In the following passage, ten blanks are numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. You have…
2025
In the following passage, ten blanks are numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. You have to choose a set of words that is correct grammatically and contextually in order to fill the blank.
The Union Cabinet has approved a series of changes in foreign direct investment norms as the government prepares to enter the last lap of its economic policy-setting phase ahead of the 2019 election. Key among these was the decision to _____ 1 _____ up to 49% overseas ownership, including by a foreign airline, in Air India. This comes just a little more than six months after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its nod for a strategic _____ 2 _____ of the airline. The relaxation in ownership norms clears the decks for possible bidders such as the Singapore Airlines-Tata combine and Jet Airways — with its overseas equity and route partners — to make a more detailed commercial _____ 3 _____ of the investment opportunity the state-owned flag carrier presents. For the fiscally constrained government, the _____ 4 _____ couldn’t have come sooner. With the Union Budget due soon and the government _____ 5 _____ short of its budgeted strategic disinvestment goal for the current financial year — as of end-November, only 28% of the targeted ₹15,000 crore had been realised — the hope must be for an _____ 6 _____ timetable for the stake sale. Still, the fulfillment of a necessary condition for a strategic sale doesn’t automatically become sufficient grounds for a successful privatisation. Given the carrier’s accumulated debt of about ₹50,000 crore and the fact that the interest of potential investors is likely to be focused on Air India’s _____ 7 _____ long-haul international routes and its fleet of more than 40 wide-bodied aircraft, disinvestment will be neither easy nor guaranteed. At the very least, the government needs to set a distinct, _____ 8 _____ road map for the sale process. The other reform cleared by the Cabinet was the _____ 9 _____ decision to put 100% FDI in Single Brand Retail Trading under the ‘automatic’ route, accompanied by the long-sought relaxation of mandatory local sourcing norms. This had been a major issue with potential investors including Apple, which had repeatedly urged the government to take a more _____ 10 _____ view given the level of technological advancement incorporated in its products and the difficulty in finding local sources of supply at the requisite scale.
Choose a set of words that is correct grammatically and contextually in order to fill the blank 1
(question no 1 till 10 are linked together)
- A.
give away, encash
- B.
allow, permit
- C.
strategise, authorize
- D.
spurn, promote
Attempted by 3 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
In a meaning-based (vocabulary) cloze blank, the correct word pair must do two things at once: (a) function as the right part of speech for the sentence's grammar, and (b) carry the exact sense the surrounding context demands. Here that context is a government policy move, so the missing verb must mean to grant permission for something, not to reject it, evaluate it, or dispose of it.
Blank 1 sits inside ‘the decision to ___ up to 49% overseas ownership … in Air India,’ and the very next sentence calls this same move a ‘relaxation in ownership norms.’ The missing verb pair must therefore mean to sanction or grant permission for the 49% ownership cap. ‘Allow, permit’ does exactly this — both words mean to grant permission or sanction — so the sentence reads as ‘the decision to allow / permit up to 49% overseas ownership,’ matching the passage’s own framing of the move as a relaxation that opens the door for bidders such as the Singapore Airlines-Tata combine.
‘Give away, encash’ — ‘give away’ means to hand over ownership without payment, and ‘encash’ means to convert something into money; the Cabinet's move only caps foreign shareholding at 49%, it neither disposes of Air India nor turns anything into cash.
‘Strategise, authorize’ — ‘strategise’ functions as an intransitive verb (‘to strategise about/for’ something) and cannot smoothly govern ‘up to 49% overseas ownership’ as a direct object; the passage separately uses ‘strategic’ for the CCEA's nod in the very next blank, so this pair duplicates that idea instead of naming the Cabinet's actual act.
‘Spurn, promote’ — ‘spurn’ means to reject or turn down, the opposite of a decision the passage itself calls a relaxation of ownership norms that clears the decks for bidders.
Because only ‘allow, permit’ both fits grammatically as the verb governing ‘up to 49% overseas ownership’ and matches the passage's own description of the move as a relaxation, this is the pair that completes blank 1.