The conclusion of World Trade Organization’s 11th biennial ministerial conference at Buenos Aires was worrisome. From an Indian standpoint, there was no loss as status quo continues in the most important issue: the right to continue the food security programme by using support prices. But the inability of the negotiators to reach even one substantive outcome suggests that WTO’s efficacy is under question. As a 164-country multilateral organisation dedicated to crafting rules of trade through consensus, WTO represents the optimal bet for developing countries such as India. Strengthening WTO is in India’s best interest.
 Perhaps the biggest threat to WTO’s efficacy today is the attitude of the US. The world’s largest economy appears to have lost faith in the organisation and has begun to undermine one of its most successful segments, the dispute redressal mechanism. This is significant as the US has been directly involved in nearly half of all cases brought to WTO. Separately, large groups of countries decided to pursue negotiations on e-commerce, investment facilitation and removal of trade obstacles for medium and small scale industries. By itself this should not weaken WTO. But it comes at a time when there is growing frustration with gridlock at WTO.
 India did well to defend its position on its food security programme. The envisaged reform package which will see a greater use of direct cash transfers to beneficiaries will be in sync with what developed countries do. But it’s important for India to enhance its efforts to reinvigorate WTO. In this context, India’s plan to organise a meeting of some countries early next year is a step in the right direction. WTO represents the best available platform to accommodate interests of a diverse set of nations. Therefore, India should be at the forefront of moves to fortify it.

What is the biggest threat to WTO’s efficacy today?

Select the most appropriate synonym of the given word.
APPARENT

Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the given sentence.

The list included many mundane, routine tasks.

 Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word.

Fertile

Directions: In the following questions, some of the sentences have errors and some have none. Find out which part of a sentence has an error. The number of that part is your answer. Your answer is (4) i.e. No error.

I go to the temple (1)/as often as (2)/I find time.(3)/ No error.(4)

In the question a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct and mark your answer in the Answer Sheet.

“Is that so ?” the Sahib said cheerfully, “Well, I like village folk”.

India and 25 other countries agreed to the Copenhagen Accord even as other developing countries accepted it as an irreversible decision later. The Accord came out of__(a)___ bargaining lasting almost 20 hours among ___(b)___ of governments of some of the most__(c)__ countries of the world. At the__(d)__of the day on Saturday, India___(e)__ to have given ground on some issues but blocked intrusion on other red lines. It had become evident within the first week of the talks that the best the emerging and praiseworthy economies of the developing world were going to do was to defend the existing economic resource sharing regimes.

Fill the blank at (e).

Read the passage carefully and give the answer of following questions.

Poverty can be defined as a social phenomenon in which a section of the society is unable to fulfil even its basic necessities of life. When a substantial segment of the society is deprived of the minimum level of living and continues at a bare subsistence level, that society is said to be plagued with mass poverty. The countries of the third world exhibit invariably the existence of mass poverty, although pockets of poverty exist even in the developed countries of Europe and America.

Attempts have been made in all societies to define poverty, but all of them are conditioned by the vision of minimum or good life obtaining in society. For instance, the concept of the poverty in the U.S.A. would be significantly different from that in India because the average man is able to afford a much higher level of living in the United States. There is an effort in all definitions of poverty to approach the average level of living in a society and as such these definitions reflect the coexistence of inequalities in a society and the extent to which different societies are prepared to tolerate them. For instance, inn India, the generally accepted definition of poverty emphasizes minimum level of living rather than a reasonable level of living. This attitude is borne out of a realization that it would not be possible to provide even a minimum quantum of basic needs for some decades and therefore, to talk about a reasonable level of living or good life may appear to be wishful thinking at the present stage. Thus, political considerations enter the definitions of poverty because programmes of alleviating poverty may become prohibitive as the vision of a good life widens.

Societies in the third world can be characterised as plagued by mass poverty, because