IBPS PO Prelims Full Mock Test 14

1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given after it. Across India, small towns are discovering that their most valuable asset is not land or minerals but time: the hours their residents spend waiting. Waiting for a bus that may not come, for a file to move from one desk to the next, for a doctor who visits the primary health centre twice a week. Economists rarely count these hours, because nobody is paid for them, yet they shape almost every decision a household makes. Consider a woman who runs a tailoring unit from her home. If collecting her pension takes a full day at the block office, she loses a day of orders. If the local bank branch is open only when she is busiest, she keeps her savings in a steel trunk instead. Her choices look irrational from a distance, but they are perfectly sensible once the cost of waiting is added to the bill. This is why the spread of digital payments and doorstep banking matters more than the headline numbers suggest. A banking correspondent who visits the village every afternoon does not merely move money; he returns hours to people who had quietly stopped expecting them. The gains are uneven, of course. Where mobile networks are patchy or where the correspondent is poorly trained, the old queues reappear in a new form, as customers wait for a signal or for a failed transaction to be reversed. Policymakers, therefore, should judge reforms by a simple test: does the change reduce the time an ordinary citizen spends waiting for a service that is already hers by right? A scheme that adds an extra form, however well intentioned, fails that test. One that removes a visit passes it, even if it never makes the evening news.

   Q1.According to the passage, why do economists rarely count the hours people spend waiting?

   • A.Because waiting happens only in large cities
   • B.Because no one is paid for those hours
   • C.Because the data are kept secret by block offices
   • D.Because the hours are already included in GDP
   • E.Because waiting has no effect on household decisions

2. Q2.Why does the tailor in the passage keep her savings in a steel trunk?

   • A.Her pension is paid only in cash
   • B.She wants to avoid paying tax on interest
   • C.She distrusts all banks after a fraud
   • D.The bank branch is open only at the time she is busiest
   • E.The banking correspondent refused to open her account

3. Q3.What does the author mean by saying the correspondent 'returns hours to people'?

   • A.He saves villagers the time they would otherwise lose travelling and waiting for banking services
   • B.He teaches villagers to manage their time better
   • C.He gives back money that was wrongly deducted
   • D.He extends the working hours of the bank branch
   • E.He pays villagers for the hours they work

Start the test to answer these. Correct answers and explanations are shown after you submit.