James Madison said, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives.” In India, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 was a convenient smokescreen to deny members of the public access to information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy. But in a democracy in which people govern themselves, it is necessary to have more openness. In the maturing of our democracy, right to information is a major step forward; it enables citizens to participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their lives so profoundly. It is in this context that the address of the Pr ime Minister in the Lok Sabha is significant. He said, “I would only like to see that everyone, particularly our civil servants, should see the Bill in a positive spirit; not as a draconian law for paralyzing Government, but as an instrument for improving Government-Citizen interface resulting in a friendly, caring and effective Government functioning for the good of our People.” He further said, “This is an innovative Bill, where there will be scope to review its functioning as we gain experience. Therefore, this is a piece of legislation, whose working will be kept under constant reviews.” The Commission, in its Report, has dealt with the application of the Right to Information in Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The judiciary could be a pioneer in implementing the Act in letter and spirit because much of the work that the Judiciary does is open to public scrutiny, Government of India has sanctioned an e-governance project in the Judiciary for about ` 700 crores which would bring about systematic classification, standardization and categorization of records. This would help the judiciary to fulfil its mandate under the Act. Similar capacity building would be required in all other public authorities. The transformation from nontransparency to transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of all three organs of State.
A person gets power

James Madison said, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives.” In India, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 was a convenient smokescreen to deny members of the public access to information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy. But in a democracy in which people govern themselves, it is necessary to have more openness. In the maturing of our democracy, right to information is a major step forward; it enables citizens to participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their lives so profoundly. It is in this context that the address of the Pr ime Minister in the Lok Sabha is significant. He said, “I would only like to see that everyone, particularly our civil servants, should see the Bill in a positive spirit; not as a draconian law for paralyzing Government, but as an instrument for improving Government-Citizen interface resulting in a friendly, caring and effective Government functioning for the good of our People.” He further said, “This is an innovative Bill, where there will be scope to review its functioning as we gain experience. Therefore, this is a piece of legislation, whose working will be kept under constant reviews.” The Commission, in its Report, has dealt with the application of the Right to Information in Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The judiciary could be a pioneer in implementing the Act in letter and spirit because much of the work that the Judiciary does is open to public scrutiny, Government of India has sanctioned an e-governance project in the Judiciary for about ` 700 crores which would bring about systematic classification, standardization and categorization of records. This would help the judiciary to fulfil its mandate under the Act. Similar capacity building would be required in all other public authorities. The transformation from nontransparency to transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of all three organs of State.
Right to Information is a major step forward to

James Madison said, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives.” In India, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 was a convenient smokescreen to deny members of the public access to information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy. But in a democracy in which people govern themselves, it is necessary to have more openness. In the maturing of our democracy, right to information is a major step forward; it enables citizens to participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their lives so profoundly. It is in this context that the address of the Pr ime Minister in the Lok Sabha is significant. He said, “I would only like to see that everyone, particularly our civil servants, should see the Bill in a positive spirit; not as a draconian law for paralyzing Government, but as an instrument for improving Government-Citizen interface resulting in a friendly, caring and effective Government functioning for the good of our People.” He further said, “This is an innovative Bill, where there will be scope to review its functioning as we gain experience. Therefore, this is a piece of legislation, whose working will be kept under constant reviews.” The Commission, in its Report, has dealt with the application of the Right to Information in Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The judiciary could be a pioneer in implementing the Act in letter and spirit because much of the work that the Judiciary does is open to public scrutiny, Government of India has sanctioned an e-governance project in the Judiciary for about ` 700 crores which would bring about systematic classification, standardization and categorization of records. This would help the judiciary to fulfil its mandate under the Act. Similar capacity building would be required in all other public authorities. The transformation from nontransparency to transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of all three organs of State.
The Prime Minister considered the Bill

James Madison said, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives.” In India, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 was a convenient smokescreen to deny members of the public access to information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy. But in a democracy in which people govern themselves, it is necessary to have more openness. In the maturing of our democracy, right to information is a major step forward; it enables citizens to participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their lives so profoundly. It is in this context that the address of the Pr ime Minister in the Lok Sabha is significant. He said, “I would only like to see that everyone, particularly our civil servants, should see the Bill in a positive spirit; not as a draconian law for paralyzing Government, but as an instrument for improving Government-Citizen interface resulting in a friendly, caring and effective Government functioning for the good of our People.” He further said, “This is an innovative Bill, where there will be scope to review its functioning as we gain experience. Therefore, this is a piece of legislation, whose working will be kept under constant reviews.” The Commission, in its Report, has dealt with the application of the Right to Information in Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The judiciary could be a pioneer in implementing the Act in letter and spirit because much of the work that the Judiciary does is open to public scrutiny, Government of India has sanctioned an e-governance project in the Judiciary for about ` 700 crores which would bring about systematic classification, standardization and categorization of records. This would help the judiciary to fulfil its mandate under the Act. Similar capacity building would be required in all other public authorities. The transformation from nontransparency to transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of all three organs of State.

The Commission made the Bill effective by

James Madison said, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives.” In India, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 was a convenient smokescreen to deny members of the public access to information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy. But in a democracy in which people govern themselves, it is necessary to have more openness. In the maturing of our democracy, right to information is a major step forward; it enables citizens to participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their lives so profoundly. It is in this context that the address of the Pr ime Minister in the Lok Sabha is significant. He said, “I would only like to see that everyone, particularly our civil servants, should see the Bill in a positive spirit; not as a draconian law for paralyzing Government, but as an instrument for improving Government-Citizen interface resulting in a friendly, caring and effective Government functioning for the good of our People.” He further said, “This is an innovative Bill, where there will be scope to review its functioning as we gain experience. Therefore, this is a piece of legislation, whose working will be kept under constant reviews.” The Commission, in its Report, has dealt with the application of the Right to Information in Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The judiciary could be a pioneer in implementing the Act in letter and spirit because much of the work that the Judiciary does is open to public scrutiny, Government of India has sanctioned an e-governance project in the Judiciary for about ` 700 crores which would bring about systematic classification, standardization and categorization of records. This would help the judiciary to fulfil its mandate under the Act. Similar capacity building would be required in all other public authorities. The transformation from nontransparency to transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of all three organs of State.

The Prime Minister considered the Bill innovative and hoped that

James Madison said, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives.” In India, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 was a convenient smokescreen to deny members of the public access to information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy. But in a democracy in which people govern themselves, it is necessary to have more openness. In the maturing of our democracy, right to information is a major step forward; it enables citizens to participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their lives so profoundly. It is in this context that the address of the Pr ime Minister in the Lok Sabha is significant. He said, “I would only like to see that everyone, particularly our civil servants, should see the Bill in a positive spirit; not as a draconian law for paralyzing Government, but as an instrument for improving Government-Citizen interface resulting in a friendly, caring and effective Government functioning for the good of our People.” He further said, “This is an innovative Bill, where there will be scope to review its functioning as we gain experience. Therefore, this is a piece of legislation, whose working will be kept under constant reviews.” The Commission, in its Report, has dealt with the application of the Right to Information in Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The judiciary could be a pioneer in implementing the Act in letter and spirit because much of the work that the Judiciary does is open to public scrutiny, Government of India has sanctioned an e-governance project in the Judiciary for about ` 700 crores which would bring about systematic classification, standardization and categorization of records. This would help the judiciary to fulfil its mandate under the Act. Similar capacity building would be required in all other public authorities. The transformation from nontransparency to transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of all three organs of State.

The transparency and public accountability is the responsibility of three organs of the State. These three organs are

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions (42 to 47):
The Taj Mahal has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by 549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local merchants and nobles.
The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”, to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.
Work on the mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was virtually complete.

Marble stone used for the construction of te Taj Mahal was brought from te ancestral domain of Raja Jai Singh. The name of the place where mines of marble is

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions (42 to 47):
The Taj Mahal has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by 549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local merchants and nobles.
The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”, to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.
Work on the mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was virtually complete.

The popular name Taj Mahal was given by

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions (42 to 47):
The Taj Mahal has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by 549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local merchants and nobles.
The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”, to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.
Work on the mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was virtually complete.

Point out the true statement from the following:

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions (42 to 47):
The Taj Mahal has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by 549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local merchants and nobles.
The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”, to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.
Work on the mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was virtually complete.

In the contemporary texts the Taj Mahal is known

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions (42 to 47):
The Taj Mahal has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by 549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local merchants and nobles.
The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”, to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.
Work on the mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was virtually complete.

The Construction of the Taj Mahal was completed between the period

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions (42 to 47):
The Taj Mahal has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by 549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local merchants and nobles.
The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”, to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.
Work on the mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was virtually complete.

The documents indicating the ownership of land, where the Taj Mahal was built, known as

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 44 to 48:
The literary distaste for politics, however, seems to be focused not so much on the largely murky practice of politics in itself as a subject of literary representation but rather more on how it is often depicted in literature, i.e., on the very politics of such representation. A political novel often turns out to be not merely a novel about politics but a novel with a politics of its own, for it seeks not merely to show us how things are but has fairly definite ideas about how things should be, and precisely what one should think and do in order to make things move in that desired direction. In short, it seeks to convert and enlist the reader to a particular cause or ideology; it often is (in an only too familiar phrase) not literature but propaganda. This is said to violate the very spirit of literature which is to broaden our understanding of the world and the range of our sympathies rather than to narrow them down through partisan commitment. As John Keats said, ‘We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us’.
Another reason why politics does not seem amenable to the highest kind of literary representation seems to arise from the fact that politics by its very nature is constituted of ideas and ideologies. If political situations do not lend themselves to happy literary treatment, political ideas present perhaps an even greater problem in this regard. Literature, it is argued, is about human experiences rather than about intellectual abstractions; it deals in what is called the ‘felt reality’ of human flesh and blood, and in sap and savour. (rasa) rather than in and lifeless ideas. In an extensive discussion of the matter in her book Ideas and the Novel, the American novelist Mary McCarthy observed that ‘ideas are still today felt to be unsightly in the novel’ though that was not so in ‘former days’, i.e., in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her formulation of the precise nature of the incompatibility between ideas on the one hand and the novel on the other betrays perhaps a divided conscience in the matter and a sense of dilemma shared by many writers and readers: ‘An idea cannot have loose ends, but a novel, I almost think, needs them. Nevertheless, there is enough in common for the novelists to feel... the attraction of ideas while taking up arms against them — most often with weapons of mockery.’

The constructs of politics by its nature is

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 44 to 48:
The literary distaste for politics, however, seems to be focused not so much on the largely murky practice of politics in itself as a subject of literary representation but rather more on how it is often depicted in literature, i.e., on the very politics of such representation. A political novel often turns out to be not merely a novel about politics but a novel with a politics of its own, for it seeks not merely to show us how things are but has fairly definite ideas about how things should be, and precisely what one should think and do in order to make things move in that desired direction. In short, it seeks to convert and enlist the reader to a particular cause or ideology; it often is (in an only too familiar phrase) not literature but propaganda. This is said to violate the very spirit of literature which is to broaden our understanding of the world and the range of our sympathies rather than to narrow them down through partisan commitment. As John Keats said, ‘We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us’.
Another reason why politics does not seem amenable to the highest kind of literary representation seems to arise from the fact that politics by its very nature is constituted of ideas and ideologies. If political situations do not lend themselves to happy literary treatment, political ideas present perhaps an even greater problem in this regard. Literature, it is argued, is about human experiences rather than about intellectual abstractions; it deals in what is called the ‘felt reality’ of human flesh and blood, and in sap and savour. (rasa) rather than in and lifeless ideas. In an extensive discussion of the matter in her book Ideas and the Novel, the American novelist Mary McCarthy observed that ‘ideas are still today felt to be unsightly in the novel’ though that was not so in ‘former days’, i.e., in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her formulation of the precise nature of the incompatibility between ideas on the one hand and the novel on the other betrays perhaps a divided conscience in the matter and a sense of dilemma shared by many writers and readers: ‘An idea cannot have loose ends, but a novel, I almost think, needs them. Nevertheless, there is enough in common for the novelists to feel... the attraction of ideas while taking up arms against them — most often with weapons of mockery.’

Literature deals with

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 44 to 48:
The literary distaste for politics, however, seems to be focused not so much on the largely murky practice of politics in itself as a subject of literary representation but rather more on how it is often depicted in literature, i.e., on the very politics of such representation. A political novel often turns out to be not merely a novel about politics but a novel with a politics of its own, for it seeks not merely to show us how things are but has fairly definite ideas about how things should be, and precisely what one should think and do in order to make things move in that desired direction. In short, it seeks to convert and enlist the reader to a particular cause or ideology; it often is (in an only too familiar phrase) not literature but propaganda. This is said to violate the very spirit of literature which is to broaden our understanding of the world and the range of our sympathies rather than to narrow them down through partisan commitment. As John Keats said, ‘We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us’.
Another reason why politics does not seem amenable to the highest kind of literary representation seems to arise from the fact that politics by its very nature is constituted of ideas and ideologies. If political situations do not lend themselves to happy literary treatment, political ideas present perhaps an even greater problem in this regard. Literature, it is argued, is about human experiences rather than about intellectual abstractions; it deals in what is called the ‘felt reality’ of human flesh and blood, and in sap and savour. (rasa) rather than in and lifeless ideas. In an extensive discussion of the matter in her book Ideas and the Novel, the American novelist Mary McCarthy observed that ‘ideas are still today felt to be unsightly in the novel’ though that was not so in ‘former days’, i.e., in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her formulation of the precise nature of the incompatibility between ideas on the one hand and the novel on the other betrays perhaps a divided conscience in the matter and a sense of dilemma shared by many writers and readers: ‘An idea cannot have loose ends, but a novel, I almost think, needs them. Nevertheless, there is enough in common for the novelists to feel... the attraction of ideas while taking up arms against them — most often with weapons of mockery.’

The observation of the novelist, May McCarthy reveals

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 44 to 48:
The literary distaste for politics, however, seems to be focused not so much on the largely murky practice of politics in itself as a subject of literary representation but rather more on how it is often depicted in literature, i.e., on the very politics of such representation. A political novel often turns out to be not merely a novel about politics but a novel with a politics of its own, for it seeks not merely to show us how things are but has fairly definite ideas about how things should be, and precisely what one should think and do in order to make things move in that desired direction. In short, it seeks to convert and enlist the reader to a particular cause or ideology; it often is (in an only too familiar phrase) not literature but propaganda. This is said to violate the very spirit of literature which is to broaden our understanding of the world and the range of our sympathies rather than to narrow them down through partisan commitment. As John Keats said, ‘We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us’.
Another reason why politics does not seem amenable to the highest kind of literary representation seems to arise from the fact that politics by its very nature is constituted of ideas and ideologies. If political situations do not lend themselves to happy literary treatment, political ideas present perhaps an even greater problem in this regard. Literature, it is argued, is about human experiences rather than about intellectual abstractions; it deals in what is called the ‘felt reality’ of human flesh and blood, and in sap and savour. (rasa) rather than in and lifeless ideas. In an extensive discussion of the matter in her book Ideas and the Novel, the American novelist Mary McCarthy observed that ‘ideas are still today felt to be unsightly in the novel’ though that was not so in ‘former days’, i.e., in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her formulation of the precise nature of the incompatibility between ideas on the one hand and the novel on the other betrays perhaps a divided conscience in the matter and a sense of dilemma shared by many writers and readers: ‘An idea cannot have loose ends, but a novel, I almost think, needs them. Nevertheless, there is enough in common for the novelists to feel... the attraction of ideas while taking up arms against them — most often with weapons of mockery.’

According to the passage, a political novel often turns out to be a

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 44 to 48:
The literary distaste for politics, however, seems to be focused not so much on the largely murky practice of politics in itself as a subject of literary representation but rather more on how it is often depicted in literature, i.e., on the very politics of such representation. A political novel often turns out to be not merely a novel about politics but a novel with a politics of its own, for it seeks not merely to show us how things are but has fairly definite ideas about how things should be, and precisely what one should think and do in order to make things move in that desired direction. In short, it seeks to convert and enlist the reader to a particular cause or ideology; it often is (in an only too familiar phrase) not literature but propaganda. This is said to violate the very spirit of literature which is to broaden our understanding of the world and the range of our sympathies rather than to narrow them down through partisan commitment. As John Keats said, ‘We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us’.
Another reason why politics does not seem amenable to the highest kind of literary representation seems to arise from the fact that politics by its very nature is constituted of ideas and ideologies. If political situations do not lend themselves to happy literary treatment, political ideas present perhaps an even greater problem in this regard. Literature, it is argued, is about human experiences rather than about intellectual abstractions; it deals in what is called the ‘felt reality’ of human flesh and blood, and in sap and savour. (rasa) rather than in and lifeless ideas. In an extensive discussion of the matter in her book Ideas and the Novel, the American novelist Mary McCarthy observed that ‘ideas are still today felt to be unsightly in the novel’ though that was not so in ‘former days’, i.e., in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her formulation of the precise nature of the incompatibility between ideas on the one hand and the novel on the other betrays perhaps a divided conscience in the matter and a sense of dilemma shared by many writers and readers: ‘An idea cannot have loose ends, but a novel, I almost think, needs them. Nevertheless, there is enough in common for the novelists to feel... the attraction of ideas while taking up arms against them — most often with weapons of mockery.’

A political novel reveals

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 27 to 32
Heritage conservation practices improved worldwide after the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. (ICCROM) was established with UNESCO's assistance in 1959. The inter-governmental organisation with 126 member states has done a commendable job by training more than 4,000 professionals, providing practice standards, and sharing technical expertise. In this golden jubilee year, as we acknowledge its key role in global conservation, an assessment of international practices would be meaningful to the Indian conservation movement. Consistent investment, rigorous attention, and dedicated research and dissemination are some of the positive lessons to imbibe. Countries such as Italy have demonstrated that prioritizing heritage with significant budget provision pays. On the other hand, India, which is no less endowed in terms of cultural capital, has a long way to go. Surveys indicate that in addition to the 6,600 protected monuments, there are over 60,000 equally valuable heritage structures that await attention. Besides the small group in the service of Archaeological Survey of India, there are only about 150 trained conservation professionals. In order to overcome this severe shortage the emphasis has been on setting up dedicated labs and training institutions. It would make much better sense for conservation to be made part of mainstream research and engineering Institutes, as has been done in Europe.
Increasing funding and building institutions are the relatively easy part. The real challenge is to redefine international approaches to address local contexts. Conservation cannot limit itself to enhancing the art-historical value of the heritage structures which international charters perhaps over emphasize. The effort has to be broad-based. It must also serve as a means to improving the quality of life in the area where the heritage structures are located. The first task therefore is to integrate conservation efforts with sound development plans that take care of people living in the heritage vicinity. Unlike in western countries, many traditional building crafts survive in India, and conservation practices offer an avenue to support them. This has been acknowledged by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage charter for conservation but is yet to receive substantial state support. More strength for heritage conservation can be mobilised by aligning it with the green building movement. Heritage structures are essentially eco-friendly and conservation could become a vital part of the sustainable building practices campaign in future.

The outlook for conservation heritage changed

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 27 to 32
Heritage conservation practices improved worldwide after the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. (ICCROM) was established with UNESCO's assistance in 1959. The inter-governmental organisation with 126 member states has done a commendable job by training more than 4,000 professionals, providing practice standards, and sharing technical expertise. In this golden jubilee year, as we acknowledge its key role in global conservation, an assessment of international practices would be meaningful to the Indian conservation movement. Consistent investment, rigorous attention, and dedicated research and dissemination are some of the positive lessons to imbibe. Countries such as Italy have demonstrated that prioritizing heritage with significant budget provision pays. On the other hand, India, which is no less endowed in terms of cultural capital, has a long way to go. Surveys indicate that in addition to the 6,600 protected monuments, there are over 60,000 equally valuable heritage structures that await attention. Besides the small group in the service of Archaeological Survey of India, there are only about 150 trained conservation professionals. In order to overcome this severe shortage the emphasis has been on setting up dedicated labs and training institutions. It would make much better sense for conservation to be made part of mainstream research and engineering Institutes, as has been done in Europe.
Increasing funding and building institutions are the relatively easy part. The real challenge is to redefine international approaches to address local contexts. Conservation cannot limit itself to enhancing the art-historical value of the heritage structures which international charters perhaps over emphasize. The effort has to be broad-based. It must also serve as a means to improving the quality of life in the area where the heritage structures are located. The first task therefore is to integrate conservation efforts with sound development plans that take care of people living in the heritage vicinity. Unlike in western countries, many traditional building crafts survive in India, and conservation practices offer an avenue to support them. This has been acknowledged by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage charter for conservation but is yet to receive substantial state support. More strength for heritage conservation can be mobilised by aligning it with the green building movement. Heritage structures are essentially eco-friendly and conservation could become a vital part of the sustainable building practices campaign in future.

The inter-government organization was appreciated because of

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 27 to 32
Heritage conservation practices improved worldwide after the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. (ICCROM) was established with UNESCO's assistance in 1959. The inter-governmental organisation with 126 member states has done a commendable job by training more than 4,000 professionals, providing practice standards, and sharing technical expertise. In this golden jubilee year, as we acknowledge its key role in global conservation, an assessment of international practices would be meaningful to the Indian conservation movement. Consistent investment, rigorous attention, and dedicated research and dissemination are some of the positive lessons to imbibe. Countries such as Italy have demonstrated that prioritizing heritage with significant budget provision pays. On the other hand, India, which is no less endowed in terms of cultural capital, has a long way to go. Surveys indicate that in addition to the 6,600 protected monuments, there are over 60,000 equally valuable heritage structures that await attention. Besides the small group in the service of Archaeological Survey of India, there are only about 150 trained conservation professionals. In order to overcome this severe shortage the emphasis has been on setting up dedicated labs and training institutions. It would make much better sense for conservation to be made part of mainstream research and engineering Institutes, as has been done in Europe.
Increasing funding and building institutions are the relatively easy part. The real challenge is to redefine international approaches to address local contexts. Conservation cannot limit itself to enhancing the art-historical value of the heritage structures which international charters perhaps over emphasize. The effort has to be broad-based. It must also serve as a means to improving the quality of life in the area where the heritage structures are located. The first task therefore is to integrate conservation efforts with sound development plans that take care of people living in the heritage vicinity. Unlike in western countries, many traditional building crafts survive in India, and conservation practices offer an avenue to support them. This has been acknowledged by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage charter for conservation but is yet to receive substantial state support. More strength for heritage conservation can be mobilised by aligning it with the green building movement. Heritage structures are essentially eco-friendly and conservation could become a vital part of the sustainable building practices campaign in future.

Indian conservation movement will be successful if there would be

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 27 to 32
Heritage conservation practices improved worldwide after the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. (ICCROM) was established with UNESCO's assistance in 1959. The inter-governmental organisation with 126 member states has done a commendable job by training more than 4,000 professionals, providing practice standards, and sharing technical expertise. In this golden jubilee year, as we acknowledge its key role in global conservation, an assessment of international practices would be meaningful to the Indian conservation movement. Consistent investment, rigorous attention, and dedicated research and dissemination are some of the positive lessons to imbibe. Countries such as Italy have demonstrated that prioritizing heritage with significant budget provision pays. On the other hand, India, which is no less endowed in terms of cultural capital, has a long way to go. Surveys indicate that in addition to the 6,600 protected monuments, there are over 60,000 equally valuable heritage structures that await attention. Besides the small group in the service of Archaeological Survey of India, there are only about 150 trained conservation professionals. In order to overcome this severe shortage the emphasis has been on setting up dedicated labs and training institutions. It would make much better sense for conservation to be made part of mainstream research and engineering Institutes, as has been done in Europe.
Increasing funding and building institutions are the relatively easy part. The real challenge is to redefine international approaches to address local contexts. Conservation cannot limit itself to enhancing the art-historical value of the heritage structures which international charters perhaps over emphasize. The effort has to be broad-based. It must also serve as a means to improving the quality of life in the area where the heritage structures are located. The first task therefore is to integrate conservation efforts with sound development plans that take care of people living in the heritage vicinity. Unlike in western countries, many traditional building crafts survive in India, and conservation practices offer an avenue to support them. This has been acknowledged by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage charter for conservation but is yet to receive substantial state support. More strength for heritage conservation can be mobilised by aligning it with the green building movement. Heritage structures are essentially eco-friendly and conservation could become a vital part of the sustainable building practices campaign in future.

As per the surveys of historical monuments in India, there is very small number of protected monuments. As per given the total number of monuments and enlisted number of protected monuments percentage comes to

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 27 to 32
Heritage conservation practices improved worldwide after the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. (ICCROM) was established with UNESCO's assistance in 1959. The inter-governmental organisation with 126 member states has done a commendable job by training more than 4,000 professionals, providing practice standards, and sharing technical expertise. In this golden jubilee year, as we acknowledge its key role in global conservation, an assessment of international practices would be meaningful to the Indian conservation movement. Consistent investment, rigorous attention, and dedicated research and dissemination are some of the positive lessons to imbibe. Countries such as Italy have demonstrated that prioritizing heritage with significant budget provision pays. On the other hand, India, which is no less endowed in terms of cultural capital, has a long way to go. Surveys indicate that in addition to the 6,600 protected monuments, there are over 60,000 equally valuable heritage structures that await attention. Besides the small group in the service of Archaeological Survey of India, there are only about 150 trained conservation professionals. In order to overcome this severe shortage the emphasis has been on setting up dedicated labs and training institutions. It would make much better sense for conservation to be made part of mainstream research and engineering Institutes, as has been done in Europe.
Increasing funding and building institutions are the relatively easy part. The real challenge is to redefine international approaches to address local contexts. Conservation cannot limit itself to enhancing the art-historical value of the heritage structures which international charters perhaps over emphasize. The effort has to be broad-based. It must also serve as a means to improving the quality of life in the area where the heritage structures are located. The first task therefore is to integrate conservation efforts with sound development plans that take care of people living in the heritage vicinity. Unlike in western countries, many traditional building crafts survive in India, and conservation practices offer an avenue to support them. This has been acknowledged by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage charter for conservation but is yet to receive substantial state support. More strength for heritage conservation can be mobilised by aligning it with the green building movement. Heritage structures are essentially eco-friendly and conservation could become a vital part of the sustainable building practices campaign in future.

What should India learn from Europe to conserve our cultural heritage?
(i) There should be significant budget provision to conserve our cultural heritage.
(ii) Establish dedicated labs and training institutions.
(iii) Force the government to provide sufficient funds.
(iv) Conservation should be made part of mainstream research and engineering institutes.
Choose the correct statement

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 27 to 32
Heritage conservation practices improved worldwide after the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. (ICCROM) was established with UNESCO's assistance in 1959. The inter-governmental organisation with 126 member states has done a commendable job by training more than 4,000 professionals, providing practice standards, and sharing technical expertise. In this golden jubilee year, as we acknowledge its key role in global conservation, an assessment of international practices would be meaningful to the Indian conservation movement. Consistent investment, rigorous attention, and dedicated research and dissemination are some of the positive lessons to imbibe. Countries such as Italy have demonstrated that prioritizing heritage with significant budget provision pays. On the other hand, India, which is no less endowed in terms of cultural capital, has a long way to go. Surveys indicate that in addition to the 6,600 protected monuments, there are over 60,000 equally valuable heritage structures that await attention. Besides the small group in the service of Archaeological Survey of India, there are only about 150 trained conservation professionals. In order to overcome this severe shortage the emphasis has been on setting up dedicated labs and training institutions. It would make much better sense for conservation to be made part of mainstream research and engineering Institutes, as has been done in Europe.
Increasing funding and building institutions are the relatively easy part. The real challenge is to redefine international approaches to address local contexts. Conservation cannot limit itself to enhancing the art-historical value of the heritage structures which international charters perhaps over emphasize. The effort has to be broad-based. It must also serve as a means to improving the quality of life in the area where the heritage structures are located. The first task therefore is to integrate conservation efforts with sound development plans that take care of people living in the heritage vicinity. Unlike in western countries, many traditional building crafts survive in India, and conservation practices offer an avenue to support them. This has been acknowledged by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage charter for conservation but is yet to receive substantial state support. More strength for heritage conservation can be mobilised by aligning it with the green building movement. Heritage structures are essentially eco-friendly and conservation could become a vital part of the sustainable building practices campaign in future.

INTACH is known for its contribution for conservation of our cultural heritage. The full form of INTACH is

Read the following passage carefully and answer Question Nos. from 35 to 40 :
I had occasion to work with her closely during the Women’s International Year in 1975 when she was chairing a Steering Committee and made me the member in charge of publicity.Representatives from different political parties and women’s organizations were on the committee and though the leftists claimed a sort of proprietary right over her, Aruna encouraged and treated all members alike. It was not her political affiliations or her involvement in a particular cause, which won her respect and recognition, but her utter honesty in public life, her integrity and her compassion for the oppressed which made her an adorable person. She had the courage to differ with and defy the mightiest in the land; yet her human spirit prompted her to work in the worst of slums to offer succour to the poor and the exploited.
In later years – around late eighties and early nineties – Aruna Asaf Ali’s health began to deteriorate. Though her mind remained alert, she could not actively take up her pet causes – action for women’s advancement, planning for economic justice, role of media, reaffirmation of values in public affairs etc. Slowly, her movements were restricted and Aruna who had drawn sustenance from common people, from her involvement in public life, became a lonely person. She passed away in July 1996.

Which Committee was chaired by Aruna ?

Read the following passage carefully and answer Question Nos. from 35 to 40 :
I had occasion to work with her closely during the Women’s International Year in 1975 when she was chairing a Steering Committee and made me the member in charge of publicity.Representatives from different political parties and women’s organizations were on the committee and though the leftists claimed a sort of proprietary right over her, Aruna encouraged and treated all members alike. It was not her political affiliations or her involvement in a particular cause, which won her respect and recognition, but her utter honesty in public life, her integrity and her compassion for the oppressed which made her an adorable person. She had the courage to differ with and defy the mightiest in the land; yet her human spirit prompted her to work in the worst of slums to offer succour to the poor and the exploited.
In later years – around late eighties and early nineties – Aruna Asaf Ali’s health began to deteriorate. Though her mind remained alert, she could not actively take up her pet causes – action for women’s advancement, planning for economic justice, role of media, reaffirmation of values in public affairs etc. Slowly, her movements were restricted and Aruna who had drawn sustenance from common people, from her involvement in public life, became a lonely person. She passed away in July 1996.

Who were made the members of the Committee of Publicity ?
Choose the answer from codes given below :
(i) Representatives from different political parties.
(ii) Representatives from the leftist parties.
(iii) Representatives from the women’s organizations.
(iv) None of the above.

Read the following passage carefully and answer Question Nos. from 35 to 40 :
I had occasion to work with her closely during the Women’s International Year in 1975 when she was chairing a Steering Committee and made me the member in charge of publicity.Representatives from different political parties and women’s organizations were on the committee and though the leftists claimed a sort of proprietary right over her, Aruna encouraged and treated all members alike. It was not her political affiliations or her involvement in a particular cause, which won her respect and recognition, but her utter honesty in public life, her integrity and her compassion for the oppressed which made her an adorable person. She had the courage to differ with and defy the mightiest in the land; yet her human spirit prompted her to work in the worst of slums to offer succour to the poor and the exploited.
In later years – around late eighties and early nineties – Aruna Asaf Ali’s health began to deteriorate. Though her mind remained alert, she could not actively take up her pet causes – action for women’s advancement, planning for economic justice, role of media, reaffirmation of values in public affairs etc. Slowly, her movements were restricted and Aruna who had drawn sustenance from common people, from her involvement in public life, became a lonely person. She passed away in July 1996.

Aruna earned respect because of

Read the following passage carefully and answer Question Nos. from 35 to 40 :
I had occasion to work with her closely during the Women’s International Year in 1975 when she was chairing a Steering Committee and made me the member in charge of publicity.Representatives from different political parties and women’s organizations were on the committee and though the leftists claimed a sort of proprietary right over her, Aruna encouraged and treated all members alike. It was not her political affiliations or her involvement in a particular cause, which won her respect and recognition, but her utter honesty in public life, her integrity and her compassion for the oppressed which made her an adorable person. She had the courage to differ with and defy the mightiest in the land; yet her human spirit prompted her to work in the worst of slums to offer succour to the poor and the exploited.
In later years – around late eighties and early nineties – Aruna Asaf Ali’s health began to deteriorate. Though her mind remained alert, she could not actively take up her pet causes – action for women’s advancement, planning for economic justice, role of media, reaffirmation of values in public affairs etc. Slowly, her movements were restricted and Aruna who had drawn sustenance from common people, from her involvement in public life, became a lonely person. She passed away in July 1996.

Who tried to monopolize Aruna as their proprietary right ?

Read the following passage carefully and answer Question Nos. from 35 to 40 :
I had occasion to work with her closely during the Women’s International Year in 1975 when she was chairing a Steering Committee and made me the member in charge of publicity.Representatives from different political parties and women’s organizations were on the committee and though the leftists claimed a sort of proprietary right over her, Aruna encouraged and treated all members alike. It was not her political affiliations or her involvement in a particular cause, which won her respect and recognition, but her utter honesty in public life, her integrity and her compassion for the oppressed which made her an adorable person. She had the courage to differ with and defy the mightiest in the land; yet her human spirit prompted her to work in the worst of slums to offer succour to the poor and the exploited.
In later years – around late eighties and early nineties – Aruna Asaf Ali’s health began to deteriorate. Though her mind remained alert, she could not actively take up her pet causes – action for women’s advancement, planning for economic justice, role of media, reaffirmation of values in public affairs etc. Slowly, her movements were restricted and Aruna who had drawn sustenance from common people, from her involvement in public life, became a lonely person. She passed away in July 1996.

Aruna’s health began to deteriorate from

Read the following passage carefully and answer Question Nos. from 35 to 40 :
I had occasion to work with her closely during the Women’s International Year in 1975 when she was chairing a Steering Committee and made me the member in charge of publicity.Representatives from different political parties and women’s organizations were on the committee and though the leftists claimed a sort of proprietary right over her, Aruna encouraged and treated all members alike. It was not her political affiliations or her involvement in a particular cause, which won her respect and recognition, but her utter honesty in public life, her integrity and her compassion for the oppressed which made her an adorable person. She had the courage to differ with and defy the mightiest in the land; yet her human spirit prompted her to work in the worst of slums to offer succour to the poor and the exploited.
In later years – around late eighties and early nineties – Aruna Asaf Ali’s health began to deteriorate. Though her mind remained alert, she could not actively take up her pet causes – action for women’s advancement, planning for economic justice, role of media, reaffirmation of values in public affairs etc. Slowly, her movements were restricted and Aruna who had drawn sustenance from common people, from her involvement in public life, became a lonely person. She passed away in July 1996.

Aruna’s pet cause(s) in her life was/ were

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 56 to 60:
Traditional Indian Values must be viewed both from the angle of the individual and from that of the geographically delimited agglomeration of peoples or groups enjoying a common system of leadership which we call the 'State'. The Indian 'State's' special feature is the peaceful, or perhaps mostly peaceful, co-existence of social groups of various historical provenances which manually adhere in a geographical, economic and political sense, without ever assimilating to each other in social terms, in ways of thinking, or even in language. Modern Indian law will determine certain rules, especially in relation to the regime of the family, upon the basis of hwo the loin-cloth is tied, or how the turban is worn, for this may identify the litigants as members of a regional group, and therefore as participants in it traditional law, though their ancestors left the region three or four centuries earlier. The use of the word 'State' above must not mislead us. There was no such thing as a conflict between the individual and the State, at least before foreign governments became established, just as there was no concept of state 'sovereignty' or of any church-and-state dichotomy.
Modem Indian 'secularism' has an admittedly peculiar feature: It requires the state to make a fair distribution of attention amongst all religions. These blessed aspects of India's famed tolerance (Indian kings to rarely persecuted religious groups that the exceptions prove the rule) at once struck Portuguese and other European visitors to the West Coast of India in the sixteenth century, and the impression made upon them in this and other ways gave rise, at one remove, to the basic constitution of Thomas More's Utopia. There is little about modern India that strikes one at once as Utopian but the insistence upon the inculcation of norms, and the absense of bigotry and institutionalized exploitation of human or natural resources, are two very different features which link the realities of India and her tradition with the essence of all Utopians.

Which of the following is a special feature of the Indian state?

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 56 to 60:
Traditional Indian Values must be viewed both from the angle of the individual and from that of the geographically delimited agglomeration of peoples or groups enjoying a common system of leadership which we call the 'State'. The Indian 'State's' special feature is the peaceful, or perhaps mostly peaceful, co-existence of social groups of various historical provenances which manually adhere in a geographical, economic and political sense, without ever assimilating to each other in social terms, in ways of thinking, or even in language. Modern Indian law will determine certain rules, especially in relation to the regime of the family, upon the basis of hwo the loin-cloth is tied, or how the turban is worn, for this may identify the litigants as members of a regional group, and therefore as participants in it traditional law, though their ancestors left the region three or four centuries earlier. The use of the word 'State' above must not mislead us. There was no such thing as a conflict between the individual and the State, at least before foreign governments became established, just as there was no concept of state 'sovereignty' or of any church-and-state dichotomy.
Modem Indian 'secularism' has an admittedly peculiar feature: It requires the state to make a fair distribution of attention amongst all religions. These blessed aspects of India's famed tolerance (Indian kings to rarely persecuted religious groups that the exceptions prove the rule) at once struck Portuguese and other European visitors to the West Coast of India in the sixteenth century, and the impression made upon them in this and other ways gave rise, at one remove, to the basic constitution of Thomas More's Utopia. There is little about modern India that strikes one at once as Utopian but the insistence upon the inculcation of norms, and the absense of bigotry and institutionalized exploitation of human or natural resources, are two very different features which link the realities of India and her tradition with the essence of all Utopians.

The author uses the word 'State' to highlight

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 56 to 60:
Traditional Indian Values must be viewed both from the angle of the individual and from that of the geographically delimited agglomeration of peoples or groups enjoying a common system of leadership which we call the 'State'. The Indian 'State's' special feature is the peaceful, or perhaps mostly peaceful, co-existence of social groups of various historical provenances which manually adhere in a geographical, economic and political sense, without ever assimilating to each other in social terms, in ways of thinking, or even in language. Modern Indian law will determine certain rules, especially in relation to the regime of the family, upon the basis of hwo the loin-cloth is tied, or how the turban is worn, for this may identify the litigants as members of a regional group, and therefore as participants in it traditional law, though their ancestors left the region three or four centuries earlier. The use of the word 'State' above must not mislead us. There was no such thing as a conflict between the individual and the State, at least before foreign governments became established, just as there was no concept of state 'sovereignty' or of any church-and-state dichotomy.
Modem Indian 'secularism' has an admittedly peculiar feature: It requires the state to make a fair distribution of attention amongst all religions. These blessed aspects of India's famed tolerance (Indian kings to rarely persecuted religious groups that the exceptions prove the rule) at once struck Portuguese and other European visitors to the West Coast of India in the sixteenth century, and the impression made upon them in this and other ways gave rise, at one remove, to the basic constitution of Thomas More's Utopia. There is little about modern India that strikes one at once as Utopian but the insistence upon the inculcation of norms, and the absense of bigotry and institutionalized exploitation of human or natural resources, are two very different features which link the realities of India and her tradition with the essence of all Utopians.

Which one is the peculiar feature of modern Indian 'secularism'?

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 56 to 60:
Traditional Indian Values must be viewed both from the angle of the individual and from that of the geographically delimited agglomeration of peoples or groups enjoying a common system of leadership which we call the 'State'. The Indian 'State's' special feature is the peaceful, or perhaps mostly peaceful, co-existence of social groups of various historical provenances which manually adhere in a geographical, economic and political sense, without ever assimilating to each other in social terms, in ways of thinking, or even in language. Modern Indian law will determine certain rules, especially in relation to the regime of the family, upon the basis of hwo the loin-cloth is tied, or how the turban is worn, for this may identify the litigants as members of a regional group, and therefore as participants in it traditional law, though their ancestors left the region three or four centuries earlier. The use of the word 'State' above must not mislead us. There was no such thing as a conflict between the individual and the State, at least before foreign governments became established, just as there was no concept of state 'sovereignty' or of any church-and-state dichotomy.
Modem Indian 'secularism' has an admittedly peculiar feature: It requires the state to make a fair distribution of attention amongst all religions. These blessed aspects of India's famed tolerance (Indian kings to rarely persecuted religious groups that the exceptions prove the rule) at once struck Portuguese and other European visitors to the West Coast of India in the sixteenth century, and the impression made upon them in this and other ways gave rise, at one remove, to the basic constitution of Thomas More's Utopia. There is little about modern India that strikes one at once as Utopian but the insistence upon the inculcation of norms, and the absense of bigotry and institutionalized exploitation of human or natural resources, are two very different features which link the realities of India and her tradition with the essence of all Utopians.

The basic construction of Thomas More's Utopia was inspired by

Instructions: Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 56 to 60:
Traditional Indian Values must be viewed both from the angle of the individual and from that of the geographically delimited agglomeration of peoples or groups enjoying a common system of leadership which we call the 'State'. The Indian 'State's' special feature is the peaceful, or perhaps mostly peaceful, co-existence of social groups of various historical provenances which manually adhere in a geographical, economic and political sense, without ever assimilating to each other in social terms, in ways of thinking, or even in language. Modern Indian law will determine certain rules, especially in relation to the regime of the family, upon the basis of hwo the loin-cloth is tied, or how the turban is worn, for this may identify the litigants as members of a regional group, and therefore as participants in it traditional law, though their ancestors left the region three or four centuries earlier. The use of the word 'State' above must not mislead us. There was no such thing as a conflict between the individual and the State, at least before foreign governments became established, just as there was no concept of state 'sovereignty' or of any church-and-state dichotomy.
Modem Indian 'secularism' has an admittedly peculiar feature: It requires the state to make a fair distribution of attention amongst all religions. These blessed aspects of India's famed tolerance (Indian kings to rarely persecuted religious groups that the exceptions prove the rule) at once struck Portuguese and other European visitors to the West Coast of India in the sixteenth century, and the impression made upon them in this and other ways gave rise, at one remove, to the basic constitution of Thomas More's Utopia. There is little about modern India that strikes one at once as Utopian but the insistence upon the inculcation of norms, and the absense of bigotry and institutionalized exploitation of human or natural resources, are two very different features which link the realities of India and her tradition with the essence of all Utopians.

What is the striking feature of modern India?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions from 5 to 10 :
Many aspects of the motion-picture industry and its constituent companies are dissimilar to those observable in advanced-technology industries and firms. For instance, company longevity does not represent a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts. In the advanced-technology company for example, one new-product innovation – which is expected to generate financial returns to the firm – is insufficient for the company to be successful.
Rather, a stream of new product innovations is required. By contrast with the independent production company of this case, each new film – which is expected to generate financial returns to the principals – is sufficient for the company to be successful. Any subsequent new films involving the firm’s participants will be produced by a different independent company.
As another instance, people’s learning is expected to have different contributors and beneficiaries across the two organizational contexts. In the advanced-technology company, for example, each new product innovation provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire experience, and this same company intends to retain such participants, hence, benefit from their increased experience on the next project. By contrast with the independent production company, each new film provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire this experience also, but this same company has little or no expectation of retaining such participants, and hence, benefitting from their increased experience in the next project.
Experience is paramount in the motion-picture industry. Generally, on film projects, budgets are very tight, and schedules are very demanding. People are hired largely based on their experience and are expected to perform well immediately when called to do so. There is negligible slack time or margin for learning through trial and error, but experienced people learn exactly through trial and error. Because experience is valued so highly and film-production houses have such short time horizons, entry into the industry is very difficult for most people. Further, the role played by schools and colleges is minimal in this industry. Some skills and techniques can be learned and refined through formal education (e.g., acting schools, theatre, film degrees), but the majority come through direct experience. Mentoring plays an important role. True, the film business focuses heavily on exploitation over exploration. Yet success of the industry as a whole is critically dependent upon learning and exploration overtime.

What is not a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions from 5 to 10 :
Many aspects of the motion-picture industry and its constituent companies are dissimilar to those observable in advanced-technology industries and firms. For instance, company longevity does not represent a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts. In the advanced-technology company for example, one new-product innovation – which is expected to generate financial returns to the firm – is insufficient for the company to be successful.
Rather, a stream of new product innovations is required. By contrast with the independent production company of this case, each new film – which is expected to generate financial returns to the principals – is sufficient for the company to be successful. Any subsequent new films involving the firm’s participants will be produced by a different independent company.
As another instance, people’s learning is expected to have different contributors and beneficiaries across the two organizational contexts. In the advanced-technology company, for example, each new product innovation provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire experience, and this same company intends to retain such participants, hence, benefit from their increased experience on the next project. By contrast with the independent production company, each new film provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire this experience also, but this same company has little or no expectation of retaining such participants, and hence, benefitting from their increased experience in the next project.
Experience is paramount in the motion-picture industry. Generally, on film projects, budgets are very tight, and schedules are very demanding. People are hired largely based on their experience and are expected to perform well immediately when called to do so. There is negligible slack time or margin for learning through trial and error, but experienced people learn exactly through trial and error. Because experience is valued so highly and film-production houses have such short time horizons, entry into the industry is very difficult for most people. Further, the role played by schools and colleges is minimal in this industry. Some skills and techniques can be learned and refined through formal education (e.g., acting schools, theatre, film degrees), but the majority come through direct experience. Mentoring plays an important role. True, the film business focuses heavily on exploitation over exploration. Yet success of the industry as a whole is critically dependent upon learning and exploration overtime.

What will be sufficient for an independent production company to be successful?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions from 5 to 10 :
Many aspects of the motion-picture industry and its constituent companies are dissimilar to those observable in advanced-technology industries and firms. For instance, company longevity does not represent a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts. In the advanced-technology company for example, one new-product innovation – which is expected to generate financial returns to the firm – is insufficient for the company to be successful.
Rather, a stream of new product innovations is required. By contrast with the independent production company of this case, each new film – which is expected to generate financial returns to the principals – is sufficient for the company to be successful. Any subsequent new films involving the firm’s participants will be produced by a different independent company.
As another instance, people’s learning is expected to have different contributors and beneficiaries across the two organizational contexts. In the advanced-technology company, for example, each new product innovation provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire experience, and this same company intends to retain such participants, hence, benefit from their increased experience on the next project. By contrast with the independent production company, each new film provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire this experience also, but this same company has little or no expectation of retaining such participants, and hence, benefitting from their increased experience in the next project.
Experience is paramount in the motion-picture industry. Generally, on film projects, budgets are very tight, and schedules are very demanding. People are hired largely based on their experience and are expected to perform well immediately when called to do so. There is negligible slack time or margin for learning through trial and error, but experienced people learn exactly through trial and error. Because experience is valued so highly and film-production houses have such short time horizons, entry into the industry is very difficult for most people. Further, the role played by schools and colleges is minimal in this industry. Some skills and techniques can be learned and refined through formal education (e.g., acting schools, theatre, film degrees), but the majority come through direct experience. Mentoring plays an important role. True, the film business focuses heavily on exploitation over exploration. Yet success of the industry as a whole is critically dependent upon learning and exploration overtime.

What does an advanced-technology company expect from the learning experience of its participants?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions from 5 to 10 :
Many aspects of the motion-picture industry and its constituent companies are dissimilar to those observable in advanced-technology industries and firms. For instance, company longevity does not represent a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts. In the advanced-technology company for example, one new-product innovation – which is expected to generate financial returns to the firm – is insufficient for the company to be successful.
Rather, a stream of new product innovations is required. By contrast with the independent production company of this case, each new film – which is expected to generate financial returns to the principals – is sufficient for the company to be successful. Any subsequent new films involving the firm’s participants will be produced by a different independent company.
As another instance, people’s learning is expected to have different contributors and beneficiaries across the two organizational contexts. In the advanced-technology company, for example, each new product innovation provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire experience, and this same company intends to retain such participants, hence, benefit from their increased experience on the next project. By contrast with the independent production company, each new film provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire this experience also, but this same company has little or no expectation of retaining such participants, and hence, benefitting from their increased experience in the next project.
Experience is paramount in the motion-picture industry. Generally, on film projects, budgets are very tight, and schedules are very demanding. People are hired largely based on their experience and are expected to perform well immediately when called to do so. There is negligible slack time or margin for learning through trial and error, but experienced people learn exactly through trial and error. Because experience is valued so highly and film-production houses have such short time horizons, entry into the industry is very difficult for most people. Further, the role played by schools and colleges is minimal in this industry. Some skills and techniques can be learned and refined through formal education (e.g., acting schools, theatre, film degrees), but the majority come through direct experience. Mentoring plays an important role. True, the film business focuses heavily on exploitation over exploration. Yet success of the industry as a whole is critically dependent upon learning and exploration overtime.

What is not the expectation of an independent production company in the case of its participants?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions from 5 to 10 :
Many aspects of the motion-picture industry and its constituent companies are dissimilar to those observable in advanced-technology industries and firms. For instance, company longevity does not represent a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts. In the advanced-technology company for example, one new-product innovation – which is expected to generate financial returns to the firm – is insufficient for the company to be successful.
Rather, a stream of new product innovations is required. By contrast with the independent production company of this case, each new film – which is expected to generate financial returns to the principals – is sufficient for the company to be successful. Any subsequent new films involving the firm’s participants will be produced by a different independent company.
As another instance, people’s learning is expected to have different contributors and beneficiaries across the two organizational contexts. In the advanced-technology company, for example, each new product innovation provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire experience, and this same company intends to retain such participants, hence, benefit from their increased experience on the next project. By contrast with the independent production company, each new film provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire this experience also, but this same company has little or no expectation of retaining such participants, and hence, benefitting from their increased experience in the next project.
Experience is paramount in the motion-picture industry. Generally, on film projects, budgets are very tight, and schedules are very demanding. People are hired largely based on their experience and are expected to perform well immediately when called to do so. There is negligible slack time or margin for learning through trial and error, but experienced people learn exactly through trial and error. Because experience is valued so highly and film-production houses have such short time horizons, entry into the industry is very difficult for most people. Further, the role played by schools and colleges is minimal in this industry. Some skills and techniques can be learned and refined through formal education (e.g., acting schools, theatre, film degrees), but the majority come through direct experience. Mentoring plays an important role. True, the film business focuses heavily on exploitation over exploration. Yet success of the industry as a whole is critically dependent upon learning and exploration overtime.

Why do film production houses value experience highly?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions from 5 to 10 :
Many aspects of the motion-picture industry and its constituent companies are dissimilar to those observable in advanced-technology industries and firms. For instance, company longevity does not represent a consistent concern across the two organisational contexts. In the advanced-technology company for example, one new-product innovation – which is expected to generate financial returns to the firm – is insufficient for the company to be successful.
Rather, a stream of new product innovations is required. By contrast with the independent production company of this case, each new film – which is expected to generate financial returns to the principals – is sufficient for the company to be successful. Any subsequent new films involving the firm’s participants will be produced by a different independent company.
As another instance, people’s learning is expected to have different contributors and beneficiaries across the two organizational contexts. In the advanced-technology company, for example, each new product innovation provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire experience, and this same company intends to retain such participants, hence, benefit from their increased experience on the next project. By contrast with the independent production company, each new film provides an opportunity for participants on the project team to learn and acquire this experience also, but this same company has little or no expectation of retaining such participants, and hence, benefitting from their increased experience in the next project.
Experience is paramount in the motion-picture industry. Generally, on film projects, budgets are very tight, and schedules are very demanding. People are hired largely based on their experience and are expected to perform well immediately when called to do so. There is negligible slack time or margin for learning through trial and error, but experienced people learn exactly through trial and error. Because experience is valued so highly and film-production houses have such short time horizons, entry into the industry is very difficult for most people. Further, the role played by schools and colleges is minimal in this industry. Some skills and techniques can be learned and refined through formal education (e.g., acting schools, theatre, film degrees), but the majority come through direct experience. Mentoring plays an important role. True, the film business focuses heavily on exploitation over exploration. Yet success of the industry as a whole is critically dependent upon learning and exploration overtime.

According to the author, what has been the focus of film business?

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 31 to 36.
Story telling is not in our genes. Neither it is an evolutionary history. It is the essence of what makes us Human.
Human beings progress by telling stories. One event can result in a great variety of stories being told about it. Sometimes those stories differ greatly. Which stories are picked up and repeated and which ones are dropped and forgotten often determines how we progress. Our history, knowledge and understanding are all the collections of the few stories that survive. This includes the stories that we tell each other about the future. And how the future will turn out depends partly, possibly largely, on which stories we collectively choose to believe.
Some stories are designed to spread fear and concern. This is because some story-tellers feel that there is a need to raise some tensions. Some stories are frightening, they are like totemic warnings: "Fail to act now and we are all doomed." Then there are stories that indicate that all will be fine so long as we leave everything upto a few especially able adults. Currently, this trend is being led by those who call themselves "rational optimists". They tend to claim that it is human nature to compete and to succeed and also to profit at the expense of others. The rational optimists however, do not realize how humanity has progressed overtime through amiable social networks and how large groups work in less selfishness and in the process accommodate rich and poor, high and low alike. This aspect in story-telling is considered by the 'Practical Possibles', who sit between those who say all is fine and cheerful and be individualistic in your approach to a successful future, and those who ordain pessimism and fear that we are doomed. What the future holds for us is which stories we hold on to and how we act on them.

Rational optimists:
(a) Look for opportunities.
(b) Are sensible and cheerful.
(c) Are selfishly driven.

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 31 to 36.
Story telling is not in our genes. Neither it is an evolutionary history. It is the essence of what makes us Human.
Human beings progress by telling stories. One event can result in a great variety of stories being told about it. Sometimes those stories differ greatly. Which stories are picked up and repeated and which ones are dropped and forgotten often determines how we progress. Our history, knowledge and understanding are all the collections of the few stories that survive. This includes the stories that we tell each other about the future. And how the future will turn out depends partly, possibly largely, on which stories we collectively choose to believe.
Some stories are designed to spread fear and concern. This is because some story-tellers feel that there is a need to raise some tensions. Some stories are frightening, they are like totemic warnings: "Fail to act now and we are all doomed." Then there are stories that indicate that all will be fine so long as we leave everything upto a few especially able adults. Currently, this trend is being led by those who call themselves "rational optimists". They tend to claim that it is human nature to compete and to succeed and also to profit at the expense of others. The rational optimists however, do not realize how humanity has progressed overtime through amiable social networks and how large groups work in less selfishness and in the process accommodate rich and poor, high and low alike. This aspect in story-telling is considered by the 'Practical Possibles', who sit between those who say all is fine and cheerful and be individualistic in your approach to a successful future, and those who ordain pessimism and fear that we are doomed. What the future holds for us is which stories we hold on to and how we act on them.

Humans become less selfish when:

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 31 to 36.
Story telling is not in our genes. Neither it is an evolutionary history. It is the essence of what makes us Human.
Human beings progress by telling stories. One event can result in a great variety of stories being told about it. Sometimes those stories differ greatly. Which stories are picked up and repeated and which ones are dropped and forgotten often determines how we progress. Our history, knowledge and understanding are all the collections of the few stories that survive. This includes the stories that we tell each other about the future. And how the future will turn out depends partly, possibly largely, on which stories we collectively choose to believe.
Some stories are designed to spread fear and concern. This is because some story-tellers feel that there is a need to raise some tensions. Some stories are frightening, they are like totemic warnings: "Fail to act now and we are all doomed." Then there are stories that indicate that all will be fine so long as we leave everything upto a few especially able adults. Currently, this trend is being led by those who call themselves "rational optimists". They tend to claim that it is human nature to compete and to succeed and also to profit at the expense of others. The rational optimists however, do not realize how humanity has progressed overtime through amiable social networks and how large groups work in less selfishness and in the process accommodate rich and poor, high and low alike. This aspect in story-telling is considered by the 'Practical Possibles', who sit between those who say all is fine and cheerful and be individualistic in your approach to a successful future, and those who ordain pessimism and fear that we are doomed. What the future holds for us is which stories we hold on to and how we act on them.

'Practical Possibles' are the ones who:

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 31 to 36.
Story telling is not in our genes. Neither it is an evolutionary history. It is the essence of what makes us Human.
Human beings progress by telling stories. One event can result in a great variety of stories being told about it. Sometimes those stories differ greatly. Which stories are picked up and repeated and which ones are dropped and forgotten often determines how we progress. Our history, knowledge and understanding are all the collections of the few stories that survive. This includes the stories that we tell each other about the future. And how the future will turn out depends partly, possibly largely, on which stories we collectively choose to believe.
Some stories are designed to spread fear and concern. This is because some story-tellers feel that there is a need to raise some tensions. Some stories are frightening, they are like totemic warnings: "Fail to act now and we are all doomed." Then there are stories that indicate that all will be fine so long as we leave everything upto a few especially able adults. Currently, this trend is being led by those who call themselves "rational optimists". They tend to claim that it is human nature to compete and to succeed and also to profit at the expense of others. The rational optimists however, do not realize how humanity has progressed overtime through amiable social networks and how large groups work in less selfishness and in the process accommodate rich and poor, high and low alike. This aspect in story-telling is considered by the 'Practical Possibles', who sit between those who say all is fine and cheerful and be individualistic in your approach to a successful future, and those who ordain pessimism and fear that we are doomed. What the future holds for us is which stories we hold on to and how we act on them.

Story telling is:

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 31 to 36.
Story telling is not in our genes. Neither it is an evolutionary history. It is the essence of what makes us Human.
Human beings progress by telling stories. One event can result in a great variety of stories being told about it. Sometimes those stories differ greatly. Which stories are picked up and repeated and which ones are dropped and forgotten often determines how we progress. Our history, knowledge and understanding are all the collections of the few stories that survive. This includes the stories that we tell each other about the future. And how the future will turn out depends partly, possibly largely, on which stories we collectively choose to believe.
Some stories are designed to spread fear and concern. This is because some story-tellers feel that there is a need to raise some tensions. Some stories are frightening, they are like totemic warnings: "Fail to act now and we are all doomed." Then there are stories that indicate that all will be fine so long as we leave everything upto a few especially able adults. Currently, this trend is being led by those who call themselves "rational optimists". They tend to claim that it is human nature to compete and to succeed and also to profit at the expense of others. The rational optimists however, do not realize how humanity has progressed overtime through amiable social networks and how large groups work in less selfishness and in the process accommodate rich and poor, high and low alike. This aspect in story-telling is considered by the 'Practical Possibles', who sit between those who say all is fine and cheerful and be individualistic in your approach to a successful future, and those who ordain pessimism and fear that we are doomed. What the future holds for us is which stories we hold on to and how we act on them.

Our knowledge is a collection of:

Read the following passage carefully and answer questions 31 to 36.
Story telling is not in our genes. Neither it is an evolutionary history. It is the essence of what makes us Human.
Human beings progress by telling stories. One event can result in a great variety of stories being told about it. Sometimes those stories differ greatly. Which stories are picked up and repeated and which ones are dropped and forgotten often determines how we progress. Our history, knowledge and understanding are all the collections of the few stories that survive. This includes the stories that we tell each other about the future. And how the future will turn out depends partly, possibly largely, on which stories we collectively choose to believe.
Some stories are designed to spread fear and concern. This is because some story-tellers feel that there is a need to raise some tensions. Some stories are frightening, they are like totemic warnings: "Fail to act now and we are all doomed." Then there are stories that indicate that all will be fine so long as we leave everything upto a few especially able adults. Currently, this trend is being led by those who call themselves "rational optimists". They tend to claim that it is human nature to compete and to succeed and also to profit at the expense of others. The rational optimists however, do not realize how humanity has progressed overtime through amiable social networks and how large groups work in less selfishness and in the process accommodate rich and poor, high and low alike. This aspect in story-telling is considered by the 'Practical Possibles', who sit between those who say all is fine and cheerful and be individualistic in your approach to a successful future, and those who ordain pessimism and fear that we are doomed. What the future holds for us is which stories we hold on to and how we act on them.

How the future will turn out to be, depends upon the stories?

In terms of labour, for decades the relatively low cost and high quality of Japanese workers conferred considerable competitive advantage across numerous durable goods and consumer electronics industries (eg. Machinery, automobiles, televisions, radios), then labour- based advantages shifted to South Korea, then to Malaysia, Mexico and other nations. Today, China appears to be capitalizing best on the basic of labour, Japanese firms still remain competitive in markets for such durable goods, electronics and other products, but the labour force is no longer sufficient for competitive advantage over manufacturers in other industrializing nations. Such shifting of labour-based advantage is clearly not limited to manufacturing industries. Today a huge number of IT and service jobs are moving from Europe and North America to India, Singapore and like countries with relatively well-educated, low-cost workforces possessing technical skills. However, as educational level and technical skills continue to rise in other countries, India, Singapore and like nations enjoying labour-based competitive advantage today are likely to find such advantage cannot be sustained through emergence of new competitions.
In terms of capital, for centuries the days of gold coin and later even paper money restricted financial flows. Subsequently regional concentrations were formed where large banks, industries and markets coalesced. But today capital flows internationally at rapid speed. Global commerce no longer requires regional interactions among business players. Regional capital concentrations in places such as New York, London and Tokyo still persist of course, but the capital concentrated there is no longer sufficient for competitive advantage over other capitalists distributed worldwide, Only if an organization is able to combine, integrate and apply its resources (eg. Land, labour, capital, IT) in an effective manner that is not readily imitable by competitors can such as organization enjoy competitive advantage sustainable overtime.
In a knowledge-based theory of the firm, this idea is extended to view organizational knowledge as recourse with at least the same level of power and importance as the traditional economic inputs. An organization with superior knowledge can achieve competitive advantage in markets that appreciate the application of such knowledge. Semiconductors, genetic engineering, pharmaceuticals, software, military warfare, and like knowledge-intensive competitive arenas provide both time-proven and current examples. Consider semiconductors (e. g. computer chips), which are made principles of sand and common metals, these ubiquitous and powerful electronics devices are designed within common office building, using commercially available tools, and fabricated within factories in many industrialized nations. Hence land is not the key competitive recourse in the semiconductor industry.

What is required to ensure competitive advantages in specific markets?

In terms of labour, for decades the relatively low cost and high quality of Japanese workers conferred considerable competitive advantage across numerous durable goods and consumer electronics industries (eg. Machinery, automobiles, televisions, radios), then labour- based advantages shifted to South Korea, then to Malaysia, Mexico and other nations. Today, China appears to be capitalizing best on the basic of labour, Japanese firms still remain competitive in markets for such durable goods, electronics and other products, but the labour force is no longer sufficient for competitive advantage over manufacturers in other industrializing nations. Such shifting of labour-based advantage is clearly not limited to manufacturing industries. Today a huge number of IT and service jobs are moving from Europe and North America to India, Singapore and like countries with relatively well-educated, low-cost workforces possessing technical skills. However, as educational level and technical skills continue to rise in other countries, India, Singapore and like nations enjoying labour-based competitive advantage today are likely to find such advantage cannot be sustained through emergence of new competitions.
In terms of capital, for centuries the days of gold coin and later even paper money restricted financial flows. Subsequently regional concentrations were formed where large banks, industries and markets coalesced. But today capital flows internationally at rapid speed. Global commerce no longer requires regional interactions among business players. Regional capital concentrations in places such as New York, London and Tokyo still persist of course, but the capital concentrated there is no longer sufficient for competitive advantage over other capitalists distributed worldwide, Only if an organization is able to combine, integrate and apply its resources (eg. Land, labour, capital, IT) in an effective manner that is not readily imitable by competitors can such as organization enjoy competitive advantage sustainable overtime.
In a knowledge-based theory of the firm, this idea is extended to view organizational knowledge as recourse with at least the same level of power and importance as the traditional economic inputs. An organization with superior knowledge can achieve competitive advantage in markets that appreciate the application of such knowledge. Semiconductors, genetic engineering, pharmaceuticals, software, military warfare, and like knowledge-intensive competitive arenas provide both time-proven and current examples. Consider semiconductors (e. g. computer chips), which are made principles of sand and common metals, these ubiquitous and powerful electronics devices are designed within common office building, using commercially available tools, and fabricated within factories in many industrialized nations. Hence land is not the key competitive recourse in the semiconductor industry.

The passage also mentions about the trend of

In terms of labour, for decades the relatively low cost and high quality of Japanese workers conferred considerable competitive advantage across numerous durable goods and consumer electronics industries (eg. Machinery, automobiles, televisions, radios), then labour- based advantages shifted to South Korea, then to Malaysia, Mexico and other nations. Today, China appears to be capitalizing best on the basic of labour, Japanese firms still remain competitive in markets for such durable goods, electronics and other products, but the labour force is no longer sufficient for competitive advantage over manufacturers in other industrializing nations. Such shifting of labour-based advantage is clearly not limited to manufacturing industries. Today a huge number of IT and service jobs are moving from Europe and North America to India, Singapore and like countries with relatively well-educated, low-cost workforces possessing technical skills. However, as educational level and technical skills continue to rise in other countries, India, Singapore and like nations enjoying labour-based competitive advantage today are likely to find such advantage cannot be sustained through emergence of new competitions.
In terms of capital, for centuries the days of gold coin and later even paper money restricted financial flows. Subsequently regional concentrations were formed where large banks, industries and markets coalesced. But today capital flows internationally at rapid speed. Global commerce no longer requires regional interactions among business players. Regional capital concentrations in places such as New York, London and Tokyo still persist of course, but the capital concentrated there is no longer sufficient for competitive advantage over other capitalists distributed worldwide, Only if an organization is able to combine, integrate and apply its resources (eg. Land, labour, capital, IT) in an effective manner that is not readily imitable by competitors can such as organization enjoy competitive advantage sustainable overtime.
In a knowledge-based theory of the firm, this idea is extended to view organizational knowledge as recourse with at least the same level of power and importance as the traditional economic inputs. An organization with superior knowledge can achieve competitive advantage in markets that appreciate the application of such knowledge. Semiconductors, genetic engineering, pharmaceuticals, software, military warfare, and like knowledge-intensive competitive arenas provide both time-proven and current examples. Consider semiconductors (e. g. computer chips), which are made principles of sand and common metals, these ubiquitous and powerful electronics devices are designed within common office building, using commercially available tools, and fabricated within factories in many industrialized nations. Hence land is not the key competitive recourse in the semiconductor industry.

What does the author lay stress on in the passage?