Direction: Read the following passage carefully and answer the following questions.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has kicked off the process to set new standards to measure quality of services offered to consumers across different sectors, including telecom, aviation, e-commerce and healthcare.
The BIS, which sets the quality regulations for various products from gold to bottled water, on Friday called a meeting of industry bodies to “persuade them to be part of the process and give their inputs.”
“Service sector is one of the key sectors of the Indian economy with a huge potential to grow into one of the largest markets of the world. Standards can play a major facilitative role in this regard. It is important that the standardization needs and priorities of the sector are determined,” a senior official said.
During the meeting, the BIS pointed out that the initial focus will be the 12 champion services sectors identified by the government. These include IT, tourism and hospitality, transport and logistics, accounting and finance services, legal services, communication services and construction.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards is set to formulate a framework for quality services that should be provided to consumers and also talk about the benchmarks to deal with consumer complaints or after sales service in an effort to ensure quality in the services sector.
At a meeting with industry bodies on Friday, it has been decided that the BIS will set up a separate ‘divisional council’ for services in a month’s time. Under this, different technical committees will be set up — one for each service. The committees will have various stakeholders such as government officials, experts and industry representatives.
The process was initiated after concerns over lack of standardization, particularly with regards to after-sales service, in their feedback to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
In a poll, online community network Local Circles found that in the absence of defined customer service standards in the country, a majority of consumers were not happy with after-sales services. As per the poll, 43% feel that mobile handset and computer manufacturers are the worst in after-sales services, followed by white goods firms (38%) and automobile companies (11%). About 93% of respondents said brands should at least acknowledge complaints from users within 72 hours. “Many consumers complained that customer service numbers of many companies do not work,” according to Local Circles.
Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following is the main reason of initiating the standardization drive of the Bureau of Indian Standards for the services sector?
Explanation
Refer to, “Service sector is one of the key sectors of the Indian economy with a huge potential to grow into one of the largest markets of the world. Standards can play a major facilitative role in this regard. It is important that the standardization needs and priorities of the sector are determined,” a senior official said.”
It is very clear from the above lines that the government is of the view that there should be standardization in the sector so that this fastest growing sector can be developed properly in the country. Among the given options, statement A may be true but only because a sector is contributing to GDP cannot be considered for the sole ground for initiating standardization drive in this sector. Statements C and D are irrelevant in the context of the passage whereas statement E is not relevant for this particular standardization initiative of the government.
Hence, Option B is the right choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following will be framework for standardization initiative of the Bureau of Indian Standards with regard to the services sector?
Explanation
Refer to, “At a meeting with industry bodies on Friday, it has been decided that the BIS will set up a separate ‘divisional council’ for services in a month’s time. Under this, different technical committees will be set up — one for each service. The committees will have various stakeholders such as government officials, experts and industry representatives.”
It is very clear that the BIS will set up a different division for the purpose of standardization drive in the services sector with technical committees being set up to oversee the technical aspects of such sectors. These committees will have various stakeholders such as the government officials, experts and industry people.
Among the given options, only option C describes this framework of implementing the standardization drive of the BIS in the services sector.
Hence, option C is the right choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following is true regarding the standardization drive to be initiated by the Bureau of Indian Standards?
I. It will focus on the services sector and all the services will be focused under this new initiative
II. The main reason for initiating this drive is the servicing post sales of any product
III. This standardization will focus on framing a benchmark for the quality of service in the country
Explanation
Refer to, "During the meeting, the BIS pointed out that the initial focus will be the 12 champion services sectors identified by the government."
It means that statement I is incorrect since the initial focus will be on 12 sectors belonging to the service sector and these sectors have also been identified by the Government as the champion sectors of the economy. The focus will not be on all the sectors of the economy.
Refer to, "The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards is set to formulate a framework for quality services that should be provided to consumers and also talk about the benchmarks to deal with consumer complaints or after sales service in an effort to ensure quality in the services sector."
It implies that the BIS wants to develop a framework in which there will be main focus on the consumer complaints regarding the after sales service concerning any product. The customers should not complaint about the servicing after buying any product, this is the main objective of the new framework. This makes Statement II correct.
According to the above lines, it is also true that the new standardization drive is meant to create a benchmark for service sector in after sales service of any product. This makes Statement III also correct.
This makes option A the right choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following is true regarding the poll conducted by the community network LocalCircles regarding customer service in India?
I. The mobile phone manufacturers are mostly interested in selling the products without giving much attention to the after sales service
II. Many sectors in India are facing the issue of after sales service in the country and nothing is being done to take care of this issue
III. It is important that the complaints of the customers should be acknowledged first by the service providers
Explanation
Refer to, “In a poll, online community network LocalCircles found that in the absence of defined customer service standards in the country, a majority of consumers were not happy with after-sales services. As per the poll, 43% feel that mobile handset and computer manufacturers are the worst in after-sales services, followed by white goods firms (38%) and automobile companies (11%). About 93% of respondents said brands should at least acknowledge complaints from users within 72 hours. “Many consumers complained that customer service numbers of many companies do not work,” according to LocalCircles.”
Statement I is correct since it is clear from the passage that mobile phone manufacturers are the worst service providers in the country according to the online poll conducted by the Local Circles.
Statement II is also correct since according to the poll, there are many sectors such as mobile, automobile, white goods firms etc. which are facing issues related to the after sales services to the customers.
Statement III is correct since most of the customers feel that the service providers should at least acknowledge the complaints from the customers. 93% of the respondents in the online poll replied that the complaints should be acknowledged within 72 hours.
This makes option E as the correct choice from the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following is the appeal made by the Bureau of Indian Standards to the industry bodies in the country?
Explanation
Refer to, “The BIS, which sets the quality regulations for various products from gold to bottled water, on Friday called a meeting of industry bodies to “persuade them to be part of the process and give their inputs.”
It is clear from the above passage that the Bureau of Indian Standards wants the industry bodies to be part of the process of standardization drive to be launched by the organization regarding the services sectors. The organization wants the industry bodies to share their views regarding the benchmark that will be created by the BIS.
Among the given options, statements B and C are incorrect since they are about asking the industry bodies to take care of the customer complaints in any way possible whereas the passage is about the BIS developing new benchmark for standards. Statement D is also not correct since it is completely irrelevant in the given context.
Only statement A implies the appeal that was made by the BIS to the industry bodies.
This makes option A the correct choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following prompted the BIS to take up the issue of lack of standards in the services sector in the country?
Explanation
Refer to, “The process was initiated after concerns over lack of standardization, particularly with regards to after-sales service, in their feedback to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.”
It is clear from the above passage that the Bureau of Indian Standards sprang into action mainly after the report from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs that the feedback regarding the quality of service in the services sector is going down day by day and there is lack of any standard protocol in this regard in the sector.
Among the given options, statement A may seem true but it is not about the overall development that the government has wanted BIS to take care of since that is not the objective of the organization. Statements B, D and E are completely out of context since they have not been referred to anywhere in the passage.
This makes option C the right choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following is SIMILAR in meaning to the word ‘Persuade’ as used in the passage?
Explanation
The given word has been used in the sense that the industries bodies are to be convinced by the BIS to join this standardization drive being launched by BIS to ensure quality of services in the services sector in the country.
Among the given options, only D implies the similar meaning. A, B and C all are out of context according to the implication of the word in the given passage.
This makes option D the right choice among the given options.
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Question for Reading Comprehension Passage: 91
Try yourself:Which among the following is opposite in meaning to the word ‘acknowledge’ as used in the passage?
Explanation
The given word has been used in the sense that the service providers should at least confirm the receipt of any complaint on the part of the customers to the companies and according to the poll, 93% of the respondents are of the view that service providers do not acknowledge it even.
Among the given options, reject and deny will imply that something has been seen but not accepted. Neglect implies failure to do something whereas greet means to welcome somebody and this is opposite in meaning to the given word. Only overlook fits in the given context as the opposite of the given word.
Clearly, option D is the correct choice.
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