Directions(next 9 Questions) : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
The outside world has pat answers concerning extremely impoverished countries, especially those in Africa. Everything comes back, again and again, to corruption and misrule. Western officials argue that Africa simply needs to behave itself better, to allow market forces to operate without interference by corrupt rulers. Yet the critics of African governance have it wrong. Politics simply can’t explain Africa’s prolonged economic crisis. The claim that Africa’s corruption is the basic source of the problem does not withstand serious scrutiny. During the past decade I witnessed how relatively well-governed countries in Africa, such as Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Senegal, failed to prosper, whereas societies in Asia perceived to have extensive corruption, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan, enjoyed rapid economic growth.
What is the explanation ? Every situation of extreme poverty around the world contains some of its own unique causes, which need to be diagnosed as a doctor would a patient. For example, Africa is burdened with malaria like no other part of the world, simply because it is unlucky in providing the perfect conditions for that disease; high temperatures, Plenty of breeding sites and particular species of malaria- transmitting mosquitoes that prefer to bite humans rather than cattle.
Another myth is that the developed world already gives plenty of aid to the world’s poor. Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O’Neil expressed a common frustration when he remarked about aid for Africa : “We have spent trillions of dollars on these problems and we have damn near nothing to show for it”. O’Neil was no foe of foreign aid, indeed, he wanted to fix the system so that more U.S. aid could be justified. But he was wrong to believe that vast flows of aid to Africa had been squandered. President Bush said in a press conference in April 2004 that as “the greatest power on the face of the earth, we have an obligation to help the spread to freedom. We have an obligation to feed the hungry”. Yet how does the U.S. fulfill its obligation ? U.S. aid to farmers in poor countries to help them grow more food runs at around $ 200 million per year, far less than $ 1 per person per year for the hundreds of millions of people living in subsistence farm households.
From the world as a whole, the amount of aid per African per year is really very small, just $ 30 per sub-Saharan African in 2002. Of that modest amount, almost $5 was actually for consultants from the donor countries, more than $3 was for emergency aid, about $4 went for servicing Africa’s debts and $5 was for debt-relief operations. The rest, about $12, went to Africa. Since the “money down the drain” argument is heard most frequently in the U.S., it’s worth looking at the same calculation for U.S. aid alone. In 2002, the U.S. gave $ 3 per sub-Saharan African. Taking out the parts for U.S. consultants and technical cooperation, food and other emergency aid, administrative costs and debt relief, the aid per African came to grand total of 6 cents.
The U.S. has promised repeatedly over the decades, as a signatory to global agreements like the Monterrey Consensus of 2002, to give a much larger proportion of its annual output, specifically upto 0.7% of GNP, to official development assistance. The U.S. failure to follow through has no political fallout domestically, of course, because not one in a million U.S. citizens even knows of statements like the Monterrey Consensus. But none should underestimate the salience that it has around the world. Spin as American might about their nation’s generosity, the poor countries are fully aware of what the U.S. is not doing.
Directions (next ten questions) : In the given passage, there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. Against each number, five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find the appropriate word in each case.
If China’s state owned commercial banks seem burdened by bad debts, the country’s rural financial sector is even worse. In the villages, the only formal banking institutions are what are known as rural credit co-operative. These …111… the distinction in China of having been officially declared insolvent. The rural credit co-operatives are ill named. They are often reluctant to …112… and they are not run as co-operatives as they do not …113… any profits and their customers have no say in their operations. Until 1996, they were offshoots of the Agricultural Bank of China. Since then they have been …114… by the central Bank, though they are in reality run by country governments. Even the word ‘rural’ is misleading …115… of their deposits are sucked up and put in the urban banking system. Farmers usually find it easier to …116… from friends or relatives or black market moneylenders. Yet the co-operatives remain a big part of China’s financial system. Last year, they …117… for 12 percent of deposits and 11 percent of loans. In recent years, commercial banks (including the Agricultural bank) have closed down …118… in the countryside. Yet some 40000 credit co-operatives remain in place with one in almost every township (as the larger villages or smaller) rural loans are …119… if as the government claims, the credit co-operatives are beginning government claims, the credit co-operatives are beginning to turn a profit after six years of losses, it is not because they are nay better run. In an effort to …120… a stagnant rural economy, the central bank has pumped more than $ 9 billion into them hoping that they will lend more to farmers. But the root causes of their problem remain and the real solution may have to involve a mix of approaches from commercial banking to real co-operatives.
