Reports & indices

Answer: (c) Access, Usage, and Quality

The RBI’s FI-Index has three sub-indices: Access, Usage and Quality, weighted 35, 45 and 20 per cent. Credit, insurance, pension and financial literacy appear only as dimensions inside these sub-indices.

• ✓ (c) Access reflects the supply side (banking, digital, pension, insurance); Usage the demand side (savings and investments, digital, pension, insurance, credit); Quality has three dimensions: financial literacy, consumer protection and inequality.
• ✗ (a) Credit, insurance and pension are dimensions within Access or Usage, not the three sub-indices.
• ✗ (b) ‘GDP contribution’ is not part of the index, and financial literacy is only one dimension of the Quality sub-index.
• ✗ (d) Affordability and Transparency are not sub-indices of the FI-Index.

Remember · FI-Index (0–100): Access 35%, Usage 45%, Quality 20%. Quality covers financial literacy, consumer protection and inequality.

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

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

Both the global MPI and India's national MPI are built on the Alkire–Foster counting method, and India's national MPI has twelve indicators. But Maternal Health and Bank Account are India's own additions to the ten global indicators, so they are not shared with the UNDP index.

• ✓ 1. NITI Aayog says the national MPI retains the Alkire–Foster methodology developed with OPHI and UNDP, the same counting method used for the global MPI.
• ✓ 2. India's national MPI has three equally weighted dimensions (health, education, standard of living) measured through 12 indicators.
• ✗ 3. The national MPI keeps the ten global indicators and adds Maternal Health and Bank Accounts on top, in line with national priorities. These two therefore appear only in NITI Aayog's index, not in UNDP's global MPI.

Remember · India's national MPI (NITI Aayog): Alkire–Foster method, 3 dimensions, 12 indicators = the 10 global ones plus Maternal Health and Bank Account.

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

Answer: (a) Database created by coalition of research organisations

The Climate Action Tracker is an independent research project run jointly by two research organisations, Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute. It has assessed countries' climate pledges and actions since 2009 and belongs to no UN or treaty body.

• ✓ (a) It is a collaboration of two research organisations, Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute, that compares each government's targets and policies with the Paris Agreement goal. UNEP's Emissions Gap Report itself uses it as one of the independent assessments.
• ✗ (b) The IPCC (properly the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) assesses climate science for governments. The Tracker is a separate, independent project and not a wing of it.
• ✗ (c) It is not a committee of the UNFCCC, the climate treaty secretariat; it is an outside analysis that tracks what governments do.
• ✗ (d) It is not an agency promoted and financed by UNEP and the World Bank; UNEP only cites it, alongside other independent studies.

Remember · Climate Action Tracker: independent tracker of national climate pledges, run by Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute since 2009. Not an IPCC, UNFCCC or UNEP body.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 1 and 4 only

Statements 1 and 4 are correct. WHO's 2021 guidelines set PM2.5 at 5 µg/m3 a year and 15 µg/m3 over 24 hours, and ozone can trigger asthma. Ozone peaks in hot, sunny weather, not bad weather, and it is PM2.5, not PM10, that WHO says can enter the bloodstream.

• ✓ 1. The WHO Air Quality Guidelines (2021) recommend an annual average of 5 µg/m3 and a 24-hour average of 15 µg/m3 for PM2.5.
• ✗ 2. Ground-level ozone forms when pollutants react in sunlight, so it is most likely to reach unhealthy levels on hot sunny days, not in inclement weather.
• ✗ 3. Both PM2.5 and PM10 can go deep into the lungs, but WHO says only the finer PM2.5 can even enter the bloodstream.
• ✓ 4. Ozone irritates and inflames the airways, aggravates asthma and increases the frequency of asthma attacks.

Remember · WHO 2021: PM2.5 annual 5, 24-hour 15 µg/m3 (PM10: 15 and 45). Ozone peaks on hot sunny days and worsens asthma. Only PM2.5 reaches the blood.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1, 3 and 4

Statements 1, 3 and 4 are correct. Vietnam's growth has been rapid and export-led, but it is a one-party state led by the Communist Party, not a multi-party system, and its strength lies in manufacturing rather than services.

• ✓ 1. The World Bank describes four decades of rapid growth in Viet Nam since the Doi Moi reforms of 1986.
• ✗ 2. Article 4 of Vietnam's Constitution makes the Communist Party of Vietnam the force leading the State and society; it is a one-party system.
• ✓ 3. Growth was amplified by strategic integration into global trade and investment flows, as the World Bank notes.
• ✓ 4. The OECD lists competitive labour costs (with proximity, trade agreements and infrastructure) among the reasons manufacturers relocate to Viet Nam. UPSC's official key counts the statement as correct; we could not confirm the exchange-rate detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ 5. UPSC's key treats this as incorrect. Vietnam's growth story is built on manufacturing exports; nothing in the sources supports a claim of regional leadership in e-services.

Remember · Vietnam: Doi Moi (1986), export-led growth in global supply chains, one-party Communist state.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) World Economic Forum

The Global Competitiveness Report, built around the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), is brought out by the World Economic Forum, the Geneva-based foundation. Its 2019 edition reviewed 141 economies.

• ✓ (c) The GCI and the report that presents it are the World Economic Forum's; the 2019 edition assessed 141 countries.
• ✗ (d) The World Bank's country ranking of that period was the Doing Business Report, a different index on business regulation (India was 63rd of 190 in the 2020 edition).

Remember · Global Competitiveness Report / Index = World Economic Forum. Doing Business Report = World Bank (a separate ranking).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Maintenance of law and order

Maintenance of law and order is not one of the ten areas the World Bank's Doing Business ranking measured. Paying taxes, registering property and dealing with construction permits are all among the ten.

• ✓ (a) The ten areas in the ease of doing business score were: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Law and order is not on the list.
• ✗ (b) Paying taxes is one of the ten areas.
• ✗ (c) Registering property is one of the ten areas.
• ✗ (d) Dealing with construction permits is one of the ten areas.
• • Since then After data irregularities were found in Doing Business 2018 and 2020, the World Bank Group discontinued the Doing Business report in September 2021; no new rankings have been published.

Remember · Doing Business had ten indicators (starting a business to resolving insolvency); law and order was never one. The World Bank discontinued the report in September 2021.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

The NSS 70th round (2013) found Rajasthan with the highest share of agricultural households among rural households and Kerala as the one major State where most agricultural households earned their main income outside farming. The OBC share was about 45 per cent, not over 60.

• ✓ 1. 78.4 per cent of Rajasthan's rural households were agricultural households, the highest of any State; Kerala had the lowest share (27.3 per cent).
• ✗ 2. About 45 per cent of agricultural households belonged to Other Backward Classes, with about 16 per cent from Scheduled Castes and 13 per cent from Scheduled Tribes.
• ✓ 3. About 61 per cent of Kerala's agricultural households received their maximum income from sources other than agricultural activities.

Remember · NSS 70th round (2013): Rajasthan 78.4% rural households agricultural (highest), Kerala 27.3% (lowest); OBCs about 45% of agricultural households; Kerala the non-farm-income exception.

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: (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.

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Answer: (a) World Economic Forum

The Global Gender Gap Index is published every year by the World Economic Forum in its Global Gender Gap Report. It scores countries on the gap between men and women in economic participation, education, health and survival, and political empowerment.

• ✓ (a) The Global Gender Gap Report 2016 of the World Economic Forum placed India 87th among 144 countries on the index, as the Ministry of Women and Child Development noted in December 2016.
• ✗ (c) UN Women runs programmes on gender equality but does not publish this index. The UN's own gender ranking, the Gender Inequality Index, comes from UNDP's Human Development Report.
• ✗ (b) The UN Human Rights Council reviews countries' human rights records through the Universal Periodic Review; it issues no gender gap ranking.

Remember · Global Gender Gap Index = World Economic Forum (4 dimensions). Gender Inequality Index and Gender Development Index = UNDP.

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Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

From 2015 the Global Hunger Index (GHI) has been built from four indicators: undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. All three listed items are among them; the only one missing from the list is child wasting.

• ✓ 1. Undernourishment, the share of the population with insufficient calorie intake, is the only GHI indicator that covers the whole population.
• ✓ 2. Child stunting (low height for age among children under five) captures chronic undernutrition; it replaced child underweight when the formula was revised in 2015.
• ✓ 3. Child mortality, the death rate of children under five, is the fourth GHI indicator.
• • Since then In 2016 IFPRI co-published the GHI. Recent editions are prepared by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, and India's government has criticised the index's method (PIB, December 2021).

Remember · GHI = undernourishment + child wasting + child stunting + child mortality (four indicators since 2015; child underweight was dropped).

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 · Report an error

Answer: (c) World Bank

The World Bank Group published the Ease of Doing Business ranking in its annual Doing Business report. In the 2016 edition, released in October 2015, it ranked India 130th out of 189 economies.

• ✓ (c) The ranking came from the World Bank Group's Doing Business report, which measured business regulations for local firms in 190 economies. The 2016 edition placed India 130th of 189, up from 142nd.
• ✗ (b) The World Economic Forum publishes the Global Competitiveness Report, a different index, not the Ease of Doing Business ranking.
• ✗ (a) The OECD does not compile the Ease of Doing Business ranking.
• ✗ (d) The WTO deals with trade rules and disputes; it does not rank countries on ease of doing business.
• • Since then The World Bank Group discontinued the Doing Business report on 16 September 2021 after data irregularities were found in the 2018 and 2020 editions. The ranking is no longer published; the answer stands as of the exam year.

Remember · The Ease of Doing Business ranking was issued by the World Bank Group (Doing Business report; discontinued in September 2021).

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 · Report an error

Answer: (b) International Monetary Fund

The Global Financial Stability Report is published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), prepared by its Monetary and Capital Markets Department. It assesses the global financial system and the risks to its stability.

• ✓ (b) The IMF issues the report twice a year, looking at global financial markets, systemic risks and emerging-market financing.
• ✗ (a) The European Central Bank publishes its own Financial Stability Review, which covers the euro area, not the world.
• ✗ (c) The IBRD (World Bank) is known for reports such as Global Economic Prospects and the World Development Report, not this one.

Remember · Global Financial Stability Report = IMF. Do not mix it up with the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects or the OECD's Economic Outlook.

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 · Report an error