The truth is that, despite the recent success of car-makers P and Q, India’s automobile industry is in a state not that different from the bad old days of the license-permit quota raj when two carmakers dominated a captive domestic market with substandard vehicles and with very little, if any, research and development, and low to negligible productivity growth.
High tariff barriers have certainly induced foreign automobile makers to enter the Indian market by setting up local operations, but this so-called “tariff jumping” foreign investment has produced an industry that is inefficient, operating generally at a low scale, and whose products are not globally competitive either in terms of cost or of innovation.
It is noteworthy that the automobile parts industry, which has faced low tariffs (as low as 12.5%) and has been largely deregulated, has been characterised by higher productivity and much better export performance than the completely-built units’ sector in the years since liberalisation.
(Adapted from an Op-Ed in {The Mint})
Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above?
High tariff barriers have certainly induced foreign automobile makers to enter the Indian market by setting up local operations, but this so-called “tariff jumping” foreign investment has produced an industry that is inefficient, operating generally at a low scale, and whose products are not globally competitive either in terms of cost or of innovation.
It is noteworthy that the automobile parts industry, which has faced low tariffs (as low as 12.5%) and has been largely deregulated, has been characterised by higher productivity and much better export performance than the completely-built units’ sector in the years since liberalisation.
(Adapted from an Op-Ed in {The Mint})
Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above?
Show Hint
- Low tariff barriers increase productivity.
- Tariff jumping leads to increases in productivity.
- Deregulation has worked for the automotive parts industry and therefore should be applied to completely-built units.
- P and Q do not invest enough in research and development.
The Correct Option is A, C, D
Solution and Explanation
The passage compares the automobile industry in India with the automobile parts industry, highlighting how the latter has performed better in terms of productivity and export performance. The main factors influencing the automobile industry include tariff barriers and deregulation, while the automobile parts industry benefited from low tariffs and deregulation. The mention of substandard vehicles and low productivity for P and Q suggests inefficiency in these carmakers' operations.
Step 2: Evaluate the options.
- (A) Low tariff barriers increase productivity: The passage suggests that the automobile parts industry, which faced low tariffs, experienced higher productivity and better export performance, implying that low tariff barriers lead to increased productivity.
- (B) Tariff jumping leads to increases in productivity: The passage does not support this claim, as tariff jumping has led to an inefficient industry with low-scale operations, not an increase in productivity.
- (C) Deregulation has worked for the automotive parts industry and therefore should be applied to completely-built units: The passage mentions that the deregulated automobile parts industry has shown better productivity and export performance, suggesting that deregulation could work for the completely-built units’ sector as well.
- (D) P and Q do not invest enough in research and development: The passage indicates that the automobile industry, dominated by P and Q, had very little research and development, implying that they do not invest enough in this area.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct inferences are (A), (C), and (D) based on the passage's explanation of the issues with the automobile industry and the better performance of the automobile parts sector. Final Answer: (A), (C), (D)
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
During Bentham’s lifetime, revolutions occurred in the American colonies and in France, producing the Bill of Rights and the Declaration des Droits deHomme (Declaration of the Rights of Man), both of which were based on liberty, equality, and self-determination. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Revolutionary movements broke out that year in France, Italy, Austria, Poland, and elsewhere. In addition, the Indus trial Revolution transformed Great Britain and eventually the rest of Europe from an agrarian (farm-based) society into an industrial one, in which steam and coal increased manufacturing production dramatically, changing the nature of work, property ownership, and family. This period also included advances in chemistry, astronomy, navigation, human anatomy, and im munology, among other sciences.
Given this historical context, it is understandable that Bentham used reason and science to explain human behaviour. His ethical system was an attempt to quantify happiness and the good so they would meet the conditions of the scientific method. Ethics had to be empirical, quantifiable, verifiable, and reproducible across time and space. Just as science was beginning to understand the workings of cause and effect in the body, so ethics would explain the causal relationships of the mind. Bentham rejected religious authority and wrote a rebuttal to the Declaration of Independence in which he railed against natural rights as “rhetorical nonsense, nonsense upon stilts.” Instead, the fundamental unit of human action for him was utility—solid, certain, and factual.
What is utility? Bentham’s fundamental axiom, which underlies utilitarianism, was that all so cial morals and government legislation should aim for producing the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism, therefore, emphasizes the consequences or ultimate purpose of an act rather than the character of the actor, the actor’s motivation, or the particu lar circumstances surrounding the act. It has these characteristics: (1) universality, because it applies to all acts of human behaviour, even those that appear to be done from altruistic mo tives; (2) objectivity, meaning it operates beyond individual thought, desire, and perspective; (3) rationality, because it is not based in metaphysics or theology; and (4) quantifiability in its reliance on utility.- CLAT PG - 2026
- Legal Studies
- Reading Comprehension
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights”.
This statement, in spite of literal inaccuracy in its every phrase, served the purpose for which it was written. It expressed an aspiration, and it was a fighting slogan. In order that slogans may serve their purpose, it is necessary that they shall arouse strong, emotional belief, but it is not at all necessary that they shall be literally accurate. A large part of each human being’s time on earth is spent in declaiming about his “rights,” asserting their existence, complaining of their violation, describing them as present or future, vested or contingent, absolute or conditional, perfect or inchoate, alienable or inalienable, legal or equitable, in rem or in personam, primary or secondary, moral or jural (legal), inherent or acquired, natural or artificial, human or divine. No doubt still other adjectives are available. Each one expresses some idea, but not always the same idea even when used twice by one and the same person.
They all need definition in the interest of understanding and peace. In his table of correlatives, Hohfeld set “right” over against “duty” as its necessary correlative. This had been done num berless times by other men. He also carefully distinguished it from the concepts expressed in his table by the terms “privilege,” “power,” and “immunity.” To the present writer, the value of his work seems beyond question and the practical convenience of his classification is convincing. However, the adoption of Hohfeld’s classification and the correlating of the terms “right” and “duty” do not complete the work of classification and definition.- CLAT PG - 2026
- Legal Studies
- Reading Comprehension
- Cite two evidences from the text to show that Indian youth is adapting itself to the needs of the job market.
- CBSE CLASS XII - 2025
- English Core
- Reading Comprehension
- The first thing that a scholar should bear in mind is that a book ought not to be read for mere amusement. Half-educated persons read for amusement, and are not to be blamed for it; they are incapable of appreciating the deeper qualities that belong to a really great literature. But a young man who has passed through a course of university training should discipline himself at an early day never to read for mere amusement. And once the habit of this discipline has been formed, he will find it impossible to read for mere amusement. He will then impatiently throw down any book from which he cannot obtain intellectual food, any book that does not make an appeal to the higher emotions and to his intellect. But on the other hand, the habit of reading for amusement becomes with thousands of people exactly the same kind of habit as wine-drinking or opium-smoking; it is like a narcotic; something that helps to pass the time, something that keeps up a perpetual condition of dreaming, something that eventually results in destroying all capacity for thought, giving exercise only to the surface parts of the mind, and leaving the deeper springs of feeling and the higher faculties of perception unemployed.
- UP Board XII - 2025
- English
- Reading Comprehension
- Out of debt, out of danger is, like many other proverbs, full of wisdom ; but the word 'danger' does not sufficiently express all that the warning demands. To one that is not insensible, a state of debt is a state of positive misery ; the sufferer is as one haunted by an evil spirit, and his heart can know neither rest nor peace till it is cast out. But as example is at all times more instructive than mere words of mouth, a living writer shall describe his own feelings when beset with creditors, and perhaps he may prove a beacon to the thoughtless ones who are likely to fall into the same gulf.
- UP Board XII - 2025
- English
- Reading Comprehension
Questions Asked in GATE XH-C1 exam
Eight students (P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and W) are playing musical chairs. The figure indicates their order of position at the start of the game. They play the game by moving forward in a circle in the clockwise direction.
After the 1st round, the 4th student behind P leaves the game.
After the 2nd round, the 5th student behind Q leaves the game.
After the 3rd round, the 3rd student behind V leaves the game.
After the 4th round, the 4th student behind U leaves the game.
Who all are left in the game after the 4th round?
The 12 musical notes are given as \( C, C^\#, D, D^\#, E, F, F^\#, G, G^\#, A, A^\#, B \). Frequency of each note is \( \sqrt[12]{2} \) times the frequency of the previous note. If the frequency of the note C is 130.8 Hz, then the ratio of frequencies of notes F# and C is:
Here are two analogous groups, Group-I and Group-II, that list words in their decreasing order of intensity. Identify the missing word in Group-II.
Abuse \( \rightarrow \) Insult \( \rightarrow \) Ridicule
__________ \( \rightarrow \) Praise \( \rightarrow \) Appreciate
- Had I learnt acting as a child, I ________ a famous film star.
Select the most appropriate option to complete the above sentence. - A car started from city P at 9:40 AM. The time taken for the car to reach city Q is 4 hours and 50 minutes. The time of arrival of the car at city Q is: