In 1993, with 1,039 branches covering almost half of Bangladesh’s

villages, the Bank served more than 1.8 million borrowers and
disbursed $169 million. By 1993, cumulative member savings
totaled over $218 million. Almost 94 percent of the Bank’s
members are poor women, accounting for nearly 70 percent of
savings mobilized, and receiving over 80 percent of the total loans
disbursed. Its loan recovery rate has been consistently over 90
percent compared with rates from 25 to 50 percent for other
financial institutions in Bangladesh. Contrary to common belief,
Grameen’s experience is that women are better credit risks with
higher loan recovery rates than men (97 percent compared to 89
percent in 1992), and that the dropout rate is lower for women
(15 percent) than for men (25 percent). The Grameen model is
being replicated in more than 30 countries and the World Bank
has provided a grant of $2 million for its replication in low-income
countries.

While sophisticated econometric analysis is underway, preliminary

analysis suggests that Grameen Bank has generated a number of
benefits both at the household and village level. At the household
level, the benefits from program participation include changes in
income, employment, assets accumulation, networth, and other
household welfare indicators (such as contraceptive use, school
enrollment of children, etc.). Program participation has enabled
members to enhance their assets and networth. For example, a
program participating household owns 56 percent more resources
and 51 percent more networth than a nonparticipating household.
Program participation has also increased calorie intake, especially
among female household members. The incidence of poverty is
substantially reduced among program participants. Labor force
participation, especially among women, is higher among
participants than nonparticipants; women’s labor force
participation is 66 percent among program participants compared
to 52 percent for non participants. The school participation rate of
girls is also higher for participants (57 percent) than for
nonparticipants (36 percent). Program participation also increases
the use of contraceptives, better toilet facilities, and better
drinking water. In addition, program placement generates income
gains for the poor as a whole through its impacts on the local
resource allocation. For example, the daily male wage is 23
percent higher in program villages compared with nonprogram
villages. Even after controlling for village characteristics, the study
finds that up to 11 percent of the 23 percent wage increase is due
to Grameen Bank program placement.
  The passage implies that:   
a.    access to credit is the not a problem for the rural poor.    
b.    the poor best know how to increase their income.    
c.    credit on practical terms is hard to come by.    
d.    the banks mobilize the poor.    
e.    Grameen banks offers guidelines to members for time
   
management.
Correct Answer: c.    credit on practical terms is hard to come
    
by.
Your Remark: NA
Q. 5.  DIRECTIONS for Questions:The passage given below is
followed by a set of questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to
each question.

In America, after the War of 1812, the sharply rising prices of

agricultural commodities pulled settlers westward to find more arable
land and become farmers. Between 1815 and 1819, commodity prices
climbed steeply, driving up land prices as well. Farmers took
advantage of the extensive river system of the West, shipping wheat
and corn down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and then down the
Mississippi to the port of New Orleans where it was sold or shipped to
distant ports. Due to the capabilities of the Eli Whitney’s newly
invented cotton gin, farmers rushed to claim lands in the southwest,
hoping to cash in on cotton. “Alabama fever” gripped the South after
the War of 1812, and settlers flowed into Alabama and Mississippi,
driving land prices to unprecedented levels. By 1820, Mississippi and
Alabama produced half of the nation’s cotton. The United States’ total
cotton output tripled between 1816 and 1826. Cotton continued to
rise in value as the nation’s primary export, and by 1836, made up
two-thirds of all American exports in terms of value. High prices
tempted many former subsistence farmers to enter the market
economy.

However, the agriculture and land boom collapsed temporarily in the

Panic of 1819. The state banks that had risen up to support
speculation and expansion financially had long issued notes
guaranteeing redemption for specie or gold. These notes had then
been widely circulated as a method of exchange throughout the West.
The state banks governed the issuance of these notes very loosely,
and thus issued notes far in excess of what they could realistically
redeem. In reaction to this situation, the Bank of the United States
began to insist that the state banks redeem all notes that had passed
into the hands of the Bank of the US, branches of which had been in
the practice of redeeming the notes themselves and amassing large
numbers of state bank notes which they assumed would be redeemed
by the state banks. In order to pay the Bank of the US, the state
banks had to demand payment of debts by the farmers of the
Midwest. The result was a vast restriction in the amount of circulating
money, and a substantial cutback in the amount of credit offered to
farmers and speculators, dramatically slowing the economy.