Directions—(Q. 1–12) Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.Certain words have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Keshava, the washerman had a donkey. They worked together all day, and Keshava would pour outhis heart to the doneky. One day, Keshava was walking home with the donkey when he felt tired. He tied the donkey to a tree and sat down to rest for a while, near a school. A window was open, and through it, a teacher could be heard scolding the students. ‘Here I am, trying to turn you donkeys into human beings, but you just won’t study !’ As soon as Keshava heard these words, his ears pricked up.
A man who could actually turn donkeys into humans ! This was the answer to his prayers. Impatiently, he waited for school to be over that day. when everyone had gone home, and only the teacher remained behind to check some papers, Keshava entered the classroom. ‘How can I help you ?’ asked the teacher. Keshava scratched his head and said, ‘I heard what you said to the children. This donkey is my companion. If you made it human, we could have such good times together.’ The teacher decided to trickKeshava. He pretended to think for a while and then said, ‘Give
me six months and it will cost you a thousand rupees.’ The washerman agreed and rushed home to get the money. He then left the donkey in the teacher’s care.
After the six months were up, Keshava went to the teacher. The teacher had been using the donkey for his own work. Not wanting to give it up, he said, ‘Oh, your donkey became so clever that it ran away. He is the headman of the next village.’ When Keshava reached the next village he found the village elders sitting under a tree, discussing serious problems. How surprised they were when Keshava marched up to the headman, grabbed his arm and said, ‘How dare you ? You think you are so clever that you ran away ? Come home at once !’
The headman understood someone had played a trick on Keshava. ‘I am not your donkey !’ he said. ‘Go find the sage in the forest.’ Keshava found the sage sitting under a tree with his eyes closed, deep in meditation. He crept up and grabbed the sage’s beard. ‘Come back home now !’ he shouted. The startled sage somehow calmed Keshava. When he heard what had happened, he had a good laugh. Then he told the washerman kindly, ‘The teacher made a fool of you. Your donkey must be still with him. Go and take it back from him. Try to make some real friends, who will talk with you
and share your troubles. A donkey will never be able to do that !’ Keshava returned home later that day with his donkey, sadder and wiser.
1. Which of the following can be said about the teacher ?
(A) He had the ability to transform animals into human beings
(B) He took advantage of Keshava’s simple nature
(C) He had plotted with the village headman to cheat Keshava
(D) He enjoyed teaching children though he was poorly paid
(E) He was honest and used Keshava’s money to care for the donkey
Ans : (B)
2. Why did Keshava talk to his donkey while working ?
(A) He wanted to practise his communication skills because he wanted to make friends
(B) To entertain himself because he found his work monotonous
(C) The donkey helped him to find answers to his problems
(D) He regarded the doneky as his friend and confided in him
(E) He believed the donkey to be a human being in disguise
Ans : (E)
3. How did Keshava get his donkey back ?
(A) He threatened to take the teacher to the village elders
(B) The sage forced the teacher to release the donkey
(C) He asked the village headman for help
(D) The teacher returned it on learning that Keshava had learnt his lesson
(E) None of these
Ans : (E)
4. Which of the following is NOT true in the context of the passage?
(a) The donkey was over burdened by the teacher.
(b) The teacher was cunning by nature.
(c) The sage laughed at Keshava and treated him unkindly.
(A) Both (a) & (c)
(B) Both (b) & (c)
(C) Only (b)
(D) All (a), (b) & (c)
(E) None of these
Ans : (A)
5. Why was Keshava keen to meet the teacher one day ?
(A) Keshava wanted to ask the teacher how to make his donkey a better companion
(B) He wanted to learn more prayers as he was devout
(C) He had been reliably informed that the teacher had changed donkeys into human beings
(D) He heeded the teacher’s words of advice and wanted to study
(E) None of these
Ans : (A)
6. Why did Keshava interrupt the discussion among the village elders ?
(A) He did not agree with their views on different issues
(B) To confront the headman who had cheated him out of one thousand rupees
(C) He wanted them to get justice for him
(D) He was looking for the donkey and wanted to ask for directions
(E) None of these
Ans : (E)
7. What made Keshava pull the sage’s beard ?
(A) He wanted to wake up the sage who was a sleep under the tree
(B) The headman requested him to move the sage from under the tree
(C) He wanted the sage to explain what had happened to the donkey
(D) He misunderstood the village headman and took the sage to be his donkey
(E) None of these
Ans : (D)
8. Why did the teacher ask Keshava to leave the donkey with him for six months ?
(a) He realised that the donkey would require a lot of training.
(b) To reduce Keshava’s dependence on the donkey.
(c) He wanted to rescue the donkey from Keshava who did not know to treat the donkey properly.
(A) None
(B) Only (b)
(C) Both (a) & (b)
(D) Only (c)
(E) None of these
Ans : (A)
What does Base rate mean?
It was in July last year that RBI made it mandatory for all the banks to move to the Base rate regime from BPLR {Benchmark prime lending rate}. So, what exactly is this base rate all about? And why is it so important that RBI made it compulsory for all banks to migrate to the base rate.
Firstly, let me explain what base rate is. To be short, it is the minimum rate below which the bank cant lend to any customer. Earlier, there was a similar rate called the BPLR {Benchmark Prime Lending Rate}, but most of the lending took place below this BPLR. Let me cite an example here, the base rate in SBI is 9.25% and the BPLR in SBI used to be 14%. During the pre-base rate period, banks usually lent out money at rates less than the BPLR. The prime reason for migrating to this base rate mechanism is the transparent lending mechanism. Earlier banks used to lend big companies at rates far less than they lend to an average customer. The base rate mechanism means that SBI can never lend below 9.25% {except for priority sectors like agriculture, govt sponsored schemes, etc} for any customer.
This base rate also results in better implementation of the economic policies. For example, if RBI hikes lending rates in order to contain inflation then the banks have no other go than to increase their base rates as well. At present the base rate of all the banks in India varies between 9% to 11%.
Know your customer- KYC?
KYC stands for “know your customerr” and this is one important policy followed by all the finance institutions in our country especially after the Sep 11th attack on the world trade center. During the pre-world trade center attacks era, the banks never insisted customers to submit their address or identity proofs for opening an account. All they needed was an introducer and some cash for opening the account. It is believed that the RBI had paid a hefty sum as fine for not providing the customer details of the certain transactions when asked by the FBI who were investigating on the September 11 attacks.
From then on RBI made it mandatory for the banks to collect the customer’s valid address and identification proofs before opening a bank account or investing in mutual fund or for doing anything related to banking activities. Usually banks accept ration cards as a proof of address. For proof of identity, banks usually accept voter id, passports, driving licenses and employee ID Cards.
What is financial inclusion?
Despite being the home to almost 1.3 billion people, less than 40% of the people in India come under the financial system in one way or the other. For example, if you hold an account with a bank or have borrowed money from a Micro Finance Institution then you will come under the financial system.
Bringing the entire population inside the financial system is the ultimate aim of our government as it will help in better implementation of economic policies which in turn plays an important role in overall economic growth of the country. Government is taking a lot of steps to achieve this target, with opening ‘No-Frills‘ account using Business correspondents being the numero Uno technique. Government is also encouraging banks to start a number of rural branches in order to bring more people from the rural areas into the financial system.
Term of the day: – Inflation
Most of us are familiar with the term I guess. In short, inflation can be termed as the Rise in price.
How is inflation measured?
Inflation can be measured using two methods
Cost price Index method (CPI)
Whole sale price Index method (WPI)
In India inflation is measured using WPI method and critics term this measurement technique to be ineffective. Lets see in detailed about this CPI and WPI tomorrow.
