English Comprehension PYQs

Below, a passage is given with Ten blanks labelled (A)-(E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Today, we’re starting by looking at the issue of work: how the pandemic has _________ (A) remote work, and what that might mean. Will we go to the office again – and, if so, how often? What impact will a __________ (B) way of working have on how we communicate, connect and create? Will work-from-home be the great leveler in terms of gender equality and diversity? And what will work mean if our offices are ___________ (C) and we lose those day-to-day social interactions? While much of the focus seems to be on work from home, it actually works from anywhere. In the last 12-18 months, for example, I have worked from the office, from home, from hotels, coffee shops, a hospital, beaches, marriage halls, moving cars, and airplanes. We will get to a model where people could potentially work from anywhere based on the job that they do at a given point in time. It’s ____________ (D) if the pandemic itself would go away, say, in a couple of months. If we are talking about changes in work arrangements over the next two years, that’s a pretty long time for us to have a change in our work patterns.

At least for the next two years, as we go through the cycle of lockdowns and containment, we will go in and out of work from home. What will happen once this is completely behind us? It’s a little bit hard to __________ (E), but yes, the possibility that some kinds of work can be done from home is nowhere to stay.

Below, a passage is given with Ten blanks labelled (A)-(E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Today, we’re starting by looking at the issue of work: how the pandemic has _________ (A) remote work, and what that might mean. Will we go to the office again – and, if so, how often? What impact will a __________ (B) way of working have on how we communicate, connect and create? Will work-from-home be the great leveler in terms of gender equality and diversity? And what will work mean if our offices are ___________ (C) and we lose those day-to-day social interactions? While much of the focus seems to be on work from home, it actually works from anywhere. In the last 12-18 months, for example, I have worked from the office, from home, from hotels, coffee shops, a hospital, beaches, marriage halls, moving cars, and airplanes. We will get to a model where people could potentially work from anywhere based on the job that they do at a given point in time. It’s ____________ (D) if the pandemic itself would go away, say, in a couple of months. If we are talking about changes in work arrangements over the next two years, that’s a pretty long time for us to have a change in our work patterns.

At least for the next two years, as we go through the cycle of lockdowns and containment, we will go in and out of work from home. What will happen once this is completely behind us? It’s a little bit hard to __________ (E), but yes, the possibility that some kinds of work can be done from home is nowhere to stay.

Below, a passage is given with Ten blanks labelled (A)-(E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Today, we’re starting by looking at the issue of work: how the pandemic has _________ (A) remote work, and what that might mean. Will we go to the office again – and, if so, how often? What impact will a __________ (B) way of working have on how we communicate, connect and create? Will work-from-home be the great leveler in terms of gender equality and diversity? And what will work mean if our offices are ___________ (C) and we lose those day-to-day social interactions? While much of the focus seems to be on work from home, it actually works from anywhere. In the last 12-18 months, for example, I have worked from the office, from home, from hotels, coffee shops, a hospital, beaches, marriage halls, moving cars, and airplanes. We will get to a model where people could potentially work from anywhere based on the job that they do at a given point in time. It’s ____________ (D) if the pandemic itself would go away, say, in a couple of months. If we are talking about changes in work arrangements over the next two years, that’s a pretty long time for us to have a change in our work patterns.

At least for the next two years, as we go through the cycle of lockdowns and containment, we will go in and out of work from home. What will happen once this is completely behind us? It’s a little bit hard to __________ (E), but yes, the possibility that some kinds of work can be done from home is nowhere to stay.

Below, a passage is given with Ten blanks labelled (A)-(E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Today, we’re starting by looking at the issue of work: how the pandemic has _________ (A) remote work, and what that might mean. Will we go to the office again – and, if so, how often? What impact will a __________ (B) way of working have on how we communicate, connect and create? Will work-from-home be the great leveler in terms of gender equality and diversity? And what will work mean if our offices are ___________ (C) and we lose those day-to-day social interactions? While much of the focus seems to be on work from home, it actually works from anywhere. In the last 12-18 months, for example, I have worked from the office, from home, from hotels, coffee shops, a hospital, beaches, marriage halls, moving cars, and airplanes. We will get to a model where people could potentially work from anywhere based on the job that they do at a given point in time. It’s ____________ (D) if the pandemic itself would go away, say, in a couple of months. If we are talking about changes in work arrangements over the next two years, that’s a pretty long time for us to have a change in our work patterns.

At least for the next two years, as we go through the cycle of lockdowns and containment, we will go in and out of work from home. What will happen once this is completely behind us? It’s a little bit hard to __________ (E), but yes, the possibility that some kinds of work can be done from home is nowhere to stay.

Below, a passage is given with Ten blanks labelled (A)-(E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Today, we’re starting by looking at the issue of work: how the pandemic has _________ (A) remote work, and what that might mean. Will we go to the office again – and, if so, how often? What impact will a __________ (B) way of working have on how we communicate, connect and create? Will work-from-home be the great leveler in terms of gender equality and diversity? And what will work mean if our offices are ___________ (C) and we lose those day-to-day social interactions? While much of the focus seems to be on work from home, it actually works from anywhere. In the last 12-18 months, for example, I have worked from the office, from home, from hotels, coffee shops, a hospital, beaches, marriage halls, moving cars, and airplanes. We will get to a model where people could potentially work from anywhere based on the job that they do at a given point in time. It’s ____________ (D) if the pandemic itself would go away, say, in a couple of months. If we are talking about changes in work arrangements over the next two years, that’s a pretty long time for us to have a change in our work patterns.

At least for the next two years, as we go through the cycle of lockdowns and containment, we will go in and out of work from home. What will happen once this is completely behind us? It’s a little bit hard to __________ (E), but yes, the possibility that some kinds of work can be done from home is nowhere to stay.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

​​​​The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Council of Heads of State meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, marked the first time India chaired the summit of regional countries. India became a full SCO member in 2017, along with Pakistan. The government has held that joining the originally Eurasian group was important as member countries make up a third of the global GDP, a fifth of global trade, a fifth of global oil reserves, and about 44% of natural gas reserves. Also important is its focus on regional security and connectivity — areas key to India’s growth and making up its challenges, such as terrorism in Pakistan, and Chinese aggressions as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. Being “inside the tent” is important, especially as Pakistan is a member, even if that means conducting joint exercises under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The SCO also gives India an _____ with Central Asian markets and resources. Finally, joining the SCO was a key part of India’s stated ambitions on “multi-alignment” and “strategic autonomy” while becoming a “balancing power” in the world, and it seems no coincidence that the Modi government joined the revived Quad with the U.S., Japan, and Australia in the same year that it took up the full SCO membership. Over the past year, this has become an economic necessity as India has chosen to be neutral in the Ukraine war, benefiting from fuel and fertilizer purchases from Russia.

Therefore, it was expected that India’s turn to chair the SCO this year would be a major event, rivaling the expected pomp around the G-20 meeting in September. In addition, given Russia’s and China’s blocks on the G-20 joint communiqué that India is keen to find consensus on, the SCO summit would have been a convenient venue for Mr. Modi to negotiate a resolution with his counterparts. However, India’s decision to postpone the SCO summit due to the Prime Minister’s U.S. State visit, and then to turn it into a virtual summit may have been a dampener on the SCO outcomes. India’s concerns with hosting Xi Jinping given the LAC hostilities, or Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif’s possible ‘grandstanding’, or even the optics of welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been factors. Whatever the reason, while the members hammered out a New Delhi declaration and joint statements on radicalization and digital transformation, the government was unable to forge consensus on other agreements including one on making English a formal SCO language, while India, despite being Chair, did not endorse a road map on economic cooperation, presumably due to concerns over China’s imprint. With its SCO chairpersonship ending, the government may now be feeling the law of diminishing returns over its SCO engagement — one that might make its task of hosting the G-20 even more difficult.