Question 21. What is likely to be debated over a far longer time is whether a government has the right to _____________ decide what kind of food products are to be sold and consumed. But, most importantly, what must not be forgotten is the impact this ‘meat ban’ issue _____________ and such prohibitions in general can have on business in India. Such signals are especially _____________ for any kind of attempts being made to improve ‘ease of doing business’ in India. Used frequently as a battle cry for progress, ‘ease of doing business’ has become a slogan that the central government proudly and frequently flaunts and promises to better. But _____________helping India become an easier place to do business — meat, online retail, F&B, anything — the government’s priorities seem misplaced. A much publicised ‘Will shops be closed or will they remain open?’ discourse can deliver a big blow to India’s already lackadaisical image for doing business.

Question 22. There are many ironies investing the _____________ of Nepal’s new Constitution. President Ram Baran Yadav, who formally signed the charter on September 20, is a Madhesi. His community is unhappy about the Constitution. Who are the Madhesis? They _____________ the southern plains of Nepal. Many have familial connections on the Indian side of the border. Why are they unhappy? Because they feel, with good reason, that the Constitution will not do them much good. On the other hand, the manner of _____________ of provinces, they are convinced, will work to their disadvantage. The Tharus, another _____________ who mostly inhabit the western reaches of the Nepal plains, have similar apprehensions. The violence that has been unleashed by these unhappy elements has already claimed close to 50 lives.

Question 23. They’re trying to disrupt (even create) industries, and emerge as the ‘mutations’ of this decade. This mindset has been further _____________ the sudden ease in raising large amounts of venture capital funding, even compared to just three years ago. But the problem with growth is that it blinds you. It makes you feel that it’s the only thing that _____________. The infamous fall of Fab.com is a _____________ to all startups which think they can just keep expanding categories and geographies by throwing money at the problem. What these startups don’t realise is that they’re growing just for the sake of growth. And with this approach, they will never win the battle. Only those few startups which understand how to ‘grow naturally’ will _____________. The rest will become extinct.

Question 24. Although the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ report may not _____________ its analysis such anomalous situations like a government’s arbitrary action and diktat fuelled by some lobby or another affecting business, this _____________ makes any analysis on a comprehensive ‘ease of doing business’ report incomplete. The case in point being that _____________ the widespread and competitive meat bans in various states last week, the issue won’t reflect in India’s ranking, despite business on the ground being severely affected. This means that corporate institutions will look at the actual ground _____________ in India rather than just World Bank rankings, and decide for themselves whether doing business in India is worth their efforts or not.

Question 25. Let’s simply decode the first verse of the Rig Veda. Language experts have concluded that there are older verses in the Rig Veda, _____________ when the books were re-organized, this verse was located as the first one. A traditionalist will try to exclude general public people from the decoding exercise using various _____________ reasons. These isolationist rules were created to protect the _____________ of hymns, but _____________ breeding corruption in the priestly class, much like the License Raj. Again it is a burden we do not bear in the 21st century. The hymn is identified as Rig Veda 1.1.1, meaning it is the first hymn (rig) of the first poem (sukta) of the first of the ten books (mandala).

Question 26. But our research _____________ that investors cannot operate on divided attention. Major non-market attention-grabbing events overwhelm firm _____________ information carrying strong sentiment. For example, when Hazare was on his fast, a positive news item on Coal India gaining Maharatna status _____________ negative sentiment. Its price fell by almost 2 per cent over the next two days. Around the same period, there was neutral-to positive news on Infosys with officials _____________ in talks to have the IT company set up local presence. Strangely, the stock reported a negative cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of 1 per cent in the two days around the Hazare event.

Question 27. Companies are acquiring stakes in technologies unrelated to their core business that holds _____________ the future. Google is _____________ such acquisitions, buying the satellite imaging technology firm Skybox Imaging in 2014 for USD 500 million to enhance its project Loon that intends to provide internet access in _____________ of the world. With the acquisition of Nest Labs for USD 500 million, Google showed its _____________ home monitoring. Facebook acquired the Britain-based Ascenta to provide internet access through unmanned aerial vehicles. We are yet to see such high-risk, long-term investment types of acquisitions in India.

Question 28. The Americans remain officially optimistic, even if a little impatient, at India’s pace of economic reforms. But when two countries as _____________ as India and the US get together to face complex _____________the world, there will be things that don’t work. The focus, say US officials, is and should be on implementation. Both Barack Obama and Modi are sensitive that past _____________ about the world’s most powerful and the largest democracies walking into the sunset together has begun sounding _____________. When they last met, they agreed to focus on getting things done.

Question 29. A search engine may weigh the public interest in such information _____________ the right of the person seeking its removal. But this process is _____________ transparent. Moreover, drawing attention to the content _____________ would only further highlight it, creating what is known as a ‘Streisand effect’. With online privacy and data protection fast becoming important areas of legislative consideration, it is only _____________ before proponents of the right to be forgotten seek its formal approval. But a nuanced conversation about this right will only get off the ground after a comprehensive right to privacy is established.

Question 30. There is talk of behavioural economics, but this subject does not bother with emotions, for the _____________ that emotions cannot be measured and so are outside the _____________ of science. In contrast, the Hindu scriptures are obsessed with human relationship with wealth. Do we derive our identity from how much money we have? Is _____________ society celebrates in the list of the richest people in the world? If yes, then it is not a good thing. For we are placing wealth-chasing Indras and wealth-clinging Brahmas on pedestals as our role models, not the wealth attracting Vishnu who does not need wealth to _____________ himself.