ICAR AIEEA-PG (Master's admission and PG scholarship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersTaking an agricultural project from idea to appraisal to delivery, and building an agri-enterprise: feasibility, NPV and IRR, PERT/CPM, business plans and incubation.
In the exams: agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, project management and entrepreneurship (heavy); agricultural economics PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, project appraisal (heavy); agricultural master's entrance examinations, time value of money and entrepreneurship (heavy); agricultural development bank officer recruitment, project appraisal (present)
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA-PG spread across the units of Project Management, Appraisal & Agri-Entrepreneurship. Difficulty: 34 easy, 20 medium, 1 hard.
| Time value of money: compounding and discounting | 8 | |
| Discounted measures: NPV, IRR, BCR and profitability index | 6 | |
| Theories of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial competencies | 6 | |
| CPM and PERT | 5 | |
| Setting up a micro, small or medium enterprise | 4 | |
| Business plans | 4 | |
| Incubation, IPR and technology commercialisation | 4 | |
| Women's, self-help group and family enterprises | 4 | |
| Undiscounted measures: payback and ARR | 3 | |
| The project cycle | 3 | |
| Market and technical feasibility | 3 | |
| Financial and economic feasibility | 2 | |
| Project risk | 1 | |
| Scheduling and resource allocation | 1 | |
| Cost overruns, monitoring and mid-course correction | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which probability distribution does PERT assume for the duration of an individual activity?
B. Beta distribution
The three-point estimate te = (a + 4m + b)/6 derives from the beta distribution, which is bounded and can be skewed. The normal distribution is applied to the total project duration through the central limit theorem, not to each activity.
Further reading: Taha, Operations Research: An Introduction
Which statement correctly contrasts CPM and PERT?
B. CPM uses single, known activity times; PERT uses three time estimates to handle uncertainty
CPM, developed for plant construction and maintenance with DuPont, assumes deterministic times and adds time-cost trade-offs; PERT, developed for the US Navy's Polaris programme, treats durations as random. Both model precedence.
Further reading: Taha, Operations Research: An Introduction
What is the defining feature of the Delphi method of forecasting?
C. Repeated rounds of anonymous expert opinion with feedback until judgements converge
Delphi keeps experts anonymous so that dominant personalities do not sway the group, and feeds back the group's summary between rounds.
Further reading: Prasanna Chandra, Projects
Which economist defined the entrepreneur as an innovator who carries out 'new combinations' and linked this to 'creative destruction'?
C. Joseph Schumpeter
Schumpeter's Theory of Economic Development (1911; English 1934) made innovation the entrepreneur's defining function. Knight emphasised uncertainty-bearing, Kirzner alertness, and Cantillon risk-bearing through buying at certain and selling at uncertain prices.
Further reading: Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development
The Kakinada experiment of the 1960s, reported by McClelland and Winter, is associated with which idea?
B. Achievement motivation training raises entrepreneurial activity
McClelland and Winter (Motivating Economic Achievement, 1969) reported that businessmen in Kakinada, a port town in southern India, given achievement-motivation training subsequently showed more entrepreneurial activity than a comparison group. The study shaped later entrepreneurship development programmes built around achievement motivation.
Further reading: McClelland and Winter, Motivating Economic Achievement (1969)
In Clarence Danhof's classification of entrepreneurs, a farmer who adopts a new practice only when failing to do so would clearly cause a loss is called:
B. Fabian
Danhof, studying American agriculture, identified innovative (introduce new ideas), imitative or adoptive (copy successful innovations), Fabian (very cautious, change only when forced by threat of loss) and drone (refuse to change even at a loss).
Further reading: Danhof (1949), as summarised in standard entrepreneurship texts
Which sequence is the most sensible for setting up a small feed mill?
B. Opportunity screening, feasibility study, choice of legal form and registration, DPR and finance, machinery and staff, trial run, commercial production
Commitments that are hard to reverse (machinery, loans) should follow evidence of feasibility and a legal and financial structure. Starting with machinery is a common and costly mistake.
Further reading: Prasanna Chandra, Projects
Under the TRIPS Agreement, what is the minimum term of patent protection?
B. 20 years from the filing date
TRIPS Article 33 sets a minimum term of 20 years counted from the filing date. The 25- and 15-year figures relate to plant variety protection terms in some systems.
Further reading: WTO TRIPS Agreement, Art. 33
On the technology readiness level (TRL) scale, what does level 9 indicate?
C. System proven in operation
TRLs, developed at NASA, run from 1 (basic principles) to 9 (proven in operation). Proof of concept is around level 3 and prototype demonstration around levels 6-7.
Further reading: NASA technology readiness levels
What mainly distinguishes an accelerator from an incubator?
C. Accelerators run short, intensive, cohort-based programmes for ventures already trading, often for equity; incubators support earlier-stage ventures for longer
Incubators nurture early ventures with space, mentoring and services over a longer period; accelerators compress growth support into a fixed programme ending in a demo day, usually for startups with a product in the market.
Further reading: Hisrich, Peters and Shepherd, Entrepreneurship
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