Management UPSC PYQ 2016

Explain with examples the concept of financial risk and return.

Discuss some of the important pre-requisites for successful e-governance. Explain how can e-government improve citizen participation in public affairs.

Describe the steps in strategic evaluation and control process.

A multiple-choice quiz has 200 questions, each with four possible answers, of which only one is the correct answer. What is the probability that sheer guesswork yields from 25 to 30 correct answers for 80 of the 200 questions about which the student has no knowledge ?

How will you assess the training need of different categories of employees in a government organization?

Explain Waterfall approach to system development life cycle (SDLC). Discuss its strengths and weaknesses.

To balance the line with a 60 second cycle time, what is the theoretical minimum number of work stations required ? A 7 hour day is worked.

Discuss the merits and demerits of online payment systems and the legal and ethical issues of online business.

Discuss three Human Resource Management challenges faced in the 21st Century.

What do you understand by 'Corporate policy' ? How is it different from 'Business policy' ?

A company manufactures two kinds of machines, each requiring different manufacturing techniques. The deluxe machine requires 18 hours of labour, 8 hours of testing and yields a profit of ₹ 450. The standard machine requires 3 hours of labour, 4 hours of testing and yields a profit of ₹ 250. There are 800 hours of labour and 600 hours of testing available each month. A marketing forecast has shown that the monthly demand for the standard machine is to be more than 150. Management wants to know the number of each model to be produced monthly that will maximize total profit. Formulate and solve this as a LPP.

What non-monetary compensation and benefits will you devise to increase employee productivity?

Describe how Michael Porter's 'Five Forces Model' helps in analysing a firm's competitive advantage. Also describe the weaknesses of this model.

What is statistical process control ? How is it different from acceptance sampling ? When is a process said to be out of control ? How can control-charts be of use in identifying out of control process ? Explain.

If a random variable x follows a Poisson distribution such that Prob (x = 1) = Prob (x = 2), find the mean and variance. Also find Prob (x = 0).

Explain concentric diversification and horizontal diversification citing recent examples from the Indian corporate world.

Discuss the use of M-commerce to achieve competitive advantage for an organisation in the context of web-based marketing. Also discuss the limitations of E-commerce.

What is MIS planning ? Discuss with an example how it is linked with general business planning.

Financial Resources

What is the efficiency of the line ?

Distinguish between "Strategic alliance" and "Joint venture". What factors should be considered in choosing a co-venturer ?

What is meant by 'quality circles'? Explain the impact of quality circles on productivity.

What are Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account? What are the fundamental accounting principles?

What is 'zero-based budgeting'? What are its applications? Do you think this concept can be used in the Indian financial system?

A department store had forecast the sales of ₹ 1,10,000 for last week. The actual sales turned out to be ₹ 1,25,000. Given alpha = 0.1, what is the forecast for this week ? If sales this week turn out to be ₹ 1,20,000, what is the forecast for the next week ?

Who is the propounder of Theory 'X' and Theory 'Y' in management? What are the assumptions underlying Theory 'X' and Theory 'Y'?

Critically evaluate the EXIM policy of India and state the key objectives of the Export-Import policy.

What are various methods of pricing strategies? What are the demerits of cost-based pricing mechanism?

Balance the line taking 60 second cycle time.

Describe the value chain of e-commerce and the procedures for implementing e-commerce. How would you start performing the industry analysis for a small business that wants to launch an e-commerce project ? Explain.

Explain the various provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000 relating to appointment, term of office, salary, resignation and removal of the Presiding Officer of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal.

Write a note on 'Management by Objectives' (MBO), bringing out its problems and limitations.

Discuss the role of the State in business activities.

Explain the key difference between DBMS and RDBMS. Name the software products which are both DBMS and RDBMS compliant.

"Finance manager is always faced with the dilemma of liquidity vs. profitability." Explain the concept of liquidity and profitability.

Discuss the Global trends in FDI.

How do job analysis and job evaluation enable better performance?

What is value-based management? Explain the 'value drivers' and 'key managerial processes'.

Explain the Export Credit Delivery System in India.

A vote is to be taken among the residents of a town and the surrounding area to determine whether a proposed chemical plant should be constructed or not. The construction site is within the town limits and for this reason many voters of the surrounding area feel that the proposal will pass because of the large proportion of town voters who favour the construction. To determine if there is a significant difference in the proportion of town voters and surrounding area voters favouring the proposal, a poll is taken. If 120 of the 200 town voters favour the proposal and 240 of 500 surrounding area voters favour the proposal, would you agree that the proportion of town voters favouring the proposal is higher than that of the surrounding area voters ? Use a 5% level of significance.

Do you think hostile takeovers are unethical ? Why or why not ?

What is 'break-even analysis'? Explain with an example the terms 'margin of safety' and 'angle of incident'.

What are the causes of work stress? How does employees' morale affect productivity?

The two regression lines obtained from a certain data were Y = X + 5 and 16X = 9Y - 94. Find the variance of X, if the variance of Y is 16. Also find the covariance between X and Y.

What is Environmental Threat and Opportunity Profile ? How is it prepared ? Illustrate with an example.

Given the following product structure of A; explode, offset and determine the gross and net requirements. All lead times (LT) are in weeks and the quantities required are shown in parentheses. The MPS calls for 700 units of product A, to be delivered in week 12. The company has in hand 300 units of each of the components C and E. Determine the order release data for all necessary orders.

A firm is planning to develop and market a new drug. The cost of extensive research to develop the drug has been estimated at ₹ 1,00,000. The manager of the research program has found that there is a 60% chance that the drug will be developed successfully. The market potential has been assessed as follows : Market Potential | Probability | PV of Profit (₹) Large Market | 0.1 | 50,000 Moderate Market | 0.6 | 25,000 Low Market | 0.3 | 10,000 The present value (PV) figures do not include the cost of research. While the firm is considering this proposal, a second proposal, almost similar, comes up for consideration. The second one also requires an investment of ₹ 1,00,000, but the PV of all profit is ₹ 12,000. Of course the return on investment in the second proposal is certain. Recommend, by applying appropriate decision criteria, what decision should the firm take regarding the investment of ₹ 1,00,000 ?

In International Trade Theory, how is 'Theory of Absolute Advantage' different from 'Theory of Comparative Advantage' ? Which of these is more preferred ?

"Behaviour is a problem." Comment as perception.

Do you think the 'Make in India' call can bring in changes ?

What is the role of a 'Firewall' ? Discuss the relative merits of developing firewalls in-house or buying a commercial firewall software ?

Differentiate between 'choice making' and 'decision making' in management. Explain with real-life examples.

How does the management strategy of multinational companies differ from that of national companies ? Explain.

Construct a sequence diagram.

The probabilities of X, Y and Z becoming managers are 4/9, 2/9 and 1/3 respectively. The probabilities that Bonus Scheme will be introduced if X, Y and Z become managers are 3/10, 1/2 and 1/5 respectively. What is the probability that Bonus Scheme will be introduced ? And if Bonus Scheme has been introduced, what is the probability that the manager appointed was Y ?

What are the macro-factors prevailing in the global economy that lead to mergers and acquisitions?

Explain the legal formalities and procedures to become an exporter.

For a machine, the following data are available : Cost of Spare (₹) | Salary of Maintenance Staff (₹) | Loss due to Breakdown (₹) | Resale Value (₹) Determine the optimum period for replacement of the above machine.

Explain cost accounting concepts. What are its applications in budgetary control?

Ranbaxy Ltd. is deciding to invest ₹ 10 crore in research for development of medicines to cure HIV/AIDS. Can you term it as a "project" ? Justify.

How does the governance system affect firm performance and competitive advantage ? How do powerful shareholders exacerbate the agency problem ?

How does organizational culture influence the decision-making process? Give suitable examples to substantiate your answer.

Critically examine the role of voluntary organizations in protecting consumers' rights.

What is meant by cost of quality ? Describe its components.

The daily demand for a component assembly item is normally distributed with a mean of 120 and standard deviation of 15. Furthermore, the source of supply is reliable and maintains a constant lead time of 4 days. If the cost of placing the order is ₹ 45 and the annual carrying cost is ₹ 0.75/unit, find out the economic order quantity and the reorder point to provide a 95% service level. The firm operates 5 days/week, 52 weeks/year.

Out of 200 boys, 75 are intelligent of which 40 have skilled fathers, while 85 of the unintelligent boys have unskilled fathers. Do these figures support the hypothesis that skilled fathers have intelligent boys ? (Use Chi-square values 3.841, 5.991, 7.815 and 9.488 for degrees of freedom 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively.)

Discuss the special characteristics of information as an important resource and show by means of a block diagram how information is processed in an order processing department in a fairly large organisation.

What is 'whistle-blowing'? What steps have been taken to protect whistle-blowers in India?

How does an administrator manage cultural diversity in any organization?

What is meant by Database Normalization ? Describe 1NF, 2NF and 3NF.

Define the term 'entrepreneur'. Explain the essential managerial skills for a successful entrepreneur.

Critically evaluate India's Foreign Trade Policy and trends in recent years.

What is the role of marketing in the Internet era? Which segment of consumers and what kind of products dominates online marketing?

A and B decide to meet between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., but each of them should wait no longer than 10 minutes for the other. Determine the probability that they meet.

Enumerate the contribution of F. W. Taylor for management thought.

How could Government of India devise segmentation and targeting concepts of marketing to deliver its developmental schemes? Specify particular schemes and their beneficiaries.