UPSC Mains 2017 Management Optional Paper II questions

33 questions from the Civil Services (Main) Examination 2017. Official UPSC paper (PDF) · All Management Optional PYQs

A movie producer is bringing out a new movie. In order to map out his advertising campaign, he wants to determine whether the movie will appeal most to a particular age group or whether it will appeal equally to all age groups. The producer takes a random sample from persons attending the preview of the movie, and obtains the following results. Use 42 test to derive the conclusion (for 6 degrees of freedom and 5% significance level, x? critical value is 12:592)
10 marks
1000 lightbulbs with a mean life of 120 days are installed in a new company. Their length of life is normally distributed with a standard deviation of 20 days. How many bulbs will expire in less than 90 days? If it is decided to replace all the bulbs together, what interval should be allowed between group replacements if not more than 10% should expire before replacement?
10 marks
ABC Company buys its annual requirements of 36000 units in 6 instalments. Each unit costs ¥ 1 and the ordering cost is estimated as 20% of unit value. Find the total annual cost by the existing inventory policy. How much money can be saved by 'Economic Order Quantity' model?
5 marks
Explain DMAIC methodology in the context of Six Sigma Quality.
5 marks
Discuss the need and method of 'Rapid Application Development (RAD)'. How does it differ from the traditional 'System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)'?
10 marks
In this age of rapid technological change and IT enabled business processes, in what ways are the organisational elements such as organisational structures, business processes and work flows getting affected? Discuss.
10 marks
A company manufactures two products 'Alpha' and 'Beta'. Each unit of Alpha requires 1 hour of machining and 2 hours of skilled labour, whereas each unit of Beta uses 2 hours of machining and 1 hour of skilled labour. For the forthcoming month, the machining capacity is limited to 720 hours and the skilled labour is limited to 780 hours. Not more than 320 units of Alpha can be sold during a month. For the maximisation of profits, determine the optimal product mix and maximum profit. Unit contribution from Alpha is ¥ 6 and from Beta is? 4. Use Simplex method.
20 marks
Discuss the supply chain efficiency of 'Amazon.com' with special reference to international supply chain design.
15 marks
ITC had come up with a web-based initiative called e-choupal which offers the farmers information about products and services they can use to enhance farm productivity, improve price realisation and reduce transaction costs. Farmers can access local and global information on scientific farming practices, weather forecasts as well as market prices, all in Hindi at the village choupal. e-choupal also facilitates supply of farm inputs and purchase of commodities at their doorsteps. In order to overcome the constraints at the village level, this model is designed to provide service support through a lead farmer designated as e-choupal coordinator who acts as the interface between the computer system and the farmers. (i) How is e-choupal different from other agri-based portals? 3) (ii) What technological aspects should be considered while designing such a web-based system? 5) (iii) What factors would be critical to the success of such a venture? Discuss their role.
5 marks
Indian Railways, the world's largest railway, had introduced the Computerised Reservation System (CRS) in one location Delhi in 1986. Presently over 750 locations all over the country have CRS terminals and 97% of the reservations are done through this system. With increase in data load, the Indian Railways adopted a decentralised database system approach with the data spread over multiple mainframe computers installed at various places in the country. Later, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) introduced web-based ticketing through its web site http://www.irctc.co.in which links to the CRS at the back end for transactions. () What is data integration? How crucial is data integration for the Indian
How do we manage data integrity and data redundancy in a distributed data system like the Indian Railways CRS? ey (iii) What aspects would be critical to the successful running of such a big but distributed database system?
"Statistics are numerical statements of facts, but all facts stated numerically are not statistics." Clarify this statement and point out which numerical statements of facts are statistics.
10 marks
A company is setting up an assembly line to produce 192 units per 8-hour; shift. The following table identifies the work elements, times and immediate predecessors: Work element Time (in sec) Immediate predecessor(s) A 40 None
Total 720 (i) What is the desired cycle time (in seconds)? S (ii) What is the minimum number of stations? iS) (iii) Draw the precedence diagram. 5 (iv) What are the efficiency and balance delay of the solution found?
5 marks
The following are the monthly figures of advertising expenditure and sales of a company. It is found that advertising expenditure has impact on sales generally after 2 months. Allowing for this time lag, calculate the coefficient of correlation: 10 Advertising expenditure Sales
What do you mean by Type-I and Type-II errors? How are they interrelated? In which situations, you would not like to commit Type-I error?
5 marks
A project manager gathered important information for a new project which is —; given below
Draw the network diagram by Arrow-On-Node (AON) method. Calculate the expected time and variance for each activity. 5 (i) Calculate the activity slacks and determine the critical path using the expected activity times. 10 (iii) What is the probability of completing the project within 23 weeks?
5 marks
"ERP systems are usually based on best management practices." Comment on the practical implications of this statement.
15 marks
Are you in favour of government control over price and distribution through public distribution system? Justify your answer.
10 marks
In what way is the LPG era instrumental for the comprehensive growth and development of the nation?
10 marks
"Multi-cultural management is a challenging task in international business."
If a company starts acquiring unrelated businesses, in what ways should it change its structure and control mechanisms to manage the acquisitions?
10 marks
What strategic competencies are helping Maruti Suzuki to maintain its dominant position in the Indian Automobile Industry in spite of the fiercely competitive market? Discuss.
10 marks
"India has corporate giants, small-scale industrial units, medium and micro enterprises. Indian regulatory bodies and funding agencies are encouraged to support all these business houses of different sizes." In the light of the above statement, answer the following questions: (i) Discuss the policy of the Government of India towards small-scale industries. 10 (ii) What would be your suggestions for the congenial growth of all these segments of business?
10 marks
"Country risk analysis assumes that a country is a purposeful entity managed by a government." (i) Bring to light the major dimensions focussed in country risk analysis. 10 (ii) In what way is this analysis helpful to corporate houses?
10 marks
Should 'green' environmental issues form part of the corporate strategy ofa business? Discuss the pros and cons.
10 marks
"Ignorance of the consumer of her rights, lack of consumer movement and lack of due recognition to the consumer organisations have been some important factors which led to the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986." (i) Specify the consumer rights to be protected. 5 (ii) What sort of consumer movement has the Act contemplated? 5 (iii) Discuss the role of consumer organisations in consumer protection.
10 marks
How can service organisations internationalise themselves? What strategies would make them successful in their endeavour?
15 marks
Given the problems associated with prescriptive strategic change, why is it important and what can be done to better manage this process?
15 marks
One of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited has made criticisms against the Board of Management for the failure in corporate governance. (i) What reasons has he quoted for the failure of corporate governance? Are these reasons justifiable? 10 (ii) Specify the standards for good corporate governance.
10 marks
"Indian IT companies are successful in global business." () What reasons would you focus for their success? 10 (i) In what way is the Indian manufacturing hub lagging behind IT companies in satisfying global consumers?
10 marks
Why is it important for strategy makers to understand the difference between tangible and intangible assets? Which one is more important in creating - competitive advantage and why?
10 marks

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