UPSC Prelims 2016 GS Paper I: answer key and question paper

Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

The Global Hunger Index, published in 2016 by IFPRI with Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, combines four indicators under the methodology revised in 2015: undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient calorie intake), child wasting, child stunting (share of under-fives with low height for age) and child mortality (share of children dying before age five). Statement 1 is an indicator and carries one-third of the score. Statement 2 is an indicator, weighted together with wasting as the child undernutrition component. Statement 3 is also an indicator, reflecting the fatal outcome of poor nutrition and unhealthy environments. All three listed items are therefore used. Hence 1, 2 and 3. What changed since 2016: IFPRI handed the GHI over to Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide in 2018; they now publish it jointly, and the four indicators remain the same.

Answer: (b) plan of action outlined by the countries of the world to combat climate change

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions were the climate action plans that Parties to the UNFCCC were invited to submit, under decisions 1/CP.19 (Warsaw, 2013) and 1/CP.20 (Lima, 2014), ahead of COP21 in Paris in December 2015. Each country set out its own post-2020 targets for mitigation and, in many cases, adaptation; India's INDC of October 2015, for instance, pledged to cut the emissions intensity of GDP by 33 to 35 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Option (a) relates to the European refugee crisis, (c) to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's share capital, and (d) to the 2030 Agenda, none of which uses this term. Hence plan of action outlined by the countries of the world to combat climate change. What changed since 2016: when the Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, a Party's INDC became its first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) on ratification; India ratified on 2 October 2016.

Answer: (a) WTO affairs

The amber, blue and green boxes are the categories of domestic farm support under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (1995), which uses traffic-light colours. The amber box covers trade-distorting support such as price support and input subsidies, which is capped beyond de minimis levels (5 percent of production value for developed and 10 percent for most developing countries). The blue box covers otherwise amber support tied to programmes that limit production, with no current ceiling. The green box covers government-funded support that causes no or minimal trade distortion, such as research, extension and decoupled income support, and is not capped. SAARC, the UNFCCC and India-EU FTA talks do not use these categories. Hence WTO affairs.