Directions (Qs. 1-10): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given after the passage. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
The Global Nutrition Report (GNR) and India Health Report on Nutrition, 2015 (IHR), offer a critical analysis of the state of nutrition in India.The first report, the India Health Report: Nutrition 2015(IHR), provides easy-to-understand, State-wise data dashboards that give a comprehensive view of nutrition and its determinants. It looks at disparities in these outcomes and their multiple determinants across geographical regions, socio-economic classes, and demographic groups to help identify strategic choices for policy-making at the State level.
In turn, GNR assesses progress in reducing malnutrition for all 193 countries. It concludes that while India is on track to meeting only two of the eight global targets on nutrition, it has significantly improved its nutrition performance in the past 10 years. GNR notes that there has been a big increase in the number of countries on track to meet global nutrition targets, and encourages countries, including India, to establish specific and time-bound targets for malnutrition reduction that are consistent with the new Sustainable Development Goals. Together, these reports paint several pictures about India, a data-poor country. They portray one of great progress in improving nutrition across India; stunting among children, a marker of the most persistent types of malnutrition, has declined rapidly in the last ten years. And this decline has been faster than in many other countries. But as we dig deeper, there are diverse pictures about the life conditions of Indian children
— positive stories about children’s lives and futures in Goa, Kerala, Manipur and Tamil Nadu, but dismal ones in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. What cannot be debated is the reality of deep, systemic inequality; of inequality in the circumstances that children are born into, that they live and grow in. For those of us who are worried about India’s economic growth, these are also pictures of inequality that point to how well these children will be able to contribute to India’s economic growth and their own prosperity. Their poor nutrition stunts more than their bodies. It stunts their well-being, and, consequentially, that of their home States and their nation. Two other things, both related to inequality, stand out as well in the data. First, the data point to tremendous variability across States in delivering what should be universal, rights-based and already mandated health and nutrition services. For example, sample this for intra-State disparity. Food provided by the Integrated Child Development Services reaches barely 1 in 5 children in Uttar Pradesh but over 90 per cent in Odisha. Less than 33 per cent of children in Nagaland are fully immunised; in Goa, it is more than 90 per cent. Close to 80 per cent defecate in the open in Odisha; barely 2 per cent do so in Kerala. Why?
These are disparities across States that operate in the same national framework, and there is, let’s face it, no good reason for this other than an inability or an unwillingness to invest in changing ground realities, for everyone and everywhere. This is not an insurmountable challenge and it’s certainly an area where States can, if they want it, make dramatic change in short timeframes. Examples abound from within India. The data in the reports show that, clearly, the imperative for introspection, and looking within for solutions was never clearer. No child should go without basic health care, food security and things like water and a toilet. Indeed, no adult should either. No society should condone such inequalities in the basics. And no society has progressed without addressing these basics.
Source-The Hindu
1.What are the disparities that states are facing in the national framework?
I.Health and nutirition services
II.Variable food services
III.Inequality in education
a.III
b.II & III
c.I & II
d.I,II & III
e.none of the above
2.The Global Nutrition Report focuses mainly on the
a.Sustainable Development Goals
b.comprehensive view of nutrition and its determinants
c.India’s economic growth
d.Intra-State variability
e.Progress in reducing malnutrition
3.Which of the following would be the suitable title?
a.State of nutrition in India
b.Global nutrition targets
c.Nutrition and its determinants
d.Progressive India
e.Inequality: A big challenge
4.According to author what is the biggest challenge that India is facing?
a.Reducing progress in malnutrition
b.Inability to invest in education and health services
c.unwillingness and inability to invest in basic facilities
d.High global nutrition targets
e.None of these
5.What is NOT TRUE according to the above passage?
I.Food provided by ICDS reaches to only few children in UP.
II.Nearly 80 percent defecate in the open in West bengal.
III.Less than 33 percent children in Nagaland are immunised.
a.III & II
b.I,II & III
c.I & II
d.I & III
e.II only
Directions (6 to 8): Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
6.Persistent
a.assiduous
b.unrelenting
c.interrupted
d.fixed
e.dogged
7.Diverse
a.varied
b.assorted
c.separate
d.similar
e.distant
8.Mandate
a.edict
b.bidding
c.order
d.abide
e.breach
Directions (9 to 10): Choose the word which is most similar in meaning of the word printed in bold as used in the passage
9.Imperative
a.trivial
b.free
c.obligatory
d.avoidable
e.assured
10.Condone
a.condemn
b.forbid
c.regard
d.forgive
e.censure
उत्तर:
1.c
2.e
3.a
4.c
5.e
6.c
7.d
8.e
9.c
10.d
