factual recall Questions

The other day I received an unusual and very gratifying gift: I was given a tree or rather, I was given half-a-dozen trees which would be planted on my behalf. I had been invited to give a talk at an organisation. After such events the speaker is usually given a token gift. Sometimes the gift is that of a pen, or something useful. Often, the gift is in the form of a plaque or a similar token. However well-meant, such gifts are destined to gather dust in forgotten corners. Which is why I was agreeably surprised to be given a scroll which attested that, on a designated plantation established for the purpose, trees would be added in my name as part of the ‘green’ movement sponsored by the organisation.
In an increasingly environment conscious world, the gift of a living tree or plant makes for a perfect present. The tradition of giving and receiving gifts has increasingly become a highly evolved marketing exercise. Apart from festivals like Diwali, Holi, Christmas, Eid and others, a whole new calendar of celebration events has been created to promote the giving of gifts: Mother’s Day, Father’s day, Teacher’s day, Valentine’s Day and so on.
What do you give to people — friends, relatives, spouses, children, parents, employees, clients, well-wishers who more or less have everything or at least everything that you could afford to give them as a gift?
Another box of chocolates? Another bottle of scent or after-shave? Another shirt or a kurta? Another another?
Thinking of unusual and pleasing presents which are also affordable is a full-time job. Like wedding planners and planners of theme parties, gift planners who select and make up gift packages for you to give on occasions like marriages and corporate events—are doing increasingly good business.
However, the best planned gifts of mine and thine often go awry. How often particularly during the so called ‘festive seasons’ when gift giving and gift receiving reach epidemic proportions— have you had the embarrassing experience of getting back as a present a gift you yourself had given to someone who, having no use for it and not realising that it was you who had gifted it to begin with had unwittingly returned your gift to you? Like musical chairs, musical gifts only too often go round and round.
This is true not only at the individual but also at the level of the state. Diplomatic protocol also demands exchange of gifts according to culture and tradition. Such tokens like the numbers of crudely made miniature Taj Mahals that India has presented to the reluctant hands of foreign guests must fill entire godowns across the globe.
How much more preferable a living tree than a crude model of the Taj possibly made of marble from an unauthorised quarry? If the giving of tree sapling were to be institutionalised, it could lead to another green revolution in the lucrative and growing field of gift giving, with a new, eco-friendly industry taking root in plantations and nurseries specially created for the purpose. People could feel good looking at the certificate that trees had been planted in their names. Next birthday, give someone you love a tree and one day the two of you might sit under the shade of the same tree

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as an occasion for giving gifts?

The other day I received an unusual and very gratifying gift: I was given a tree or rather, I was given half-a-dozen trees which would be planted on my behalf. I had been invited to give a talk at an organisation. After such events the speaker is usually given a token gift. Sometimes the gift is that of a pen, or something useful. Often, the gift is in the form of a plaque or a similar token. However well-meant, such gifts are destined to gather dust in forgotten corners. Which is why I was agreeably surprised to be given a scroll which attested that, on a designated plantation established for the purpose, trees would be added in my name as part of the ‘green’ movement sponsored by the organisation.
In an increasingly environment conscious world, the gift of a living tree or plant makes for a perfect present. The tradition of giving and receiving gifts has increasingly become a highly evolved marketing exercise. Apart from festivals like Diwali, Holi, Christmas, Eid and others, a whole new calendar of celebration events has been created to promote the giving of gifts: Mother’s Day, Father’s day, Teacher’s day, Valentine’s Day and so on.
What do you give to people — friends, relatives, spouses, children, parents, employees, clients, well-wishers who more or less have everything or at least everything that you could afford to give them as a gift?
Another box of chocolates? Another bottle of scent or after-shave? Another shirt or a kurta? Another another?
Thinking of unusual and pleasing presents which are also affordable is a full-time job. Like wedding planners and planners of theme parties, gift planners who select and make up gift packages for you to give on occasions like marriages and corporate events—are doing increasingly good business.
However, the best planned gifts of mine and thine often go awry. How often particularly during the so called ‘festive seasons’ when gift giving and gift receiving reach epidemic proportions— have you had the embarrassing experience of getting back as a present a gift you yourself had given to someone who, having no use for it and not realising that it was you who had gifted it to begin with had unwittingly returned your gift to you? Like musical chairs, musical gifts only too often go round and round.
This is true not only at the individual but also at the level of the state. Diplomatic protocol also demands exchange of gifts according to culture and tradition. Such tokens like the numbers of crudely made miniature Taj Mahals that India has presented to the reluctant hands of foreign guests must fill entire godowns across the globe.
How much more preferable a living tree than a crude model of the Taj possibly made of marble from an unauthorised quarry? If the giving of tree sapling were to be institutionalised, it could lead to another green revolution in the lucrative and growing field of gift giving, with a new, eco-friendly industry taking root in plantations and nurseries specially created for the purpose. People could feel good looking at the certificate that trees had been planted in their names. Next birthday, give someone you love a tree and one day the two of you might sit under the shade of the same tree

What is customarily gifted to a guest speaker by organisations?

The other day I received an unusual and very gratifying gift: I was given a tree or rather, I was given half-a-dozen trees which would be planted on my behalf. I had been invited to give a talk at an organisation. After such events the speaker is usually given a token gift. Sometimes the gift is that of a pen, or something useful. Often, the gift is in the form of a plaque or a similar token. However well-meant, such gifts are destined to gather dust in forgotten corners. Which is why I was agreeably surprised to be given a scroll which attested that, on a designated plantation established for the purpose, trees would be added in my name as part of the ‘green’ movement sponsored by the organisation.
In an increasingly environment conscious world, the gift of a living tree or plant makes for a perfect present. The tradition of giving and receiving gifts has increasingly become a highly evolved marketing exercise. Apart from festivals like Diwali, Holi, Christmas, Eid and others, a whole new calendar of celebration events has been created to promote the giving of gifts: Mother’s Day, Father’s day, Teacher’s day, Valentine’s Day and so on.
What do you give to people — friends, relatives, spouses, children, parents, employees, clients, well-wishers who more or less have everything or at least everything that you could afford to give them as a gift?
Another box of chocolates? Another bottle of scent or after-shave? Another shirt or a kurta? Another another?
Thinking of unusual and pleasing presents which are also affordable is a full-time job. Like wedding planners and planners of theme parties, gift planners who select and make up gift packages for you to give on occasions like marriages and corporate events—are doing increasingly good business.
Hyper, the best planned gifts of mine and thine often go awry. How often particularly during the so called ‘festive seasons’ when gift giving and gift receiving reach epidemic proportions— have you had the embarrassing experience of getting back as a present a gift you yourself had given to someone who, having no use for it and not realising that it was you who had gifted it to begin with had unwittingly returned your gift to you? Like musical chairs, musical gifts only too often go round and round.
This is true not only at the individual but also at the level of the state. Diplomatic protocol also demands exchange of gifts according to culture and tradition. Such tokens like the numbers of crudely made miniature Taj Mahals that India has presented to the reluctant hands of foreign guests must fill entire godowns across the globe.
How much more preferable a living tree than a crude model of the Taj possibly made of marble from an unauthorised quarry? If the giving of tree sapling were to be institutionalised, it could lead to another green revolution in the lucrative and growing field of gift giving, with a new, eco-friendly industry taking root in plantations and nurseries specially created for the purpose. People could feel good looking at the certificate that trees had been planted in their names. Next birthday, give someone you love a tree and one day the two of you might sit under the shade of the same tree

What was the speaker's unusual gift?

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.Hunger is an emotive word. Most of us reading this are fortunate to have enough to eat. We find the idea that the other people live in hunger deeply unsettling. Hence, it is also unsettling that the well-publicised 2022 Global Hunger Index has ranked India at 107 out of 121 countries. It has ranked India behind North Korea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria and Congo. This doesn't seem to make much sense. But people don't really like digging through the actual reports and methodology. They read the headline and comment on that and move on.The GHI report is jointly released by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, non-government organisations from Ireland and Germany, respectively. Both are good organisations with long and reputed track records. The report is a 60-page beautiful PDF document, with its heart in the right place. The formatting and language are perfect. It has beautiful pictures, such as of African farm women holding vegetables.At the same time, its rankings are highly questionable. Four criteria are used to determine the final index: prevalence of undernourishment, child stunting rate, child wasting rate, and child mortality. Thus, three of the four criteria are related to children. Child stunting rate is defined as the percentage of children that are two standard deviations below the reference height for a 5-year-old. Child wasting rate is defined as the percentage of children that are two standard deviations below the reference weight for a 5-year-old. The argument is that if our children are not tall enough or do not weigh enough, it is an indicator of national hunger. It is in these parameters that India scored poorly, hence the slippage in rank.The GHI report takes India's data from our own National Family Health Survey 2019-21. This in turn is prepared by the health and family welfare ministry, by surveying a sizable sample of over 61 lakh households. In this 700-plus page survey report also, there is data for India's child stunting and child wasting rates. It says 36% of Indian kids are stunted and 19% of the children are wasted. These are some of the highest values in the world. Plug these into the GHI criteria spreadsheet, India ranks low, behind even North Korea. We are a starving nation! Which of the following countries is NOT mentioned as better than India in GHI?

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.Hunger is an emotive word. Most of us reading this are fortunate to have enough to eat. We find the idea that the other people live in hunger deeply unsettling. Hence, it is also unsettling that the well-publicised 2022 Global Hunger Index has ranked India at 107 out of 121 countries. It has ranked India behind North Korea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria and Congo. This doesn't seem to make much sense. But people don't really like digging through the actual reports and methodology. They read the headline and comment on that and move on.The GHI report is jointly released by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, non-government organisations from Ireland and Germany, respectively. Both are good organisations with long and reputed track records. The report is a 60-page beautiful PDF document, with its heart in the right place. The formatting and language are perfect. It has beautiful pictures, such as of African farm women holding vegetables.At the same time, its rankings are highly questionable. Four criteria are used to determine the final index: prevalence of undernourishment, child stunting rate, child wasting rate, and child mortality. Thus, three of the four criteria are related to children. Child stunting rate is defined as the percentage of children that are two standard deviations below the reference height for a 5-year-old. Child wasting rate is defined as the percentage of children that are two standard deviations below the reference weight for a 5-year-old. The argument is that if our children are not tall enough or do not weigh enough, it is an indicator of national hunger. It is in these parameters that India scored poorly, hence the slippage in rank.The GHI report takes India's data from our own National Family Health Survey 2019-21. This in turn is prepared by the health and family welfare ministry, by surveying a sizable sample of over 61 lakh households. In this 700-plus page survey report also, there is data for India's child stunting and child wasting rates. It says 36% of Indian kids are stunted and 19% of the children are wasted. These are some of the highest values in the world. Plug these into the GHI criteria spreadsheet, India ranks low, behind even North Korea. We are a starving nation! In which country is the organisation Welthungerhilfe based?