Direction (Qs.1 to 10): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. There are some blanks given in the passage based on which some questions are framed, and some words are highlighted as well to help you answer some of the questions.

Whenever I discuss my research on Indian millennials, most people assume that I’m talking about the social-media addicted youth they see in Delhi or Mumbai, glued to their smartphones and in pursuit of instant _____ (A). While that image might fit a very small minority of millennials, reality tells a starkly different story. Born between 1981 and 1996, millennials grew up in an India in the midst of rapid social, cultural, and economic change. (B) The forces of economic liberalization (a), introduced in 1984, but unprecedented (b) in 1991, changed the nature of the Indian economy and ushered (c) in unleashed (d) levels of foreign investment, which is why we are told that liberalization ‘transformed’ India. (C) But as I’ve spent the last two years /essentially camped out in India’s small town and cities, /my assumptions on the advertised benefits of liberalization /have been fundamentally challenged. Textbook economic theory of greater investment, an increase in white collar jobs, and the entry of multinationals appears to have limited weight and impact outside India’s metropolitan cities. And for older millennials—born in the early 1980s and now on the other side of 35—while liberalization encouraged incredible aspirations and the promise of opportunity, the avenues to _____ (D) them were few. I see this most clearly in my field work in Madhya Pradesh. In the winter of 2018, I spent weeks in the state during its assembly elections. (E) As I travelled (a) to town after town, one sight had become eerily familiar to me: hordes of young and middle-aged people, mostly (b) men, spending their time at public squares, seeming (c) unemployed and disengaged (d) from economic activity. Jabalpur is considered one of Madhya Pradesh’s economic centres. (F) At the time of independence, it was a vibrant industrial hub of central India, _____. I expected to find a thriving working class population given the city’s history as a manufacturing hub. Instead, I encountered a city of more than one million people in decline. As I shadowed local candidates canvassing for votes, the biggest issues raised to me were the ongoing agricultural crisis and unemployment. (G) The youth I met broadly (a) came from two groups: rural labour who were not currently (b) needed on the farm, and downturn (c) workers who were laid off due to the economic contractual (d). Both were casualties of liberalization. (H) Today’s Jabalpur is a shadow of its former self, largely /because liberalization created disproportionate growth in the services industry/— encouraged by globalization-fuelled cost arbitrage/—instead of manufacturing, which absorbs more people/.) It is remarkable how the manufacturing sector’s contribution to India’s GDP has remained unchanged since liberalization.

(I) But the cruelty of their situation is exacerbated by the fact that as a whole, _____. An intensive focus on increasing enrolment at the school level, along with an increase in the access to public and private higher education has created millions of degree-holders who are either unemployed or employed in positions which are not commensurate with their qualifications. (J) Although this labour liberalization (a) is also a product of the quality of education attained (b), which leaves a lot to be desired, neither the promise (c) of education nor undervaluation (d) has provided them with well-paid and stable employment. One evening after campaigning had finished, I was at a snack stall where I began talking to the owner, a 32-year-old civil engineer and first generation graduate. After he was laid off from a construction company four years ago, no one was willing to hire him and he could not move elsewhere because he had to look after his ailing parents. So he opened a snack stall, which sells pakoras, kachoris and tea. After expenses, he brings home about Rs.5,000 every month. His wife, a librarian at a private school, makes Rs.12,000, which is how the family primarily sustains itself.