List of top Questions asked in CAT

1. India’s experience of industrialization is characteristic of the difficulties faced by a newly independent developing country.
A. In 1947, India was undoubtedly an under – developed country with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world.
B. Indian industrialization was the result of a conscious deliberate policy of growth by an indigenous political elite.
C. Today India ranks fifth in the international comity of nations if measured in terms of purchasing power.
D. Even today however, the benefits of Indian industrialization since independence have not reached the masses.
6. Industrialization in India has been a limited success; one more example of growth without development.

1. It is significant that one of the most common objections to competition is that it is blind.
A. This is important because in a system of free enterprise based on private property chances are not equal and there is indeed a strong case for reducing the inequality of opportunity.
B. Rather it is a choice between a system where it is the will of few persons that decides who is to get what and one where it depends at least partly, on the ability and the enterprise of the people concerned.
C. Although competition and justice may have little else in common, it is as much a commendation of competition as of justice that it is no respecter of persons.
D. The choice today is not between a system in which everybody will get what he deserves according to some universal standard and one where individuals’ shares are determined by chance of goodwill.
6. The fact that opportunities open to the poor in a competitive society are much more restricted than those open to the rich, does not make it less true that in such a society the poor are more free than a person commanding much greater material comfort in a different type of society.

1. What does the state do in a country where tax is very low?
A. It tries to spy upon the taxpayers.
B. It investigates income sources and spending patterns.
C. Exactly what the tax authority tries to do now even if inconsistently.
D. It could also encourage people to denounce to the tax authorities any conspicuously prosperous neighbours who may be suspected of not paying their taxes properly.
6. The ultimate solution would be an Orwellian System.

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer for each question.

Emile Durkheim, the first person to be formally recognized as a sociologist and the most scientific of the pioneers, conducted a study that stands as a research model for sociologists today. His investigation of suicide was, in fact, the first sociological study to use statistics. In Suicide (1964, originally published in 1897), Durkheim documented his contention that some aspects of human behaviour---even something as allegedly individualistic as suicide---can be explained without reference to individuals.

Like all of Durkheim’s work, Suicide must be viewed within the context of his concern for social integration. Durkheim wanted to see if suicide rates within a social entity (for example, a group, organization, or society) are related to the degree to which individuals are socially involved (integrated and regulated). Durkheim describes three types of suicide: egoistic, anomic, and altruistic. Egoistic suicide is promoted when individuals do not have sufficient social ties. Since single (never married) adults, for example, are not heavily involved with family life, they are more likely to commit suicide than are married adults. Altruistic suicide, on the other hand, is more likely to occur when social integration is too strong. The ritual suicide of Hindu widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres is one example. Military personnel, trained to lay down their lives for their country, provide another illustration.

Durkheim’s third type of suicide---anomic suicide---increases when the social regulation of individuals is disrupted. For example, suicide rates increase during economic depressions. People who suddenly find themselves without a job or without hope of finding one are more prone to kill themselves. Suicides may also increase during periods of prosperity. People may loosen their social ties by taking new jobs, moving to new communities, or finding new mates.

Using data from the government population reports of several countries (much of it from the French Government Statistical Office), Durkheim found strong support for his line of reasoning. Suicide rates were higher among single than married people, among military personnel than civilians, among divorced than married people, and among people involved in nationwide economic crises.

It is important to realize that Durkheim’s primary interest was not in the empirical (observational) indicators he used such as suicide rates among military personnel, married people, and so forth. Rather, Durkheim used the following indicators to support several of his contentions:

1. Social behavior can be explained by social rather than psychological factors;
2. Suicide is affected by the degree of integration and regulation within social entities; and
3. Since society can be studied scientifically, sociology is worthy of recognition in the academic world.

Durkheim was successful on all three counts.

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer for each question.

How quickly things change in the technology business! A decade ago, IBM was the awesome and undisputed king of the computer trade, universally feared and respected. A decade ago, two little companies called Intel and Microsoft were mere blips on the radar screen of the industry, upstart start-ups that had signed on to make the chips and software for IBM’s new line of personal computers. Though their products soon became industry standards, the two companies remained protected children of the market leader.

What happened since is a startling reversal of fortune. IBM is being ravaged by the worst crisis in the company’s 79 year history. It is undergoing its fifth restructuring in the past seven years as well as seemingly endless rounds of job cuts and firings that have eliminated 100,000 jobs since 1985. Last week IBM announced to its shell-shocked investors that it lost \$4.97 billion last year – the biggest loss in American corporate history.

And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged as the computer industry’s most fearsome pair of competitors. The numbers on Wall Street tell a stunning story. Ten years ago, the market value of the stock of Intel and Microsoft combined amounted to about a tenth of IBM’s. Last week, with IBM’s stock at an 11-year low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its old mentor’s for the first time ever (\$26.76 billion to \$26.48 billion) and Intel (\$24.3 billion) is not far behind. While IBM is posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30% and Microsoft’s rose 44%.

Both Intel, the world’s largest supplier of computer chips, and Microsoft, the world’s largest supplier of computer software, have assumed the role long played by Big Blue as the industry’s pacesetter. What is taking place is a generational shift unprecedented in the information age – one recalls a transition in the US auto industry 70 years ago, when Alfred Sloan’s upstart General Motors surpassed Ford Motor as America’s No. 1 car maker. The transition also reflects the decline of computer manufacturers such as IBM, Wang, and Unisys and the rise of companies like Microsoft, Intel, and AT\&T that create the chips and software to make the computers work. “Just like Dr. Frankenstein, IBM created these two monster competitors,” says Richard Shaffer, publisher of the Computer Letter. “Now even IBM is in danger of being trampled by the creations it unleashed.”

Although Intel and Microsoft still have close relationships with Big Blue, there is little love lost between IBM and its potent progeny. IBM had an ugly falling-out with former partner Microsoft over the future of personal computer software. Microsoft developed the now famous disk operating system for IBM-PC – called DOS – and later created the operating software for the next generation of IBM personal computers, the Personal System/2. When PS/2 and its operating system, OS/2, failed to catch on, a feud erupted over how the two companies would upgrade the system. Although they publicly patched things up, the partnership was tattered. IBM developed its own version of OS/2, which has so far failed to capture the industry’s imagination. Microsoft’s competing version, dubbed New Technology, or NT, will debut in a few months and will incorporate Microsoft’s highly successful Windows program, which lets users juggle several programs at once. Windows NT, however, will offer more new features, such as the ability to link many computers together in a network and to safeguard them against unauthorized use.

IBM and Intel have also been parting company. After relying almost exclusively on the Santa Clara, California company for the silicon chips that serve as computer brains, IBM has moved to reduce its dependence on Intel by turning to competing vendors. In Europe, IBM last year began selling a low-cost line of PCs called Ambra, which runs on chips made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices. IBM also demonstrated a sample PC using a chip made by another Intel enemy, Cyrix. And that October IBM said it would begin selling the company’s own chips to outsiders in direct competition with Intel.

IBM clearly feels threatened. And the wounded giant still poses the biggest threat to any further dominance by Intel and Microsoft. Last year, it teamed up with both companies' most bitter rivals – Apple Computers and Motorola – to develop advanced software and microprocessors for a new generation of desktop computers. In selecting Apple and Motorola, IBM bypassed its longtime partners. Just as Microsoft’s standard operating system runs only on computers built around Intel’s computer chips, Apple’s software runs only on Motorola’s chips. Although IBM has pledged that the new system will eventually run on a variety of machines, it will initially run only computer programs written for Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s OS/2. Its competitive juice now flowing, IBM last week announced that it and Apple Computer will deliver the operating system in 1994 – a year ahead of schedule.

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer for each question.

Environmental protection and management is deservedly attracting a lot of attention these days. This is a desirable development in the face of the alarming rate of natural resource degradation which greatly hampers their optimal utilization. When waste waters emanating from municipal sewage, industrial effluent, agriculture and land runoffs, find their way either to ground water reservoirs or other surface water sources, the quality of water deteriorates, rendering it unfit for use. The natural balance is disturbed when concentrated discharges of waste water is not controlled. This is because the cleansing forces of nature cannot do their job in proportion to the production of filthy matter.

According to the National Environment Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI), a staggering 70 percent of water available in the country is polluted. According to the Planning Commission, ``From the Dal lake in the North to the Chaliyar river in the South, from Damodar and Hoogly in the East to the Thane Creek in the West, the picture of water pollution is uniformly gloomy. Even our large perennial rivers, like the Ganga, are today heavily polluted."

According to one study, all the 14 major rivers of India are highly polluted. Besides the Ganga, these rivers include the Yamuna, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery. These rivers carry 85 percent of the surface runoff and their drainage basins cover 73 percent of the country. The pollution of the much revered Ganga is due in particular to municipal sewage that accounts for three-fourths of its pollution load. Despite India having legislation on water pollution (The Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1974) and various water pollution control boards, rivers have today become synonymous with drains and sewers.

Untreated community wastes discharged into water courses from human settlements account for four times as much waste water as industrial effluent. Out of India’s 3,119 towns and cities, only 217 have partial (209) or full (8) sewerage treatment facilities and cover less than a third of the urban population. Statistics from a report of the Central Board for Prevention and Control of Water Pollution reveal that 1,700 of 2,700 water-using industries in India are polluting the water around their factories. Only 160 industries have waste water treatment plants. One estimate suggests that the volume of waste water of industrial origin will be comparable to that of domestic sewerage in India by 2000 AD. Discharges from agricultural fields, which carry fertilizing ingredients of nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticides, are expected to be three times as much as domestic sewage. By that date, thermal pollution generated by discharges from thermal power plants will be the largest in volume.

Toxic effluents deplete the levels of oxygen in the rivers, endanger all aquatic life and render water absolutely unfit for human consumption, apart from affecting industrial production. Sometimes these effects have been disastrous. A recent study reveals that the water of the Ganga, Yamuna, Kali and Hindon rivers have considerable concentrations of heavy metals due to inflow of industrial wastes, which pose a serious health hazard to the millions living on their banks. Similarly, the Cauvery and Kapila rivers in Karnataka have been found to contain metal pollutants, which threaten the health of people in riverine towns. The Periyar, the largest river of Kerala, receives extremely toxic effluent that results in high incidence of skin problems and fish kills. The Godavari of Andhra Pradesh and the Damodar and Hoogly in West Bengal receive untreated industrial toxic wastes. A high level of pollution has been found in the Yamuna, while the Chambal of Rajasthan is considered the most polluted river in Rajasthan. Even in industrially backward Orissa, the Rushikula river is extremely polluted. The fate of the Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, the Tungabhadra in Karnataka, the Chaliyar in Kerala, the Gomti in U.P., the Narmada in M.P. and the Sone and the Subarnarekha rivers in Bihar is no different.

According to the W.H.O., eighty percent of diseases prevalent in India are water-borne; many of them assume epidemic proportions. The prevalence of these diseases heightens under conditions of drought. It is also estimated that India loses as many as 73 million man-days every year due to water prone diseases, costing Rs.600 crore by way of treatment expenditure and production losses. Management of water resources with respect to their quality also assumes greater importance especially when the country can no more afford to waste water.

The recent Clean-the-Ganga Project with an action plan estimated to cost the exchequer Rs.250 crore (which has been accorded top priority) is a trendsetter in achieving this goal. The action plan evoked such great interest that offers of assistance have been received from France, UK, US and the Netherlands as also the World Bank. This is indeed laudable. Poland too has now joined this list. The very fact that these countries have volunteered themselves to contribute their mite is a healthy reflection of global concern over growing environmental degradation and the readiness of the international community to participate in what is a truly formidable task. It may be recalled that the task of cleansing the Ganga along the Rishikesh–Hardwar stretch under the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan has been completed and the results are reported to be encouraging.

The reasons for the crisis of drinking water resources are drying up and the lowering of ground water through overpumping; this is compounded by the pollution of water sources. All these factors increase the magnitude of the problem. An assessment of the progress achieved by the end of March 1985, on completion of the first phase of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981–1991) reveals that drinking water has been available to 73 percent of the urban population and 56 percent of the rural population only. This means that nearly half the country’s rural population has to get drinking water facilities. This needs to be urgently geared up especially when considered against the Government’s professed objective of providing safe drinking water and sanitation to all by the end of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade i.e. March 1991. The foremost action in this would be to clean up our water resources.

As per surveys conducted by the NEERI, per capita drinking water losses in different cities in the country range between 11,000 to 31,000 litres annually. This indicates a waste level of 20 to 35 percent of the total flow of water in the distribution system primarily due to leaks in main and household service pipes. Preventive maintenance programme would substantially reduce losses, wastages and would certainly go a long way in solving the problem.

According to the Union Ministry of Works and Housing, of the 2.31 lakh problem villages, most have been provided with at least one source of drinking water as of March 1986. The balance (38,748) villages are expected to be covered during the seventh plan. A time-bound national policy on drinking water is being formulated by Government, wherein the task is proposed to be completed by the end of the seventh plan. An outlay of Rs.6,522.47 crores has been allotted for the water supply and sanitation sector in the seventh plan period against an outlay of Rs.3,922.02 crores in the sixth plan. Of this, outlay for rural water supply sector is Rs.3,454.47 crores. It is expected that this outlay would help to cover about 86.4 percent of the urban and 82.2 percent of the rural population with safe drinking water facilities by March 1991. Hygienic sanitation facilities would be provided to 44.7 percent and 1.8 percent of the urban and rural population respectively within the same period.