International Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The CRI Index is released by Oxfam International.

The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index is published by Oxfam together with Development Finance International. It ranks governments on three areas of policy that reduce inequality: public spending on health, education and social protection, progressive taxation, and labour rights and wages.

The International Food Policy Research Institute publishes the Global Hunger Index, the UNDP the Human Development Index, and the World Bank the Ease of Doing Business and Human Capital indices, so none of them issues the CRI.

Answer: D

The Rhi-Tiddim road is being built by India in Myanmar.

The road links Rhi, on the Myanmar side of the border opposite Zokhawthar in Mizoram, with Tiddim in Myanmar's Chin State. India is building it with grant assistance as part of its connectivity projects with Myanmar under the Act East policy, alongside the Kaladan multimodal project.

Thailand and Malaysia do not border India, and India's road projects with Bangladesh are separate; Rhi and Tiddim are both in Myanmar.

Answer: A

The country is Bangladesh.

Pahela Phagun (Pohela Falgun), the first day of the Bengali month of Falgun in mid-February, is celebrated in Bangladesh as Basanta Utsab, the festival marking the arrival of spring, with yellow clothes, music and flowers.

Myanmar, Nepal and Indonesia follow different calendars and do not celebrate this Bengali spring day.

Bangladesh follows the Bengali calendar for its cultural festivals, such as Pahela Baishakh, the Bengali new year.

Answer: B

The organisation is the International Solar Alliance.

The International Solar Alliance, launched by India and France in 2015 and headquartered in Gurugram, proposed a World Solar Bank to mobilise finance for solar energy projects in its member countries.

The United Nations and the World Bank are existing global bodies that did not propose this bank, and SAARC is a South Asian regional grouping with no such plan.

Answer: A

The peak is Mount Everest.

In December 2020 Nepal and China jointly announced the revised height of Mount Everest as 8,848.86 metres, about 86 cm more than the earlier Indian survey figure of 8,848 metres.

Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), Makalu (8,485 m) and K2 (8,611 m) are lower, and K2 lies on the Pakistan-China border, not in Nepal.

The new figure includes the snow cap and was worked out from surveys carried out by the two countries in 2019 and 2020.

Answer: B

The session was chaired by India.

India's Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan was elected Chair of the WHO Executive Board in May 2020 and presided over its 148th session in January 2021.

The United States, China and Australia are members of WHO, but none of them held the chair of the Executive Board at that session.

The Executive Board, made up of 34 members, prepares the agenda of the World Health Assembly and carries out its decisions.

Answer: B

The language that is not official at the United Nations is Japanese.

The UN has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Five date from the organisation's early years, and Arabic was added in 1973.

Russian, Spanish and Arabic are all on that list. Japan is one of the largest contributors to the UN budget, which is why Japanese can look like a likely official language, but it has never been one.

Answer: A

The first country to ban triple talaq was Egypt.

An Egyptian law of 1929 provided that a divorce pronounced three times in one sitting counts as only a single, revocable divorce, ending the practice of instant triple talaq. Egypt is usually cited as the first country to make this reform.

Pakistan followed later, through the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961. Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are not counted among the first countries to ban it. In India, the Supreme Court set aside the practice in 2017 and Parliament made it an offence in 2019.

Answer: C

The SAARC Secretariat is located at Kathmandu.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was founded at Dhaka in December 1985, and its Secretariat was set up in Kathmandu, Nepal, in January 1987.

New Delhi, Colombo and Karachi are cities of member countries but do not host the Secretariat. Note that SAARC was founded in Dhaka, which is a common confusion with the Secretariat's seat.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is UNESCO.

UNESCO, the UN agency for education, science and culture, has long treated young people (aged 15 to 24 in UN usage) as a priority group, with a dedicated youth programme and a regular Youth Forum, and works through education and skills to involve young people in development and in their communities.

UNICEF's mandate is children, people under 18, so it covers only part of the youth age range. FAO deals with food and agriculture and WHO with health, both concerns of everyone rather than of youth in particular.