PARAGRAPH,WORDS AND MEANINGS

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Topic of the day:-“Paved with big words”

The Central government is betting on a two pronged strategy, revealed this week, to rescue the economy from the slowdown. Along with recapitalisation of public sector banks, it announced a huge roads project, which will help scaleup public spending on infrastructure and boost job creation and growth. The plan is to spend almost ₹7 lakh crore to build 83,677 km of highways, traversing mostly the northern and eastern parts of the country, by March 2022. The government estimates that the Bharatmala Pariyojana, which constitutes a major component of this plan, could itself create as many as 14.2 crore man-days of work directly, in addition to permanent jobs after completion. The benefits to the economy are likely to be significant if the programme, as envisaged, manages to successfully connect 550 districts as well as coastal ports to national highways, among other things. While it is hard to quantify the likely economic benefits from the project, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari expects the contribution to GDP to be significant. With money flowing in from the government and market borrowings, funding is unlikely to be an issue. The same, however, cannot be said about the other familiar challenges in the infrastructure space. With this massive roads project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be banking on replicating, or even bettering, the National Highways Development Project of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. However, its success will depend largely on how the government tackles problems that have held back the implementation of infrastructure projects over the last couple of decades. While ₹2.09 lakh crore of the ₹5.35 lakh crore Bharatmala investment will be funded by market borrowings, over ₹1 lakh crore is expected to come in the form of private investments. Private infrastructure companies already reeling in the aftermath of aggressive past bids and leveraged balance sheets will need more clarity to be genuinely interested in such projects. This is an opportune time for the government to bring out of cold storage the blueprint for reviving public-private partnerships, prepared about two years ago by a panel headed by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar. Just as it isn’t clear why the government waited three years to unleash the full gamut of reforms needed to fix the banking sector’s bad loan mess, it is difficult to understand why little has moved on the PPP framework after the Kelkar report came in late-2015. The NDA government’s very first Budget allocated ₹500 crore to create a new body called 3P India to reboot the earlier PPP route that had left several projects stranded, with developers fleeing in the face of execution issues. That institution is still to see the light of day, while land acquisition reforms attempted in the NDA’s first year have also been abandoned. More attention is needed on these fronts to ensure this infrastructure ramp-up delivers, and on time.

MEANINGS AND WORDS

1) Pronged

Meaning: Each of the separate parts of an attack or operation, typically approaching a place or subject from different positions.

Example: The three main prongs of the government’s programme.

2) Scale

Meaning: The action of increasing in size or number; expansion.

Example: The massive scale-up of mosquito control measures has helped to dramatically reduce the global disease burden.

3) Traversing

Meaning: Travel across or through.

Example: He traversed the forest.

Synonym: Travel, Journey

4) Man-days

Meaning: A day regarded in terms of the amount of work that can be done by one person within this period.

Example: Thirty other reservists have volunteered more than 100 man-days over the same period of time.

5) Envisaged

Meaning: 1.1 Form a mental picture of (something not yet existing or known)

Example: He knew what he liked but had difficulty envisaging it.

Synonym: Foresee, Predict

6) Quantify

Meaning: Express or measure the quantity of.

Example: It is impossible to quantify the extent of the black economy.

Synonym: Quantification, Quantifying

7) Replicating

Meaning: Make an exact copy of; reproduce.

Example: It might be impractical to replicate Eastern culture in the west.

Synonym: Copy, Duplicate

Antonym: Original

8) Bettering

Meaning: Improve on or surpass (an existing or previous level or achievement)

Example: Bettering his previous time by ten minutes.

Synonym: Surpass, Improve on

Antonym: Ruin, Worse

9) Reeling

Meaning: Feel shocked, bewildered, or giddy.

Example: The Prime Minister was reeling from a savaging inflicted in the Commons.

Synonym: Shock, Dazed

Antonym: Aware

10) Aftermath

Meaning: The consequences or after-effects of a significant unpleasant event.

Example: Food prices soared in the aftermath of the drought.

Synonym: Repercussions, After-effects

Antonym: Cause, Origin

11) Leveraged

Meaning: Usually as adjective leveraged. Use borrowed capital for (an investment), expecting the profits made to be greater than the interest payable.

Example: A leveraged takeover bid.

12) Opportune

Meaning: (of a time) especially convenient or appropriate for a particular action or event.

Example: He couldn’t have arrived at a less opportune moment.

Synonym: Auspicious, Propitious

Antonym: Inappropriate, Inauspicious

13) Blueprint

Meaning: A design plan or other technical drawing.

Example: They are redrawing office blueprints to include large shared spaces.

Synonym: Plan, Design

14) Unleash

Meaning: Cause (a strong or violent force) to be released or become unrestrained.

Example: The failure of the talks could unleash more fighting.

Synonym: Release, Unloose

Antonym: Keep, Hold

15) Gamut

Meaning: The complete range or scope of something.

Example: The whole gamut of human emotion.

Synonym: Range, Spectrum

16) Mess

Meaning: A situation that is confused and full of problems.

Example: The economy is still in a terrible mess.

Synonym: Plight, Predicament

Antonym: Neatness, Order

17) Framework

Meaning: An essential supporting structure of a building, vehicle, or object.

Example: A conservatory in a delicate framework of iron.

Synonym: Frame, Substructure

18) Stranded

Meaning: Left without the means to move from somewhere.

Example: She offers a lift to a stranded commuter.

Synonym: Helpless, Without assistance

19) Fleeing

Meaning: Run away from a place or situation of danger.

Example: To escape the fighting, his family fled from their village.

Synonym: Run, Escape

Antonym: Face, Meet

20) Ramp-up

Meaning: An increase in quantity, pace, output, intensity, etc.; a boost.