AP ICET 10th September 2020 Shift-2

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate phrase/verb/preposition:

Read the following passage and answer questions:

At 5 percent, India's economy registered a very slow gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for the April-June quarter 2019-20. The latest GDP growth rate heightened concerns about slowdown with some apprehending that recession might set in. However, the current GDP figures are no indication of any impending recession, which anyway does not have an accepted-by-all definition. But it generally refers to contraction of a country's economy in two consecutive quaters. In such situations. banks and other financial institutions fail. The US witnessed such a situation in 2008-09. In India, the economy is growing. Only the rate of growth has slowed down, which is a huge setback for the country as it requires an accelerated growth to provide employment to millions entering the job market every year. A slowdown in growth rate would tum the population dividend into an unmanageable burden. The current slide in GDP growth, for four consecutive quarters, is interspersed with a series of policy decisions. Two mega policy decisions, demonetisation in November 2016 and the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) in July 2017 disrupted the Indian economy. Aimed at greater formalisation of the Indian economy, the twin disruptions struck a big blow to the informal sectors that employ the maximum number of workforce. The policy disruption hangover still continues and is accentuated by the crisis in banking and non-banking financial sectors. This hit the small and medium scale businesses more adversely than expected in the wake of the collapse of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS). Money just stopped flowing into the market. The net result was a huge loss of jobs.