Q1. A survey of a small town found that most residents are unaware of the location and operating hours of the nearest primary health center, leading to delayed treatment during emergencies.
Courses of Action: I. The health department should launch a local awareness campaign about existing health center locations and services. II. The health department should relocate all existing health centers to new sites across town.Correct Option 1 … Explanation: The problem is a lack of awareness, not the location of the health centers. An awareness campaign about existing centers and their services directly fixes this information gap, so I follows. Relocating all health centers is an extreme, costly step that does nothing about residents' lack of awareness. Even at new sites, residents would still not know where the centers are. Hence, II does not follow. Hence, option 1.Q2. A city's public bus service has seen ridership fall steadily even as it added new routes, because most buses on existing routes run 20–30 minutes behind their published schedules.
Courses of Action: I. The transport authority should discontinue existing routes and design an entirely new bus network from scratch. II. The transport authority should revise schedules to reflect realistic travel times and improve real-time tracking for commuters.Correct Option 2 … Explanation: Ridership is falling because buses run late compared with their published schedules. Revising schedules to match realistic travel times and adding real-time tracking directly addresses this reliability problem, so II follows. Scrapping the whole network is a drastic overreaction. The routes are not the problem; the gap between schedules and actual running times is. Hence, I does not follow. Hence, option 2.Q3. Climate change, which has led to unpredictable patterns of heavy rainfall, has significantly disrupted agricultural practices.
Courses of Action: I. Greater efforts should be made to conserve the environment and mitigate climate change. II. The agricultural sector should gradually adopt innovative practices to adapt to changing climatic conditions.Correct Option 5 … Explanation: Course I tackles the root cause of the problem, which is climate change, through mitigation and conservation. Course II deals with the immediate effect, which is disrupted farming, by helping agriculture adapt. The two actions work together: mitigation is a long-term remedy, while adaptation gives relief now. Neither one replaces the other. Hence, both follow. Hence, option 5.Q4. The question paper of a competitive exam had many wrong questions, which impacted the scores of many students.
Courses of Action: I. Re-conduct the examination with the correct question paper. II. Grace marks should be given for wrong questions.Correct Option 3 … Explanation: Both actions are valid ways to correct the unfairness caused by the wrong questions. However, they are alternatives to each other. If the exam is re-conducted, grace marks are unnecessary. If grace marks are given, a re-exam is unnecessary. Doing both would be redundant, so only one of them needs to be taken. Hence, either I or II follows. Hence, option 3.Q5. A company has observed a decline in employee morale and engagement, with many employees expressing dissatisfaction with their work environment and a lack of recognition.
Courses of Action: I. A recognition and rewards programme should be introduced to acknowledge and reward employees for their contributions. II. Working hours should be increased to ensure that employees put in greater effort to achieve company goals.Correct Option 1 … Explanation: The statement names lack of recognition as a key cause of low morale. A recognition and rewards programme addresses this cause directly, so I follows. Increasing working hours would add to dissatisfaction and lower morale further. It works against the goal of improving engagement. Hence, II does not follow. Hence, option 1.Q6. Students nowadays do not have a strong reading habit, which is one reason their knowledge across various fields is not as profound as it used to be. Instead, they often depend on others to inform them about important information and events.
Courses of Action: I. Parents should create personal libraries at home. II. Schools should impose strict penalties on students who fail to read a prescribed number of books every month.Correct Option 4 … Explanation: Course I sounds like a general way to make books available. But having books at home does not build a reading habit, and not every family can afford a personal library, so it is not a practical or targeted remedy. Course II is coercive. Punishing students is likely to create aversion to reading instead of a genuine habit. Neither action is a sensible, effective response. Hence, option 4.Q7. The prices of apples may rise sharply because the supply chain has been severely disrupted by recent landslides and floods in the Himalayan regions, from which most of the apples are procured.
Courses of Action: I. Fruit vendors should purchase and store sufficient quantities of apples in advance to help stabilise prices. II. The state government should establish a network of fair-price shops to sell apples at reasonable prices during the period of shortage.Correct Option 2 … Explanation: If vendors buy and store apples in advance during a supply shortage, that amounts to hoarding. Hoarding shrinks the available supply even further and pushes prices higher, so I does not follow. Fair-price shops run by the government ensure apples reach consumers at reasonable prices during the shortage. This directly protects consumers from the expected price spike, so II follows. Hence, option 2.Q8. Two rival local trade associations frequently clash on a busy market road, repeatedly disrupting traffic and business for hours at a time.
Courses of Action: I. The local police should deploy personnel to maintain order on the affected stretch during peak hours. II. Individuals identified as instigating the clashes should face legal action. III. The local authority should shut down both trade associations.Correct Option 3 … Explanation: Deploying police maintains order and keeps traffic and business moving, which deals with the immediate disruption, so I follows. Taking legal action against the instigators holds the responsible individuals accountable and discourages future clashes, so II follows. Shutting down both associations entirely is an extreme step. It punishes all members for the conduct of a few. Hence, III does not follow. Hence, option 3.Q9. Over three consecutive years, a school has recorded a steady decline in its pass percentage, alongside a sharp drop in the number of students scoring in the top bracket.
Courses of Action: I. Arrange additional academic support and tutoring for students who are struggling. II. Introduce harsher disciplinary measures to enforce order during class hours. III. Shorten the school day so that students have more time to study independently at home.Correct Option 4 … Explanation: Additional academic support and tutoring directly address the falling academic performance, so I follows. Nothing in the statement suggests that indiscipline in class is causing the decline, so harsher discipline is an unsupported assumption. Shortening the school day would reduce instruction time, which is likely to make results worse, not better. Hence, only I follows. Hence, option 4.Q10. Although the National Education Policy emphasises equitable and inclusive education for all, the right to education of children who accompany their parents to sugarcane fields is frequently violated. The lack of adequate alternative schooling arrangements further disrupts their education.
Courses of Action: I. Community learning centres should be established in or near sugarcane fields to provide these children with a suitable learning environment. II. Awareness campaigns should be conducted to highlight the importance of children's education and the need to protect their right to education. III. Partnerships should be established with NGOs specialising in education and child welfare to provide additional support and resources for these children's education.Correct Option 5 … Explanation: Learning centres near the fields fix the lack of alternative schooling arrangements, so I follows. Awareness campaigns help parents and communities value education and protect children's rights, so II follows. Partnering with NGOs brings in expertise and resources to support these children, so III follows. All three are practical and complement each other. Hence, option 5.Q11. A popular hiking trail in a national park has seen a rise in litter and erosion damage as visitor numbers have more than doubled over the past three years.
Courses of Action: I. Introduce a daily visitor cap with an online permit system. II. Install more waste bins and signage along the trail. III. Deploy park rangers to monitor visitor behavior during peak hours.Correct Option 4 … Explanation: A visitor cap tackles overcrowding, which is the root cause of the erosion damage, so I follows. More waste bins and signage reduce littering directly, so II follows. Rangers monitoring visitors during peak hours discourage littering and harmful behaviour, so III follows. All three are reasonable and complement each other. Hence, option 4.Q12. A hospital has reported a rise in medication errors over the past year, coinciding with a period during which nursing staff have been working extended shifts due to understaffing at night.
Courses of Action: I. Hire additional nursing staff to reduce the length and frequency of extended shifts. II. Introduce a mandatory double-check system for medication administration. III. Provide refresher training on medication protocols to all nursing staff. IV. Eliminate night shifts to reduce workload on the staff.Correct Option 2 … Explanation: Hiring more nurses fixes the understaffing that causes fatigue-inducing extended shifts, so I follows. A double-check system catches errors before they reach patients, so II follows. Refresher training reinforces correct medication protocols, so III follows. Eliminating night shifts is impractical because hospitals must provide care around the clock. Hence, IV does not follow. Hence, option 2.Q13. A logistics company has found that delivery delays have increased by nearly 25 per cent since it expanded into a hilly region with narrow, poorly mapped roads that its standard navigation software cannot route through efficiently. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the company?Correct Option 2 … Explanation: The delays come from poorly mapped roads that the navigation software cannot handle. Better regional mapping and local route training for drivers target that cause directly. Option 1 abandons the new market instead of solving the problem. Options 3 and 4 penalise all regions for a problem in one region. Option 5 is costly and misses the real issue, which is navigation, not the vehicles. Hence, option 2.Q14. A software company's internal survey found that employees on remote engineering teams report significantly lower job satisfaction than those working on-site, largely because remote employees feel excluded from informal decision-making conversations that happen in the office. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the company?Correct Option 3 … Explanation: The cause of dissatisfaction is that remote employees are excluded from informal decision-making. Structured channels that document decisions and share updates promptly include them while keeping remote work intact. Options 1 and 2 undermine the remote arrangement instead of fixing the communication gap. Options 4 and 5 do not address exclusion from decisions at all. Hence, option 3.Q15. A city's public parks have seen a decline in evening visitors over the past year, which park officials attribute to poor lighting along the main walking paths, making visitors feel unsafe after sunset. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for city officials?Correct Option 5 … Explanation: The identified cause is poor lighting along the main paths. Installing adequate lighting fixes it directly and restores visitors' sense of safety. Option 1 removes evening access entirely. Option 2 shifts the city's responsibility onto visitors. Option 3 is unrelated and counterproductive. Option 4 explicitly ignores the root cause. Hence, option 5.Q16. An online learning platform has observed that fewer than 20 per cent of enrolled learners complete its courses. Exit surveys show that most learners abandon courses midway because each module consists of a single lecture lasting several hours, with no way to track progress or gauge their understanding along the way. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the platform?Correct Option 1 … Explanation: The exit surveys name three problems: overly long modules, no progress tracking and no way to check understanding. Shorter modules with progress indicators and knowledge checks address all three. Option 2 does not touch course design. Option 3 assumes outdated content is the problem, which the surveys do not mention. Option 4 promotes more courses without fixing completion. Option 5 shrinks the learner base instead of solving the issue. Hence, option 1.Q17. A city's bike-sharing service has noticed that many riders abandon bikes on pavements and in unauthorised areas. This occurs mostly near crowded places. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the service operator?Correct Option 5 … Explanation: Bikes are abandoned mostly near crowded places, which suggests that docks there are full or insufficient. Adding docking capacity and redistributing bikes gives riders somewhere to return them. Option 1 punishes riders without fixing the lack of docks. Option 2 withdraws service from high-demand areas. Option 3 helps riders find bikes, not return them. Option 4 discourages use and does not address improper parking. Hence, option 5.Q18. A farmers' cooperative reports that around 15 per cent of the tomatoes it delivers to city markets arrive spoiled. The produce is loaded onto open trucks at noon and takes about five hours to reach the markets, during which the tomatoes are exposed to intense heat and direct sunlight. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the cooperative?Correct Option 2 … Explanation: The spoilage is caused by exposure to heat and direct sunlight during transport. Covered vehicles and cooler early-morning deliveries remove both causes. Option 1 gives up the city market. Option 3 would make tomatoes riper and more perishable, which increases spoilage. Option 4 passes losses on to buyers without preventing them. Option 5 does not reduce heat exposure. Hence, option 2.Q19. A restaurant chain has found that its staff turnover is significantly higher than the industry average. Which of the following could be the most appropriate course of action for the chain to address this challenge?Correct Option 4 … Explanation: Unpredictable schedules and frequent last-minute changes are a leading driver of turnover in the restaurant industry. Publishing schedules in advance gives staff stability and work-life balance. Options 1 and 2 are marginal perks that are unlikely to bring turnover in line with the industry average. Option 3 narrows the hiring pool and worsens scheduling strain. Option 5 is too infrequent to have a real effect. Hence, option 4.Q20. A news app has seen a sharp rise in subscription cancellations over the past month. Customer reviews indicate that the cancellations come mostly from users with older smartphones. Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the app's developers?Correct Option 3 … Explanation: Because the cancellations are concentrated among users with older smartphones, the likely cause is a compatibility issue on those devices. A patch fixes the root cause and keeps these subscribers. Option 1 only delays cancellations. Option 2 deliberately drives these users away. Option 4 ignores the technical problem. Option 5 is unethical and damages trust. Hence, option 3.
