SSC Stenographer 18th Nov 2022 Shift 2

With the second-largest population in the world, India is home to over 1.3 billion people. At an average of two children born per woman in 2018, the country’s birth rate stood at 18.6 for every thousand inhabitants. The average life expectancy has seen a consistent increase since the 1920s and was around 69 years in 2019. However, this was still lower than the global average of around 72 years. That same year, the country’s death rate was recorded at about 7.3 deaths for every thousand inhabitants. Infant mortality has also been on a steady decline over the years due to increased attention to providing special newborn care units, routine immunization and access to basic mother and child care facilities. Moreover, female infanticide and gender-selective abortions have seen a relative decline in the country ever since government regulations made such procedures illegal.
Despite these positive indicators, India had the highest number of undernourished people in the Asia pacific region. And even though undernourishment was largely seen among low income families, it was surprisingly also observed among Indians who were from higher socio - economic classes. Growing ast food consumption, unhealthy diet trends and an inactive lifestyle were some of the main contributing factors for this. A large-scale survey from 2019 found that 70 percent of Indian women and 59 percent Indian men were unhealthy based on their diet and lifestyle. Heart disease has been one of the leading causes of death in India for over two decades, along with an increasing propensity for cancer and diabetes.
India has made significant progress in reducing the number of vector-borne disease fatalities, but it remains a problem in many regions of the country. In 2020, the country recorded the highest number of malaria cases throughout the Asia Pacific region. Other life-threatening diseases that were prevalent in the country were dengue, typhoid, tuberculosis, and HIV - AIDS. Based on the passage above choose the correct option for the following questions.

Americans are looking to get out of town after a year of virus-related travel restrictions. Figuring out where they can go and what will be open when they get there remain tricky—for both would-be tourists and travel companies.

Signs that consumers are ready to travel again are growing, with rising searches for airfares and activity on booking sites. Travel companies are providing tools to help make sense of restrictions and spur bookings, but a hazy outlook for international trips suggests domestic destinations will see the strongest demand.

Diana Zucknick and her husband, Paul, visited 14 countries in the five years before Covid-19 caused them to hunker down at their Austin, Texas, home. Now that both are vaccinated, they are anxious to resume traveling.

As they sat down to plan travel, Ms. Zucknick said, they pondered questions they hadn’t considered before: Which countries will allow Americans in? Would they face a lengthy quarantine or be putting others at risk? How safe are layovers?

Hong Kong had been high on their list, she said, but the logistics of that trip amid current travel restrictions, including a 21-day quarantine requirement, seemed daunting. “There are so many variables,” she said. “Everything is up in the air.” Ms. Zucknick, 38 years old, has yet to make a booking. So far they have traveled only in Texas.

Market-research firm AirDNA, which tracks business on Airbnb Inc. and rival home-rental site Vrbo, said bookings made in the U.S. in February reached their highest monthly level since it began tracking the industry in 2015. Those figures included reservations for future stays. Based on the passage above choose the correct option for the following questions.