Synonyms Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

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The Japanese economy is being driven by small and medium-sized enterprises offering new ways of doing things.

Working hard to deliver quality products and services is hard-wired into every good Japanese business. But those principles are especially important to the nation's booming small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and niche companies. An incredible 3·58 million SMEs make up 99·7% of all Japanese businesses, and they play a massive role - by doing all the little things right. Utilizing an agile corporate structure, many such firms are thriving, whether supplying business contracts or selling direct to customers.

With Asia-Pacific neighbours leading the way in mass production and lower-cost models, Japanese firms have been taking a more focused and customer-centric approach. "A large number of manufacturers have shifted towards niche fields. Although Japanese products cannot remain competitive regarding cost and volume, they excel where high quality is needed," said Yoshio Komuro, CEO and President of precision metal rollers firm, Rikazai Co. Ltd.

Mamoru Iwata, President of manufacturing prototype specialists, Sanken Kogyo Co. Ltd. said that adaptability is a crucial factor in his firm's success. "As we do not work with mass production, client needs change from time to time and as such, our focus of production changes often," Iwata said. "Ensuring that clients are happy and satisfied is our number one priority."

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1 Digital transformation as "the most remarkable change of our era" found its echo in many parts of the G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration. From economy to sustainability, all were looped in the strings of digital innovation.

2 "The proper use of digital technologies can become a force multiplier in the decades-long global fight against poverty. Digital solutions can also be helpful in the fight against climate change - as we all saw in the examples of remote-working and paperless green offices during COVID." Citing India's experience of the past few years, our Prime Minister said, "If we make digital architecture inclusive, it can bring about socio-economic transformation. Digital use can bring scale and speed. These solutions are based on open source, open APIs, open standards, which are interoperable and public. This is our approach based on the digital revolution that is going on in India today."

3 The G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration noted, "The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the digital ecosystem and digital economy. We acknowledge that affordable and high-quality digital connectivity is essential for digital inclusion and digital transformation, while a resilient, safe and secure online environment is necessary to enhance confidence and trust in the digital economy. We recognise the importance of policies to create an enabling, inclusive, open, fair and non-discriminatory digital economy that fosters the application of new technologies, allows businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, and protects and empowers consumers, while addressing the challenges related to digital divides, privacy, data protection, intellectual property rights, and online safety."

4 The G20 Indonesia Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG), thus, established the G20 Digital Innovation Network (DIN) to enhance engagement among global innovation builders and drivers such as start-ups, venture capitalists and corporations. The main idea was to establish the G20 DIN as a launching pad for the Digital Economy, labelling it as post-pandemic recovery and beyond.

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

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Aimee had a painful childhood. She was born in 1975 with no shin bones. The doctors therfore had to amputate both her legs so that she would be able to walk later in life. Unfortunately, she had to undergo a number of surgeries at the age of two, five and eight, and had to spend a long time in a hospital. Aimee grew up with artificial legs. Her mother, however, treated her as a self-sufficient person who did not require any special treatment. She was gradually able to learn how to move and run, and even play various sports like softball and go swimming, hiking and skiing.

When she was in high school, Aimee discovered her passion for athletics. Towards the end of high school, she participated in the Boston track and field meet for the disabled. On arriving in Boston, she was surprised to discover that she was the only athlete wearing wooden legs. The rest of the athletes had metal, shock-absorbent legs that she didn't even know existed. Not to mention that all the other athletes had at least one normal leg. This fact did not shake her determination; instead it made her push herself harder to succeed. And succeed she did - she not only won, she also broke a national record in doing so. She decided to enter the long jump competition next, an event that double amputees were technically 'not supposed' to enter. A year later, she broke the world record in it.

Aimee was not happy with the way prosthetic legs were designed. So she invited innovators to combine science and art, and design unconventional prosthetic legs. She was soon wearing cheetah legs, handcrafted wooden legs, jellyfish legs and many more. She now began getting invitations from different parts of the world to talk about her life story and designer legs. The fashion and beauty industry took note of Aimee's talent and beauty and asked her to model for, or endorse beauty products. Today she is a global model for a leading brand of cosmetics.

Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 5 ] :

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I have told you already about the formation of tribes. When agriculture came, and there was some division of work or labour, it became necessary for some person in the tribe to organise the work. Even before this, the tribes wanted someone to lead them to battle against another tribe. The leader was usually the oldest man in the group. He was called, or rather we call him now, the patriarch. As the oldest, he was supposed to be the most experienced and to have the most knowledge. This patriarch was not very different from the other members of the tribe. He worked with the others, and all the food that was produced was divided between all the members of the tribe. Everything belonged to the tribe. It was not like we have now, each person having his separate house and money and many other things. Whatever a man earned was divided up as it all belonged to the tribe. The patriarch or the organiser of the tribe did this dividing.

But changes came in slowly. There were new kinds of work, especially on account of agriculture, and the patriarch had to spend most of his time in organising and seeing that work was properly done by all the members of the tribe. Little by little, the patriarch gave up doing the ordinary work or labour of the people. He thus became quite different from the rest of the people. We see now another kind of division of work or labour : the patriarch doing the organizing and ordering people about, and the other people working in the fields and hunting and going to battle, and obeying the orders of their leader, the patriarch. If there was a war or fight between two tribes, the patriarch became even more powerful, for in wartime it was not possible to fight well without a leader. So the patriarch became very powerful.

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At that moment, we heard a big bang from outside, as if a bomb had exploded! We felt as if we were being thrown violently to the ground. From the shadow of a tree nearby, someone emerged and walked slowly towards the shop to stand before us. Everything had happened in the fraction of a second and seeing his face now, my throat went suddenly dry.

He was a young boy. Across his cheek ran a deep gash, from eye to lip made by a bullet or a sharp knife. There was blood and pus in it. The flesh under his lip looked as if it had been ripped open and we could see his teeth in the quavering light.

I went to the old woman and took her hand in mine, gripping it tightly. We were both shivering. The boy was wearing black jeans and a khaki jacket. And what was that in his hand ? A revolver ? Even in the smoky light of the kerosene lamp, the barrel shone. The old woman burst into a hysterical cry.

'Oh my Kanbap, my son! I told your father a thousand times to bring you from the railway track. Oh my son, what has happened to you ? Why are you bleeding like this ?'

Suddenly the boy's eyes fell on the girl sitting in the corner and trembling with fear. He sped like a bullet towards the girl and grabbing her hair, rained blows and kicks on her stomach, shouting, 'I will smash your womb! I will kill the bastard child of that soldier you are carrying... Making love with a soldier, dirty bitch! Phooh! Phooh!

Direction for [ Question No: 7 To 7 ] :

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Soon some idea struck her and she went to the window and hollered, 'Roopa! Roopa!' After calling out for Roopa, she had a look at the things that she had brought for her. Roopa had to sit for her home science examination the next day and Tarawati had collected things like some kitchen items, a bucket, a mug and a stool that Roopa required for the practical examination.

While looking at the things that she had collected for Roopa, Tarawati recalled her husband who had died a few years ago. She remembered him berating her for not treating Roopa well. 'Roopa's mother! Do not think only sons deserve all love and care and not daughters'. I'm determined to give Roopa good education so that she leads a happy and meaningful life. You are not educated yourself. That's probably why you don't want her to be educated. This is not fair on your part. You must change your views and let her grow and flower into a happy, confident individual.'

Thinking of her husband's admonition on this account, Tarawati felt emotional. The fact of the matter was that Roopa's parents differed on Roopa's upbringing and fought with each other on the issue. The fight continued for days together and often it was Roopa who intervened to broker peace between them. On his death-bed too, Roopa's father had cried and pleaded with her to treat Roopa in a nice manner. Hugging Roopa, he had told Tarawati, 'Take care of Roopa. Give her good education and let her decide the course of her life herself.' While recalling the interaction, tears rolled down Tarawati's eyes.

Meanwhile, the evening shadows were getting darker. Tarawati was exhausted and had a headache too. She looked at her dust-laden feet and then around the room. In order to bring some semblance of order, she forced herself to get up and get going. Then she called her daughter again, Roopa! Roopa!'.

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What was this new state like? Fortunately, we have full accounts, both Indian and Greek. Megasthenes, the ambassador sent by Seleucus, has left a record and, much more important is that contemporary account - Kautilya's Arthashastra, 'the Science of Polity'. Kautilya is another name for Chanakya, and thus we have a book written, not only by a great scholar, but a man who played a dominating part in the establishment, growth and preservation of the empire. Chanakya has been called the Indian Machiavelli, and to some extent the comparison is justified. But he was a much bigger person in every way, greater in intellect and action. He was no mere follower of a king, a humble advisor of an all-powerful emperor. A picture of him emerges from an old Indian play - the Mudra-Rakshasa - which deals with this period. Bold and scheming, proud and revengeful, never forgetting a slight, never forgetting his purpose, availing himself of every device to delude and defeat the enemy, he sat with the reins of empire in his hands and looked upon the emperor more as a loved pupil than as a master. Simple and austere in his life, uninterested in the pomp and pageantry of high position, when he had redeemed his pledge and accomplished his purpose, he wanted to retire, to a life of contemplation.

There was hardly anything Chanakya would have refrained from doing to achieve his purpose; he was unscrupulous enough; yet he was also wise enough to know that this very purpose might be defeated by means unsuited to the end. Long before Clausewitz, he is reported to have said that war is only a continuance of state policy by other means. But, he adds, war must always serve the larger ends of policy and not become an end in itself; the statesman's objective must always be the betterment of the state as a result of war, not the mere defeat and destruction of the enemy. If war involves both parties in a common ruin, that is bankruptcy of statesmanship. War must be conducted by armed forces, but much more important than the force of arms is the high strategy which saps the enemy's morale and disrupts his forces and brings about his collapse, or takes him to the verge of collapse, before armed attack.

Direction for [ Question No: 9 To 9 ] :

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The next morning, as I was about to leave the city, I saw peacocks on every tree, rock and hill. Their movements had the same peace, the same grace and the same beauty. As the evening shadows deepened, the air was filled with the song of peacocks. I thought they were there to both welcome and bid me farewell.

Whenever I recall that trip, my mind is filled with the images of those peacocks. I am surprised. Did I really see so many of them? Did the peacocks of Rajasthan actually come out to greet me? I wonder how they are now.

I try to imagine that city now, but all I can see is a picture of desolation. Shocked and disturbed, I am neither able to see the peacocks nor hear their song. Where have they all disappeared? In which corner of the world are they hiding? Suddenly, I have a vision of a lonely peacock on a distant hill. He seems battered and bruised. I walk quickly toward him but, before I can reach the hill, he rises into the sky screaming with terror and disappears.

Where has he gone? Where are his companions, those countless peacocks? Why is he sitting alone on that hill, the very picture of desolation? Why is he so despondent, so terrified? The sight of that dejected, bewildered peacock suddenly brings to mind another image of desolation that I had forgotten. On the far edge of a dark, oil-soaked sea, I see a forlorn duck covered with foul effluents, watching the waves in disbelief. Till yesterday, the sea was ambrosia, today it is poison. The wings of the duck are so heavy with slime that he can no longer fly. Poison flows through the veins in his body.

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

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For a few days, no one knew where Venkatashami had gone. Enquiries revealed that he had run away with the Dombara girl. The leader of the troupe came to the Gowda to express his grief and went back to the camp. There was nothing that anyone could do. Four days later, a Gowda from a village some five miles away was passing this way, and he brought Venkatashami and left him at his parents' house. The boy was burning with fever. It seems the girl was with him when he became ill. She had been taken home by her father and Venkatashami had been brought back seriously ill.

The boy did not recover from that illness. He was a handsome boy with an open face. Dark, yes, but attractive. The black of his skin, that of his eyes, and of his moustache were of three different shades. When he smiled, it was like a flash of lightning among the clouds. His body was so well-built, no hammer could break it. The fever that had caught hold of him seemed unwilling to let go of such a fine physique. They call the fever by the name typhoid now and can diagnose it in no time. But those days, nobody was aware of such things. All they knew was that something was wrong with the tongue. He was given the traditional medicines and kept on a local diet. A fortnight later, Venkatashami passed away. His delirious mind rambled and his talk was all about his meeting with the girl. Whenever he was conscious, he kept asking them to call her. It would have been all right if he had been married to her. His request would have been treated with understanding and sympathy, and she would have been sent for. But does one bring the girl who had led him astray to his bedside in these circumstances ?