SUCCESS
Read the Passage Carefully and answers the following Questions:-
Ironically enough, the very ‘Success’ of Operation Flood which is to make the cities flush with milk, has proved its undoing. Farmers in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are now faced with a surplus of supplies for which there are no takers. Indeed, some experts in the Union agriculture ministry are even going so far as to suggest that the country should export to neighbouring countries—Bangladesh, for example, which imports milk and dairy products. Does this mean that the needs of consumers at home are met? Far from it. The fact that a dairy technology mission was created to improve the nutritional status of the rural poor speaks for itself. The protagonists of Operation Flood argue that the per capita consumption of milk has gone up from 108 gm in 1967 to 158 gm in 1987 and an expected 196 gm in 1995 when the third phase of the programmed comes to an end. But it is clear that consumption has been limited to the cities and that took to the relatively better off households. Four out of every ten citizens in larger cities, officially estimated to be living in slums, are unable to afford sufficient milk for all their needs. What the much-vaunted ‘surplus’ thus amounts to therefore is a saturation of the market comprising the other half. Even in Bombay, the most affluent metropolis, housewives find it difficult to meet their milk bills because it is priced the highest in the country.
 The inadequate off take of milk is thus related to its price. The anomaly should be sufficient to prompt a thorough revaluation of Operation Flood, which is based on improving technology in the dairy industry to increase yields though at higher costs. Somewhat like the Green Revolution in cereals, the ‘White revolution’ has its share of critics who argue that instead of concentrating on increasing the supply of milk in a few pockets (though the co-operatives are inherently preferable to private suppliers), the authorities ought to spread the benefits of improved dairying throughout the countryside. Like the Green Revolution which demands capital-intensive inputs and energy, Operation Flood requires genetically superior cattle which in turn have to be provided with fodder, now in extremely short supply all over the country. What is more, schemes such as Operation Flood only sharpen the urban-rural divide, instead of narrowing it, which should surely be the objective of any development scheme?
1. Which of the following has the same meaning as the word ‘protagonist’ as used in the passage?
 (a) opponent              (b) intellectual
 (c) supporter              (d) preserver
(e) practitioner
 2. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
 (a) Certain states in India have excess production of milk.
(b) Operation Flood does not operate in Karnataka.
(c) Gujarat cities have less milk than cities in Maharashtra.
(d) Certain states are producing excess raw material for milk production.
(e) None of these
 3. Which of the following, as can be inferred from the passage, is not an outcome of ‘Operation Flood’?
(a) The urban areas are benefitted by improved milk supply.
 (b) The nutritional standard of rural poor has gone down.
 (c) It has hiked up the price of milk.
 (d) Milk output has increased in the country.
(e) It has improved the per capita milk intake.
 4. Which of the following is true regarding the price of milk?
 (a) It is high because of middlemen.
 (b) It is high because the cost of production is high.
(c) It is low because of the establishment of co-operatives.
(d) It is high only in metropolitan areas.
(e) None of these
 5. What is the charge being levelled against Operation Flood by its critics?
(a) It is benefitting only in certain areas.
(b) Milk is being sold at high prices.
 (c) It is not increasing the milk production.
 (d) Milk products have limited export market and hence it is useless.
6. Which of the following has the same meaning as ‘divide’ as used in the passage?
(a) partition                            (b) cut off
 (c) disagreement                    (d) difference
(e) separate
 7. Which of the following is true according to the passage? That person living in slums
(a) get half their requirement only
 (b) get sufficient milk
(c) buy some milk
(d) do not buy milk at all
(e) are not affected by milk prices
8. Which of the following, according to the author, should be the main objective of schemes like Operation Flood?
(a) To increase the availability of milk products in urban areas
(b) To make use of surplus inputs available in plenty in the country
 (c) To increase the production of milk in rural areas
(d)lb decrease the poverty in rural areas and bring down differences
 (e) None of these
 9. The word ‘sharpen’ as used in the passage means
 (a) prepare                 (b) provide
(c) force                      (d) widen
(e) surmount
10. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(a) Milk needs of the urban group are being met.
(b) Six out of ten people in urban areas buy milk.
(c) Milk needs of only the affluent people in urban areas are being met.
 (d) Milk needs of the entire country are being met.
 (e) None of these
 Answers:-
1.(b) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2. (b)
 3. (c)              4. (b)
5. (a) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 6. (d)
7. (c) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 8. (c)
9. (d) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 10. (c)
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