BANK P.O.
SPECIAL
Descriptive Questions
Promotion of tourism
Q. Suggest three effective
measures to promote tourism,
especially by foreign tourists.
Elucidate or explain how the steps
suggested by you would motivate
foreign tourists to include India in
their itinerary.
Ans. With a treasure trove of tourist
spots, both natural and man-made, it is
a pity that we in India have failed to
fully explore and exploit the potential
of tourism. Our age-old monuments,
historical buildings, temples, places of
worship, parks and sanctuaries, sea
resorts, hill stations, vast deserts and so
on, can attract a large number of tourists
provided the following measures are
taken in the right earnest.
Today, tourism has become a big
business, thanks to the state of art means
of transport and communication. And,
all business and commercial activities
require safe and secure environment;
tourism is no exception to the rule.
Before making all-round efforts to attract
foreign tourists to India, no effort should
be spared to make tourist spots free from
the scourge of neglect and the feeling of
insecurity.
The World Tourism and Trade
Council (WTTC) has suggested a
number of measures to help tourism
become India’s foremost economic
driver. These include altering the
decision-making process on tourism,
according tourism a radically elevated
status in priority and investment, and
liberalising India’s visa regime. For
foreign tourists, time is the most
important element in their itinerary. If it
goes waste in trivial matters like getting
visas, gathering information about
tourist centres, nearest airports, hotels
etc, most tourists are likely to skip India,
as it has been happening in the past.
Hence, this aspect of tourism traffic/
promotion needs to be improved.
Last but not least, is the robust role
that updated infrastructure in and
around tourism centres plays.
Innumerable business councils and
committees have pleaded with the
government to recognise the tourism
potential in India and turn it into a
roaring reality.
Overhauling the PDS
Q. The news of starvation deaths
anywhere in India brings to the fore
the gulf between availability and
accessibility of foodgrains. In the light
of this perplexing paradox, there is an
urgent need to overhaul the PDS
(Public Distribution Scheme/System)
so as to make it more purposeful and
people-oriented. Your views on the
subject are solicited.
Ans. Quite often paradoxes are
painful. They have the tendency to
become a thorn in the flesh of the
national psyche if the causes that feed
and fuel them are not addressed in time.
The news of starvation death in some
parts of India is an exasperating example
of such a paradox. When the godowns
are bursting at the seams with
foodgrains, the gulf between availability
and accessibility shows how palpable is
the paradox between the two realities
of Indian life.
More than the poverty of the people
who are forced to go without two square
meals a day, it is the poverty of action
on the part of those who are supposed
to run the PDS, as a vehicle for delivery
of foodgrains to the most needy. Instead
of scoring points over polemics and
indulging in platitudes and promises, it
is better that those incharge of fair price
shops show their acumen in
performance. Accountability is the
638 ■ FEBRUARY 2002 ■ THE COMPETITION MASTER
paramount principle of performance. If
the powers-that-be have failed to apply
this principle on those who have been
entrusted the job of providing
foodgrains to the people living at the
lowest rung, under various schemes,
they need to be shown the door, or at
least hauled up.
That much of the foodgrains meant
for PDS should find its way in the open
market, cries for a drastic overhauling
of PDS. The Apex Court rightly and
timely directed some of the sluggish
States and Union Territories to identify
people living Below Poverty Line. Once
this task is completed, foodgrains under
the newly launched Antodya Scheme can
reach the most poor and deserving. For
any system/scheme to succeed, change
in philosophy of the scheme is more
meaningful than the change in policy.
What is needed is not more
procurement, but efficiency and
accountability of food distribution.
Economic revival or growth
Q. There are some fundamental
factors that hinder or discourage
economic revival or growth in the
country. In view of the many
challenges that the Indian economy
faces, point out some important factors
and elucidate how the slow Indian
economy can gain momentum to
achieve the target of 8 to 10 per cent
annual growth.
Ans. In nearly ten years of economic
reforms-cum-globalisation, the Indian
economy has witnessed both the high
and now the lowest ever growth, with
no visible signs of gaining momentum
unless some basic barriers to growth are
removed. The recipe to the success is
certainly not very sweet and smooth.
The three main barriers that hinder

growth and the revival of Indian
economy are multiplicity of regulations
governing product markets, distortions
in the land markets and widespread
government ownership of business. In
addition to the basic barriers, are lack of
growth in infrastructure, high
borrowings and a rising non-plan
expenditure. With exports showing a
decline, inbound tourism registering no
increase, competition becoming more
and more fierce, unemployment on the
rise, the prospects of achieving a growth
rate of 8 to 10 per cent seem quite a pipe
dream. Under the prevailing conditions
it would be naive to expect a substantial
jump in FDIs, FIIs, disinvestments in
loss-making public undertakings, etc.
The question that stares in the face is:
How can the Indian economy pick up
speed and show significant signs of
revival?
The 14-point reform agenda
announced by the Prime Minister could,
it is hoped, reverse the economic slow-
down. Weak finances of Centre and
States, downsizing, power, labour and
financial reforms should get urgent
attention, besides recovery of
agricultural, industrial and services
sectors. In addition, introducing
sweeping changes to promote
competition would be a doughty dose
for the economy. We have a very critical
small industry sector too. Short of giving
protection to this sector, we should also
not be ready to open this sector to
foreign players without providing a
level playing field. Some experts suggest
that the government must permit banks
to finance upto Rs 10,000 crore for
trading. Cutting interest rates, import
duty on inputs and intermediaries are
some of the other measures that can
revive industry and also fit into
recommendations made by economists
at the economic advisory council.
Disappearance of “faith’
from life
Q. If the impulse or instinct of
“faith” disappears from life of all
human beings, what would happen?
Give three possible/important
BANK P.O. SPECIAL
consequences if such a mishap
happens.
Ans. Faith as an impulse or instinct
in something or somebody is neither an
encouragement to frenzy nor a boost to
fanaticism. Like love, it is the highest
state of trust in matters that are subtle
and sublime. It is neither blind nor
baneful in nature and nuance. When
other human faculties fail to fathom the
enigmatic events that overwhelm us
from time to time, it is the element of
faith, whether in God or religion or in
one’s righteous convictions, that steers
the ship of life from the enveloping
doubts and darkness. If for some
inexplicable reason(s), the edifice of faith
is razed to the ground or as a result of
some mysterious development it
disappears from life, the following
consequences would follow:
With faith disappearing from life,
the existence of God as the sheet anchor
of our raison d’etre would become a
subject of speculation. The tenets or
teachings of religion, wise sayings of
saints, sages and seers, on the one hand,
prophets and philosophers, on the other,
would lose much of their sweeping sway
and supremacy over human
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
REFRESHER
BY
O.P. KHANNA
Recommended for all Competitive
Examinations
Revised and Updated
2002 Edition
Prestigious Publication of
KHANNA BROTHERS (Publishers)
126, Industrial Area-1, Chandigarh - 160 002
639 ■ FEBRUARY 2002 ■ THE COMPETITION MASTER
perceptions. Forced to live in a state of
vacuum, human beings would find their
existence like a rudderless boat on the
stormy waters.
Faith, which lays the firm
foundations of many an institution and
human relations in the sweet confines
of a home and nurtures the plant of
friendship, will receive a severe set-back
the moment we find it has slipped out
of our lives. Without faith standing by
us through thick and thin, living will be
an ordeal and we shall find ourselves
at odds with everything around. Such a
sordid scenario will become a nagging
nightmare both for the faithfuls and
believers.
Many of the mundane transactions
that are conducted and carried on with
faith or thrust in each other’s bona fides,
will become a thing of the past. For every
activity, whether personal, impersonal,
business-like and so on, the word of the
mouth will not carry weight and
everything will have to be put in black
and white. Indeed, the world without
faith, and specially life sans trust,
whether in God, religion or human
nature, will become an unbearable
burden.