensive, obsolete, and vulnerable to a new generation of missiles. It is akin to the obituaries of the tanks which have been written for decades now in the face of advanced anti-tank missiles, attack helicopters, and close air support aircraft. But the tank continues to survive.
Vishal is estimated to cost about $7 billion to build and a further $5-8 billion for its complement of fighter jets, helicopters and surveillance aircraft. The cost of the aircraft carrier cannot be considered in isolation. It provides a mobile air base that can be called to action in any part of the world, particularly in areas of India’s interests — something that shore-based, or island-based aircraft cannot. Carriers take a decade to build with the costs spread
over that period. It will need an initial funding to start the work and progressively increase as systems get integrated and the fighter jets ordered towards the latter half of construction. Moreover, an aircraft carrier has a life of nearly 50 years, which is twice other warships. That’s not a bad investment.
Aircraft carriers are not obsolete. The US operates ten and is building a new class of carriers, first of which is undergoing trials. The UK after pondering over the need for carriers went ahead and commissioned two. China has two and plans to operate at least six. Threatened by China’s increasing naval muscle, pacifist Japan announced to convert its two Izumo class of helicopter carriers into aircraft carriers. France operates the only nuclear-powered carrier apart from the US.
An aircraft carrier is not a sitting duck as it is made out to be. It is escorted by destroyers, frigates and corvettes and submarines. For India, these are armed with the 290 km range Brahmos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles which can take out enemy warships at that distance in about five minutes, travelling at 3,700 kmph. The sea skimming Brahmos will not be picked up by enemy ships until it’s too late. India is working on a longer range Brahmos that can strike up to 600 kms. These combatants including the carrier carry air defense systems to counter incoming missiles. A carrier is not easy to sink even if a missile hits it.
The carrier’s fighter jets, currently the MiG-29K on India’s INS Vikramaditya with a combat range of 850 kms on fleet defense mission will be able to neutralize enemy combatants at long distances before they get close to the carrier. In the future, the carriers will be armed with even more advanced and potent fighter jets. With its air complement, carrier groups can control a huge expanse of the seas compared to other surface and sub-surface platforms on their own.
There is a thought that India should perhaps make another Vikrant class carrier which is under construction. The Vikrant is a 45,000-ton carrier like INS Vikramaditya. However, it will carry only about 26 MiG-29Ks operating off a ski jump, which restricts fuel and weapons payload. With a dismal availability rate of less than 50%, only about a dozen jets are available for operations. This restricts offensive missions, with a majority of the jets on fleet defense duties. A 65,000-ton carrier with catapult-assisted takeoff will enable its fighters to carry full fuel and weapons load. Catapult-assisted takeoff generates more sortie which is ideal for offensive missions.
The Indian Navy’s area of responsibility ranges from the east coast of Africa to the Western Pacific, where it regularly deploys its assets for joint exercises, goodwill missions, military diplomacy, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. With nearly 50% of India’s trade passing through South China Sea and China claiming the entire sea as its own, the Indian Navy will be called upon to secure India’s trade and is increasingly likely to be challenged by the Chinese navy which objects the presence of foreign navies in the sea.
The Western side carries the other 50% of India’s trade and 80% of its oil supply. The Gulf region is home to over eight million Indians and is one of the most volatile regions of the world. As a growing power, the navy’s area of responsibility will likely include the west coast of Africa in the future where India has considerable investments.
The argument, at least at the military level, is not against aircraft carriers — but money, leading to the question of prioritization. India’s slowing economy is hurting its defense preparedness. But the question is, can India take the decision to not build a third aircraft carrier, based on what is expected to be a temporary economic slowdown — for a platform that will take at least 10 years to build and serve into the 2080s and thereby deprive itself of the most potent tool in military diplomacy?
Q1: Which of the following statements about aircraft carriers is supported by the information in the passage?
A. Aircraft carriers are not capable of participating in offensive missions as their fleets are limited to performing surveillance and fleet defense roles
B. Aircraft carriers are sluggish due to their massive size. This makes them harder to defend against air raids from the enemy fighter jets.
C. Aircraft carriers have a combat range of 850 KM on fleet defense and can neutralize enemy combatants before they get close to the carriers.
D. Aircraft carriers serve the American, Japanese and French Navies. They have the capability to control large portions of the sea and project power around the world.
Q2: The last paragraph performs which of the following functions in the passage?
A. It calls into question the need for prioritization based on a myopic economic rationale.
B. It summarizes the discussion thus far and reiterates the need for having a third aircraft.
C. It warns against potential scenarios that could arise from weakened defense preparedness.
D. It reinforces the fact that the military is not divided on the need for the 3rd Aircraft Carrier.
Q3: What does the author think about adding the 3rd Aircraft Carrier to the Indian Navy?
A. It should get precedence over submarines since it plays a more vital role in defending India’s waters.
B. India should at least add a 45,000-ton aircraft carrier even if it can not add a 65,000-ton aircraft carrier so that we have one aircraft carrier for each of the seaboards.
C. Aircraft carriers are a viable investment as the bulk of the cost to build it is in the future and they remain operational for half a century.
D. Aircraft carriers are obsolete much like tanks which have been rendered ineffective in war zones with the advent of advanced anti tank missiles and attack helicopters.
Q4: Which of the following statements if true do not support the need for adding a 3rd Aircraft Carrier to the Indian Navy?
A. India relies on its Navy to protect its trade interests in South China Sea which has been increasingly militarized by China.
B. Indian Navy would be needed in hours of emergency to safeguard or evacuate the 8 million Indians who live in the volatile Gulf Region.
C. The economic impact of the fiscal debt incurred during the pandemic would relay its economic impact over the next decade.
D. The flight range of Boeing F-18 Super Hornet and Dassault’s Rafale extends 1200 KM. They would be inducted to the Indian Air Force an provide a formidable shore-based defense.
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