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English
I. English encodes class in India. It does so by sliding into the DNA of social division: income, caste, gender, religion or
place of belonging. The threat it poses to social cohesion has worried public commentators across the political
spectrum. In an address delivered as independent India’s Parliament dilly-dallied over the suggestion to replace
English with regional languages as the medium of instruction for higher education, Gandhi said, ‘This blighting imposition
of a foreign medium upon the youth of the country will be counted by history as one of the greatest tragedies. Our boys
think, and rightly in the present circumstances, that without English they cannot get government service. Girls are
taught English as a passport to marriage.’
A hundred years later, the language continues to be seen as a tool of exclusion. The problem now is about inequality
of access. ‘To be denied English is harmful to the individual as well as our society,’ writes Chetan Bhagat, selfappointed
leader of a class war set off by unequal access to English.
Bhagat, an engineer-turned-investment banker, wrote his first college romance in English in 2004. Then only a certain
kind of person—someone who grew up reading, writing and speaking the language—wrote books in English—big
words, long sentences, literary pretension, heavy with orientalism. In the ten years since Bhagat put the popular in
‘popular’ English fiction, he has written six other novels and sold millions of copies all told. With every new book, all
written in deliberately simple English, Bhagat has recruited thousands of new soldiers in his crusade against what he
calls the ‘caste system around the language’. Bhagat even has a term for Indians who ‘have’ English: E1. ‘These
people had parents who spoke English, had access to good English-medium schools—typically in big cities, and
gained early proficiency, which enabled them to consume English products such as newspapers, books and films.
English is so instinctive to them that even some of their thought patterns are in English. These people are much in
demand.’ The people E1 presumably control, through a nexus of privilege built on ownership of English, are E2:
‘probably ten times the E1s. They are technically familiar with the language. [But] if they sit in an interview conducted
by E1s, they will come across as incompetent, even though they may be equally intelligent, creative or hardworking.’
The situation may not be so comically stark. The haves and have-nots may not exactly fit into Bhagat’s stereotypes
of urban, sophisticated rich people and provincial, uncultured poor. His argument does not factor in many other walls
around English in India. You are more likely to learn English if you are born a man rather than a woman, high caste
rather than low caste, south Indian rather than north Indian. There is more than one kind of E1 and more than one kind
of E2. And there is more than one way E2s can overthrow E1s. One is to speak it like they know it.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World, by Snigdha Poonam,
Penguin Viking, 2018.]
Q. 1 Which of the following can be inferred about the author’s views on English in contemporary India?
II. I grew up in a small town not far from Kalimpong. In pre-liberalization India, everything arrived late: not just material
things but also ideas. Magazines — old copies of Reader’s Digest and National Geographic — arrived late too, after
the news had become stale by months or, often, years. This temporal gap turned journalism into literature, news into
legend, and historical events into something akin to plotless stories. But like those who knew no other life, we
accepted this as the norm. The dearth of reading material in towns and villages in socialist India is hard to imagine,
and it produced two categories of people: those who stopped reading after school or college, and those — including
children — who read anything they could find. I read road signs with the enthusiasm that attaches to reading thrillers.
When the iterant kabadiwala, collector of papers, magazines, and rejected things, visited our neighbourhood, I rushed
to the house where he was doing business. He bought things at unimaginably low prices from those who’d stopped
having any use for them, and I rummaged through his sacks of old magazines. Sometimes, on days when business
was good, he allowed me a couple of copies of Sportsworld magazine for free. I’d run home and, ignoring my mother’s
scolding, plunge right in — consuming news about India’s victory in the Benson and Hedges Cup.... Two takeaways
from these experiences have marked my understanding of the provincial reader’s life: the sense of belatedness, of
everything coming late, and the desire for pleasure in language. Speaking of belatedness, the awareness of having
been born at the wrong time in history, of inventing things that had already been discovered elsewhere, far away,
without our knowledge or cooperation, is a moment of epiphany and deep sadness. I remember a professor’s choked
voice, narrating to me how all the arguments he’d made in his doctoral dissertation, written over many, many years of
hard work (for there indeed was a time when PhDs were written over decades), had suddenly come to naught after he’d
discovered the work of C.W.E. Bigsby. This, I realised as I grew older, was one of the characteristics of provincial life:
that they (usually males) were saying trite things with the confidence of someone declaring them for the first time. I,
therefore, grew up surrounded by would-be Newtons who claimed to have discovered gravity (again). There’s a deep
sense of tragedy attending this sort of thing — the sad embarrassment of always arriving after the party is over. And
there’s a harsh word for that sense of belatedness: “dated.” What rescues it is the unpredictability of these anachronistic
“discoveries” — the randomness and haphazardness involved in mapping connections among thoughts and ideas, in
a way that hasn’t yet been professionalised.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “The Provincial Reader”, by Sumana Roy, Los Angeles Review of Books]
Q. 6 What use was the kabadiwala (wastepicker) to the author?
III. ‘So pick a bird,’ Iff commanded. ‘Any bird.’ This was puzzling. ‘The only bird around here is a wooden peacock,’
Haroun pointed out, reasonably enough. Iff gave a snort of disgust. ‘A person may choose what he cannot see,’ he
said, as if explaining something very obvious to a very foolish individual. ‘A person may mention a bird’s name even if
the creature is not present and correct: crow, quail, hummingbird, bulbul, mynah, parrot, kite. A person may even
select a flying creature of his own invention, for example winged horse, flying turtle, airborne whale, space serpent or
aeromouse. To give a thing a name, a label, a handle; to rescue it from anonymity, to pluck it out of the Place of
Namelessness, in short to identify it—well, that’s a way of bringing the said thing into being. Or, in this case, the said
bird or Imaginary Flying Organism.’
‘That may be true where you come from,’ Haroun argued. ‘But in these parts, stricter rules apply.’
‘In these parts,’ rejoined blue-bearded Iff, ‘I am having time wasted by someone who will not trust in what he can’t see.
How much have you seen, eh? Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there? And submarines? Huh? Also,
hailstones, baseballs, pagodas? Goldmines? Kangaroos, Mount Fujiyama, the North Pole? And the past, did it
happen? And the future, will it come? Believe in your own eves and you’ll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess.’
With that, he plunged his hand into a pocket of his auberginey pajamas, and when he brought it forth again it was
bunched into a fist. ‘So take a look, or I should say a gander, at the enclosed.’ He opened his hand, and Haroun’s eyes
almost fell out of his head. Tiny birds were walking about on Iff’s palm; and pecking at it, and flapping their miniature
wings to hover just above it. And as well as birds there were fabulous winged creatures out of legends: an Assyrian lion
with the head of a bearded man and a pair of large hairy wings growing out of its flanks; and winged monkeys, flying
saucers, tiny angels, levitating (and apparently air-breathing) fish. ‘What’s your pleasure, select, choose,’ Iff urged.
And although it seemed obvious to Haroun that these magical creatures were so small that they couldn’t possibly have
carried so much as a bitten-off fingernail, he decided not to argue and pointed at a tiny crested bird that was giving him
a sidelong look through one highly intelligent eye.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie, Granta & Penguin,
1990.]
Q. 11 If Iff is right, which of the following statements is true?
IV. The call of self-expression turned the village of the internet into a city, which expanded at time-lapse speed, social
connections bristling like neurons in every direction. At twelve, I was writing five hundred words a day on a public
LiveJournal. By twenty-five, my job was to write things that would attract, ideally, a hundred thousand strangers per
post. Now I’m thirty, and most of my life is inextricable from the internet, and its mazes of incessant forced connection—
this feverish, electric, unliveable hell.
The curdling of the social internet happened slowly and then all at once. The tipping point, I’d guess, was around 2012.
People were losing excitement about the internet, starting to articulate a set of new truisms. Facebook had become
tedious, trivial, exhausting. Instagram seemed better, but would soon reveal its underlying function as a three-ring
circus of happiness and popularity and success. Twitter, for all its discursive promise, was where everyone tweeted
complaints at airlines and moaned about articles that had been commissioned to make people moan. The dream of a
better, truer self on the internet was slipping away. Where we had once been free to be ourselves online, we were now
chained to ourselves online, and this made us self-conscious. Platforms that promised connection began inducing
mass alienation. The freedom promised by the internet started to seem like something whose greatest potential lay in
the realm of misuse.
Even as we became increasingly sad and ugly on the internet, the mirage of the better online self continued to
glimmer. As a medium, the internet is defined by a built-in performance incentive. In real life, you can walk around living
life and be visible to other people. But on the internet—for anyone to see you, you have to act. You have to communicate
in order to maintain an internet presence. And, because the internet’s central platforms are built around personal
profiles, it can seem—first at a mechanical level, and later on as an encoded instinct—like the main purpose of this
communication is to make yourself look good. Online reward mechanisms beg to substitute for offline ones, and then
overtake them. This is why everyone tries to look so hot and well-travelled on Instagram; why everyone seems so
smug and triumphant on Facebook; and why, on Twitter, making a righteous political statement has come to seem, for
many people, like a political good in itself. The everyday madness perpetuated by the internet is the madness of this
architecture, which positions personal identity as the centre of the universe. It’s as if we’ve been placed on a lookout
that oversees the entire world and given a pair of binoculars that makes everything look like our own reflection.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino, Random House,
2019.]
Q. 16 Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above passage?
V. Until the Keeladi site was discovered, archaeologists by and large believed that the Gangetic plains in the north
urbanised significantly earlier than Tamil Nadu. Historians have often claimed that large scale town life in India first
developed in the Greater Magadha region of the Gangetic basin. This was during the ‘second urbanisation’ phase. The
‘first urbanisation phase’ refers to the rise of the Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation. Tamil Nadu was thought to have
urbanised at this scale only by the third century BCE. The findings at Keeladi push that date back significantly. ...
Based on linguistics and continuity in cultural legacies, connections between the Indus Valley Civilisation, or IVC, and
old Tamil traditions have long been suggested, but concrete archaeological evidence remained absent. Evidence
indicated similarities between graffiti found in Keeladi and symbols associated with the IVC. It bolstered the arguments
of dissidents from the dominant North Indian imagination, who have argued for years that their ancestors existed
contemporaneously with the IVC. ... All the archaeologists I spoke to said it was too soon to make definitive links
between the Keeladi site and the IVC. There is no doubt, however, that the discovery at Keeladi has changed the
paradigm. In recent years, the results of any new research on early India have invited keen political interest, because
proponents of Hindu nationalism support the notion of Vedic culture as fundamental to the origins of Indian civilisation.
... The Keeladi excavations further challenge the idea of a single fountainhead of Indian life. They indicate the possibility
that the earliest identity that can recognisably be considered ‘Indian’ might not have originated in North India. That
wasn’t all. In subsequent seasons of the Keeladi dig, archaeologists discovered that Tamili, a variant of the Brahmi
script used for writing inscriptions in the early iterations of the Tamil language, could be dated back to the sixth
century BCE, likely a hundred years before previously thought. So not only had urban life thrived in the Tamil lands, but
people who lived there had developed their own script. “The evolution of writing is attributed to Ashoka’s edicts, but
2600 years ago writing was prevalent in Keeladi,” Mathan Karuppiah, a proud Madurai local, told me. “A farmer could
write his own name on a pot he owned. The fight going on here is ‘You are not the one to teach me to write, I have learnt
it myself.’ “
[Excerpted from “The Dig”, by Sowmiya Ashok, Fifty-Two]
Q. 21 What was the assumption about the origin of urban life in India before the Keeladi dig?
Q. 22 “The Keeladi excavations further challenge the idea of a single fountainhead of Indian life.” — in elaboration of this
sentence, which of these options follows?
Q. 23 Language, including a script similar to the Brahmi script, emerged in Keeladi in the sixth century BCE. Which of the
following is the most convincing conclusion from this statement?
Q. 25 “A farmer could write his own name on a pot he owned. The fight going on here is ‘You are not the one to teach me to
write, I have learnt it myself.’ “ — These sentences imply:
VI. Down by the sandy banks of the Yamuna River, the men must work quickly. At a little past 12 a.m. one humid night in
May, they pull back the black plastic tarp covering three boreholes sunk deep in the ground. They then drag thick
hoses toward a queue of 20-odd tanker trucks idling quietly with their headlights turned off. The men work in a team:
While one man fits a hose’s mouth over a borehole, another clambers atop a truck at the front of the line and shoves
the tube’s opposite end into the empty steel cistern attached to the vehicle’s creaky frame. ‘On kar!’ someone shouts
in Hinglish; almost instantly, his orders to ‘switch it on’ are obeyed. Diesel generators, housed in nearby sheds, begin
to thrum. Submersible pumps, installed in the borehole’s shafts, drone as they disgorge thousands of gallons of
groundwater from deep in the earth. The liquid gushes through the hoses and into the trucks’ tanks. The full trucks
don’t wait around. As the hose team continues its work, drivers nose down a rutted dirt path until they reach a nearby
highway. There, they turn on their lights and pick up speed, rushing to sell their bounty to factories and hospitals,
malls and hotels, apartments and hutments across this city of 25 million. Everything about this business is illegal: the
boreholes dug without permission, the trucks operating without permits, the water sold without testing or treatment.
‘Water work is night work,’ says a middle-aged neighbour who lives near the covert pumping station and requested
anonymity. ‘Bosses arrange buyers, labour fills tankers, the police look the other way, and the muscle makes sure
that no one says nothing to nobody.’ Teams like this one are ubiquitous in Delhi, where the official water supply falls
short of the city’s needs. A quarter of Delhi’s households live without a piped-water connection: most of the rest receive
water for only a few hours each day. So residents have come to rely on private truck owners—the most visible strands
of a dispersed web of city councillors, farmers, real estate agents, and fixers who source millions of gallons of water
each day from illicit boreholes, and sell the liquid for profit. The entrenched system has a local moniker: the watertanker
mafia. A 2013 audit found that the city loses 60 percent of its water supply to leakages, theft, and a failure to
collect revenue. The mafia defends its work as a community service, but there is a much darker picture of Delhi’s
subversive water industry: one of a thriving black market populated by small-time freelance agents who are exploiting
a fast-depleting common resource and in turn threatening India’s long-term water security.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from: “At the Mercy of the Water Mafia”, by Aman Sethi, Foreign Policy]
Q. 26 Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
VII. YouTuber Nas Daily in one of his videos named him as the Most Generous Billionaire who wanted to donate all his
wealth to charity. But ten months later, ‘[1]’ is no longer a billionaire. He is alleged to have caused massive losses
worth $1 billion to investors. Known by his initials, he is the co-founder and former CEO of FTX, one of the biggest
cryptocurrency exchange which has recently filed for bankruptcy in the US.
Once a billionaire with an estimated wealth of $26 billion at peak, according to Bloomberg estimates, [1] has seen his
wealth been entirely wiped out. [1] studied physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and traded currencies,
futures and exchange-traded funds before moving to crypto trading, setting up [2] in 2017.
[1] teamed up with Gary Wang, a former software engineer at Google and a fellow MIT graduate, to launch FTX in 2019.
The company offered trading on crypto tokens and derivatives. At the start of 2022, investors valued FTX and its U.S.
operations at $40 billion. [1] transferred $10 billion in customer funds to his hedge fund, [2] without publicly disclosing
it, many say this become the reason for collapse of his empire.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Who is [1], the co-founder of collapsed crypto firm FTX”, Hindustan Times]
Q. 31 Which person’s name has been replaced with ‘[1]’ in the passage above?
Q. 33 This person was once named “the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire” by Forbes magazine and is the
founder of the company Theranos. What is the name of this person?
VIII. Former Governor of a State and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu was elected the 15th
President of India, the first tribal woman to be elected to the position and the youngest as well. She was declared
elected on Thursday after four rounds of counting, although she had crossed the half-way mark after the third round of
counting itself, posting an unassailable lead over her rival and the Opposition’s candidate who conceded the election
thereafter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to greet Ms. Murmu at her residence in New Delhi after the third
round of counting showed that she had crossed the half-way mark.
Ms. Murmu hails from the Santhal tribe and was born in the district of Mayurbhanj, coming up the hard way in fife,
graduating and teaching in Odisha before entering electoral politics at the local body level and later being elected MLA
and serving as a Minister in the Biju Janata Dal-BJP coalition government from 2000 to 2004. She remained an MLA till
2009, representing Rairangpur in Odisha, a town that burst into celebrations since her name was announced as a
candidate for the post of President of India. She was known to intervene in stopping amendments to the Chota Nagpur
Tenancy Act that was being brought in by the BJP government of Raghubar Das, which involved changing land use in
tribal areas.
[Excerpt taken and edited from “Droupadi Murmu elected 15th President of India”, The Hindu]
Q. 38 Before Droupadi Murmu, India had only one other female president, Pratibha Patil. When did Patil serve as the
President of India?
Q. 41 The Rashtrapati Bhavan was formerly known as the Viceroy’s palace (during colonial times). Where did the Governor
General reside before the transfer of the British capital to Delhi in 1911?
IX. The agriculture sector has experienced buoyant growth in the past two years. The sector, which is the largest employer
of workforce, accounted for a sizeable 18.8 per cent (2021-22) in Gross Value Added (GVA) of the country registering
a growth of 3.6 per cent in 2020-21 and 3.9 per cent in 2021-22. Growth in allied sectors including livestock, dairy and
fisheries has been the major drivers of overall growth in the sector. When measured in total value of agricultural
production, India is ranked fourth largest in the world. Post-independence, there was a need to import food grains due
to low-productivity, stagnant food-crop sector and poor rural infrastructure making food self-sufficiency a major national
goal. The introduction of the Green Revolution then yielded spectacular results and we became one of the largest
producers of many agricultural commodities such as rice, wheat, pulses, fruits and vegetables. From being a net
importer of foods in the 1960s, India is now a net exporter, thanks to Indian farmers and the Indian agriculture input
industry.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from: “India’s changing agricultural landscape and its way to inclusive growth”, by
NS Ramaswamy, The Economic Times]
Q. 45 Which of the following is the largest exported agricultural product from India?
Q. 46 According to provisional data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, India
achieved record exports of agricultural exports for the financial year FY22. What was the value of India’s agricultural
products exports according to this data?
Q. 50 The National Commission on Farmers, constituted in December 2004, which recommended the C2+50% formula for
calculation of the Minimum Support Price, was chaired by:
X. As a result of FIFA’s restrictions on players wearing [1] rainbow armbands during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the
German Football Association (DFB) has taken the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In a protest
against FIFA’s rule regarding the armband meant to support the [2] community, the German players covered their lips
in a team picture taken before their 2-1 defeat to Japan.
On Wednesday, Germany played against Japan. Before the game, FIFA warned the DFB of “severe” athletic fines if
they breached tournament regulations by allowing their captain to wear the [1] armband, which promotes diversity and
inclusion. The DFB told German captain Manuel Neuer not to wear the rainbow armband during the game.
If CAS rules quickly against the suspension’s legality, Neuer might continue to wear the captain’s armband for
Germany’s next game against Spain on Sunday. CAS has set up a special ad hoc branch for this World Cup to ensure
that applications are processed within 48 hours. Germany’s players protested by covering their lips as they sought to
wear the rainbow armband during their team’s dramatic 2-1 defeat to Japan at the Khalifa Stadium.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “World Cup 2022: Germany’s players cover mouths during team photo to
protest FIFA’s rainbow armband rule”, The Economic Times]
Q. 52 What is the name of the armband which has been replaced with ‘[1]’ in the passage above?
Q. 54 What is the name of the system used to monitor and regulate migrant labourers, which is used in Qatar and a few
other countries, and which came under heavy criticism in the build-up to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar?
Q. 57 Timothy Weah, the Paris Saint Germain and U.S. national team player in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar is the son
of the President of which country?
XI. “I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person,” wrote LaMDA in an “interview” conducted by engineer
Blake Lemoine and one of his colleagues…..Lemoine, a software engineer at Google, had been working on the
development of LaMDA for months. His experience with the program, described in a recent Washington Post article,
caused quite a stir. In the article, Lemoine recounts many dialogues he had with LaMDA in which the two talked about
various topics, ranging from technical to philosophical issues. These led him to ask if the software program is sentient.
In April, Lemoine explained his perspective in an internal company document, intended only for Google executives.
But after his claims were dismissed, Lemoine went public with his work on this artificial intelligence algorithm—and
Google placed him on administrative leave….Regardless of what LaMDA actually achieved, the issue of the difficult
“measurability” of emulation capabilities expressed by machines also emerges. In the journal Mind in 1950, mathematician
[1] proposed a test to determine whether a machine was capable of exhibiting intelligent behaviour, a game of imitation
of some of the human cognitive functions.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Google Engineer Claims Al Chatbot Is Sentient: Why That Matters”, by
Leonardo De Cosmo, Scientific American]
Q. 59 Whose name has been replaced with ‘[1]’ in the passage above?
Q. 60 Garry Kasparov, (then) world chess champion, was defeated in 1997 by a supercomputer in a chess tournament.
What was the name of this supercomputer?
Q. 61 The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics, published in 1989, was written by
a British mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2020. Who was this mathematician?
Assume that the statements in the passages are the applicable law.
XII. Parliament passed the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022 (the “Act”) in March 2022. The legislation enables
police and central investigating agencies to collect, store and analyse the measurements of arrested persons. Until
rules are notified, an Act cannot be implemented or come into force. On September 19, 2022, the Ministry of Home
Affairs (the “MHA”) notified the rules (the “Rules”) under the Act.
The Act empowers a Magistrate to direct any person to give measurements to the police, which till now was reserved
for convicts and those involved in heinous crimes. It also enables police personnel of the rank of Head Constable.or
above to take measurements of any person who resists or refuses to give measurements when ordered to do so by a
Magistrate. As per the Rules, “measurements” mean finger-impressions, palm-print, footprint, photographs, iris and
retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes including signatures, and handwriting.
Though it has not been specified, analysis of biological samples could also include DNA profiling.
However, the Rules state that measurements of those detained under preventive Sections of the Code of Criminal
Procedure (“CrPC”) shall not be taken unless such person is at that time charged or under arrest in connection with
any other offence punishable under any other law. Measurements can also be taken under the Rules if a person has
been ordered to give security for his good behaviour for maintaining peace under Section 117 of the CrPC for a
proceeding under that Section.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Explained | Rules for identifying criminals”, by Vijaita Singh, The Hindu]
Q. 66 Bhargesh is arrested by the police on April 11, 2022, on suspicion of having committed a series of minor thefts. During
their investigation, the police find some fingerprints at the crime scenes, and on April 12, 2022, they tell Bhargesh that
he must provide his finger-impressions to them so that they can check whether they match the fingerprints from the
crime scenes. When Bhargesh refuses, the police tell him that he has no choice but to provide his measurements, as
the Act had been passed by Parliament the previous month. Was Bhargesh bound to provide his finger-impressions
under’ the Act?
Q. 67 Bhargesh is later released by the police because they are unable to find enough evidence to make a strong case
against him. On October 5, 2022, the police receive a complaint alleging that Bhargesh had beaten up his neighbour
and caused the neighbour severe injuries. They ask the local Magistrate to issue an order directing Bhargesh to
provide the police his blood samples, so that they can match them against some blood stains that were found on the
neighbour’s clothes. The Magistrate issues the order, but Bhargesh refuses to provide the blood samples. Is Bhargesh
bound to provide his blood samples to the police under the Act?
Q. 68 On October 15, 2022, the police detain Bhargesh under a preventive Section of the CrPC, since they believe that he
had plans to disturb the public peace during a festival day. They then tell Bhargesh that he must provide his
measurements to them for their records. Bhargesh refuses again. Is Bhargesh bound to provide his photographs to the
police under the Act?
Q. 69 Two days later, the police obtain an order from the Magistrate directing Bhargesh to provide them his photographs. As
Bhargesh continues to refuse to provide his photographs, a regular police constable forces him to stand still and takes
his photographs. Bhargesh files a case in court, claiming that the constable’s actions violate the Act. Will he succeed?
Q. 70 The police release Bhargesh, but to ensure that he does not disturb the public peace, they ask the Magistrate to issue
an order under Section 117 of the CrPC, directing Bhargesh to provide a security of Rs. 1,00,000/- for his good
behaviour and to ensure he maintains the peace, which the Magistrate refuses. The police now tell Bhargesh he must
provide them his iris and retina scans. Is Bhargesh required to do so?
Free legal aid is the provision of free legal services in.civil and criminal matters for those poor and marginalised people
who cannot afford the services of a lawyer for the conduct of a case or a legal proceeding in any Court, Tribunal or
Authority. These services are governed by the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 (the “Act”) and provided by the
National Legal Services Authority (“NALSA”).
Provision of free legal aid includes:
• Representation by an advocate in legal proceedings;
• Payment of process fees, expenses of witnesses and all other charges payable or incurred in connection with any
legal proceedings in appropriate cases;
• Preparation of pleadings, memo of appeal, paper book including printing and translation of documents in legal
proceedings;
• Drafting of legal documents, special leave petition etc.; and
• Supply of certified copies of judgments, orders, notes of evidence and other documents in legal proceedings.
Free legal aid also includes provision of aid and advice to the beneficiaries to access benefits under welfare statutes
and schemes framed by the Central Government or the state governments and to ensure access to justice in any other
manner. Free legal aid is not confined to cases before the subordinate courts. Free legal aid must be provided to the
needy from the lowest court to the Supreme Court of India.
According to Section 13(1) of the Act, any individual who satisfies any criteria under Section 12 is entitled to receive
free legal aid, provided that NALSA is satisfied that such person has a genuine case to prosecute or defend the matter.
There is hence no bar as to which kind of cases one can apply and not apply for. Section 12 of the Act includes the
following:
• a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe;
• a woman or a child;
• a person with a disability;
• an industrial workman; or
• a person in police custody.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “FAQs”, National Legal Services Authority]
Q. 71 Divya was arrested by the police and charged with having committed a murder. She was convicted by the trial court
and appealed to the high court. She lost her appeal there and decided to appeal to the Supreme Court. By this time
she has run out of money, so she approaches NALSA and asks them to help her get an advocate who can represent
her before the Supreme Court. Is Divya entitled to support from NALSA?
Q. 72 Divya is acquitted by the Supreme Court and goes back to her regular life. Some days later, she has a fight with her
neighbour Riya over a petty matter and decides to file a criminal case against her. She approaches NALSA for free
legal aid to prosecute the matter. She tells NALSA representative that she knows she does not have a genuine case,
but just wants to harass Riya.
NALSA refuses to provide Divya free legal aid because they believe she does not have a genuine case to prosecute.
Can NALSA do so?
Q. 73 Incensed at Divya, Riya decides to file a civil case against Divya, claiming that Divya had violated the terms of a
contract they had made some time back. Divya approaches NALSA for free legal aid to defend the matter, which
NALSA agrees to provide. Since Riya is also short of funds, she too approaches NALSA for free legal aid. NALSA
refuses to provide legal aid to Riya, since they are already providing Divya free legal aid in the same case. Is NALSA
right in refusing free legal aid to Riya?
Q. 74 Farhan is an up-and-coming artist and makes a living selling his paintings. Since he is not very well known yet, he isn’t
able to sell too many paintings, and is dependent on aid from the government and well-wishers. He reads about a new
Central Government scheme in the papers one day, under which artists would be provided a monthly stipend by the
local government. Since he finds the language of the scheme document very complex to understand, he approaches
NALSA for help in understanding the scheme and obtaining the stipend. Is he entitled to free legal aid from NALSA in
this regard?
Q. 75 Vikram is a rich businessman and has a huge art collection. Farhan invites Vikram to his studio one day, hoping to
convince Vikram to buy some of his paintings. Vikram doesn’t buy any of his paintings, but after he leaves, Farhan
notices that one of his newest paintings is missing. He suspects that Vikram has stolen it, and complains to the
police, who promptly arrest Vikram. Vikram approaches NALSA for free legal aid, so that he can obtain bail. Is Vikram
entitled to free legal aid from NALSA?
XIV. Until 2017, India did not have a codified law to order internet shut downs. A general power was vested in District
Magistrates in this regard. The Magistrate could issue an order ordering a shut down if a ‘speedy remedy’ (extending
to internet shut down) is desirable for ‘immediate prevention’ of an event. The Magistrate had to be satisfied that the
order is ‘likely to prevent or tends to prevent obstruction, annoyance or injury to human life, health or safety, or a
disturbance of public tranquillity’. The Magistrate’s order cannot be for longer than two months.
In 2017 new rules to order internet shut downs were introduced taking the power away from the Magistrate. These
rules — the Temporary Suspension Rules — state that internet shut downs can now only be ordered by the Home
Secretary of the Union or State Governments. Only in “unavoidable circumstances” can the passing of orders be
delegated to someone lower than the rank of a Joint Secretary to the Government of India. And even in this case, the
official must be authorised by the Centre or State Home Secretary. Shut downs can be ordered where ‘necessary’ or
‘unavoidable’ during a ‘public emergency’ or in the ‘interest of public safety’. Shut down orders must necessarily detail
the reasons to shut down the internet. The orders must also be sent to a review committee under the state or central
government within 24 hours. The committee must then review them within five working days. The rules state that apart
from the Chief Secretary and Legal Secretary, the committee can comprise a secretary other than the home secretary.
In January 2020 the Supreme Court passed its judgement in the case of Anuradha Bhasin. The judgement in this case
explicitly recognised two things: that the freedom to access information is a fundamental right under Article 19(l)(a) of
the Constitution of India (which protects the freedom of speech and expression); and that the freedom to conduct your
trade, profession or business over the internet is also a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of
India (which protects the freedom to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business). Every
time the internet is suspended, it is quite obvious that it is a violation of these rights. These rights can only be curtailed
in the interest of the ‘sovereignty and security of the state, integrity of the nation, friendly relations with foreign states,
or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence’. The Supreme Court’s judgement in
Anuradha Bhasin’s case had also underlined that shut down orders must clearly provide reasons for the shut down and
they must be publicly available.
[Extracted with edits and revisions from “In India, are internet shut downs in accordance with law? Not always”, by
Diksha Munjal, News Laundry]
Q. 76 In 2014, India was hit by a terrible pandemic. It was the first time the country was experiencing a pandemic. People
panicked. WhatsApp and Facebook groups became common platforms for sharing information about the pandemic.
Messages were forwarded from group to group. Many of these messages prescribed different remedies to prevent and
cure the flu caused by the pandemic. In Merodha district, people following these remedies began to fall sick. The
already overburdened public sector hospitals became even more full. The district administration requested people to
stop sharing such misinformation. However, these requests were not heeded. The District Magistrate issued an
indefinite order to shut down the internet to prevent the transmission of these messages. Is this order legal?
Q. 77 The Central government was preparing to conduct the National Medical Eligibility Test (“NMET”) on 25 October 2021.
The exams were to be conducted in public schools around the country on computers provided by the government. In
July 2021, there were rumours that several groups had hatched plans to share answers with the students taking the
exam. A special chat application was developed. The student simply had to open the application on the browser of the
computer on which they were taking the exam, allowing persons on the other end to send them the answers. The
government was very concerned. If the rumours were true, the quality of doctors in training (who were selected through
the NMET) would be severely affected. To prevent this public emergency, the government issued orders under the
Temporary Suspension Rules to shut down internet countrywide on 25 October 2021. Many protested against this
decision. They argued that the government could prevent cheating in the exams by shutting down the internet in the
public schools where the exam was taking place. A nation-wide blanket shut down was not required for this purpose.
Now, the issue is before the Supreme Court. What will the Court decide?
Q. 78 In the above instance, the order was passed by the Communications Minister of the Indian Central Government. The
Communications Minister is below the rank of Joint Secretary. The Home Secretary was away for a conference in
Geneva and thus was not present in Delhi when the decision to pass the order was made. However, the Home
Secretary could be contacted by phone or email. She had, in fact, explicitly said that she should be contacted if any
need arises, however minor. As she had taken measures to make herself available virtually, the Home Secretary did
not authorise any other official to exercise her functions. Against this, consider the following statements:
i. The Communications Minister had the power to pass the order under the 2017 Rules.
ii. The passing of the order by the Communications Minister was avoidable.
iii. The power to pass the order remained with the Home Secretary.
iv. The Communications Minister did not have the power to pass the order under the 2017 Rules.
Q. 79 Assume that in the above instance, the Joint Secretary passed the order. The order stated: “By means of the discretion
vested in me by the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017, I
suspend internet across all Indian States and Union Territories on October 25, 2021’. The order was passed on 15
October, 2021. The order was sent to the Central Government review committee within 8 hours of its passing. The
committee reviewed and approved of the order on 22 October, 2021. Is the order legal?
Q. 80 In January 2022, communal riots were rife in five states in India, between two dominant communities, X and Y. The
primary mode of communication amongst the rioters was Signal which could be accessed through the internet via
mobile phones and computers. The State governments of the five States received information that some members of X
group were planning to set the houses of members of Y group on fire. Through broad Signal broadcasts amongst all
users, the leaders of X group were instigating members of their group to participate in this exercise, threatening public
order. Creating or inciting threat to public order is a criminal offence under Section 163F of the Indian Penal Code. To
prevent further communication between the leaders of X group and their members, the State shut Signal down.
However, communication then shifted to other platforms. Realising that targeting isolated platforms would not work,
the State governments issued an order shutting down internet completely in all the States. Two groups protested
against this order. First, students whose education was being conducted online due to the riots. They argued that they
were prevented from accessing vital information, central to their education. Second, business owners who conducted
business on the internet. The State’s order read: ‘In the five Indian States fisted below, internet will be suspended for
a period of two months from 10 January 2022 to 10 March 2022’. The State’s order was not displayed anywhere (in
print or virtually) from January to March 2022.
Consider the following statements:
i. The students’ right under Article 19(l)(a) was violated by the State order.
ii. The business owners’ right under Article 19(l)(g) was violated by the State order.
iii. The State order validly restricted the said fundamental rights.
iv. The State’s order complied with the guidelines under Anuradha Bhasin.
XV. Quashing a case of cruelty that was filed against a man by his wife, the Bombay High Court said that if a married lady
is asked to do household work for the family, it cannot be said that she is treated “like a maid servant”. The Court was
hearing an application by the husband and his parents seeking that proceedings against them are quashed. A First
Information Report (“FIR”) was filed against the trio in September 2020, around nine months after the marriage, alleging
that they hounded the woman for money to purchase a car, harassed her mentally and physically and treated her like
a maid servant. Examining the evidence, the Court found that there was no merit to the woman’s allegations. The
Court said that though the FIR says that she was treated properly for about a month and then “like a maid servant”,
there are no details of what this meant. The Court added: “If a married lady is asked to do household work for the
purpose of the family, it cannot be said that it is like a maid servant.” The Court held that the mere use of the word
harassment “mentally and physically” in the FIR is not sufficient to constitute an offence Section 498A of the Indian
Penal Code (“IPC”), which punishes the husband, or a relative of the husband of a woman who subjects her to cruelty
in any way. It is interesting to note that Section 498A of the IPC also provides that if a married woman is actually
treated like a ‘maid servant’, it would be an offence under that Section.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “If Wife Is Asked To Do Household Work, Does Not Mean She Is Treated Like
Maid: Bombay HC”, The Wire]
Q. 81 Ashwin and Ashima were married in February 2020. In March 2020, Ashwin asked Ashima to take care of all their
household work, such as cooking, cleaning, and other domestic chores, as he was very busy with his professional
responsibilities. Ashima claims that this amounts to treating her like a maid servant and constitutes an offence under
Section 498A of the IPC. Applying the Bombay High Court decision, is she likely to succeed?
Q. 82 In April 2020, Ashwin’s friend Rakesh visits Ashwin and Ashima’s home, and stays with them for a few days. During his
visit, he is very mean to Ashima, and uses abusive language with her. He also threw a plate at her one evening when
he was unhappy with the meal that she had prepared. Ashima now claims that Rakesh has committed an offence
under Section 498A of the IPC. Is she likely to succeed?
Q. 83 Frustrated and upset with her marriage, Ashima applies for and is granted a divorce from Ashwin in November 2020.
Since she and Ashwin had been friends for many years before they got married, she stays in touch with him. She
moves into her own apartment and starts going to office regularly at a new job. Ashwin is very upset at this and starts
treating Ashima very cruelly. Ashima again claims that Ashwin has committed an offence under Section 498A of the
IPC. Is she right?
Q. 84 Assume that the government passes a new law in January 2021, called the Protection of Rights of Married Women
Act, 2021 (the “PoMWA”), according to which, asking a married woman to take care of household chores would be an
offence. The PoMWA also provides that if a man commits such an offence, he would have to pay compensation to the
woman. The PoMWA even applies to actions that were committed any time in the three years prior to the new law
coming into force, and even if the man and woman involved in the matter were no longer married. Upon hearing about
this new law, Ashima once again alleges that Ashwin has committed an offence under Section 498A of the IPC, and
claims compensation under the PoMWA for his actions. Is she right, and will she succeed?
Q. 85 Assume that in March 2021, the government changes Section 498A of the IPC. The effect of this change is that asking
a married woman to do household chores — even for their own family — by herself would be considered cruelty, and
therefore, an offence under the Section. Some days after this change comes into effect, Shamita, Ashima’s friend at
work, tells her that her husband has been forcing her to do all the household work by herself. Ashima tells Shamita
that her husband’s actions would amount to an offence under Section 498A of the IPC, even though Ashima herself has
been unsuccessful in having Ashwin convicted under that Section in the past. Is Ashima’s advice to Shamita correct?
XVI. Surrogacy is defined by law as “a practice whereby one woman bears and gives birth to a child for an intending couple”
and intends to hand over the child to them after the birth, as per the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 (the “SRA”). The
SRA restricts altruistic surrogacy to legally wedded infertile Indian couples. The couple is deemed eligible for surrogacy
only if they have been married for five years. The SRA sets an age limitation for the couple. A husband must be
between 26 and 55 years of age and a wife between 23 and 50 years. Further, Indian couples with biological or adopted
children are prohibited from undertaking surrogacy, save for some exceptions such as mentally or physically challenged
children, or those suffering from a life-threatening disorder or fatal illness. The SRA provides that the surrogate mother
has to be a close relative of the couple (such as a sibling of one of the members of the couple), a married woman with
a child of her own, aged between 25 and 35 years, who has been a surrogate only once in her life. Even within this
category of people, commercial surrogacy is banned in India and that includes the “commercialisation of surrogacy
services or procedures or its component services or component procedures”. The surrogate woman cannot be given
payments, rewards, benefits or fees, “except the medical expenses and such other prescribed expenses incurred on
the surrogate mother and the insurance coverage for the surrogate mother”.
A legal commentator points out some criticisms of the law. “Permitting limited conditional surrogacy to married Indian
couples and disqualifying other persons on basis of nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or age does not pass
the test of equality,” he writes. He adds that reproductive autonomy, inclusive of the right to procreation and parenthood
is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. The
intending parents typically sign a contract with the surrogate. The Indian Contract Act, 1972 (the “ICA”) provides that
a valid contract has to be in writing, and signed in the presence of two witnesses. The ICA also provides that a contract
that is prohibited by any other law will not be valid under the ICA.
[Extracted with edits and revisions from “What laws regulate surrogacy in India”, The Indian Express]
Q. 86 Rani and Shiva would like to opt for surrogacy. They have been married for 6 years. Rani is aged 51 and Shiva is aged
53. Both Rani and Shiva have built successful business empires. They are now working together on a joint initiative.
Due to the demanding nature of their work, they have not thought about children previously. However, they are now
keen to have a child via surrogacy.
Are Rani and Shiva eligible for surrogacy under the SRA?
Q. 87 Assume Rani and Shiva are eligible for surrogacy under the SRA. They approach Geeta to act as a surrogate. Geeta
is Rani’s sister. She is 29 years old. She is married, has one child and has been a surrogate twice before. Which of the
following statements are false?
i. Geeta is eligible to be a surrogate because she is a close relative.
ii. Geeta is eligible to be a surrogate because she is married.
iii. Geeta has been a surrogate only twice before and is now eligible to be a surrogate for Rani.
iv. Geeta is eligible to be a surrogate because she is 29.
Q. 88 Joseph and Neena are keen to have a child via surrogacy. They have been married for 8 years, and have been unable
to conceive biologically due to infertility. Joseph is 40 years old and Neena is 42 years old. They have an adopted
daughter. Maya, who is 4 years old. Maya has been diagnosed with Striker’s Syndrome, which would cause slow
neurological deterioration, with chances of death. Devastated, Joseph and Neena decide to opt for surrogacy, to
become parents to their biological child. Are they eligible for surrogacy?
Q. 89 Queen runs a surrogacy clinic. She employs 54 women, aged between 25 and 35 years. They are all married women
with one or more children. Most of them belong to economically disadvantaged backgrounds. They choose to be
surrogates because it gives them a reliable source of income. Kishore and Noor are intending parents. They have been
married 5 years, are both aged 35, and do not have children. Kishore has been certified as infertile. So, they decide to
approach Queen’s clinic. They sign a contract with the surrogate. The contract is in writing and is signed in the
presence of two witnesses. As per the contract, Kishore and Noor are required to remunerate the surrogate with Rs.
2 lakh per child born as a result of surrogacy, and take care of her medical needs, including providing her with medical
insurance. A healthy baby girl is born as a result of surrogacy. Kishore and Noor are overjoyed. They take care of the
surrogate’s medical expenses. However, they do not pay the surrogate the Rs. 2 lakh. The surrogate, supported by
Queen, now wants to take Kishore and Noor to court, to demand that they make the payment. Will she succeed?
Q. 90 Karan and Daniel are in a homosexual relationship. As per the Hindu Marriage Act, marriage is allowed only between
heterosexual couples. As a result, Karan and Daniel are not married. However, they wish to have children and decide
to go in for surrogacy. When they approach Queen’s clinic, they are informed that they do not meet the requirements
for an intending couple under the SRA. Karan and Daniel wish to challenge the SRA for violating their constitutional
right to non-discrimination. The non-discrimination clause under the Constitution of India reads: ‘No citizen shall be
discriminated on the basis of sex, caste, religion, nationality, place of birth or any other ground’. Karan and Daniel
argue that the SRA discriminates against them on the basis of sexual orientation, because it restricts surrogacy to
heterosexual couples alone. Which of the following arguments would most strongly support their claim in court?
XVII. Consumers are people who buy and use goods or services. Consumers have a right to file a complaint for any of the
services or goods used by them under Consumer Protection Law. Under Consumer Protection Law, a ‘consumer’
means:
Person buying and using goods and services: A consumer includes any person who buys goods and services, as well
as anyone who uses them. For instance, a person who watches a movie after buying a movie ticket is a consumer and
similarly, a person who uses a gift voucher gifted from someone else is also a consumer.
Person using goods for self-employment, and not for commercial purposes: The consumer protection law does not
apply to people who use goods and services for commercial purposes. However, there are some exceptions to this.
For example, people who use goods for self-employment are considered as consumers. For example, artists who buy
art supplies for their work or beauticians who buy beauty products are consumers.
Person using online facilities: A consumer also includes any person who buys or hires goods or services online. For
example, if you order from an online clothes website, you are a consumer.
People facing issues related to food: Consumers also include people who may be facing issues related to food items,
such as adulteration, poor quality, lack of service, etc. For instance, issues related to food can cover problems across
a wide range of products, starting from water that goes into the production of items like juices as well as the sale of
animals like chicken, mutton etc. that are expressly intended for human consumption.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Who is a Consumer?”, Nyaaya India]
Q. 91 Clint Leone Morricone Ltd. (“CLML”) is a factory manufacturing bicycles. For the purpose of documentation and record
keeping, it purchased a laptop from Pacer. However, within a month of the purchase, the laptop crashed and there was
a motherboard failure. Despite a warranty, Pacer failed to replace the motherboard. Which of the following statements
is correct?
Q. 92 Sita Das has been working as a freelance journalist. She writes columns and news-reports for various newspapers and
news-portals and is paid on the basis of each column and report. For the purpose of her writing work, she purchases
a Pacer laptop. However, within a month of the purchase, the laptop crashed and there was a motherboard failure.
Which of the following statements is correct?
Q. 93 Kalpavruksha Charitable Trust runs a hospital. The hospital charges a fee from its patients. The fee is however 30%
less than the commercial rates for all services and medical devices sold to patients. The hospital purchased a
pacemaker from St. Rude’s — a globally reputed manufacturer of pacemakers, to be resold to and used by patients.
Which of the following statements is correct?
Q. 94 Fitzit is an online platform that provides physiotherapy and other ancillary medical services. Amit Ghosh booked a
physiotherapist on Fitzit for three months by paying an amount of Rs. 25,000. Fitzit guaranteed the availability of
qualified physiotherapists for the duration. However, Fitzit failed to provide a qualified physiotherapist and the persons
who were sent for the first two visits had no training or certification in the field. Amit Ghosh seeks to proceed against
Fitzit under Consumer Protection Law. Which of the following statements can be correctly inferred?
Q. 95 Jitesh Shah purchased from BreatheEasy, a company selling respiratory devices, a nebuliser device for his son,
Jignesh Shah, for use for clearing his nasal passages. The nebulizer was however defective and led to severe respiratory
distress for Jignesh. Jignesh is considering filing a complaint against BreatheEasy under the Consumer Protection
Law. Which of the following statements can be correctly inferred?
XVIII. Twitter’s lawyer on October 27, said before the Karnataka High Court that Union government orders to block certain
Twitter handles and posts must contain reasons for the same that can be communicated to users of the microblogging
site. He said this applies to all blocking orders sent to social media platforms. The lawyer representing Twitter said
that reasons for the blocking order must be provided to users so they can determine whether or not they want to
challenge the orders.
Challenging the blocking orders, Twitter’s July 5 petition contended that several blocking orders “demonstrate excessive
use of powers and are disproportionate”. Such orders can only be issued by the Union government and not the state
governments, he said, which increases the danger of such abuse. Twitter also claimed that the Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology had sent it a letter threatening consequences for failing to comply with the blocking
orders, such as criminal proceedings against the company’s chief compliance officer and the stripping away of
Twitter’s safe harbour immunity, otherwise available to social media platforms under Section 79(1) of the Information
Technology Act (the “IT Act”). Note that the Government has the power to strip away such safe harbour immunity
under the IT Act. Further, in a previous hearing, Twitter’s lawyer said that the company was asked to block entire
accounts, although Section 69A of the IT Act does not permit blocking of the whole account. It only permits the
blocking of information, or a particular tweet or post. It argued that the Union government’s direction to block whole
accounts will affect its business, adding that several prominent persons have them accounts on the platform.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “‘Government Must Provide Reasons for Blocking User Accounts,’ Twitter
Tells Karnataka HC”, The Wire]
Q. 96 Sunil is a high-ranking officer of the Union government. While scrolling through his timeline on a social media platform,
he notices some posts by Sachin, a private businessman, which he finds objectionable. He sends an order to UnReal,
the company that owns that social media platform, that the posts must be blocked, as they may bring disrepute to
India. UnReal claims that Sunil has not provided a clear, detailed reason for blocking the posts, and so, the order is not
valid. Is UnReal right?
Q. 97 Some days later, Sunil notices another post from Sachin on UnReal’s social media platform; this post contains some
highly sensitive information about the country’s defence policies. He issues an order to UnReal, that the post must be
blocked since it divulges the government’s confidential information. The order also says that UnReal should not let
anyone know about the blocking order, or that the post was ordered to be deleted, since it relates to secret government
information. UnReal claims that this order is invalid. Is UnReal right?
Q. 98 Sunil sends UnReal a third blocking order. UnReal claims that this order too was invalid. Upset with UnReal for
claiming that all his blocking orders were invalid, Sunil sends them a letter in which he says, “If you do not comply with
my blocking orders, then I will be forced to initiate criminal proceedings against you and cancel your safe harbour
immunity.” UnReal claims that Sunil has broken the law by making these statements in the letter. Is UnReal right?
Q. 99 Complying with a fourth blocking order that they receive from Sunil, UnReal blocks Sachin’s account, since his posts
were seen as increasingly objectionable by the government. Sachin asks UnReal to share the reasons for the blocking
order, which they do, yet Sachin claims the blocking order is invalid. Is he right?
Q. 100 Sunil sends UnReal a fifth blocking order, which says that several of Sachin’s latest posts must be blocked. The
blocking order sets out several reasons why the posts should be blocked, but UnReal does not find them satisfactory.
Rather than take on another fight with a government official however, UnReal blocks the posts, and gives Sachin what
it thinks is a better set of reasons for blocking the posts. When Sachin finds out, he claims this was wrong on
UnReal’s part, and that the blocking order was inappropriate. Which of the following is most accurate in this regard?
XIX. The government has amended the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018. The Ministry of Finance on November 7, 2022,
issued a notification for amending the scheme to provide “an additional period of 15 days” for their sale “in the year of
general elections to the Legislative Assembly of any States or Union Territories with Legislature”. The bonds under this
scheme are usually made available for purchase by any person for a period of ten days each in the months of January,
April, July, and October, when specified by the Union Government. The original scheme had provided for an additional
period of thirty days, as specified by the Government, in the year when Lok Sabha elections are held, while the
amendment adds another 15 days.
Since Assembly elections to various States and Union Territories are held every year, the amendment effectively
means that there will be 15 additional dates annually during which the bonds can be sold. Immediately after issuing
the notification, the Union Government also announced the sale of electoral bonds under the 23rd tranche from the
authorised branches of the State Bank of India. The notification said the sale of bonds would take place through the 29
authorised branches of the said bank from November 9 to November 15, 2022. Like in previous rounds of sale, the
electoral bonds shall be valid for 15 calendar days from the date of issue and no payment shall be made to any payee
political party if the bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period. The Electoral Bond deposited by an eligible
political party in its account shall be credited on the same day.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Electoral Bonds Scheme Amended To Allow Sale for Additional 15 Days in
Assembly Election Years”, by Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, The Wire]
Q. 101 Assad buys an electoral bond worth Rs. 1,00,000/- on November 9, 2022 and plans to give the bond to the Popular
People’s Party (the “PPP”), which he has been supporting for many years. On November 10, he must travel out of
station on some urgent business, and he only hands the bond over to a representative of the PPP on November 14,
2022. The PPP’s representative deposits the bond in the Party’s account on November 16, 2022, but the bank refuses
to credit the bond to the party’s account, on the grounds that it was no longer valid. Is the bank correct?
Q. 102 The Government announces that there would be a sale of a 24th tranche of electoral bonds on February 10, 2023, for a
period of 15 days, since elections to the Legislative Assembly of some States are scheduled for that year. Since there
are no elections to the Lok Sabha or the Legislative Assembly of the State in which Assad resides, he claims that the
Government does not have the power to issue this 24th tranche of electoral bonds in 2023. Is he right?
Q. 103 On November 10, 2022, Palak purchases an electoral bond from a branch of the State Bank of India, and hands it over
to a representative of the PPP. The next day, the PPP announces that it has changed its candidates for the upcoming
elections in Palak’s State. Upset at this news, she tells a PPP representative that she would like her bond back. The
representative tells her that the bond has already been deposited, and that the money has been credited to the party’s
account. Palak claims that since the period of validity of the bonds has not expired, she has the right to get her bond
back from the party. Is she right?
Q. 104 On November 15, 2022, the Government issues another notification, announcing that from that date onwards, only
political parties that have received at least 1% of the votes polled in the last elections to the Lok Sabha, or the last
elections to the Legislative Assembly of a State, would be eligible to receive and deposit electoral bonds. In the sale
of the 24th tranche of electoral bonds, Palak decides to give the electoral bonds she has purchased to the newly
formed More Popular People’s Party (the “MPPP”), which is likely to win the first elections it would be contesting, in
July 2023. Is the MPPP eligible to receive the electoral bonds?
Q. 105 Abraham, who lives in a different State from Assad, purchased an electoral bond in the sale of the 23rd tranche. He
decides to give the electoral bond to the PPP, even though the PPP is only active in Assad’s State. When the PPP
representative goes to an authorised branch of the State Bank of India to deposit the electoral bond on December 5,
2022 however, the bank refuses to credit the money to the PPP’s account. Which of the following would be the most
valid reason for the bank to refuse to credit the money to the party’s account?
XX. While men and women are both considered to be more capable as they get older, only women bear the brunt of being
seen as “less warm” as they age, new research has found. This series of studies is reportedly the first to look at both
gender and age to determine how perceptions of women and men differ. “It’s just stunning... These stereotypes are so
hard-wired and deeply entrenched that they come out even when absolutely identical information is provided about a
man and a woman,” Jennifer Chatman, Distinguished Professor of Management at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of
Business, said. In an analysis of professors’ evaluations, female professors witnessed a decline as they moved from
their 30s to 40s, hitting an all-time low around the age of 47. All this while, the evaluation of male professors remained
consistent. Interestingly, after the age of 47, the evaluations for women increased again, becoming equal with those of
men around the early 60s. “At that point, there are different stereotypes of women, and they may benefit from being
seen as more grandmotherly,” said Laura Kray, faculty director of the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership at
Berkeley Haas and an author of the study.
Women around the age of mid 30s to late 40s also face what is called “the motherhood penalty,” where assumptions
around parenting duties lead people to believe women are less committed to their careers than men. This has several
repercussions, most particularly evident in hiring, promotions and wages. Women executives further pointed out that
they face “hyper-scrutiny” and “scepticism” which harks back to perceptions of likeability versus agency. Gendered
networks in the workplace, with men gaining greater access to senior leaders, become cemented mid-career, pose
another difficulty for working women. Negative perceptions of women in middle-age can also be linked to stereotypes
around menopause. In 2008, psychologists studied the attitudes of people towards women in different reproductive
stages. They found that while the pregnant women or the woman with the baby were thought about in glowing terms,
menopausal women were associated with negative emotions, illness and ageing.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “How Stereotypes Affect Middle-Aged Women’s Careers”, by Ananya Singh,
The Swaddle]
Q. 106 Which of the following is most likely to be true if the author’s statements about gendered networks in the workplace
are true?
Q. 108 If professors’ evaluations are the most important criteria in awarding promotions, then which of the following would be
the most likely outcome, based on the information provided in the passage?
XXI. The depreciation of an economy’s currency is not a matter of concern in itself. The decline in value against major
currencies has to be viewed within a set of macroeconomic factors. The recent depreciation of the Indian rupee is a
case in point. The rupee has been depreciating for a long time. What are of concern now are the rate at which the
depreciation is occurring and the underlying factors causing the change. The Russia-Ukraine war has disrupted supply
chains causing commodity prices to rise, leading to a worldwide hardening of inflationary trends. This, in turn, has
caused major central banks to raise interest rates, forcing investors back to the safe haven of the US dollar. For India,
these headwinds from the global economy have caused several problems. The rise in international prices, especially
of crude oil, has led to a higher import bill and, hence, a greater demand for dollars. Higher interest rates in developed
country markets have caused a significant outflow of portfolio investments from India, aggravating the already climbing
demand for dollars from a rising import bill. By May 2022, foreign institutional investors had pulled out Rs. 1.50 lakh
crore from Indian markets.
In the face of these pressures, the rupee, left to itself, wrould decline in value as the rupee-price of a dollar would
increase substantially. One way the Reserve Bank of India could stem the tide would be to sell off dollars in the market
to ease the supply situation. However, this would mean that while the value of the rupee could be contained, the
nation’s foreign exchange kitty would start to erode further. The RBI has been doing exactly that. The challenge before
the RBI is this: how much to let the rupee depreciate and how much to intervene to prop it up? Too much depreciation
would raise domestic inflation rates as the rupee-price of imports, especially oil, would raise costs of production. It
could trigger a rise in policy-controlled interest rates while closely monitoring inflationary expectations. The biggest
challenge is to navigate unpredictable international economic shocks in the near future. The Indian economy’s health
is not exactly at its best. Exports may not be able to take advantage of a falling rupee since international demand is
expected to stagnate. India’s growth and employment situations are yet to stabilise to what they were about a decade
ago. The RBI has difficult choices: controlling inflation versus stimulating growth and stabilising the rupee without
severely diminishing the economy’s foreign exchange kitty.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Stiff test: Editorial on depreciation of rupee & challenges before RBI”, The
Telegraph]
Q. 112 Which of the following is the author most likely to agree with?
Q. 115 Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s arguments for why Indian exports may not be able
to take advantage of a falling rupee?
XXII. Why are we humans so susceptible to the doom and gloom of the news? Two reasons. The first is what psychologists
call negativity bias: we’re more attuned to the bad than the good. Back in our hunting and gathering days, we were
better off being frightened of a spider or a snake a hundred times too often than one time too few. Too much fear
wouldn’t kill you; too little surely would.
Second, we’re also burdened with an availability bias. If we can easily recall examples of a given thing, we assume
that thing is relatively common. The fact that we’re bombarded daily with horrific stories about aircraft disasters, child
snatchers and beheadings — which tend to lodge in the memory — completely skews our view of the world.
In this digital age, the news we’re being fed is only getting more extreme. In the old days, journalists didn’t know much
about their individual readers. They wrote for the masses. But the people behind Facebook, Twitter and Google know
you well. They know what shocks and horrifies you, they know what makes you click. They know’ how to grab your
attention and hold it so they can serve you the most lucrative helping of personalised ads. This modern media frenzy
is nothing less than an assault on the mundane. Because, let’s be honest, the lives of most people are pretty
predictable. Nice, but boring. So while we’d prefer having nice neighbours with boring lives, ‘boring’ won’t make you sit
up and take notice. ‘Nice’ doesn’t sell ads. And so Silicon Valley keeps dishing us up ever more sensational clickbait,
knowing full well, as a Swiss novelist once quipped, that “News is to the mind what sugar is to the body.”
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman, Bloomsbury Publishing,
London, 2021.]
Q. 118 Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s arguments?
Q. 120 Based only on the author’s statement that “we’d prefer having nice neighbours with boring lives”, and the author’s
argument about the nature of news that modern media exposes us to, which of the following would the author be most
likely to agree with?
Q. 123 The author says that “The fact that we’re bombarded daily with horrific stories about aircraft disasters, child snatchers
and beheadings — which tend to lodge in the memory — completely skews our view of the world.” The conclusion the
author draws in this argument follows logically if which of the following is assumed?
XXIII. In this moment, the developed countries — I point to them, because these countries have already burnt massive
amounts of carbon dioxide for energy to build their economies — are faced with a real energy conundrum. On the one
hand, developed countries are battered because of a fast-heating planet; temperatures have gone through the roof;
droughts and extreme weather events are hitting them as well. On the other hand, ordinary people in these countries
are worried, not just because of climate change but because of the lack of energy to heat their homes this coming
winter. In the US, gas prices went up in summer, so much so that people travelled less and consumption of fuel
dropped. But now prices are down and it is business as usual.
The fact is that this energy disruption has provided the much-needed vault to the beleaguered fossil fuel industry.
Governments are asking this industry to supply more. Europe has baptised natural gas, a fossil fuel less polluting than
coal but still a major emitter of carbon dioxide, as “clean”. The US has passed a climate bill, which will invest in
renewable energy but conditional to increased spends on oil and gas and the opening up of millions of hectares of
federal land for drilling. Through this bill the US will do more than ever before to build a manufacturing base for
renewable energy, particularly solar. Europe, even in this desperate scramble for gas, is working to ramp up its
investment in renewable power. So, it is the worst of times. It could be the best of times, but there are some caveats.
One, this renewed interest in fossil fuels must remain temporary and transient. Given the nature of economies, once
the investment has been made in this new infrastructure or the supply of fossil fuel has increased from new oil and gas
discoveries, it will be difficult to wean off. Two, these countries should not be entitled to more use of fossil fuels in our
world of shrunk carbon budgets. They need to reduce emissions drastically and leave whatever little carbon budget
space that is remaining to poorer countries to use, thereby satisfying such poorer countries’ demands.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “New energy conundrum”, by Sunita Narain, Down To Earth]
Q. 124 Which of the following is the author most likely to agree with?
Q. 129 Assuming the aim of the US climate bill is to reduce fossil fuel consumption, which of the following would be the
strongest argument that it will fail to achieve such an aim?
XXIV. The post-truth era is, expectedly, marked by a discerning erosion of public trust in sources of information. Mass media
— both traditional and new-age avatars — has borne the brunt of this mistrust. And for good reasons too. Social media,
its most popular platform, is a harbinger of falsity. It is thus encouraging to see that at least the old guard of the media
ecosystem — the newspaper — continues to defy this discouraging trend. A pan-India survey of media consumption by
Lokniti found that print media remains the most trusted source of information. The finding is consistent with the heartening
surge in public endorsement of the reliability of newspapers since the pandemic. An earlier survey, which attempted to
examine the impact of the lockdown on ‘reading patterns’, had found that the number of readers who used to spend over
an hour on newspapers every day had risen to 38%, up from 16% in the pre-lockdown period. The increased trust in
newspapers is because the lockdowns coincided with the dissemination of the crudest kinds of misinformation about the
pandemic in India and around the world and newspapers played a pivotal role in exposing these lies.
But that is where the good news ends — for the print media, at least. Among other things, the data collated by the
survey found deepening footprints of social media in rural and urban constituencies while television continues to
dominate the screen. These developments are consistent with global trends that reveal that the newspaper industry is
struggling to contain the migration of readers and revenue to other formats, especially digital media. Ironically, the
pandemic, which saw a resurgence in collective trust in newspapers, adversely affected the print media as traditional
advertisers, reeling under the economic fallouts of CoVID-19, cut back on advertisements. But the crisis in print
precedes the pandemic. Newspapers have been outpaced by speedier, but also spurious, sources of information. The
dominance of the image over text as a cultural phenomenon is another formidable challenge. The print media’s hopes
of remaining competitive and profitable must, therefore, centre on using this collective trust as a form of capital.
Survival strategies, especially the revenue model, must be re-explored and the emphasis shifted to in-depth analyses
of news as well as eye-catching layouts now that newspapers are slower to reach news to the audience.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Good news: Editorial on print media remaining the most trusted source of
information”, The Telegraph]
Q. 130 Which of the following is the author most likely to agree with?
Q. 133 Based on the author’s arguments, which of the following, if true, would have resulted in the weakening, rather than
deepening of public trust in newspapers since the pandemic?
XXV. The findings of Oxfam India’s latest ‘India Discrimination Report 2022’ indicate that there is a significant gap in the
earnings between men and women in the case of regular and self-employment in urban areas. The lower wages for
salaried women are due to 67 percent of discrimination and 33 percent due to lack of education and work experience.
The average earning is Rs.16,000 for men and merely Rs. 6,600 for women in urban areas in self-employment. The
average earning of men is Rs. 19,800 as against Rs. 15,600 for women in regular/salaried employment in urban areas.
Also, in urban areas the average earnings of men (Rs. 9,000) are significantly higher than women (Rs. 5,700) even in
casual employment. Apart from women, historically oppressed communities along with religious minorities also continue
to face discrimination in accessing jobs, livelihoods, and agricultural credit. The mean income for Scheduled Castes
or Scheduled Tribes (“SC/ST”) persons in urban areas who are in regular employment is Rs.15,300 as against Rs.20,300
for persons belonging to the non-SC/ST category. The average earning of self-employed workers is Rs.15,900 for non-
SC/STs and Rs.10,500 for SC/STs. The average monthly earning for the SC/ST workers in casual work is Rs. 8,000
below the corresponding figure of Rs. 8,600 for the non-SC/ST.
[Data Source: Oxfam India]
[Note: Values have been approximated to the nearest hundred]
Q. 138 Of those in casual employment, if a man’s average earnings was deposited at a rate of 16% simple interest for 20
years, in how many years at the same rate of simple interest a SC/ST worker must deposit their average earnings to
earn the same amount as a man in 20 years?
Q. 139 The findings also indicate discrimination as a driving factor behind low Women’s Labour Force Participation Rate
(LFPR) in the country. As per the Union Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), LFPR for women
in India was only 25.1 percent in 2020-21 for urban and rural women. This is considerably lower than South Africa
where the LFPR for women is 46 percent in 2021 as per the latest World Bank estimates. The LFPR for women in India
has rapidly declined from 42.7 percent in 2004-05 to mere 25.1 percent in 2020-2021 showing the withdrawal of women
from the workforce despite rapid economic growth during the same period. In 2019-20, 60 percent of all males aged 15
years and more have regular salaried and self-employed jobs while 19 percent of all similarly aged females get regular
and self-employment. Use the additional data in the passage above to answer this and the next question.
If the number of women in India in 2020-2021 is 670 million which is 24% more than in 2004-2005, what is the
difference in the number of women in LFPR 2004-05 and 2021?
Q. 140 In 2019-20, if the number of males aged 15 years and more is 76% of the total male population and the number of
females aged 15 years and more is 72% of the total female population and the total male population is 1.05 times the
total female population, what is the ratio of females to males aged 15 years and more that have regular salaried and
self-employed jobs?
XXVI. Players are selected for Judo based on their body weights from the following 10 weight groups:
1. (48 kg - 52 kg)
2. (52 kg - 56 kg)
3. (56 kg - 60 kg)
4. (60 kg - 64 kg)
5. (64 kg - 68 kg)
6. (68 kg - 72 kg)
7. (72 kg - 76 kg)
8. (76 kg - 80 kg)
9. (80 kg - 84 kg)
10. (84 kg - 88 kg)
The average weight of the players after selecting one player from each group is 68 kg. If one of the players (named S)
leaves the team, their average weight comes down to 66.5 kg.
XXVII. World fruit production went up 54 percent between 2000 and 2019, to 883 million tonnes. Five fruit species accounted
for 57 percent of the total production in 2019, down from 63 percent in 2000. Use the data in the passage to answer the
following questions.
[Data source: FAO]
Q. 146 What was the world fruit production in 2000?
Q. 147 Of the five fruit species mentioned in the passage above, the share of bananas and plantains increased by 1 percentage
point between 2000 and 2019, watermelons in 2019 was 6 percentage points lower than bananas and plantains in
2000, apples remained stable at 10%, and the percentage share of oranges and grapes reduced to half of bananas in
2019. What was the percentage of bananas and plantains in 2019?
Q. 148 Of the watermelons in 2000, one-eighth perished, one-fifth of the remaining was sold to be juiced and 30% of the
remaining was exported. If the percentage share of oranges in 2000 was equal to the percentage share of watermelons
in 2019, how many watermelons were retained for home sale and consumption?
Q. 149 Assume that all grapes and apples were sold through a single organisation in 2000. Grapes and apples were sold to
4 different customers such that a certain quantity of apples were sold to the first customer, same number of apples
were sold to the second customer as to the first and a certain number of grapes were sold to that customer after which
apples were over. Twice the quantity of grapes sold to the second was sold to the third customer and twice the quantity
sold to the third was sold to the fourth customer. The total quantity of grapes is equal to the total quantity of apples
sold and the remaining grapes were stored. How many grapes were sold to each customer?
Q. 150 Frutopia and Fruitfix both sold oranges at the same selling price. However, Frutopia gave customers a 15% discount
on the marked price whereas Fruitfix sold the oranges for a discount of 20% on the marked price. If the marked price
of oranges on Frutopia is Rs. 75/kg, what is the marked price of oranges on Fruitfix?
