G20, BRICS and Economic Groupings: Exam Notes

The correct answer is C, 1999. The Group of Twenty was formed in 1999, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, as a forum where the finance ministers and central bank governors of the major advanced and emerging economies could discuss the stability of the world financial system. Option A is wrong because 1991 is the year of India's balance of payments crisis and of economic reform, not of the G20. Option B is wrong because 1995 is the year the World Trade Organization came into being, replacing the GATT. Option D is wrong, but it is the trap that catches most candidates: 2008 is the year the G20 was raised to the level of heads of state and government, when the first leaders' summit was held at Washington after the global financial crisis. Keep the two years apart as formation in 1999 and summit level in 2008.

The correct answer is B, Washington D.C. The first summit at the level of heads of state and government was called in November 2008, when the collapse of large financial firms threatened the world economy, and it met at Washington. Option A is wrong because London hosted the second summit, in April 2009, which agreed on a large package of support through the International Monetary Fund. Option C is wrong because Pittsburgh hosted the third summit, in September 2009, at which the G20 declared itself the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Option D is wrong because Toronto hosted a summit in 2010. The sequence of the first three, Washington, London and Pittsburgh, is itself asked, so learn it in order along with the New Delhi summit of 2023.

The correct answer is A, the African Union. The New Delhi Leaders' Summit of September 2023, held under India's presidency at Bharat Mandapam, admitted the African Union as a permanent member, so that the group now has a second regional organisation alongside the European Union. Option B is wrong because ASEAN is invited to summits as a guest organisation but is not a member. Option C is wrong because the Commonwealth has no such place in the G20. Option D is wrong because the Arab League, like ASEAN, attends as an invited body in some years. The summit's theme, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, rendered as One Earth, One Family, One Future, and the declaration adopted there are asked in the same breath as this fact. The admission also meant that the group now carries two regional organisations rather than one, which is the point a statement-based question tests.

The correct answer is B, Jim O'Neill. Jim O'Neill, then an economist at Goldman Sachs, used the acronym BRIC in a paper of 2001 to describe Brazil, Russia, India and China, the four large economies he expected to grow into a major share of world output. The term was an analyst's label before it became a political grouping with the first summit of 2009. Option A is wrong because Amartya Sen is known for his work on welfare economics, famine and the capability approach, and received the Nobel Prize in 1998. Option C is wrong because Joseph Stiglitz is known for the economics of information and his writing on globalisation. Option D is wrong because Raghuram Rajan was a chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and later Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Only O'Neill is linked with the acronym.

The correct answer is B, Yekaterinburg. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China met for the first summit of the grouping at Yekaterinburg in Russia in June 2009, turning an analyst's acronym into a working forum. Option A is wrong because Brasilia hosted the second summit, in 2010. Option C is wrong because Sanya in China hosted the summit of 2011, which was the first attended by South Africa after it joined, so that meeting is remembered as the first BRICS summit. Option D is wrong because Durban in South Africa hosted the summit of 2013, where the plan for a development bank was carried forward. Candidates often answer Sanya here, so fix the distinction: first BRIC summit at Yekaterinburg and first BRICS summit at Sanya.

The correct answer is B, South Africa. South Africa was invited to join in 2010 and took part in the summit at Sanya in China in 2011, and the letter S was added to the acronym to make BRICS. The move gave the grouping a presence on the African continent. Option A is wrong, although Saudi Arabia was among the countries invited at the Johannesburg summit of 2023, when the group agreed on a wider membership from 2024; the question here is about the step that created the name BRICS. Option C is wrong because Indonesia is a member of the G20 and of ASEAN, and its relationship with BRICS came much later. Option D is wrong because Argentina, also a G20 member, did not take up the invitation of 2023. Keep 2010 as the year of the S in BRICS.

The correct answer is B, Shanghai. The New Development Bank was agreed at the sixth BRICS summit at Fortaleza in Brazil in 2014 and began work with its headquarters at Shanghai, with K. V. Kamath of India as its first president and an African regional centre in South Africa. Option A is wrong because New Delhi hosts no BRICS institution, although India pressed for the bank and supplied its first head. Option C is wrong because Moscow is the seat of no BRICS body of this kind, though Russia hosted the first summit. Option D is wrong because Johannesburg has the bank's regional office rather than its headquarters. The Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a swap facility for members facing a balance of payments problem, was agreed at the same summit, and the two are often offered as alternatives in one question.

The correct answer is B, Paris. The OECD was established in 1961 as the successor of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, which had been created to administer aid under the Marshall Plan, and it works from Paris as a forum of mostly high-income countries that sets standards and publishes comparative statistics. Option A is wrong because Geneva is the seat of the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization. Option C is wrong because Vienna houses OPEC and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Option D is wrong because Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union institutions and of NATO. India is not a member of the OECD but takes part as a key partner, a point that appears in statement-based questions.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The WTO began on 1 January 1995 as the outcome of the Uruguay Round, and it replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as a permanent organisation with a dispute settlement system. Option A is wrong because 1947 is the year the GATT was signed, the agreement the WTO succeeded, and also the year of India's independence, which makes it an attractive wrong answer. Option B is wrong because 1986 is the year the Uruguay Round of talks began at Punta del Este. Option D is wrong because 2001 is the year of the Doha Ministerial Conference, which launched the round named after that city. India is a founder member of the WTO, and its highest decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference, which normally meets every two years.

The correct answer is B, Bretton Woods. The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference met at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in the United States in July 1944 and agreed to set up the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is why the two are called the Bretton Woods twins; both have their headquarters at Washington D.C. Option A is wrong because Geneva is associated with the GATT and later the WTO. Option C is wrong because the Havana Charter of 1948 was the attempt to create an International Trade Organization, which never came into being. Option D is wrong because the San Francisco Conference of 1945 drew up the Charter of the United Nations. India took part at Bretton Woods and is a founder member of both institutions.

The correct answer is B, Kathmandu. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was founded in 1985 at Dhaka, where its charter was signed, and its permanent secretariat was set up at Kathmandu in Nepal in 1987. Option A is wrong, and it is the usual error, because Dhaka is where SAARC was founded and where the secretariat of BIMSTEC is now located, not that of SAARC. Option C is wrong because Colombo hosts no SAARC secretariat, although Sri Lanka is a founder member. Option D is wrong because Islamabad has hosted SAARC summits but not the secretariat. Keep the pair in mind: founded at Dhaka in 1985, secretariat at Kathmandu, and Afghanistan admitted as the eighth member in 2007. Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh were the seven founder members, and the charter was signed on 8 December 1985.

The correct answer is B, Vienna. OPEC was founded in 1960 at a conference in Baghdad by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and its secretariat was first at Geneva before moving to Vienna in 1965, where it remains. Option A is wrong because Riyadh, although the capital of the largest oil exporter among the members, is not the seat of the organisation. Option C is wrong because Baghdad is the city of its founding conference, which makes it the most tempting distractor in this question. Option D is wrong because Tehran has hosted ministerial meetings but not the secretariat. Note that India is not a member of OPEC, being an importer of oil, and that the group now works with other producers in a wider arrangement.