Direction (1-5): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below the passage.

The full report of the NSO’s survey of ‘Household Social Consumption on Education in India’, for July 2017-June 2018, highlights the poor state of computer and Internet access in several States. The disparities are glaring among different economic strata as well. The digital chasm that separates the privileged from the deprived remains unbridged years after the broadband policy of 2004, and its effects are painfully evident during the pandemic as students struggle to log on to online classes. While some poorly connected States may have improved since the survey period, the gaps are so stark that any development could only be modest. Only in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala did the survey find Internet access exceeding 50% for urban and rural households taken together, while Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand exceeded 40%, unimpressive numbers still. Large States — Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka — had access below 20%. In today’s milieu, net access is critical, considering that even where mobile phones and laptops are available — some States provide them under student welfare programmes — they cannot be meaningfully used in its absence. If net connectivity is 5% to 10% in rural Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and West Bengal, only a slim minority can hope to do any academic work. Many remote locations have reliability problems and power deficits, making it a challenge to keep gadgets operational even offline.

Prime Minister Modi has acknowledged the digital divide by announcing in his Independence Day address that all villages would be connected with optical fibre cable in 1,000 days. This target, reflecting enhanced ambition, follows the one set in 2011 to link panchayats through a national optical fibre network — to raise administrative capacities through information infrastructure. Evidently, successive governments have dropped the ball. States have not shown the alacrity to make a big leap either, and the deficit has now dealt a blow to students. To make up for lost time, connectivity for education must be prioritised. Mapping the needs of each district based on the NSO data will help identify areas where children do need equipment and connectivity. Such efforts have been launched globally in the wake of COVID-19, some in partnership with the telecom sector to leverage its capacity for surveys and mapping. Some companies in India have made the valuable suggestion that their used desktop computers could be refurbished and donated, for which governments need to open a programme. On the network technology front, a new gigabit speed ‘wireless fibre’ standard is being viewed in developed countries as a leapfrog option to link inaccessible areas; it involves high capacity spectrum (E and V bands), and is commercially not contentious. The government needs to look at all possibilities and go into overdrive to bridge the digital divide.

1. Which of the following can be used as the title of the passage?

a) Digital India: new dimension to learning

b) Digital disconnect: online learning and digital divide

c)Digitisation and its advantages

d) All of these

e) None of these

2. Which of the following statements is/are true according to the passage?

a)Prime Minister Modi has acknowledged the digital divide by announcing in his Independence Day address that all villages would be connected with optical fibre cable in 1,000 days.

1. b) In 2019 a target was set to link panchayats through a national optical fibre network

c)States have shown the alacrity to make a big leap

d) All of these

e) None of these

3. Which of the following statements is/are the meaning of the idiom “dropped the ball” given in bold in the passage??

a) Made a mistake

b) Mishandled things

c) Failed to do something

d) All of these

e) None of these

4. What is the meaning of the idiom “go into overdrive” printed in bold in the passage?

a) Be inactive suddenly

b) Be intelligent finally

c) Start working hard to perform well

d) To damage the present state of something

e) None of these

5. What can be inferred from the last sentence of the passage “The government needs to look at all possibilities and go into overdrive to bridge the digital divide.”?

a) The government should think about the way to fill the gap between the privileged and the deprived in the online learning system.

b) The government should be active to make all possible arrangements to make online learning feasible for all.

c) The Government should start working hard in order to bridge the gap made by digital learning between the deprived and the privileged.

d) All of these

e) None of these

Answers: 

1) Answer: B

The passage is about the separation of the privileged from the deprived through the online learning system. There are many sentences in the passage that help us understand the topic, “The full report of the NSO’s survey of ‘Household Social Consumption on Education in India’, for July 2017-June 2018, highlights the poor state of computer and Internet access in several States. The disparities are glaring among different economic strata as well. The digital chasm that separates the privileged from the deprived remains unbridged years after the broadband policy of 2004, and its effects are painfully evident during the pandemic as students struggle to log on to online classes.”

Hence, (b) is the correct answer.

2) Answer: A

From the lines of the passage, “Prime Minister Modi has acknowledged the digital divide by announcing in his Independence Day address that all villages would be connected with optical fibre cable in 1,000 days. This target, reflecting enhanced ambition, follows the one set in 2011 to link panchayats through a national optical fibre network — to raise administrative capacities through information infrastructure. Evidently, successive governments have dropped the ball. States have not shown the alacrity to make a big leap…”, we can understand that only statement (a) is true.

3) Answer: D

Drop the ball- Make a mistake/ to mishandle things/ fail to do something.

Hence, (d) is the correct answer.

4) Answer: C

Go into overdrive- start being active or working very hard to perform well.

Hence, (c) is the correct answer.

5) Answer: D

In the sentence, an idiom “go into overdrive” has been used, it means to be active or to work hard to perform well in something. So, if we read the sentence carefully then we will be able to understand that all (a), (b), (c) can be inferred from the sentence.