International organisations & groupings

Answer: (a) 1 only

The NSG is an informal club of nuclear supplier countries that coordinates export controls, so joining it eases a country's access to nuclear trade and technology. It is not a treaty body, and joining it does not by itself make a country a party to the NPT.

• ✓ 1. NSG participants shape and share the rules of nuclear trade among the main supplier states, which gives them easier access to advanced nuclear technology and equipment.
• ✗ 2. The NSG was not created by a treaty; it is a voluntary, non-legally binding association. NPT membership comes only by signing and ratifying the NPT itself.

Remember · NSG: voluntary supplier-country group formed 1975 after India's 1974 test; controls nuclear and dual-use exports through two sets of Guidelines; not a treaty, so membership does not mean NPT membership.

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Answer: (d) World Justice Project

The Rule of Law Index is compiled by the World Justice Project (WJP), an independent organisation based in Washington, D.C. It scores countries on how people experience the rule of law, using household and expert surveys.

• ✓ (d) The WJP describes its Rule of Law Index as its flagship dataset; the 2025 edition covers 143 countries and jurisdictions.
• ✗ (a) Amnesty International is a human-rights campaigning NGO known for its annual report on the state of human rights, not this index.
• ✗ (b) The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and decides disputes between States; it publishes no country index.

Remember · Rule of Law Index = World Justice Project (independent, U.S.-based); measures eight factors such as constraints on government powers, absence of corruption and fundamental rights.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Child labour

ILO Conventions 138 and 182 are the two core conventions on child labour. No. 138 fixes the minimum age for admission to employment, and No. 182 prohibits the worst forms of child labour and calls for immediate action against them.

• ✓ (a) Convention 138 is the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 and Convention 182 is the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999. India deposited its instruments of ratification of both with the ILO on 13 June 2017, which is why they were in the news before the 2018 exam.
• ✗ (d) These two conventions deal only with child labour. Gender parity at the workplace, adaptation to climate change and food prices are not what they cover.

Remember · ILO No. 138 = minimum age for employment; No. 182 = worst forms of child labour. India ratified both in June 2017.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) The civilian nuclear reactors come under IAEA safeguards.

India's Additional Protocol is attached to its India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA, which covers only India's civilian nuclear facilities. So ratifying it means those civilian facilities stay under IAEA safeguards and get wider IAEA access; military installations are left out.

• ✓ (a) The IAEA Board approved a safeguards agreement with India in 2008 for the application of IAEA safeguards to Indian civilian nuclear facilities. The Additional Protocol to that agreement entered into force on 25 July 2014.
• ✗ (b) Both the safeguards agreement and its Additional Protocol are titled as covering 'Civilian Nuclear Facilities'. India's military installations are not placed under IAEA inspection.
• ✗ (c) The Additional Protocol is an arrangement with the IAEA. It does not give India any right to buy uranium from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which is a separate body.
• ✗ (d) Ratifying a protocol with the IAEA does not make a country a member of the NSG. NSG membership is a separate matter decided within that group.

Remember · India's Additional Protocol (signed 15 May 2009; in force 25 July 2014) extends IAEA safeguards access to its civilian nuclear facilities only.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1, 3, 4 and 5

At the time of the exam, ASEAN had free trade agreements with Australia (with New Zealand), China, Japan, South Korea and India. Canada and the USA were not among ASEAN's free-trade partners, so the correct set is 1, 3, 4 and 5.

• ✓ 1. Australia (together with New Zealand) is a party to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, AANZFTA.
• ✗ 2. Canada had no free trade agreement with ASEAN in the list of ASEAN's FTAs published in 2018.
• ✓ 3. China is a partner in the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, ACFTA.
• ✓ 4. India is a partner in the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area, AIFTA.
• ✓ 5. Japan is a partner in the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership, AJCEP.
• ✗ 6. The USA does not appear in ASEAN's list of free trade agreements with dialogue partners.

Remember · ASEAN's FTA partners (as in 2018): China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia-New Zealand. Not Canada, not the USA.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, Rio de Janeiro

PAGE was created as a response to the call made at Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, and was launched in 2013. It brings UN agencies together to help countries build greener, more inclusive economies.

• ✓ (b) The UN describes PAGE as launched in 2013 in response to the call at Rio+20, whose outcome document 'The Future We Want' recognised the green economy as a route to sustainable development.
• ✗ (a) The 2002 Johannesburg summit came ten years before PAGE's origin and is not linked to it.
• ✗ (c) The 2015 Paris climate conference produced the Paris Agreement, two years after PAGE had started.
• ✗ (d) The World Sustainable Development Summit in New Delhi is an Indian conference series; it is not a UN conference and did not give rise to PAGE.

Remember · PAGE is a UN partnership born from Rio+20 (2012) and launched in 2013 to help countries build green, inclusive economies.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) The UNFCCC Secretariat

Climate Neutral Now was launched in 2015 by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), based in Bonn. It urges individuals, companies and governments to measure their emissions, cut them and offset the rest with UN-certified emission reductions; 'Momentum for Change' is the secretariat's linked programme that recognises such action.

• ✓ (c) The UNFCCC's own page calls Climate Neutral Now one of several initiatives launched by the UNFCCC secretariat to engage non-Party stakeholders such as companies, cities and individuals.
• ✗ (a) The IPCC assesses climate science for governments; it does not run voluntary action or offsetting campaigns.
• ✗ (b) The UNEP secretariat works on environmental programmes generally; this climate-neutrality drive belongs to the UN climate convention's secretariat.
• ✗ (d) The World Meteorological Organization deals with weather, climate and water observation and data, not this campaign.

Remember · Climate Neutral Now (2015) belongs to the UNFCCC secretariat: measure, reduce, offset with UN-certified credits, aiming at a climate-neutral world by 2050.

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