NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 150 of 149

Correct — C, the sentence about safety, security and sustainability of ALL SECTORS. The policy document says something narrower: 'Ensure safety, security and sustainability of aviation sector through the use of technology and effective monitoring.' Widening 'aviation sector' to 'all sectors' turns a civil aviation objective into a claim the policy never makes, and dropping 'effective monitoring' completes the alteration. That one-word change is what the examiner is testing, because the other three options are lifted from the policy as printed.

• (a)Establish an integrated eco-system which will lead to significant growth of civil aviation sector — This is the opening clause of the policy's first objective, word for word, so it is an objective and cannot be the answer.
• (b)To promote tourism, increase employment and lead to a balanced regional growth — This is the closing clause of that same first objective — the growth of the sector 'would promote tourism, increase employment and lead to a balanced regional growth'. The examiner has split one objective across two options.
• (d)Enhance regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development — This is the policy's third objective, reproduced exactly. It is the objective under which the regional connectivity scheme and its viability gap funding sit.

The National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 was approved by the Union Cabinet on 15 June 2016 and was India's first integrated civil aviation policy. Its vision was to make flying affordable for the masses, with targets of 30 crore domestic tickets by 2022 and 50 crore by 2027, international ticketing of 20 crore by 2027 and cargo volumes of 10 million tonnes by 2027. Its listed objectives run from building an integrated eco-system to promoting the whole aviation chain — cargo, maintenance and repair, general aviation, aerospace manufacturing and skills — in a harmonised way.

Read each option against the policy's own words rather than against what sounds sensible. All four sentences here are reasonable-sounding aims for a government; only one has been altered, and the alteration is a single phrase. That is the standard method for a policy-objectives item, and the defence against it is to hold two or three of the actual objectives verbatim. Anchored to the April 2017 examination, the policy was less than a year old; the regional connectivity scheme launched under it has since expanded the number of airports served, so present-day material will discuss outcomes rather than intentions.

• The National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 was approved by the Union Cabinet on 15 June 2016.
• Its second listed objective is to ensure safety, security and sustainability of the AVIATION sector through the use of technology and effective monitoring.
• Its first objective is an integrated eco-system for growth that promotes tourism, employment and balanced regional growth.
• Its third objective is to enhance regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development.
• Its vision set targets of 30 crore domestic tickets by 2022 and 50 crore by 2027, with cargo of 10 million tonnes by 2027.

• Accepting a sentence because the sentiment fits a government policy, without checking the scope words.
• Missing that one objective has been split across two options.
• Confusing the policy's vision targets with its objectives — the paper can test either.

Policy-objective items alter a single qualifier in one option; NDA has used the same technique on the Act East Policy in this very paper.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Civil Aviation Policy was approved by the Union Cabinet in

  • (a)2014
  • (b)2016
  • (c)2018
  • (d)2020

  Answer(b) 2016 — approved on 15 June 2016, India's first integrated civil aviation policy.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016, regional connectivity was to be enhanced mainly through

  • (a)Fiscal support and infrastructure development
  • (b)Higher passenger service fees
  • (c)Restricting foreign investment
  • (d)Closing loss-making airports

  Answer(a) Fiscal support and infrastructure development — the words of the policy's third objective.