List of practice Questions

Out of the three thousand people living in a gated community,three hundred people have taken sim card from Company X and 1200 have taken sim card from Company Y.If 100 have taken sim cards from both X andY,how many have not taken any of the two?

Two daily wage labourers A and B are paid a total of 3000 per day.If A is paid 132$\%$of the sum paid to B,how much is B paid per day?

The present worth of a sum due sometime hence is Rs 144 and the banker's gain is 25.What is the true discount?

What is the probability of getting at most two heads when three unbiased coins are tossed?

-Amala and Asha appeared for a job interview.Let A be the event that Amala selected and B is the event that Asha selected.The probabllty of A $\frac{2}{5}$and that B is$\frac{3}{7}$.What is the probabilty that both of them are selected?

Aleena speaks truth in $\frac{2}{5}$cases and Amit lies in $\frac{3}{7}$cases. What is the percentage of cases in which both Aleena and Amit contradict each other in stating facts?

Which one of the following statements is NOT correct.

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The stock market has demonstrated gravity-defying qualities lately. Despite worries about rate hikes, Fed taper and the inflationary impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, Indian indices rule just 3.5 per cent below lifetime highs. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is right in crediting retail investors for the market's shock-absorbing capacity. As Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out nearly $19 billion from stocks in the last six months, domestic investors have cushioned the fall by pumping in $20 billion. Selling by FPIs even of a fraction of this amount used to precipitate market meltdowns until a few years ago. In the four years from FY19 to FY22, retail investors have been taking multiple routes to raise their equity allocations. Demat accounts have more than doubled to nudge the 9 crore mark. Inflows into equity mutual funds have risen from 1.1 lakh crore to 1.6 lakh crore, with SIP flows up by 34 per cent. Equity mandates granted to NPS and EPF have allowed these pension funds to invest over 1.5 lakh crore annually in stocks. Apart from these conventional vehicles, individuals have been investing through newer options such as exchange traded funds and curated portfolios. It is heartening to see the equity cult in India taking off despite the withdrawal of policy sops such as zero tax on equity gains. While the retail investor's newfound propensity for equities is good for the economy and markets, there are some discomfiting aspects to it as well. One, it is clear that a large number of first-time investors are preferring direct stock bets over the institutional route. Despite the surge in SIPs, domestic mutual funds today own just 7.4 per cent of the outstanding stock on the NSE, compared to the direct retail holding of 7.3 per cent. Retail investors favour riskier small and mid-cap stocks while institutions prefer large-caps. Two, derivatives turnover on the bourses has trebled in the last couple of years with retail investors making up a third of the volumes. This suggests that many prefer short-term punting on prices to long-term business ownership. Three, with the market's vertical climb from February 2016 punctuated by just one big correction in March 2020 (from which it swiftly recovered) investors who've joined the equity party recently have no experience of a bear market. Equity product pitches rely mainly on past performance, so new investors who have come in post-2019 at Nifty valuations of 25-50 times, may have unrealistic return expectations. This is the fall side to what Sitharaman said about domestic investors stepping in to buy when FPIs head for the exit. Given that the days of global easy-money policies powering asset prices are ending, first-time equity investors need to be made aware of the risks they're taking on, especially in the DIY route. Market regulator SEBI and financial product firms must use their investor education coffers to ensure that new investors understand equity risks. Else, we could have an encore of the 2000 and 2008 experiences when many investors, after being singed by the market correction, left the asset class for good.
The retail investors are...............

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The sharp surge in gold imports this fiscal once again turns the spotlight on the need to find alternative avenues to meet the insatiable demand of Indians for the yellow metal. With consumers on a buying spree after the second wave of the pandemic, gold imports between April and November 2021 was at a nine-year high of $33.23 billion around 50 per cent higher than in the corresponding period in 2019-20, The last time gold imports crossed $30 billion in the first eight months of the fiscal year was in 2012-13. The Reserve Bank of India was then forced to take drastic measures to curb imports including hiking import duty sharply and laying down that 20 per cent of gold imported should be exported as jewellery. The RBI's actions were prompted by current account deficit expanding to 4.8 per cent of GDP and the rupee depreciating sharply. The surging gold imports this year could also turn problematic as the trade deficit has expanded since September, hitting a multi-decade low in November 2021. The rupee is also under pressure due to the rising trade deficit as well as continued foreign portfolio outflows. High gold imports is a structural issue in A recent report by the World Gold Council pointed out that gold imports by India have been consistently high since 2012, averaging 760 tonnes per year. This is because the domestic supply is limited, with imports meeting almost 86 per cent of domestic demand. It is clear that the Centre needs to find long-term sustainable solutions to increase the domestic supply. The obvious way to do so is to bring some of the 25,000 tonnes of gold held by households and temples into circulation, The Centre needs to consider another gold monetisation scheme (GMS) that offers higher returns compared with the previous schemes and is better tuned to the feeling and emotions of consumers, A scheme that promises that another equivalent piece of jewellery will be returned to the customer at the end of the deposit period could find more takers since the biggest drawback of the ongoing GMS is that the customer loses the jewellery and gets a gold coin or bar at the end of the scheme. Building greater awareness towards non-physical forms of gold such as sovereign gold bonds and gold exchange traded funds will also help reduce investment-led demand for physical gold to some extent. It may also be a good idea to set up bullion banks that focus on gold loans to retail and rural customers. The prime function of these banks will be to mobilise the surplus gold with citizens through gold monetisation schemes. They can also buy and sell gold in the bullion exchanges being set up in India and in the offshore business centre in GIFT City, thus imparting liquidity to these exchanges.
RBI has to intervene to reduce the gold imports in the backdrop of..............

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The dire wamings of climate change experts are coming true.Flooding caused by torrential rainfall in the past two weeks has claimed close to 500 lives and left thousands homeless in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.Tens of thousands of people in Durban are,reportedly,without water and there are concerns of an infectious disease outbreak.Authorities fear the toll could climb much higher.Intense rainfall in spring and early summer is part of South Africa's weather pattern.In April-May,a low-pressure system,stemming from the westerly trough systems of cold air,develops south of the country and often results in inclement weather.In 2019,flash floods claimed 85 lives in Durban.But the intensity of the downpour this year was unprecedented.Some parts of kwa Zulu-Natal experienced a year's rainfall in less than 36 hours.The weather vagary is straight out of classical climate change literature:Warmer seas push large amounts of moisture into the atmosphere leading to intense spells of rainfall.But that's one part of the story.The deluge's catastrophic turn has mu ch to do with a failing that's common to several parts of the world,including India:Durban's drainage system that has,at best,seen cosmetic improvements in more than a century,was ill-equipped to handle the relentless downpour.As in climate disasters in most parts of the world,the poor in South Africa have borne the brunt.Durban is a city of migrants,and large numbers live in shacks,locally called "informal settlements".These houses —an Apartheid-era legacy of the poor living in low-lying areas —were the first to be swept away by the flash floods.Experts have sounded the red alert for more extreme weather events in South Africa in the coming years.As in other parts of the world,the way forward lies in improving the accuracy of warning systems,and building the resilience of people,especially the poor.This should be the focus of adaptation strategies.
Accordling to the passage,climate disasters affect

It is unfortunate that the proposal by the Chief Justice of India (CJl)for a national judicial infrastructure corporation with corresponding bodies at the State level,did not find favour with many Chief Ministers at the recent joint conference of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers.A special purpose vehicle,vested with statutory powers to and implement infrastructure projects for the judiciary,would have been immensely helpful in augmenting facilities for the judiciary,given the inadequacies in court complexes across the country.However,it is a matter of relief that there was agreement on the idea of State-level bodies for the same purpose,with representation to the Chief Ministers so that they are fully involved in the implementation.The CJl,N.V.Ramana,who had mooted the proposal some months ago,sought to dispel the impression that a national body would usurp the powers of the executive,and underscored that it could have adequate representation of the Union/States.He had flagged the gulf between the available infrastructure and the justice needs of the people.If his proposal had been accepted,the available funding as a centrally sponsored scheme,with the Centre and States sharing the burden on a 60:40 ratio,could have been gone to the national authority,which would allocate the funds through high courts based on need.It is likely that Chief Ministers did not favour the idea as they wanted a greater say in the matter.Given the experience of allocated funds for judicial infrastructure going unspent in many States,it remains to be seen how far the proposed State-level bodies would be successful in identifying needs and speeding up implementation.It will naturally require greater coordination between States and the respective High Courts.Union Law Minister Kiren Rijju has promised assistance from the Centre to the States for creating the required infrastructure,especially for the lower judiciary.While it is a welcome sign that the focus is on infrastructure,unmitigated pendency,chronic shortage of judges and the burgeoning docket size remain major challenges.CJl Ramana flagged some aspects of the Government's contribution to the burden of the judiciary —the failure or unwillingness to implement court orders,leaving crucial questions to be decided by the courts and the absence of forethought and broad-based consultation before passing legislation.While this may be unpalatable to the executive,it is quite true that litigation spawned by government action or inaction constitutes a huge part of the courts'case burden.The conversation between the judiciary and the executive at the level of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers may help bring about an atmosphere of cooperation so that judicial appointments,infrastructure upgradation and downsizing pendency are seen as common concerns.
As per the passage, what is the major reason contributed from the Government for increasing burden of the Judiciary?

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Aristotle conceives of ethical theory as a field distinct from the theoretical sciences. Its methodology must match its subject matter-good action-and must respect the fact that in this field many generalizations hold only for the most part. We study ethics in order to improve our lives, and therefore its principal concern is the nature of human well-being. Aristotle follows Socrates and Plato in taking the virtues to be central to a well-lived life. Like Plato, he regards the ethical virtues (justice, courage, temperance and so on) as complex rational, emotional and social skills, But he rejects Plato's idea that to be completely virtuous one must acquire, through a training in the sciences, mathematics, and philosophy, an understanding of what goodness is. What we need, in order to live well, is a proper appreciation of the way in which such goods as friendship, pleasure, virtue, honor and wealth fit together as a whole. In order to apply that general understanding to particular cases, we must acquire, through proper upbringing and habits, the ability to see, on each occasion, which course of action is best supported by reasons. Therefore practical wisdom, as he conceives it, cannot be acquired solely by learning general rules. We must also acquire, through practice, those deliberative, emotional, and social skills that enable us to put our general understanding of well-being into practice in ways that are suitable to each occasion.
According to Aristotle,...........

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India's official statistical machinery is gearing up to relaunch the All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, traditionally undertaken quinquennially, from July 2022. If it fructifies, the result may be known towards the latter half of 2024, provided the Government permits the release. The last such Survey (2017-18), did not get such a sanction- its results reportedly indicated the first fall in monthly per-capita spending by households since 1972-73, with rural households facing a sharper decline compared to 2011-12. The Statistics Ministry had flagged 'discrepancies', 'data quality issues' and 'divergences' between estimated consumption levels and the actual output of goods and services. While it had sought to scuttle suggestions that unflattering data were being obfuscated, a better course of action would have been to release the data with caveats. It could have argued, for instance, that the numbers, at best, reflect the short-term impact of the 'bold structural reforms' carried out in the year preceding the Survey, to 'formalise' the economy-demonetisation and the GST. A fresh survey could then have been commissioned later for a clearer picture. This is what the UPA had done in 2011-12 to measure employment and consumer spending levels afresh, after the 2009-10 Surveys were affected by the global financial crisis and a severe drought that hit rural incomes. The Government had promised to examine the 'feasibility' of a fresh Consumer Spending Survey, over 2020-21 and 2021-22, after 'incorporating all data quality refinements' mooted by a panel. One hopes the exact 'refinements' are spelt out upfront in the upcoming Survey. Of equal import is providing data comparable with past numbers, while factoring in changes in consumption patterns; and it may still not be too late to release the previous Survey's findings to help assess longer term trends. The absence of official data on such a critical aspect of the economy-used to estimate poverty levels, rebase GDP, and to make private investment decisions for over a decade, is damaging to India. Being a free-market and transparent democracy distinguished India from the likes of China where official data are read with a pinch of salt. The Government's actions, including the delayed release of critical jobs data, have dulled that perception. If anything, such Surveys need to be conducted more frequently for more effective policy actions informed by ground realities, no matter how unpleasant they may be. Now, imperfect proxies are deployed to gauge the economy, surmises made about the extinction of extreme poverty, and outlays are tom-tommed without evidence on outcomes. The NSO must be empowered to collect and disseminate more data points, without fear of insinuations about its abilities, or a looming axe on its regular Surveys.
What is the central theme of the above passage?

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After wheat, there is pressure building up for banning exports of raw cotton. The Narendra Modi government must resist any such demand emanating from domestic textile mills and the garment industry. There are at least three reasons why this is so. To start with, the output of one industry is often the input of another. In this case, cotton is spun by mills into yarn, which is further woven or knitted into fabric used for making garments. During the year ended March 31, 2022, India exported $2.8 billion worth of raw cotton, $5.5 billion of cotton yarn, $8.2 billion of cotton fabrics and made-ups, and $9 billion of cotton ready-made garments. Will spinning mills seeking a ban on cotton shipments agree to the same in respect of yarn? When exports are happening at every stage of the value chain, how can there be pick and choose on which one to disallow or promote? Secondly, while it is true that cotton prices have risen by around 50 per cent since the start of 2022, this cannot be blamed just on exports - which are actually expected to halve in the current marketing season (October-September) compared to 2020-21. Domestic prices increasing to international parity levels should, by itself, slow down exports in the natural course. The Modi government did the right thing last month by scrapping the import duty on cotton. It should, in fact, remove the 10 per cent duty on yarn imports as well. The correct approach to tackling inflation, whether in wheat, cotton or yarn, is by allowing duty-free imports without putting fetters on exports. The third reason has to do with timing. Sowing of cotton has already started in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Plantings in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and other states will also take off with the arrival of the southwest monsoon rains. High prices would definitely incentivise farmers to expand acreage this time; banning exports will send the opposite signals to the ultimate detriment of the textile industry. The real problem in cotton that needs addressing is yields. The introduction of Bt cotton in the early 2000s led to India's production going up about 2.5 times to 398 lakh bales by 2013-14. Since then, it has been on a falling trajectory, with the latest output estimate for 2021-22 at below 325 lakh bales. The plants incorporating Bt genes have over time developed susceptibility to pink bollworm and whitefly insect pests, reducing yields and also farmer enthusiasm for growing cotton. The Modi government's succumbing to uninformed lobby pressures against genetic engineering technologies has not helped matters. A clearheaded approach is required for this crop, which is a source of not just fibre (lint), but also food (cotton-seed oil) and feed (oil-cake).
The main suggestion in the above passage is...

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On Monday, the Indian rupee fell to an all-time low of 77.6 against the dollar during intraday. While it has pulled back marginally since then, the rupee has, of late, been exhibiting signs of weakness. However, the Indian currency is not an outlier. Currencies of most other emerging economies have also exhibited weakness against the dollar. In fact, of late, the Turkish lira, Malaysian ringgit and Thai bhat have declined more sharply than the rupee according to analysts at Bank of Baroda. Notwithstanding these day-to-day fluctuations, the outlook for the Indian rupee continues to be weighed down by tighter global monetary policy, a strengthening of the US dollar and risk aversion, and higher current account deficits. With the US Federal Reserve hiking rates by 50 basis points, there has been a sell-off in global markets as investors have rushed to the dollar. In India, foreign portfolio investors have pulled out around $5.8 billion since the beginning of this financial year as per data from Kotak, exerting downward pressure on the currency. The DXY index - which measures the US dollar against six major currencies, namely the euro, pound, Canadian dollar, yen, Swedish kroner and Swiss franc has been rising. This strengthening of the dollar is unlikely to be reversed in the near term. As the US Fed embarks on an aggressive tightening of rates - some analysts are factoring in a terminal rate of more than 3 per cent asset classes across the world will witness further adjustments. There is also the pressure owing to the rising trade deficit — in April the deficit stood at $20 billion, up from $18.7 billion in March. In fact, according to analysts, the current account deficit is likely to be at its highest level since the crisis of 2013. During this period, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been intervening to soften the currency's slide the fall in its foreign exchange reserves suggests that is the case. However, considering that the rupee is overvalued, the central bank should allow the currency to slide, allowing it to find its own level, intervening only to smoothen excess volatility. Currency depreciation will act as an automatic stabiliser. It will help ease current account pressures by curbing imports, but more importantly, it will help boost exports—a critical driver of the country's economy at the current juncture.
Currencies globally in depreciation mode due to......

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The Securities Exchange Board of India's (SEBI's) move, under its new Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, to undertake a thorough review of securities market regulations should be welcomed as it is a necessary initiative to keep up with the times. The review can perhaps focus on three aspects. One, as India's financial market evolves with rising retail participation, market regulations need to keep up with new products and asset classes that are springing up. While comprehensive frameworks are in place to govern traditional investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds currently, newer options such as curated stock portfolios and digital gold which are quite popular with retail investors, are in the grey zone. Two, existing laws on insider trading, front-running and other market crimes rely mainly on call logs, preservation of transcripts and sharing of information on official databases to prevent leakage of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI). But the widespread use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube apart from apps that encrypt and instantly purge messages, are helping rogue players bypass such checks, with the result that mass dissemination of false information about dodgy companies has become rampant. SEBI's regulations must be rewritten to plug this gap. Three, regulations that haven't been updated in a while can stand in the way of innovation and deter the launch of new products or services that better serve the interests of investors. The proposed review must do away with redundant regulations wherever warranted, to facilitate market development. Updating laws apart, if financial market regulators such as SEBI are to keep up with new-age fraudsters, they need to be armed with the skillsets and regulatory powers to keep up close surveillance of communications through the digital media, call for information and carry out decryption to decipher such data. Recently, for instance, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) refused to uphold a SEBI ruling against market players for insider trading, after they were discovered to be sharing unpublished company results on WhatsApp groups, on the grounds that these messages couldn't be traced back to company insiders. SEBI is therefore quite right to seek powers from the Government under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information) Rules, to be allowed to access digital communication channels and carry out interception and decryption of such information. The Centre should waste no time in arming SEBI with such powers, with adequate safeguards to protect personal data privacy. To keep up with scamsters, the regulator will also have to build internal capacity and skillsets in efficiently mining surveillance data, connecting the dots and building a convincing evidence trail. The Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance had noted that SEBI was severely under-staffed, overseeing 5,000-odd listed companies with just 800-odd staff while the US SEC had over 4,500 employees to oversee an equal number of companies. Apart from adding numerically to its workforce, SEBI must look at lateral hiring of data science and tech talent at competitive pay scales, to buttress its regulatory capacity to keep up with the times.

Pick out the best filler which can complete the given sentence correctly.
I'm late to the class,………………?

The following idiom is followed by some alternatives.Choose the one which best expresses its meaning.
CALL A SPADE A SPADE

The following idiom is followed by some alternatives.Choose the one which best expresses its meaning.
DRY RUN

The following idiom is followed by some alternatives.Choose the one which best expresses its meaning.
EAGER BEAVER

The following idiom is followed by some alternatives.Choose the one which best expresses its meaning.
VALE OF TEARS

Out of the four given alternatives,choose the one which is OPPOSITE in meaning to the given word:MELANCHOLY