California's innovation culture and abundance of engineering talent ha

California's innovation culture and abundance of engineering talent have created a flurry of start-up companies and, in spite of the high employment rate , has not made possible for it to increase tax revenues and the GDP of the state.

If we exclude the additional information, the core sentence would be --> California's culture and talent have created a flurry of start-up companies and, (in spite of the high employment rate)
Since there is a conjunction 'and', we need the parts to be parallel.
California's culture and talent:
1. have created a flurry of start-up companies, and
2. have not made possible for it to increase tax revenues and the GDP of the state

(A) has not made possible for it to increase
S-V agreement error.

(B) have not made into reality the possibility of increasing
Too wordy. Option D is better option

(C) it has not made it possible to increase
Same like A, S-V agreement error.

(D) have not made it possible to increase
Correct

(E) have made it impossible to increase
have not made it possible vs have made it impossible are two different things. Not made it possible means it could happen, but in this case, it is not happening.
Meanwhile, impossible means that it is not possible at all and no chance to make it possible in the future.

GMATNinja

To which is antecedent 'it' referring?..

Thanks in advance.

Why is the answer D instead of E? I feel that "not made it possible" is wordier than using "impossible."

the IT is placeholder
i read in MGMAT Guide
can any expert give more insight about its use / application
GMATNinja
daagh
sir can you elaborate if you have time

"Not possible" - implies that it could happen, but may not. There is still some probability that things will happen.
"Impossible" - implies that it won't happen. Not going to happen in any situation or what so ever.

So, "Not possible" and "Impossible" are not exactly same.

I think "it" is referring to california

E changes the meaning.

Not Making it possible
Making it impossible

Above two sentence are not same but different in the state before the action.

To understand the difference between "impossible" and "not possible" in this context, also think of a similar differentiation between a statement such as "not cold" and "hot" as descriptions of temperature.

"Not cold" conveys that the temperature or current state is not entirely cold but can be cool, warm, hot.
"Hot" conveys an implied meaning that it is obviously not cold at all but the opposite effect in temperature.

I bring that up to state that "not possible" conveys that these two factors are not making it possible to achieve tax revenues and GDP (have not made it possible to achieve tax revenues/GDP).
However, "impossible" doesn't leave any possibility so it 'shuts the door on possibility' (changes the intended meaning).

California's innovation culture and abundance of engineering talent have created a flurry of start-up companies and, in spite of the high employment rate , has not made possible for it to increase tax revenues and the GDP of the state.

Split 1# has / have
Parallelism have and have - SV agreement - plural subject
subject California's innovation culture and abundance of engineering talent

Eliminate A and C

Split 2# to increase / of increasing
Intent of Purpose- infinitive + base form of verb is used

Eliminate B

Now between D and E
As per the meaning of the sentence .. in spite of the high employment rate … something was not achieved

Hence D is the correct answer

(A) has not made possible for it to increase
(B) have not made into reality the possibility of increasing
(C) it has not made it possible to increase
(D) have not made it possible to increase correct
(E) have made it impossible to increase meaning change