Comprehension
Two recent developments have brought India's reliance on fossil fuel into sharp focus. The Russia-Ukraine conflict and the consequent surge in crude oil prices roiled the economy. Separately, the most recent IPCC report on climate highlighted the energy sector's large contribution to global warming. Both these developments need to be located in the context of India's pledge to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2070. Meeting this pledge requires an overhaul of both the logistics and electricity sectors to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Transitioning to renewables in energy is an important part of the solution. Within renewables, solar energy has been lavished with policy support. However, it won't be enough to meet the targets. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, had written that India can't meet its net-zero commitment without nuclear power. He's right. It's an area where India was off to an early start, developed relatively high indigenous capabilities in relation to other sectors, but subsequently let the ball drop. Today, nuclear power contributes a mere 3% of the total electricity generated, and has a capacity of 6780 MW. After the early euphoria of the India-United States civil nuclear deal, progress has been disappointing. The deal did open the pathway to a stable supply of uranium ore from Kazakhstan and Canada. However, the design of the subsequent bill on civil liability for nuclear damage killed the prospect of participation of Western firms. India's main partner today is Russia. which side stepped the bill through inter-government agreements.
Question: 1

What is the central idea in the passage as conveyed by the author?

Updated On: Jul 14, 2026
  • India needs to increase use of nuclear power.
  • India needs to increase production of fossil fuels.
  • India needs to enter into multilateral agreements addressing use of nuclear power.
  • Nuclear energy is a renewable source of power.
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The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

The central idea question here asks what the passage is ultimately arguing for, not just what problem it opens with.

  1. Nuclear energy is a renewable source of power: The passage treats nuclear power as separate from the renewables discussion, solar is called out specifically as the renewable receiving policy support, so this claim misrepresents how the passage categorises nuclear energy.
  2. India needs to enter into multilateral agreements addressing use of nuclear power: The India-US deal and reliance on Russia are mentioned as history and context for why nuclear capacity has stalled, not as the passage's main proposed solution.
  3. India needs to increase production of fossil fuels: The passage opens precisely by identifying reliance on fossil fuels as the problem exposed by the oil price surge and the IPCC report, so more fossil fuel production is the opposite of what it argues.
  4. India needs to increase use of nuclear power: The author directly agrees that India can't meet its net-zero commitment without nuclear power, and spends the rest of the passage explaining India's stalled nuclear capacity as the reason this needs to change. This argument runs through the whole passage.

The correct answer is India needs to increase use of nuclear power.

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Question: 2

According to the author, which of the following measures will not help India achieve its pledge of net zero carbon emissions by 2070?

Updated On: Jul 14, 2026
  • Logistical changes
  • Changes in electricity sector
  • Reduction in use of solar power
  • Increase in use of nuclear power
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The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

We need the option that would work against, not for, India's 2070 net-zero pledge, per the passage.

  1. Increase in use of nuclear power: The passage argues directly that this is necessary, India can't meet its net-zero commitment without nuclear power, so this measure helps.
  2. Changes in electricity sector: Named explicitly, alongside logistics, as one of the two sectors requiring an overhaul to cut reliance on fossil fuels, so this helps too.
  3. Logistical changes: Also explicitly named as required for meeting the pledge, so this is part of the solution as well.
  4. Reduction in use of solar power: Solar is described as an important renewable that has received policy support precisely to help reduce fossil-fuel reliance. Cutting back on it would move India away from, not toward, its net-zero goal.

The correct answer is Reduction in use of solar power.

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Question: 3

According to the author, which of the following is not the effect of India's reliance on fossil fuels?

Updated On: Jul 14, 2026
  • Global warming
  • Increase in crude oil prices
  • Relations with Middle East
  • Less reliance on renewable sources of power
Show Solution

The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

We're checking each option against what the passage actually links to India's fossil fuel reliance.

  1. Less reliance on renewable sources of power: The passage shows renewables, solar needing extra policy support, nuclear stuck at a small share, being underdeveloped precisely because fossil fuels have dominated, so this is presented as a consequence.
  2. Increase in crude oil prices: Explicitly tied to the passage's opening point about the Russia-Ukraine conflict causing a price surge that hit the economy, connected to fossil-fuel dependence.
  3. Global warming: Directly cited through the IPCC report's finding on the energy sector's large contribution to global warming.
  4. Relations with Middle East: Nowhere in the passage is the Middle East, or India's relations with it, mentioned, the geopolitical discussion is limited to Russia-Ukraine and the India-US nuclear deal, so this cannot be counted as an effect the passage describes.

The correct answer is Relations with Middle East.

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Question: 4

According to the author, which of the following is the effect of the India-United States civil nuclear deal?

Updated On: Jul 14, 2026
  • Export-Import target with United States
  • Removal of bottlenecks for self-reliance in power generation
  • Nuclear Defence Pact with Kazakhstan
  • Self-reliance in Solar Power
Show Solution

The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

This question is about identifying the real-world consequence of the India-US civil nuclear deal, so it helps to first pin down what the deal actually did before checking the options.

  1. Export-Import target with United States: Trade targets are set through commerce and economic pacts, not through a nuclear cooperation agreement, so this is not an effect of the deal.
  2. Removal of bottlenecks for self-reliance in power generation: India had been locked out of the global nuclear trade for decades after 1974, which meant its power plants could not get adequate fuel or technology. The 2008 deal broke this isolation, letting India build up its nuclear power capacity on its own terms. This is the effect the author is pointing to.
  3. Nuclear Defence Pact with Kazakhstan: This mixes up a civil energy agreement with a military defence pact, and Kazakhstan is not even part of the India-US deal.
  4. Self-reliance in Solar Power: Solar energy is a completely different sector from nuclear energy, so it cannot be an effect of a nuclear deal.

The correct answer is Removal of bottlenecks for self-reliance in power generation.

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Question: 5

According to the author, Western firms lost the opportunity of doing business in the nuclear production in India because:

Updated On: Jul 14, 2026
  • They had to pay hefty penalties for delay in supply
  • They do not find nuclear power profitable
  • They do not agree with India's place of nuclear plants
  • They failed to circumvent internal laws by other bilateral instruments
Show Solution

The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

This question turns on a specific legal obstacle that discouraged Western nuclear suppliers from entering India, so each option needs to be checked against what that obstacle actually was.

  1. Hefty penalties for delay in supply: Delay penalties are routine contract clauses found in almost every large industrial project and were not the barrier unique to India's nuclear sector.
  2. Nuclear power not being profitable: Foreign suppliers were keen to enter India once the civil nuclear deal opened the market, so a lack of profit motive does not fit the situation.
  3. Disagreement over plant location: Plant siting is an internal regulatory decision of the host country; it is not a factor that determines whether a foreign supplier signs a contract.
  4. Failure to circumvent internal laws by other bilateral instruments: India's nuclear liability law made suppliers, not just operators, financially liable in case of an accident, unlike the global norm. Foreign firms tried to work around this through separate bilateral arrangements, but Indian domestic law still prevailed over these instruments, so the liability risk never went away.

The correct answer is They failed to circumvent internal laws by other bilateral instruments.

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Top Questions on Verbal Reasoning

Questions Asked in CLAT exam

Read the passage and answer the question.

Passage (extract): The work which Gandhiji had taken up was not only regarding the achievement of political freedom but also the establishment of a new social order based on truth and non-violence, unity and peace, equality and universal brotherhood and maximum freedom for all. A new order cannot be established without radically changing the mind and attitude of men towards property and, at some stage or the other, the 'haves' have to yield place to the 'have-nots'. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. It may even be that, like a gas kept confined within containers under great pressure, or water held back by a big dam, once the barrier breaks, the reaction will one day sweep back with a violence equal in extent and intensity to what was used to establish and maintain the outward egalitarian form. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. If egalitarianism is to endure, it has to be based not on the possession of the maximum material goods by a few or by all but on voluntary, enlightened renunciation of those goods which cannot be shared by others or can be enjoyed only at the expense of others.

According to the passage, egalitarianism will not survive if
View Solution
Read the passage and answer the question.

Passage (extract): The work which Gandhiji had taken up was not only regarding the achievement of political freedom but also the establishment of a new social order based on truth and non-violence, unity and peace, equality and universal brotherhood and maximum freedom for all. This unfinished part of his experiment was perhaps even more difficult to achieve than the achievement of political freedom. In the political struggle, the fight was against a foreign power and all one could do was either join it or wish it success and give it his/her moral support. In establishing a social order on this pattern, there was a strong possibility of a conflict arising between diverse groups and classes of our own people.

According to the passage, which was the unfinished part of Gandhi's experiment?
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Read the passage and answer the question.

Passage (extract): In the political struggle, the fight was against a foreign power and all one could do was either join it or wish it success and give it his/her moral support. Experience shows that man values his possessions even more than his life because in the former he sees the means for perpetuation and survival of his descendants even after his body is reduced to ashes. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. The root cause of class conflict is possessiveness or the acquisitive instinct.

Which of the following statements is 'not true' in the context of the passage?
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