International Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The passage describes BIMSTEC.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation was set up in June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration, has its permanent secretariat in Dhaka, and works through sectors led by member countries, with India leading the security sector (including counter-terrorism).

ASEAN dates from 1967 with its secretariat in Jakarta, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation began in 2000 and has no Dhaka secretariat, and IORA's secretariat is in Mauritius.

Answer: B

The most flawed observation is that India is the world's largest destination country for immigrants.

According to IOM's World Migration Report 2024, the United States is the largest destination country, with over 50 million international migrants. India is the largest country of origin, with about 18 million emigrants, and it was the top recipient of remittances in 2022, at over 111 billion US dollars.

The report also records rising displacement caused by conflict, violence, disasters and instability, so the last statement is accurate.

Answer: B

ASEAN stands for the Association of South East Asian Nations.

ASEAN was founded in Bangkok on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. It has since grown to cover nearly all of South East Asia and promotes economic, political and security cooperation in South East Asia. India is a dialogue partner and engages with it through its Act East Policy.

The other expansions change 'South East' to 'East', 'Southern' or add 'Arabian', none of which is the organisation's name.

Answer: A

The answer is Both A and R are correct and R is the correct explanation of A.

Pakistan has alternated between elected governments and military rule since independence, with army takeovers under Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf. The standard textbook account (as in the NCERT political science course) attributes this failure to build a stable democracy to the social dominance of the military, the clergy and the landowning aristocracy, which has led to the frequent overthrow of elected governments.

So the Reason states the cause of what the Assertion describes, which makes option A the answer rather than B.

Answer: B

The chronological order is c, a, b, d.

1. Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, 1992 to 1996.
2. Kofi A. Annan of Ghana, 1997 to 2006.
3. Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea, 2007 to 2016.
4. Antonio Guterres of Portugal, from 2017.

Boutros-Ghali is the trap, since he is often placed after Annan, but he came first: Annan succeeded him.

Answer: D

The first Indian-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives is Pramila Jayapal.

Born in Chennai, she was elected from Washington's 7th congressional district in November 2016 and took her seat in January 2017.

The other names are not members of Congress: Bharati Mukherjee (printed 'Bjarati Muharjee') was an Indian-American novelist, and the remaining two are not elected representatives. Indian-American men such as Dalip Singh Saund and Ami Bera had been elected earlier, which is why the question specifies a woman.

Answer: C

The first Indian-American U.S. senator is Kamala Harris.

Elected from California in November 2016, she was the first person of Indian descent in the U.S. Senate; her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was from Chennai. She later became Vice-President of the United States.

Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal and Raja Krishnamoorthi are Indian-American members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, not senators.

Answer: A

The official final key is (A): [A] is true, [R] is false. The UAE did face a severe thunderstorm with one of the heaviest rainfalls on record in April 2024.

The reason is faulty because the rainfall was attributed to a low pressure system and not to trade winds and waves. The booklet pen tick also showed (A).

The assertion is true, as the United Arab Emirates saw record rainfall on 16 April 2024. The reason is not accepted by the final key, because the storm was linked to a low pressure system and not to trade winds and waves. The booklet tick also marked option A.

Answer: B

The UN target year to end AIDS as a public health threat is 2030.

Ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 is part of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (target 3.3), and the UNAIDS strategy works towards it through the 95-95-95 testing and treatment targets.

2029, 2035 and 2040 are not the target set by the United Nations.

Answer: D

The Prime Minister elected after the 2024 election was Mr. Shahbaz Sharif.

After Pakistan's general election of 8 February 2024, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party formed a coalition, and the National Assembly elected Shehbaz Sharif Prime Minister on 3 March 2024, his second term.

Nawaz Sharif, his elder brother, led the PML(N) campaign but did not become Prime Minister. Omar Ayub was the opposition candidate backed by Imran Khan's party, and Bilawal Bhutto, of the PPP, supported Shehbaz Sharif.