World Cotton Day Marked by India and Mali at UN Headquarters

The correct answer is 7 October. The United Nations General Assembly set aside this date as World Cotton Day through resolution 75/318, and the observance draws attention to the place of cotton in economic development, in international trade and in the fight against poverty, particularly in developing and least developed countries. This year the Permanent Missions of India and Mali to the United Nations marked the day with a joint event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Option A, 5 October, is the date of the teachers’ observance and has nothing to do with cotton. Option C, 10 October, and option D, 16 October, are also wrong: no cotton observance falls on either date, and both are sometimes confused with other health and food related days on the United Nations calendar. For the examination hall, fix the pair together, World Cotton Day and 7 October, along with the resolution number that created it.

The correct answer is resolution 75/318. It is by this resolution that the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 7 October as World Cotton Day, giving the observance its formal standing in the United Nations calendar and tying it to the role of the crop in trade, in development and in reducing poverty in the poorest cotton-growing countries. Options A, B and D quote resolution numbers 70/218, 72/204 and 77/300, none of which created this day; such numbers look alike and are a favourite trap in objective papers, so the figure has to be memorised rather than guessed. A useful way to hold it is to pair the number with the event it made possible: the joint India and Mali gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, held on 7 October 2026 on the theme of cotton for sustainability, livelihoods, value addition and partnership.

The correct answer is Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who opened the event, recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s linking of cotton and the spinning wheel with self-reliance and the freedom struggle, and set out four priorities: the livelihoods of growers, value addition and market access, sustainability, and technology and partnerships. Option B, Ambassador Issa Konfourou, is Mali’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and spoke for the co-host, describing the weight of cotton in Mali’s rural economy. Option C, Padmini Singla, is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles and presented India’s own programmes, the Mission for Cotton Productivity and Kasturi Cotton Bharat. Option D, Dr Keshav R. Kranthi, is chief scientist of the International Cotton Advisory Committee and one of the invited speakers, not India’s envoy. Keep the four names and their designations apart.

The correct answer is the Mission for Cotton Productivity and Kasturi Cotton Bharat. Padmini Singla, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, named these two while explaining how India is working on better yields, better fibre quality and traceability of the crop, and she set them beside investment in textile infrastructure and support for artisans and small firms. Options A and C name other textile and fibre programmes that were not the pair presented on this occasion, and the silk and handloom schemes do not deal with cotton at all. Option D is the closest trap: PM MITRA was indeed mentioned at the event, but by Member of Parliament L. K. Sudhish while speaking about the integrated textile park being developed in Tamil Nadu, and it was not paired with a technology upgradation fund in the ministry’s presentation. Remember the pair as productivity plus the Kasturi brand for quality and traceability.