MAT 2005

Study the following passage carefully to answer the questions that follow each passage:

PASSAGE III:

An expert group has sounded a timely warning on what environmentally destructive tourism will mean to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and the objectives they are suppose to serve. Given the unique and rare wildlife the country has been endowed with, the rationale for using the resources for attracting tourists from abroad is unassailable. This necessarily postulates that the flora and the fauna should be protected and conserved. As a matter of fact much of the government's interest in wildlife preservation has to do with the tremendous prospect of tourist traffic on that account. Yet the risk of the revenue-earning motivation overrunning the conservation imperatives is very real, the lure of the coveted foreign exchange that goes with this business only serving to enhancing it several folds. Even with the tourist inflow far below the potential, the pressure of visitors is said to have been already felt on the tiger reserves. With the Government of India's declared intent to boost tourism quite justified for its own reasons, the need for eliminating the risk assumes a greater sense of urgency. The study team has noted that most of the 41 national parks and 165 wildlife sanctuaries surveyed are open to tourists. The less frequented among them may not require special attention immediately in this respect as much as the ones that are major tourists attraction do. These include the Sanjay Gandhi National park in Maharashtra, Nandankanan in Orissa, and Bannerghatta in Karnataka.Over a year ago, the Indian Board for wildlife expressed concern over the looming danger,and decided that the core areas of national parks and sanctuaries should be kept to tally free from biotic disturbances, and the visitors be permitted to view the wildlife only from are as marked out for the purpose. And now, the expert group has come up with the suggestion that a case by case evaluation be done of the capacity as well as the limitations of all the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and based on such assessment an area-specific plan for tourist promotion within the safety norms be charted. That this is the most scientific way of going about the job, and that there is no time to lose can be really conceded.

Study the following passage carefully to answer the questions that follow each passage:
PASSAGE IV :

We tend to be harsh on our bureaucracy, but nowhere do citizens enjoy dealing with their government. They do it because they have to. But that does not mean that the experience has to be dismal. Now there is a new wind blowing through government departments around the world, which could take some of this pain away. In the next five years it may well transform not only the way public services are delivered but also the fundamental relationship between governments and citizens. Not surprisingly, it is the internet that is behind it. After e-commerce and e-business, the next revolution may be e-governance.
Examples abound. The municipality of phoenix, Arizona, allows its citizens to renew their car registrations, pay traffic fines, replace lost identity cards etc. online without having to stand in endless queues in a grubby municipal office. The municipality is happy because it saves $ 5 a transaction - it costs only # 1.60 to process an online transaction versus $ 6.60 to do it across the counter. In Chile, people routinely submit their income tax returns over the Internet, which has reduced the time taken and the number of errors and litigation with the tax department. Both tax-payers and the revenue department are happier. The furthest ahead, not surprisingly, is the small, rich and entrepreneurial civil service of Singapore, which allows citizens to do more functions online than any other. As in many private companies, the purchasing and buying of Singapore's government department is now on the Web, and cost benefits come through more competitive bidding, easy access to global suppliers and time saved by online processing of orders. They can post their catalogues on their site, bid for contracts, submit invoices and check their payment status over the Net. The most useful idea for Indian municipalities is Government works, a private sector-run site that collects local taxes, fines and utility bills for 3,600 municipalities across the United States.It is a citizen's site, which also provides information on government jobs, tenders, etc. The most ambitious is the British government, which has targeted to convert 100 per cent of its transactions with its citizens to the internet by 2005. Cynics in India will say, ‘Oh, e-government will never work in India. We are so poor and we don't have computers. But they are wrong! There are many experiments afoot in India as well. Citizens in Andhra Pradesh can download government forms and submit applications on the net without having to bribe clerks. In many districts, land records are online and this has created transparency. Similarly, in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, villagers have begun to file applications for land transfers and follow their progress on the Net. In seventy villages in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra, Internet booths have come up where farmers can daily check the market rates of agricultural commodities in Martathi, along with data on agricultural schemes, information on crop technology, when to spray and plant their crops and bus and railway timetables. They also find vocational guidance on jobs, applications for ration cards, kerosene/gas burners and land record extracts with details of land ownership. Sam Pitroda's World Tel, Reliance Industries and the Tamil Nadu government are jointly laying 3,000 km of optic fibre cables to create a Tamil Network which will offer ration cards, schools, college and hospital admission forms, land records, and pension records. If successful, World Tel will expand the network to Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal. In Kerala, all the villages are getting linked online to the district headquarters, allowing citizens to compare the development priorities of their village with other villages in the State. Many are still sceptical of the real impact because of few Indians have computers. The answer lies in interactive cable TV and in Internet kiosks. Although India has only five million computers and thirty-eight million telephones, it has thirty-four million homes with cable TV and these are growing at eight percent a year. By 2005 most cable homes will have access to the Internet from many of the 700,000 local STD/PCR booths. Internet usage may be low today, but it is bound to grow rapidly in the future, and e-governance in India may not be a dream.

Critically examine the statements givenin italics against each question.