Statement: Should India encourage exports, when most things are insufficient…

Concept: In a Statement-and-Argument item, an argument is judged "strong" only when it is directly relevant to the statement, expresses a real and significant consideration, and does not rest on an unstated assumption or exaggeration.

Application: Testing each argument against that standard:

• Argument I says exports earn the foreign exchange needed to pay for imports. This is a straightforward, established economic fact — a country's capacity to pay for imports genuinely depends on its foreign-exchange earnings — so this consideration is directly relevant and substantial. It qualifies as strong.

• Argument II says selective encouragement would still cause shortages. This claim holds only if the exports drawn from domestic output are goods still required at home. But "encouraging exports" is conventionally read as promoting the sale of surplus production — output remaining after domestic needs are met — so treating it as certain to create shortages relies on an assumption the statement never establishes. It does not qualify as strong.

Cross-check: "Either I or II is strong" does not fit, because each argument can be tested independently rather than left as an unresolved toss-up, and the two do not come out equally — one rests on an established fact, the other on an unstated assumption. "Neither I nor II is strong" does not fit either, because Argument I's economic rationale is concrete, not speculative, so it cannot be dismissed along with Argument II.

Result: Only Argument I is strong.