Main Idea – MBA CET questions with solutions

Passage shown as image

Passage shown as image

Passage shown as image

Passage shown as image

Passage shown as image

Study the following information carefully and answer the question given below.

When you are the chief executive of a public company, the temptation to opt for a merger or acquisition is great indeed. Many such bosses may get a call every week or so from an investment banker eager to offer the kind of deal that is sure to boost profits. Plenty of those calls are proving fruitful. In the first three quarters of 2017, just over $2.5trn-worth of transactions were agreed globally, according to Dealogic, a data provider. The total was virtually unchanged from the same period in 2016, but the number in Europe, the Middle East and Africa was up by 21%.

It is easy to understand why an executive opts for a deal. Buying another business looks like decisive action, and is a lot easier than coming up with a new, bestselling product. Furthermore, being the acquirer is far more appealing than being the prey; better to be the butcher than the cattle. A takeover may keep activist hedge funds off the management’s back for a while longer. And being in charge of a much bigger company is a more demanding task that will surely justify a larger salary for the executives in charge.

But these temptations, good and bad, should generally be resisted. S&P Global Market Intelligence, a research arm of the ratings agency, has updated a study on the impact of deals on the acquiring company’s share price. The study looked at M&A deals done by listed companies in America’s Russell 3000 index between January 2001 and August 2017; deals were only included if they cost more than 5% of the total enterprise value of the acquirer (5% of the equity value, for financial companies). The acquirers’ shares underperformed the market and those of rival firms in the same industry.

That share-price performance was understandable, in the light of what tended to happen to the fundamentals of the acquiring company’s business. The study finds that, relative to the company’s peer group, net profit margins fall, as do the returns on capital and on equity; earnings per share grow less quickly; and both debt and interest expenses increase. As the deal is done, however, the executives always sound bullish. Costs will be cut, the companies will benefit from selling a wide range of products and so on; a whole range of “synergies” will be achieved. Instead, the combined companies tend to suffer from clashes of culture and teething problems as systems prove hard to integrate. The AOL-Time Warner merger of 2000 is perhaps the most famous example of a dysfunctional deal; at the time, it was one of the biggest mergers in corporate history. Not every deal is that bad. But instead of two plus two equalling the promised five, all too often they add up to three-and-a-half.

Passage shown as image

Read the passage carefully and answer the question that follows. Choose the correct alternative from the given options based only on the information in the passage.

Women empowerment refers to the process of enabling women to have equal access to education, employment, decision-making, and social freedoms, thereby enhancing their capacity to contribute meaningfully to society. Historically, gender inequality has been a persistent issue across cultures, often manifesting in restricted access to resources, limited participation in governance, and social discrimination. In recent decades, however, increasing awareness, legal reforms, and advocacy have paved the way for greater opportunities and recognition of women’s rights.

Education is widely recognized as a cornerstone of women empowerment. When women are educated, they not only gain knowledge and skills but also develop confidence and the ability to make informed decisions. Studies show that higher levels of female literacy correlate with improved health outcomes, reduced child mortality, and economic growth. Education empowers women to challenge societal norms, pursue careers, and participate actively in civic life.

Economic independence further strengthens women’s empowerment. Employment opportunities, access to financial resources, and entrepreneurship enable women to contribute to family income and community development. Economic empowerment reduces vulnerability to exploitation and social marginalization, giving women greater control over their personal and professional lives.

Social and political participation is another critical aspect. Representation in decision-making bodies ensures that policies reflect women’s perspectives and address issues like gender-based violence, maternal health, and workplace equality. Grassroots movements, non-governmental organizations, and international frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals have been instrumental in promoting gender equity worldwide.

Despite these advancements, challenges persist. Cultural biases, discriminatory laws, and societal expectations continue to impede full empowerment. Women in rural areas or marginalized communities often face compounded barriers, including limited access to education and economic opportunities. Moreover, empowerment is not merely about external opportunities; it also involves challenging internalized stereotypes and fostering self-efficacy.

Promoting women empowerment requires a multi-pronged approach: legislative measures, educational initiatives, financial inclusion, mentorship programs, and societal awareness campaigns. Empowerment is not just a moral imperative but also a strategic necessity, as gender equity enhances societal resilience, economic growth, and social justice. A society that empowers women invests in its own sustainable development and ensures that every individual can realize their potential without prejudice.

Reading Comprehension passage — shown as image.

If life exists on Mars, it is most likely to be in the form of bacteria buried deep in the planet’s permafrost or lichens growing within rocks, say scientists from NASA. There might even be fossilized Martian algae locked up in ancient lake beds, waiting to be found. Christopher McKay of NASA's Ames Research Centre in California told the AAAS that exobiologists, who look for life on other planets, should look for clues among the life forms of the Earth's ultra-cold regions, where conditions are similar to those on Mars.

Lichens, for example, are found within some Antarctic rocks, just beneath the surface where sunlight can still reach them. The rock protects the lichen from cold and absorbs water providing enough for the lichen's needs, said McKay.

Bacteria have also been found in 3-million-year-old permafrost dug up from Siberia. If there are any bacteria alive on Mars today, they would have had to have survived from the time before the planet cooled more than 3 billion years ago. Nevertheless, McKay is optimistic: "It may be possible that bacteria frozen into the permafrost at the Martian South Pole may be viable".

McKay said algae is found in Antarctic lakes with permanently frozen surfaces. Although no lakes are thought to exist on Mars today, they might have existed long ago. If so, the dried-out Martian lake beds may contain the fossilised remains of algae. On Earth, masses of microscopic algae form large, layered structures known as Stromatolites, which survive as fossils on lake beds, and the putative Martian algae might have done the same thing, said Jack Farmer, one of McKay’s colleagues.

The researchers are compiling a list of promising Martian lake beds to be photographed from spacecraft, said Farmer. Those photographed could help to select sites for landers that would search for signs of life, past or present. “If we find algae on Mars, I would say the universe is lousy with algae,” McKay said “Intelligence would be another question”.

Reading Comprehension passage — shown as image.

Compact Discs (CDs) have revolutionized the music industry with their surprisingly realistic sound. The six-inch discs look like plastic sandwiches with aluminum at the centre. They have digitally recorded material that is read by laser beams, so the sound has none of the crackling of vinyl records. CDs are also virtually indestructible, and they are lighter and smaller than conventional records. Since their introduction, CDs have become more affordable and widely available. In fact, they are now sold in electronics and video stores that didn’t formerly carry records or cassettes.

There has been a phenomenal growth in the sale of CDs. Sales climbed dramatically during the second half of the 1980s. In the 1990s, sales have been greater. CDs have all but replaced records in stores and, in spite of their being less affordable than cassettes, continue to gain in popularity.

The complexity of modern problems often precludes any one person from fully understanding them. Factors contributing to rising obesity levels, for example, include transportation systems and infrastructure, media, convenience foods, changing social norms, human biology and psychological factors. The multidimensional or layered character of complex problems also undermines the principle of meritocracy: the idea that the 'best person' should be hired. There is no best person. When putting together an oncological research team, a biotech company such as Gilead or Genentech would not construct a multiple-choice test and hire the top scorers, or hire people whose resumes score highest according to some performance criteria. Instead, they would seek diversity. They would build a team of people who bring diverse knowledge bases, tools and analytic skills.

Believers in a meritocracy might grant that teams ought to be diverse but then argue that meritocratic principles should apply within each category. Thus the team should consist of the 'best' mathematicians, the 'best' oncologists, and the 'best' biostatisticians from within the pool. That position suffers from a similar flaw. Even with a knowledge domain, no test or criteria applied to individuals will produce the best team. Each of these domains possesses such depth and breadth, that no test can exist. Consider the field of neuroscience. Upwards of 50,000 papers were published last year covering various techniques, domains of enquiry and levels of analysis, ranging from molecules and synapses up through networks of neurons. Given that complexity, any attempt to rank a collection of neuroscientists from best to worst, as if they were competitors in the 50-metre butterfly, must fail. What could be true is that given a specific task and the composition of a particular team, one scientist would be more likely to contribute than another. Optimal hiring depends on context. Optimal teams will be diverse.

Evidence for this claim can be seen in the way that papers and patents that combine diverse ideas tend to rank as high-impact. It can also be found in the structure of the so-called random decision forest, a state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithm. Random forests consist of ensembles of decision trees. If classifying pictures, each tree makes a vote: is that a picture of a fox or a dog? A weighted majority rules. Random forests can serve many ends. They can identify bank fraud and diseases, recommend ceiling fans and predict online dating behaviour. When building a forest, you do not select the best trees as they tend to make similar classifications. You want diversity. Programmers achieve that diversity by training each tree on different data, a technique known as bagging. They also boost the forest 'cognitively' by training trees on the hardest cases – those that the current forest gets wrong. This ensures even more diversity and accurate forests.

Yet the fallacy of meritocracy persists. Corporations, non-profits, governments, universities and even preschools test, score and hire the 'best'. This all but guarantees not creating the best team. Ranking people by common criteria produces homogeneity. That's not likely to lead to breakthroughs.

Words remain an enigma, their presence within the human sphere is a unique mystery. They form the intricate tapestry that convinces us of our existence, blurring lines between fact and fiction. An engagement with words is the most captivating, enchanting, and sometimes daunting encounter with the world. A word, a symbolic entity formed from the ethereal, exists neither as animate nor inanimate, yet pulsates with life. It can emanate warmth or coldness, absorb emotions, or stand as dry as a rock. Words can provoke smiles and elicit joy. They are like glow-worms, momentarily dispelling the surrounding darkness and act as life-saving rafts amid the tumultuous ocean waves. Words grant us the ability to explore the universe, and “to see a world in a grain of sand,” as William Blake noted. They impart a semantic existence to the lifeless, and bestow aesthetic form upon the formless. Scriptures say the word is the world. I say the world within the word is the abode of faith.

Reading Comprehension passage — shown as image.

Reading Comprehension passage — shown as image.