Comprehension: (Que No. 1 - 5) Read the following passage carefully and answer…

2025

Comprehension: (Que No. 1 - 5)

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below.

A new report from the World Heath Organisation highlights not only how widespread air pollution is in urban India, but also how deficient air quality monitoring is. The report, which summarised 2016 data for 4,300 cities, ranks 14 Indian cities among the 20 most polluted ones globally. While Delhi comes in at number six, Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya and Patna are ranked ahead of it, by PM 2.5 levels. And yet, Kanpur, Faridabad and several other pollution-choked cities have only one PM 2.5 monitoring station each, while Delhi has several. WHO researchers get around this problem by using alternative data sources such as satellite remote sensing and chemical transport models, along with ground-monitoring stations. The outcome of this exercise makes it clear that air pollution is not a problem of large metropolises alone, even though they have traditionally been the focus of mitigation efforts. Such wide variations in data quality exist across the world. While Europe has the most extensive monitoring network, countries in Africa and the Western Pacific region perform poorly. This means data from these regions are of poor quality, and likely underestimates, resulting in an under-count of the disease burden as well. The report puts the global death toll from air pollution at seven million a year, attributable to illnesses such as lung cancer, pneumonia and ischemic heart disease. In 2016 alone, it says, around 4.2 million people died owing to outdoor air pollution, while 3.8 million people succumbed to dirty cooking fuels such as wood and cow dung. About a third of these deaths occurred in Southeast Asian countries, which include India. Once monitoring improves in these regions, the numbers will likely be revised upwards. There are silver linings, however. The report had words of praise for India's Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme, which has provided 37 million women living below the poverty line with LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections. Such schemes will also help cut the indoor air pollution that plagues much of rural India, which is not covered in the WHO analysis.

Question:

Amid reports of failures by Central as well as the State Governments in India to curb pollution, there is one bright side to it. Which of the following is that?

  1. A.

    India is extensively using solar energy now, thus reducing its dependence on thermal power

  2. B.

    India has distributed LPG gas cylinders to poor households that will cut indoor pollution

  3. C.

    India has started large scale plantation of trees as part of a scheme

  4. D.

    India has invested a lot of money into hydro and wind power projects not only in India but also abroad

Attempted by 9 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B

Correct answer: India has distributed LPG gas cylinders to poor households that will cut indoor pollution.

Key evidence from the passage:

  • The passage mentions the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which has provided 37 million women living below the poverty line with LPG connections.

  • The passage states that 3.8 million people died from dirty cooking fuels such as wood and cow dung, so providing LPG connections helps reduce indoor air pollution and related deaths.

  • The World Health Organization praised this scheme in the report, making it the clear 'bright side' mentioned in the question.

Therefore, the distribution of LPG connections to poor households is the correct choice because it directly addresses indoor air pollution highlighted in the passage.

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