Passage-1
Employment exchanges —one of the surviving bastions of babudom —face the prospect of becoming irrelevant in an era of reform. Even in the heart of the nation’s capital, the premises are often dilapidated structures with dirty passages and manned by surly staff. Not surprisingly, job-seekers hardly throng these exchanges. Paradoxically, when jobs are getting scarce due to pressure of liberalization, job-seekers are spurning an institution intended to help them secure placements. The reasons are simple enough. Employment exchanges still concentrate on government and public sector placements, which are fast losing ground in the labor market. For most government jobs, the eligibility criterion is still registration with the employment exchanges. But what is the use of going through the formalities of registration when government jobs themselves are dwindling? The placement effected by all the 939-odd exchanges in the country in 2001 was of the order of 1.69 lakh against annual registration levels of 60 lakh. As there are too few jobs when compared to the number of job-seekers, the accumulated backlog of registrations is close to 4.16 crore. The latter of course doesn’t indicate unemployment levels as those registered with the employment exchanges are not necessarily unemployed.
How can the employment exchanges be revamped? The thinking in the Union labor ministry is to transform them into employment promotion and guidance centers. The plan includes modernization, changing the mindset of the staff and making them into an effective instrument for monitoring and coordinating various employment generation schemes. This objective calls for developing a better database on the fast changing employment situation with a comprehensive coverage of new economic establishments. For instance, the various economic censuses are an important source of information on the changing employment profile of, say, the nation’s capital. Far from being a bureaucrat-dominated city, Delhi over the years has become more of an industrial metropolis. According to the fourth economic census, manufacturing accounted for 40 per cent of jobs in the capital. The employment exchanges in the capital thus have their work cut out notably, to shift the focus away from government and public sector jobs more towards placements in the private sector, especially in manufacturing and services, including the burgeoning retail trade sector. By doing so, they will better reflect the imperatives of economic reform and remain relevant in today’s times.
- Choose the word that is opposite in meaning of the word “spurning” as used in the passage.
(1) thronging
(2) evaluating
(3) criticizing
(4) following
(5) rejecting
- Which of the following revamped role can be entrusted to employment exchanges?
(1) Conducting economic surveys
(2) To conduct vocational training programme for the unemployed
(3) To modernise registration process through the Internet
(4) To reduce the number of exchanges
(5) None of these
- What can be inferred about the employment exchanges outside Delhi?
(1) The registration in them would be much less.
(2) Their condition will be worse.
(3) Their condition will be better.
(4) They focus more on manufacturing sector.
(5) None of these
- Choose the word that is samein meaning as “imperatives”as used in the passage.
(1) importance
(2) implication
(3) urgency
(4) indication
(5) authority
- Choose the word that is samein meaning as the word “secure”as used in the passage.
(1) fasten
(2) safe
(3) obtain
(4) re-assure
(5) lock
- Choose the word that is oppositein meaning of the word “burgeoning”as used in the passage.
(1) flourishing
(2) loss-making
(3) expanding
(4) distressing
(5) declining
- In order to remain relevant, which of the following should be the focus of employment exchanges?
(1) To make efforts to increase their registration
(2) To shift attention to jobs in private sector
(3) To shift focus to jobs in manufacturing in public sector organisations
(4) To reform exchanges by recruiting trained staff
(5) To obtain more grants from government
- Which of the following is not true in the context of the passage?
(1) Those who register with the employment exchange inform them if they are able to get the job on their own.
(2) The annual placement arranged by employment exchanges is less than 3%of the registration.
(3) For government jobs, registration with employment exchanges is required.
(4) In Delhi, over the years more industries have started.
(5) All the above are true
https://www.successmantra.in/blog/post/article/editorial95
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