blamed the poor for corruption, mismanagement, or lack of initiative. Instead of focusing its attention on helping the poorest countries to improve th...

blamed the poor for corruption, mismanagement, or lack of initiative. Instead of focusing its attention on helping the poorest countries to improve their infrastructure, there has been a crusade against corruption. The good news is that African governments are getting the message on how to spur economic growth and are getting crucial help from China and other partners that are less wedded to extreme freemarket ideology than the world Bank. They have declared their intention to invest in infrastructure, agriculture modernization, public health, and education. It is clear the Bank can regain its relevance only if it becomes practical once again, by returning its focus to financing public investments in priority sectors. If that happens, the Bank can still do justice to the bold vision of a world of shared prosperity that prompted its creation after World War II. 88. Which ofthe following statements can be inferred from the passage? (a) Criticize the World Bank for playing a crucial role in China’s development but neglecting Australia. (b) Make a case for the closure of the World Bank since it promotes US interests over those of other countries. (c) Illustrate how China can play a more concrete role in Africa. (d) Use China’s success as an example of the changes required in World ideology. (e) None of the above 89. What is the advice given by the author to the World Bank? (a) Reduce the influence of the Africa and Britain in its functioning. (b) Adopt a more practical ideology of structural adjustment. (c) Change its ideology to one encouraging both public and private sector investment in basic infrastructure. (d) Support China’s involvement in developing Africa. (e) None of the above 90. Choose the word which is most similar in meaning to ‘untenable’. (a) indefensible (b) plausible (c) legitimate (d) pardonable (e) arguable 91. Choose the word which is most opposite in meaning to ‘crusade’. (a) Scrimmage (b) Strife (c) Ravage (d) Expedition (e) Stoppage Direction (92-98): Read the passage and choose the correct word/set of words to fill the blanks. Hope and fear are marching in lockstep. The arrival of the vaccines represents the ______ (92) _______ (gloom, murk, dawn) of hope. Yet, fears about mutations of the virus and how politics, which defines public policy, will mutate loom large across India’s political economy. Political rhetoric propels public expectations and the declaration by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently of “a budget which is a budget like never before” will be tested against a billion aspirations. The challenge of ______ (93) _______ (revival, amelioration, droop) and recovery is located in a parade of riveting contrasts. India, it is useful to remember, migrated from slowdown to lockdown. The contrast between the message beamed by stock indices and indices of the real economy are striking to say the least. In the period post the high of 2016-17, growth has _______ (94) ________ (limped, slid, stumped) consistently and stock valuations have risen just as consistently. GDP growth slid from 8-plus per cent to hover at around 4 per cent to a 14 www.bankersadda.com | www.sscadda.com | www.careerpower.in | Adda247 App contraction in the wake of the pandemic, while the benchmark Sensex has shot up from around 29,000 points to over 47,000 points. How has the fall in growth impacted government _______ (95) _______ (expenditure, asset, revenues)? In theory, drop in output would result in drop in revenues. That though is not necessarily true in the Indian context. This week, the government informed India that the Goods and Services Tax collections “for December 2020 recorded all time high since implementation of GST”. Even as the economy is in what is called a technical recession, which translates into two quarters of negative growth, GST collections which averaged at around Rs 90,000 crore since August 2017, touched the new high of Rs 1.15,174 crore for the month of December. GST revenues grew even as the economy _______ (96) _______ (shrank, dwindled, aggrandized) 7.5 per cent in the JulySept 2020 period. It is not just the Dalal Street vs Main Street picture or the GDP vs GST revenues imagery which are curious. Conventional economics (97)_ (postulates, ionates, charges ) a correlation between inflation and interest rates. Consumer Price Inflation, which was under 3 per cent in 2017, has seen a secular rise now touching 7.5 per cent. The RBI’s policy rates though have slid from over 6.5 per cent to 5.15 per cent in 2019 to 4 per cent in 2020. This column has previously highlighted the _________ (98) ________ ( phenomenon, movement, criteria ) affecting savers. Interest rates for depositors with money in a savings account halved to 3 per cent — a 365-day deposit now fetches what the savings account used to.

In the given passage, which word best fits the blank in the sentence: "Conventional economics ________ a correlation between inflation and interest rates."?