PASSAGE 3 (Questions 1-5)

Directions: In the below given passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. Five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.

India with its 600 universities and 35000 colleges is the third __(1)__ education system in the world. But 68% of these universities and 73% of colleges are __(2)__ to be medium or low quality by Indian standard itself. With a severe shortage of quality higher education institutions, India faces the challenge of educating nearly 30% of its 1.1 billion people. Certainly, India requires many more institutions of higher __(3)__ since nearly 100 million students are going to the higher education market in the next 10 years. In such a scenario improving the standards of __(4)__ universities and establishing quality institutions should be our priority.
Steps should be __(5)__ to reduce the disconnect between higher education institutions and industry requirements.

[IBPS (SO), 2014]

Select the appropriate word for blank 1.