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Difficulty: HardStatement and Assumptions

Read the given statement and the two assumptions that follow. Determine which of the assumptions is/are implicit in the statement.

Statement: In an effort to revitalize the local handloom sector, the State Government has issued a directive mandating that all uniforms for government school students must be procured exclusively from state-registered handloom cooperative societies.

Assumption I: State-registered handloom cooperative societies possess, or can develop, the production capacity required to fulfill the uniform requirements of all government schools in the state.
Assumption II: The local handloom sector is currently facing severe financial distress primarily due to intense competition from cheaper synthetic fabrics and power-loom industries.

Which of the following options is correct?

  1. Only assumption I is implicitAnswer
  2. B
    Only assumption II is implicit
  3. C
    Both assumptions I and II are implicit
  4. D
    Neither assumption I nor II is implicit
  5. E
    Either assumption I or II is implicit

Answer

The correct option is that only assumption I is implicit.
Assumption I is implicit because an exclusive procurement mandate logically requires the unstated premise that the designated suppliers are actually capable of meeting the entire demand. Without this assumption, the directive is nonsensical. Assumption II is not implicit because, although it describes a well-known real-world economic fact about the handloom sector, the statement does not strictly necessitate this specific cause for the sector's distress. The statement's logic holds true regardless of whether the distress is caused by power-looms, pandemics, or supply chain issues.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the core action and intended goal within the statement.
The government is mandating exclusive procurement of school uniforms from handloom cooperatives to revitalize the sector.
Understanding the precise action (exclusive mandate) and the goal (revitalization) is necessary to determine what conditions must be true for the statement to make sense.
2
Evaluate Assumption I against the statement's logic.
Assumption I is implicit.
For an authority to mandate that an item be procured *exclusively* from a specific group, it must logically assume that the group has the capability and capacity to fulfill that demand. If this were not assumed, the mandate would be practically impossible to execute.
3
Evaluate Assumption II against the statement's logic, taking care to ignore external knowledge.
Assumption II is not implicit.
The statement implies the sector needs revitalization, which suggests it is struggling. However, Assumption II claims a specific *cause* for this struggle (competition from synthetic fabrics and power-looms). While this may be a factual truth in the real world economy, the statement itself does not assume or require this specific cause. The sector could need revitalization for other reasons (e.g., lack of marketing, supply chain issues). Assuming the specific cause introduces external factual bias.

Key Concept

Distinguishing logically necessary underlying premises from external real-world factual knowledge (avoiding truth confusion traps).
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Topics

Statement and Assumptions

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