Entrepreneurship, Consumer Choices and Education Previous Year Questions (PYQs) for XAT: 7+ Solved Questions with Step-by-Step Solutions

Common Description: Dhan, a poor but enterprising 15-year-old, resided in the world’s largest slum in a metropolitan city, along with her widowed mother. The densely packed slum housed about a million people, mostly in rickety one room tenements, connected by labyrinthine lanes and by-lanes. Dhan’s mother worked intermittently as a daily wager in a small savoury factory. For a 15-year-old, Dhan’s life was hectic. She spends two hours every day in fetching water for the household, packing breakfast and lunch for her mother. In addition, she had to prepare supper. On her mother’s insistence, Dhan also attended an evening bridge school run by an NGO. Dhan’s dream was to provide a comfortable life to her mother and take her family out of poverty. Of late, Dhan observed that the customers to a nearby tea-cum-savoury stall(TCS), were mostly the slum dwellers, who thronged the stall for its low prices and lack of alternatives. Further, Dhan gathered that the TCS could not cater to all of its customers, and the owner still made a neat Rs.800 pro t per day. Dhan saw that a probable rst step towards her family’s economic independence could be to own her own TCS. Within two years of establishment, Dhan’s TCS is not only outcompeting its nearest rivals in the slum but has also earned a goodwill for the quality and taste of its products. Hence, it has become famous within the slum as “Dhan Dhana Dhan” brand. Dhan now aspires to expand the reach of her savouries into the metropolitan region. Dhan wishes to scale up her savoury production from 100 kg to 1000 kg per day while maintaining quality. Dhan realizes that her establishment does not have the space for expansion on its own.
Which of the following options will BEST help Dhan to scale up production with least investment, tightly control quality, and also protect her business interests?

Common Description: Dhan, a poor but enterprising 15-year-old, resided in the world’s largest slum in a metropolitan city, along with her widowed mother. The densely packed slum housed about a million people, mostly in rickety one room tenements, connected by labyrinthine lanes and by-lanes. Dhan’s mother worked intermittently as a daily wager in a small savoury factory. For a 15-year-old, Dhan’s life was hectic. She spends two hours every day in fetching water for the household, packing breakfast and lunch for her mother. In addition, she had to prepare supper. On her mother’s insistence, Dhan also attended an evening bridge school run by an NGO. Dhan’s dream was to provide a comfortable life to her mother and take her family out of poverty. Of late, Dhan observed that the customers to a nearby tea-cum-savoury stall(TCS), were mostly the slum dwellers, who thronged the stall for its low prices and lack of alternatives. Further, Dhan gathered that the TCS could not cater to all of its customers, and the owner still made a neat Rs.800 pro t per day. Dhan saw that a probable rst step towards her family’s economic independence could be to own her own TCS. Dhan with her ingenuity nds a way to scale up her production capacity on her own terms. Though Dhan’s TCS has become the famous “Dhan Dhana Dhan” brand within the slum, it is still unknown to the outside world. Thus, Dhan embarks on the next challenge of creating a market for savouries amongst the masses in the metropolitan region.
From the following, choose the BEST option that will help Dhan to sell her products, at the lowest price, to a maximum number of metropolitan customers?

Common Description:

Selvam Tutorials offers exclusive face-to-face evening classes from Monday to Friday for students who are preparing for various entrance exams. Selvam Dindigul, the owner, operates from his ancestral house, situated in the middle of the city. There are several instructors, but each teaches only one of the following courses: quantitative ability, verbal ability and decision making. Selvam usually recruits fresh graduates, or those instructors who are working with other tutorials and seeking a job change.

As Selvam Tutorials has been expanding aggressively over the past few years, managing it alone becomes challenging for Selvam. Hence, he recruits Kanmani Gunaa, his niece, who has an online MBA with specializations in Accountancy and HR, as a manager. He asks Kanmani to introduce modern HR practices at Selvam Tutorials while managing cost effectively.

Kanmani meets Selvam and requests his permission to recruit three extra instructors, who would be on the regular payroll. They will only chip in whenever the regular instructors go on leave. Selvam, having been running the tutorial for quite some time, believes that this would not be the right way to solve the problem of managing classes when instructors go on leave. He shares the following data with Kanmani to help her understand that this problem cannot be solved by recruiting more people:

a) The number of days that instructors go on leave of absence is usually two days a month on average.

b) Each instructor has a unique style of teaching that cannot be replicated by part-timers.

c) Classes are held for 5 days a week, allowing enough rest for the instructors.

d) Selvam tried with part-time instructors as back-ups previously but they were often unavailable when needed.

e) The extra instructors must be paid a monthly salary, even when they might not be teaching the entire month.

Which of the following combinations of data will BEST convince Kanmani not to recruit extra instructors on the regular payroll?

Common Description:

Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.

Comprehension: Raghubir, a reputed doctor, practices medicine in a tier-three city. He owns an importedSUV which he bought 10 years ago, using his hard- earned savings of nearly 5 years.Initially, he used to take it for long rides, but for the last 6-7 years, he only commutes to hisclinic, a 10-minute drive from his home.

The SUV has been his proud possession but it demands high maintenance. Also, thediesel-guzzling SUV does not comply with the new emission norms being introduced in thetier-one and tier-two cities. Of late, a few newspapers reported that the new emission normsmay be introduced in tier-three cities as well. This news has worried Raghubir.

The new emission norms are about to get implemented in tier-three cities, andRaghubir’s city will follow suit shortly. Hence, Raghubir starts exploring options ofbuying an electric vehicle(EV). He lists the following factors that will guide him onbuying an electric car: P. EVs within Raghubir’s budget can cover his daily commute, but not the long rides.

Q. A new electric SUV in the market, within his budget, nearly has the same look andfeel of his present SUV.

R. EVs cannot be driven beyond a speed of 70 kmph.

S. New charging stations on the main highway, connecting his city to the closestmetro city, may come up in another year.

T. The only shop, selling EVs in his city, is ready to trade in Raghubir’s SUV at areasonable price.

The above listed factors have been arranged in a DECREASING order of in uence inthe options given below.

Which of the following options will BEST help Raghubir buy an electric vehicleimmediately?

Common Description:

Dhan, a poor but enterprising 15-year-old, resided in the world’s largest slum in a metropolitan city, along with her widowed mother. The densely packed slum housed about a million people, mostly in rickety one room tenements, connected by labyrinthine lanes and by-lanes. Dhan’s mother worked intermittently as a daily wager in a small savoury factory. For a 15-year-old, Dhan’s life was hectic. She spends two hours every day in fetching water for the household, packing breakfast and lunch for her mother. In addition, she had to prepare supper. On her mother’s insistence, Dhan also attended an evening bridge school run by an NGO. Dhan’s dream was to provide a comfortable life to her mother and take her family out of poverty. Of late, Dhan observed that the customers to a nearby tea-cum-savoury stall(TCS), were mostly the slum dwellers, who thronged the stall for its low prices and lack of alternatives. Further, Dhan gathered that the TCS could not cater to all of its customers, and the owner still made a neat Rs.800 pro t per day. Dhan saw that a probable rst step towards her family’s economic independence could be to own her own TCS.

From the following, choose the BEST option that will increase Dhan’s chances of realising her dream of starting a venture?