Minimalist IAS
International relations & current affairs

Prelims · International relations & current affairs · 27 questions

India & the world: places, pacts & relations

Every UPSC Prelims question on this topic, 2016–2026, newest first. Tap an option to check yourself; the answer and explanation open below it.

India & the world: places, pacts & relations questions per year: 2016: 3, 2017: 1, 2018: 1, 2019: 1, 2020: 0, 2021: 0, 2022: 0, 2023: 3, 2024: 2, 2025: 1, 2026: 5 Asked in 8 of 11 years · most in 2026 (5)

UPSC syllabus: “Current events of national and international importance.” See the full syllabus →

Prelims 2016 · Q19

Easy

Consider the following pairs:

Community sometimes mentioned in the newsIn the affairs of
1.KurdBangladesh
2.MadhesiNepal
3.RohingyaMyanmar

Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) 2 and 3

The Kurds are a West Asian people spread across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, so pairing them with Bangladesh is wrong. The Madhesis of Nepal's southern Terai plains were in the news for their 2015-16 agitation over Nepal's new Constitution, and the Rohingyas are a Muslim minority of Myanmar's Rakhine State.

  • ✗ 1. Kurdish nationalist movements are found in Turkey and Iraq (and Syria and Iran); the Kurds have no connection with Bangladesh.
  • ✓ 2. Madhesis (also spelt Madeshi) are the people of the Terai plains of southern Nepal; the UN human rights office described the 2015 protests in the Terai against Nepal's new Constitution as led by ethnic Madeshi groups demanding that their concerns be addressed.
  • ✓ 3. The Rohingyas are from Myanmar; their movement into India and Bangladesh has been a source of friction in South Asia.

Remember · Kurds: Turkey-Iraq-Syria-Iran. Madhesis: Nepal's Terai. Rohingyas: Myanmar's Rakhine State (refugees in Bangladesh).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 7 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Contemporary World Politics, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Sources

  • NCERT Class 11 · Political Theory, Chapter 7 “Such separatist movements have developed among the Quebecois in Canada, the Basques in northern Spain, the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq, and the Tamils in Sri Lanka, among others.”
  • NCERT Class 12 · Contemporary World Politics, Chapter 3 “Nepal and Bhutan, as well as Bangladesh and Myanmar, have had disagreements in the past over the migration of ethnic Nepalese into Bhutan and the Rohingyas from Myanmar into India and Bangladesh, respectively.”
  • UN OHCHR, Press briefing notes on Nepal and Bangladesh, 24 November 2015 ↗ · reference work “The protesters, from ethnic Madeshi groups, have been demanding that their concerns be addressed in the Constitution. … during protests in the Terai area of southern Nepal. The latest killings bring to at least 50 the death toll since protests against the new Constitution began in August this year.”

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

Prelims 2016 · Q42

Medium

Consider the following statements:

The India-Africa Summit

  1. 1.held in 2015 was the third such Summit
  2. 2.was actually initiated by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (a) 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct. The India-Africa Forum Summit series began in New Delhi in 2008, was held again in Addis Ababa in 2011, and its third edition met in New Delhi in October 2015. There is no record of a summit of this kind being started by Nehru in 1951.

  • ✓ 1. The Third India-Africa Forum Summit met in New Delhi on 29 October 2015, after the first summit (New Delhi, April 2008) and the second (Addis Ababa, May 2011).
  • ✗ 2. The summit series is a twenty-first century process. India's Ministry of External Affairs dates the structured engagement with the African Union to the first summit (IAFS-I) in 2008, not to 1951.

Remember · India-Africa Forum Summits: I New Delhi (April 2008), II Addis Ababa (May 2011), III New Delhi (October 2015).

Sources

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

Prelims 2016 · Q72

Easy

'Belt and Road Initiative' is sometimes mentioned in the news in the context of the affairs of

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) China

The Belt and Road Initiative is China's project to link Asia, Europe and Africa through roads, rail, ports and pipelines. President Xi Jinping launched it in 2013, first under the name One Belt, One Road.

  • ✓ (d) It has two parts: the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the ocean-going Maritime Silk Road. Both are Chinese-led, financed and promoted by China.
  • ✗ (a) The African Union is a continental body of African states; Africa is only one region where BRI projects are built.
  • ✗ (b) Brazil has no connection with the scheme's origin; it is not a Belt and Road initiator.
  • ✗ (c) The European Union is a partner-side region that BRI routes reach; the Initiative is not an EU programme.

Remember · Belt and Road Initiative = China's 2013 connectivity plan: Silk Road Economic Belt (land) plus 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (sea). Earlier called One Belt, One Road.

Sources

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

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