Civics Polity · General Awareness

Indian Governance and Policy

912 Questions

Indian Governance and Policy covers the implementation of government schemes, public finance, and bilateral relations. It evaluates the impact of administrative and constitutional bodies in India. This subject is a mainstay in civil services and state examination prelims.

Government schemesBilateral relationsPublic financeConstitutional bodiesTrade and commerce

Indian Governance and Policy Questions

Multiple choice

Directions: The question has a set of four sequentially ordered statements; each statement can be classified as one of the following: Facts, which deal with pieces of information that one has heard, seen or read, and which are pen the discovery or verification (the answer option indicates such a statements with an 'F') Inferences, which are conclusions drawn about the unknown, on the basis of the known (the answer option indicates such a statement with an 'I'). Judgments, which are opinions that imply approval or disapproval of persons, objects, situations, and occurrences in the past, the present, or the future (the answer option indicates such as statement with a 'J') Select the answer option that best describes the set of four statements.

  1. India's employment market is humming with net employment outlook standing at 82 percent, up one percentage point over the last two quarters as jobs are being created across the entire spectrum of the economy.
  2. Infrastructure is an important sector that is expected to generate employment potential; the business confidence looks positive as the government plans to spend 350 billion US dollars on infrastructure.
  3. The metropolis cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore are becoming commercial capitals, in IT and in Telecom sectors, the demand for human resources is increasing.
  4. The multinational companies recruit people from metros and class I cities as these cities have a placeable population whose skill sets are synchronized to the needs of the recruiters.
  1. FFFI

  2. IIFI

  3. FIFI

  4. FFIJ

  5. IIFF

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Statement 1 is based on facts about employment; statement 2 refers to government spending which is expected to boost employment (inference); statement 3 is fact based and statement 4 again is based on inference, seeking to explain a fact of recruitment.  Hence, FIFI

Multiple choice
  1. MPs have opposed several other bills aimed at health of general public.

  2. Population control may not be beneficial for the XYZ area.

  3. Past attempts to pass the bills have failed in Parliament.

  4. It is possible that some MPs from XYZ region may not oppose the bill for population control law.

  5. None of these

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The fact that only MPs from XYZ region would oppose the bill does not imply that all MPs from that region would oppose the bill. Based on the initial statement, Mr. R. P. Singh may or may not be from that region if he supports the bill. For the conclusion to be valid, the initial statement would have to read, “All the MPs from XYZ region would oppose the bill for population control law….”. Thus, this choice makes the relevant logical point.

Multiple choice
  1. In 2000, the city council contributed half as much in food and clothing to the beggars as it did in 1998.

  2. Between 1990 and 1998, NGO groups were also committed to environmental issues.

  3. In 2000, the municipal council changed contributions from cooked foods to food rations.

  4. Since 1995, NGO groups have made great strides in helping the beggars, such as establishing work-start programs.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

This choice suggest that the council is doing less, which weakens the conclusion that the NGOs are doing more.

Multiple choice
  1. Most politicians have no commitment to the creation of a socialist state.

  2. Government-funded programs will never encourage true self-reliance because any individual who accepts external support cannot develop the qualities necessary for true self-reliance.

  3. The disbursement of state funds designated for self-help is based on a sliding scale contingent upon a broad definition of self-reliance.

  4. Once an individual becomes truly self-reliant, he or she will refuse to accept state assistance.

  5. None of these

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

K Singh assumes that the two things are mutually exclusive. The argument needs this choice to be true.

Multiple choice

Which of the following options can be inferred about AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) from the passage?

  1. The act provides extraordinary powers only to all officers.
  2. The Supreme Court asked the state government to repeal the act.
  3. Rather than controlling the insurgency, AFSPA has fuelled the insurgency.
  4. The act has been somewhat successful in curtailing the insurgency.

    Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

    The unabated protests in Manipur over the death in custody of Thangjam Manoroma Devi show that the Centre and the State Government need to address the situation with measures that go beyond token gestures. Thirty–two–year–old Manoroma was found shot dead a few hours after her arrest by personnel of the Assam Rifles on the suspicion that she was an activist of the secessionist People's Liberation Army.

    The Manoroma incident is not the first of its kind. Going by the number of atrocities reported, the security forces deployed in the State seem to conduct themselves with total impunity. In this, they are enabled by the Armed Forces (Manipur and Assam) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) of 1958, amended in 1972, and in force in the whole of Manipur since 1980. This gives the security forces not just extraordinary powers but also uncommon protection. Once an area is declared disturbed under the Act, an officer of any rank, including a non–commissioned officer, can enter and search a place without a warrant, destroy it, and carry out an arrest on reasonable suspicion that a person has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence! It allows the killing of a person who in the opinion of the officer violates prohibitory orders. But the most shocking aspect of the Act is this: it shuts out avenues of redress by barring all legal proceedings against security forces personnel without the prior sanction of the Central Government. The Act was brought in to deal with the insurgency in the State, but its sweeping provisions have only led to a long list of human rights violations by the security forces, worsening the sense of alienation among the people of the State and fuelling the insurgency.

    The protests against the Manoroma incident are in reality an explosion of years of bottled–up rage against the actions that are covered up by this Act. It is the responsibility of the Centre to ensure that the situation does not deteriorate any further. Without doubt, the solution to the present problem in Manipur lies in taking a close and honest look at the draconian provisions of the Act and devising a political strategy to deal with the insurgency instead of depending on the armed forces to sort it out.

     

     

  1. 1 and 2 only

  2. 2 and 3 only

  3. 1 and 3 only

  4. 3 and 4 only

  5. All of the above

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Correct answer is (3).

(1) is the correct answer because the passage suggests that the act provides extraordinary powers to all officers (commissioned and non commissioned). (2) is not mentioned in the passage.  (4) is not the answer because the passage mentions that the act has not been successful to scale down the insurgency. (3) is the answer because the last lines of second paragraph mention the same. Therefore, the answer is (3).

Multiple choice
  1. Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies will be redefined

  2. Candidates from SC/ST categories will get all benefits for another 15 years' time

  3. The boundaries of the National Capital, New Delhi will be extended further

  4. Operations of the Cooperative Banks and Societies will not be limited to the state of their origin. They will also be like Public Sector Banks

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The Delimitation Commission is tasked with redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on the latest census data to ensure fair representation.

Multiple choice
  1. mid-day meal scheme

  2. day meal scheme

  3. food supply programme

  4. none of these

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The Mid-Day Meal scheme is the flagship program of the Ministry of Human Resource Development aimed at improving nutritional standards in schools.

Multiple choice
  1. He has been elected as the President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

  2. He has been elected as the member of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

  3. He has been elected as the President of the Bar Association of India.

  4. He has been elected as Chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for 2008-2009.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Shashank Manohar was elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2008.

Multiple choice
  1. “we will continue our financial inclusion agenda in the years to come.”

  2. “we will, continue our financial inclusion agenda in the year’s to come.”

  3. “We will continue our financial inclusion agenda in the years to come.”

  4. “We will continue our financial inclusion agenda in the years’ to come.”

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

(3) takes care of all the punctuations correctly and uses ‘years’ correctly.

Multiple choice
  1. should

  2. may

  3. would

  4. did

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The paragraph is about the expansion program of the ICICI bank.

Multiple choice
  1. Policies at Besahara Parivar with regard to hiring employees have not become more lax over the past ten years.

  2. The number of employees at Besahara Parivar has increased over the past ten years.

  3. The criterion used by Besahara Parivar for selecting its prize recipients has remained the same for the past ten years.

  4. The average total productivity figures for Besahara Parivar employees have been declining for the past ten years.

  5. Besahara Parivar calculates its employee’s productivity in the same way as it did ten years ago.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The conclusion that the number of employees passed over for these prizes has similarly declined is valid only when the criterion for selecting the prize recipients remains the same, something stated very clearly in option (3). Hence option (3) is correct.

Multiple choice
  1. Raghavan considers Narendra inexperienced for the position of Prime Minister.

  2. No candidate without national level political experience has ever been elected Prime Minister of the country.

  3. Raghavan believes that political leadership at the state level and political leadership at the national level are closely analogous.

  4. A career spent in the state politics can be an impediment to one’s ability to run a national government fairly.

  5. Voters generally overestimate the value of national political experience when selecting a candidate for national level position.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Rajni asserts that the experience of running a state government is good enough to run a national government too without saying anything about voters willingness to elect such a politician. So, she is simply taking Raghavan’s assertions to mean that Narendra has no experience. Hence, option (1) is correct.

Multiple choice
  1. For personal and economic reasons, both the rich and the poor sometimes go unrecorded in the decennial Indian Census.

  2. All citizens of India may reasonably be classified as either poor or rich.

  3. The percentage of poor Indian citizens unrecorded by the decennial census is close to the percentage of rich Indian citizens unrecorded.

  4. The number of homeless or migrant Indian citizens is approximately equal to the number of rich Indian citizens.

  5. The primary objective of the decennial Indian Census is to capture the economic status of the citizens of India.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Census should be in proportion to the population to represent the demographic picture correctly. If the equal number of each group is not counted, it'll distort the demographic picture. Hence option (3) is correct.

Multiple choice
  1. Health experts do not believe that moving to Punjab will substantially improve the average Goan’s health status.

  2. The Goan government has alleged that the health statistics given for the state are flawed.

  3. The better health ascribed to Punjab’s current population is mostly due to genetic reasons.

  4. Forty percent of all Goans are having a health index of more than 1000 points.

  5. Most Punjabis have a diet better than most others across the rest of the country.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

In the context of facts and figures, opinions hardly matter. Therefore, option (1), which talks of the health experts’ opinion, is ruled out. Pay careful attention to the word flawed in option (2), which could go either way to the advantage or disadvantage of the true position in respect of Goa. Besides, it is an allegation, not a proven fact. Option (4) is again wrong as we are talking of the viability of moving to Punjab to improve one’s health. The fact of 40% Goans having a health index of 1000+ points, does not negate the conclusion given to us, which basically focuses on Punjab. So it is irrelevant. (5), in fact, tends to give us one of the logical reasons for the Punjabis’ better health, while on the other hand, we would like to prove that moving to Punjab will do no good to one’s health. The job is done very well by option (3), which reveals that genes are responsible for better health in Punjab. Consequently, if someone lacks those genes, going there would be hardly useful at all.

Multiple choice
  1. retail finance

  2. special economic zones (SEZs)

  3. housing finance

  4. infrastructure debt

  5. venture capital

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The government has set up a committee under HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh to review a proposal for an Rs 50,000-crore infrastructure debt fund. The proposed fund would be used to finance infrastructure projects that have begun commercial operations and could replace the existing practice of taking loans from commercial banks. The Planning commission had floated a concept paper in February to set up the fund that would help meet long-term needs of public private partnership projects (PPP) by tapping foreign and domestic pension and insurance funds, sovereign funds and multilateral institutions. The fund was conceptualised to address the need of infrastructure companies in India, that do not have access to loans of 10 to 20 years for long-term projects like developing airports and roads. Most commercial banks' loan tenure is less than 10 years. The government-promoted India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL), which was set up to facilitate lending for infrastructure projects, lends funds for roughly the same time period, since it works in consortium with banks.