Questions

Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.

 

The conclusion of World Trade Organization’s 11th biennial ministerial conference at Buenos Aires was worrisome. From an Indian standpoint, there was no loss as status quo continues in the most important issue: the right to continue the food security programme by using support prices. But the inability of the negotiators to reach even one substantive outcome suggests that WTO’s efficacy is under question. As a 164-country multilateral organisation dedicated to crafting rules of trade through consensus, WTO represents the optimal bet for developing countries such as India. Strengthening WTO is in India’s best interest.

 

Perhaps the biggest threat to WTO’s efficacy today is the attitude of the US. The world’s largest economy appears to have lost faith in the organisation and has begun to undermine one of its most successful segments, the dispute redressal mechanism. This is significant as the US has been directly involved in nearly half of all cases brought to WTO. Separately, large groups of countries decided to pursue negotiations on e-commerce, investment facilitation and removal of trade obstacles for medium and small scale industries. By itself this should not weaken WTO. But it comes at a time when there is growing frustration with gridlock at WTO.

 

India did well to defend its position on its food security programme. The envisaged reform package which will see a greater use of direct cash transfers to beneficiaries will be in sync with what developed countries do. But it’s important for India to enhance its efforts to reinvigorate WTO. In this context, India’s plan to organise a meeting of some countries early next year is a step in the right direction. WTO represents the best available platform to accommodate interests of a diverse set of nations. Therefore, India should be at the forefront of moves to fortify it.

 

What is the biggest threat to WTO’s efficacy today?

 

Filed Under: English
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Variation in human skin color is an example of

Filed Under: Biology
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REM sleep is also known as paradoxical sleep because

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A pure market economy is sometimes called pure

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Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives and click the button corresponding to it.

The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean. It stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state in the United States, ending at a remote ice-free seaport village nearly 800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely complicated to operate. The steel pipe crosses windswept plains and endless miles of delicate tundra that tops the frozen ground. It weaves through crooked canyons, climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rocky crags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or under hundreds of rivers and streams. The pipe is 4 feet in diameter, and up to 2 million barrels (or 84 million gallons) of crude oil can be pumped through it daily. Resting on H-shaped steel racks called "bents", long sections of the pipeline follow a zigzag course high above the frozen earth. Other long sections drop out of sight beneath spongy or rocky ground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of the pipeline's up-and-down route is determined by the often harsh demands of the arctic and subarctic climate, the tortuous lay of the land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or permafrost (permanently frozen ground). A little more than half of the pipeline is elevated above the ground. The remainder is buried anywhere from 3 to 12 feet, depending largely upon the type of terrain and the properties of the soil. One of the largest in the world, the pipeline cost approximately $8 billion and is by far the biggest and most expensive construction project ever undertaken by private industry. In fact, no single business could raise that much money, so 8 major oil companies formed a consortium in order to share the costs. Each company controlled oil rights to particular shares of land in the oil fields and paid into the pipeline-construction fund according to the size of its holdings. Today, despite enormous problems of climate, supply shortage, equipment breakdowns, labour disagreements, treacherous terrain, a certain amount of mismanagement, and even theft, the Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.

How was the fund for pipeline - construction generated?

Filed Under: English
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Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives and click the button corresponding to it.

Crude mineral oil comes out of the earth as a thick brown or black liquid with a strong smell. It is a complex mixture of many different substances, each with its own individual qualities. Most of them are combinations of hydrogen and carbon in varying proportions. Such hydrocarbons are also found in other forms such as bitumen, asphalt and natural gas. Mineral oil originates from the carcasses of tiny animals and from plants that live in the sea. Over million of years, these dead creatures form large deposits under sea­bed and ocean currents cover them with a blanket of sand and silt. As this material hardens, it becomes sedimentary rock and effectively shuts out the oxygen, thus preventing the complete decomposition of the marine deposits underneath. The layers of sedimentary rocks become thicker, and heavier. Their pressure produces heat, which transforms the tiny carcasses into crude oil in a process that is still going on today.

What is crude mineral oil?

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I go around and in the house but never touches the house. What am I?

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The Ajanta Cave Paintings are a testimony to the golden age of ____ in India.

Filed Under: Indian History