Read the passage given below and then answer the questions given below the passage. Some words may be highlighted for your attention. Read carefully.
Amidst some fanfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a financial service provider that will operate under the country’s age-old postal department. The government-owned payments bank will be able to accept deposits of up to ₹1 lakh from customers but without the rights to use these funds to advance risky loans at higher interest rates. It, however, plans to offer a variety of other financial services to people, including the holders of postal savings accounts that are worth over ₹85,000 crore.
The primary rationale behind the public payments bank idea is to help in the government’s goal of achieving financial inclusion by providing savings, remittance, and payments services to the rural and unorganized sectors of the economy. It is also hoped that the payments bank idea will help reinvigorate the postal system, which has a wide network of branches across India. All the 155,000 post offices in the country are expected to be linked to the IPPB system as early as in December this year. The payments bank will also have a digital platform that is expected to make financial services more accessible even from remote locations.
A big challenge facing the new public payments bank is whether it can manage to earn the profits required to survive as a standalone business entity. Given the severe restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India on how payments banks, in general, can employ their funds, the odds seem to be stacked against the IPPB at the moment. The first wave of new payments banks that commenced business last year — Airtel, Paytm and Fino — have not exactly set the market on fire. (The payments bank model, it should be noted, is still untested even though prominent private companies such as Airtel and Paytm have shown interest in the space.) Banks have traditionally stayed away from the business of pure deposit banking, unless customers have been willing to pay for these services, for a good reason.
The IPPB promises to pay an interest rate of 4% to its savings account customers. To generate revenues, it plans to charge fees on money transfers and other financial services while investing idle customer deposits in safe government securities in order to earn interest. Whether this will be sufficient to cover interest and operational costs remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the IPPB is also likely to face stiff competition from private companies, which are generally more nimble in adapting to business realities and far more customer-friendly compared to the government-owned behemoths. And with increasing competition, the IPPB’s revenues and margins are also likely to come under pressure. Yet, if it succeeds, the new payments bank could usher in a new era of rapid financial inclusion across rural India.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, three of India’s most important partners in Southeast Asia, could not have come at a more important moment in Indian foreign policy positioning. In the past few months, the government has shifted considerably in its signalling, with Mr. Modi visiting China and Russia for informal summits with Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, respectively. The fact that these visits have taken place at a time the U.S. administration has sharpened its aim at China and Russia with sanctions and threats of a trade war suggests Mr. Modi is also attempting to moderate India’s strategic posturing on the global stage, and striving for a more balanced approach in what it increasingly sees as an uncertain world. India has also maintained its commitment to relations with the U.S. in order to build a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, maintain the “international rules-based order”, and work together to combat terrorism and terror financing — as they have done more recently at the UN and the Financial Action Task Force. Meanwhile, India’s membership of both the Quadrilateral (with the U.S., Japan and Australia) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (the Russia-China-led grouping of Central Asian countries, whose summit Mr. Modi will attend this week) is also an indicator of the new balance that New Delhi seeks. It is significant that in Singapore Mr. Modi chose the platform of the Shangri-La Dialogue of defence leaders of the Asia-Pacific region to emphasise Indian “strategic autonomy”. In his speech on the concept of the “Indo-Pacific” he referred to India’s relations with Russia, the U.S. and China. Given his government’s particular distaste for the term in the past, it is telling that Mr. Modi appeared to be channelling some of the “Bandung spirit of 1955” that led to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, when he praised Singapore for teaching the world the importance of making “free and fair choices” and “embracing diversity at home”. “When nations stand on the side of principles, not behind one power or the other, they earn the respect of the world,” Mr. Modi said as he unveiled a seven-point vision for the Indo-Pacific region. While warning the world about the possible return of “great power rivalries”, he emphasised the importance and centrality of the ASEAN in the concept of the Indo-Pacific. The “principled” vision Mr. Modi projects is a departure from the transactionalism and pragmatism espoused by many in South Block over the last few years. However, it may also be a return to familiar moorings of Indian foreign policy, necessitated by what the Prime Minister identified as the “shifting plates of global politics and the fault lines of history”.
In the following passage some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.
Classical dancers are taught to aim their ____ slightly above the audience’s line of sight. The width of this ____ makes it targeted yet ______ – you address each viewer as an ______ , yet never lock eyes long _____ to forge a connection.
Read the given passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the five given alternatives.
The rupee is finally getting a breather. After getting knocked down badly since the beginning of 2018, the currency is getting some relief as the market approaches the year-end. The currency tumbled to its all-time low of 74.48 in early October and has recovered sharply from there over the last few weeks. The rupee has reversed higher by about 4 per cent from the record lows and is currently trading at 71.65.
A strong surge in crude oil prices and foreign portfolio investors (FPI) pulling out money from the Indian debt segment have been keeping the rupee under pressure since the beginning of this year. Crude oil (WTI) prices surged from around $58 per barrel in February to $77 in October increasing the concerns of India’s trade and current account deficit widening. FPIs have pulled out $7.7 billion from debt and $5.2 billion from equities this year. Apart from these two factors, the strength in the US dollar and the rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve have also been weighing on the rupee.
However, things have turned around over the last few weeks. A sharp downward reversal in crude oil prices has helped the rupee recover from record lows. Crude oil (WTI) prices have been falling sharply over the last six consecutive weeks. WTI crude has plummeted about 28 per cent, wiping out all the gains made through this year, from around $77 in October to test $55 per barrel last week. The prices have bounced from there and are currently trading at $57. This has helped the rupee recover from its all-time low of 74.48 to the current levels of 71.65.
So, how far can the rupee strengthen against the US dollar? A study on the rupee over the last 10 years indicates that the current recovery can extend further in the coming weeks. A Fibonacci retracement study on five different legs of the movements (from a high to new low) in the rupee from 2008 shows a specific trend. The rupee has always retraced to a level in between the 50 per cent and the 61.8 per cent Fibonacci retracement support.
In the following passage some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.
Classical dancers are taught to aim their ____ slightly above the audience’s line of sight. The width of this ____ makes it targeted yet ______ – you address each viewer as an ______ , yet never lock eyes long _____ to forge a connection.