Given below is a passage followed by several inferences. Examine the passage…
2023
Given below is a passage followed by several inferences. Examine the passage carefully based on the inferences and then decide the validity of each of the inferences.
The country has taken a major initiative by introducing the convertibility of the rupee on the current account. It has also been declared that the ultimate goal is to make the Rupee fully convertible. These are signs of the country's achieving economic maturity. India is now ready to welcome foreign capital. It is preparing to reduce import tariffs to levels that are currently the norm in other developing countries. All these measures show that India is today mature and strong enough to face International Competition and to integrate itself successfully with the global economy. The country is ready to shed its ideological inhibitions and ready to evaluate the international economic environment in a pragmatic spirit.
An economically immature country does not have any convertibility of currency.
- A.
If the inference is definitely true;
- B.
If the inference is probably false;
- C.
If the inference is definitely false.
- D.
If the inference is probably true;
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept:In a Statement-and-Inference question, an inference is graded only against what the passage itself establishes: definitely true only if the passage states or strictly entails it; probably true if the passage's own reasoning naturally extends to it without saying so outright; probably false if the extension runs against the passage's drift without an explicit contradiction; definitely false only if the passage directly contradicts it.
Application:The passage repeatedly frames rupee convertibility — alongside welcoming foreign capital and cutting import tariffs — as one of the signs of the country achieving economic maturity, treating convertibility as an indicator of maturity. The given inference restates that same link from the opposite side: if convertibility points to maturity, then the absence of maturity would typically go together with the absence of convertibility — the same relationship, just read in reverse, so it carries the same logical weight as the passage's own claim. But because the passage offers this link only as an indicator ("signs of"), not as an absolute, exhaustive rule, extending it this far is a reasonable inference rather than a stated certainty.
Cross-check — testing the near-miss readings:
The "definitely true" reading: too strong — the passage only offers convertibility as one sign among several, never as an exhaustive rule, so certainty is not earned.
The "probably false" reading: not supported — nothing in the passage opposes this extension; every measure described builds the same case rather than working against it.
The "definitely false" reading: not supported — the passage never states or implies a direct contradiction of this reasoning.
What remains is the middle ground: a reasonable extension of the passage's own reasoning that is not explicitly confirmed — probably true.