Read the following passage and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

By the time children reach class 8 , the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15 years. But in our country, about a quarter of all children in class 8 struggle with reading simple texts and more than half are still unable to do basic arithmetic operations like division. Every year about 25 million young boys and girls from elementary school move into the life that lies for them beyond compulsory schooling. They cannot enter the workforce at least in the organized sector till they are 18. For many families, these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. Parents and children expect that such 'graduates' from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture. On the other hand, abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be even based on curricular expectations of class 8.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

In a robust democracy, reality, howsoever inconvenient it may be, finds its expression both in the speech of political leaders and the other social forms of assertion. The existence of the real has to be transparent, both through its circulation in and by the media as well as its argumentative articulation in deliberative democracy. A normatively responsible media through its communication effect has the responsibility to circulate the content of reality without distortion.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the above passage?

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Now-a-days there is a growing trend to use interconnected home devices. As consumers increasingly network their homes, the connected home device manufacturers and service providers will seek to overcome "thin profit margins by gathering more of our personal data-with or without our agreementturning the home into a corporate storefront". Corporate marketers will have powerful incentives to observe consumer behaviour to understand the buying needs and preferences of the device owners.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and practical message implied by the passage?

We often hear about conflicts among different States in India over river waters. Of the 20 major river systems, 14 are already water-stressed; 75% of the population lives in water-stressed regions, a third of whom live in water-scarce areas. Climate change, the demands of rising population and the need for agriculture to keep pace, and increased rate of urbanization and industrialization will exacerbate water stress. According to the Constitution of India, water is a State subject and not that of the Union, except for regulation of inter-State rivers. Key to ensuring balance between competing demands of various stakeholders is a basin-based approach to allocate water amongst constituent regions and States. Allocating fair share of water to them requires assessments based on objective criteria, such as specificities of the river basin, size of dependent population, existing water use and demand, efficiency of use, projected future use, etc. while ensuring the environmental needs of the river and aquifers.