International Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The key marks Only 2 as the incorrect statement, so statement 1 is accepted as true and statement 2 as false.

Statement 1 is sound: Nigeria and Angola are the two largest crude oil producers and exporters of sub-Saharan Africa, which is why the question treats them as its main crude suppliers.

Statement 2 is the doubtful one. A search of the India-Africa Forum Summit outcomes and of India-Angola agreements found no energy cooperation agreement signed under that framework; the only energy document found is an older memorandum between the two petroleum ministries, which is not an India-Africa Forum agreement. That absence is what makes the statement incorrect, and it agrees with the key, but a negative like this cannot be proved from a search alone, so treat it as the reading the key takes rather than a certainty.

The other options fail on that reading: Only 1 would call a true statement false, Both 1 and 2 does the same, and Neither 1 nor 2 would require statement 2 to be a real agreement, which could not be found.

Answer: D

Neither statement is correct, so the answer is Neither 1 nor 2.

The Ezulwini Consensus of 2005 is the African Union's common position on Security Council reform. It asks for at least two permanent seats, with veto, and five non-permanent seats for Africa, to be filled by Africa itself; it does not name Egypt, Turkey and South Africa, and Turkey is not an African country at all. Statement 1 is wrong.

Statement 2 is also wrong. The Uniting for Consensus group, led by Italy and including Pakistan, opposes the creation of new permanent seats and so opposes India's claim rather than supporting it.

Answer: A

Only statement 1 is correct, so the answer is Only 1.

The Cotton-4 are the West African cotton producers Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, the group to which India's Cotton Technical Assistance Programme was first directed (1).

Statement 2 is wrong: in India cotton grows best on the deep black (regur) soils of the Deccan, which hold moisture well, not on red and lateritic soils. Statement 3 is also wrong. Minimum support prices are announced by the Central Government on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices; the Cotton Corporation of India is the agency that buys kapas at that price, not the body that releases it. Every option including 2 or 3 is therefore wrong.

Answer: D

All three statements are correct, so the answer is 1, 2 and 3.

The 720 MW Mangdechhu project in Trongsa district of central Bhutan is a run-of-river plant built with Indian assistance (1). The 600 MW Kholongchu project is the first India-Bhutan joint venture hydropower project, executed by Kholongchu Hydro Energy Limited, a joint venture of India's SJVN and Bhutan's Druk Green Power Corporation (2).

The Chukha, Kurichhu and Tala projects are the earlier hydropower projects built under India-Bhutan bilateral cooperation and already in operation (3). Since all three hold, every narrower option is incomplete.

Answer: C

The first recipients were Bhutan and Maldives.

Under Vaccine Maitri, India began sending Made-in-India COVID-19 vaccines (Covishield) to neighbouring and partner countries as gifts in January 2021. The first consignments went to Bhutan and the Maldives on 20 January 2021, followed within days by Bangladesh and Nepal, and later Myanmar, Seychelles and others.

Nepal and Bangladesh were among the next recipients, so the options pairing either of them with Bhutan or the Maldives do not name the first two.

Answer: C

Only statement 2 is correct, so the answer is 2 only.

The G20 has no permanent secretariat or staff: the presidency rotates every year and the presiding country runs a temporary secretariat, supported by the previous and next presidencies (the troika).

Statement 1 is wrong: the G20 was founded in 1999, as a forum of finance ministers and central bank governors after the Asian financial crisis. It was raised to leaders' summits in 2008 after the global financial crisis, which is the source of the confusion. Statement 3 is wrong: India has hosted the G20 summit once, in New Delhi in September 2023.

Answer: D

The country was France.

In July 2017 General Pierre de Villiers, the French Chief of the Defence Staff, resigned after a public clash with President Emmanuel Macron over a cut of about 850 million euros in the defence budget. He had told a parliamentary committee that with such cuts he could not guarantee the robust defence France needed.

No resignation of this kind by the chiefs of Iraq, Syria or Germany was in the news in 2017; Iraq and Syria were in the middle of the war against the Islamic State group.

Answer: C

India's case was argued by Harish Salve.

In May 2017 India took Pakistan to the International Court of Justice over the death sentence passed on Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court, arguing that Pakistan had denied him consular access under the Vienna Convention. Senior advocate Harish Salve led India's arguments, famously for a fee of one rupee, and the Court stayed the execution.

Mukul Rohatgi and K K Venugopal were Attorneys General of India around that time (Venugopal from June 2017), and Ram Jethmalani was a senior advocate, but none of them argued this case at The Hague.

Answer: D

Doklam is disputed between China and Bhutan.

Doklam (Donglang to China) is a plateau near the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China. Both Bhutan and China claim it. In June 2017 Indian troops stopped Chinese road building there, on Bhutan's behalf, and the stand-off lasted until late August.

India's own position is that the area belongs to Bhutan, so India is a party to the 2017 stand-off but not to the territorial dispute. Nepal has no connection with Doklam at all, which rules out the two options that name it.

Answer: D

The odd one out is the Global Liveability Index 2024.

The Global Liveability Index is published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Global Gender Gap Report, the Global Risks Report and the Travel and Tourism Development Index are all published by the World Economic Forum.

So the other three come from one organization and only the liveability index does not.