Consider the following statements : Statement I : Circular economy reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases. Statement II : Circular economy reduces the use of raw materials as inputs. Statement III : Circular economy reduces wastage in the production process. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

The correct answer is B, 2 only. TRAFFIC is a non-governmental wildlife trade monitoring network, not a UNEP bureau, and its mission is the one given in statement 2.

TRAFFIC was set up in 1976 by WWF and IUCN, initially as a specialist group to help put the CITES convention into practice, and it later became an independent NGO with its headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It monitors legal and illegal trade in wild animals and plants, supports governments with data and training, and works to ensure such trade is not a threat to the conservation of nature. In India, TRAFFIC India works from the WWF-India office in New Delhi and assists the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.

A is wrong: statement 1 is false, as TRAFFIC was never a UNEP body.

C is wrong: only statement 2 is correct.

D is wrong: statement 2 correctly states the mission of TRAFFIC.

Exam tip: TRAFFIC = WWF + IUCN, 1976, wildlife trade monitoring that supports CITES; not a UN agency.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. The Alma-Ata Declaration is about primary healthcare and the Talanoa Dialogue is about climate change; the other two pairs are wrong.

The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978, adopted at a WHO-UNICEF conference in present-day Almaty, Kazakhstan, set the goal of "Health for All" through primary health care. The Talanoa Dialogue was the facilitative dialogue launched at COP23 under Fiji's presidency in 2017 and run through 2018 to take stock of efforts under the Paris Agreement; "talanoa" is a Pacific word for inclusive, open discussion.

A is wrong: pair 2 is incorrect, because biological weapons are covered by the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 and chemical weapons by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, while the Hague Conventions deal mainly with the laws of war and, in another series, private international law such as child abduction.

B is wrong: the Under2 Coalition is a group of sub-national governments committed to keeping global warming well below 2 °C, not a child rights body.

D is wrong: pairs 2 and 4 are incorrect and pair 1 is left out.

Exam tip: Alma-Ata 1978 = Health for All; Talanoa = COP23 Fiji; Under2 = states and regions on climate.

The correct answer is B, Tamil Nadu. Faced with a steep fall in the water table around Chennai, the state amended its building rules in 2003 to require a rainwater harvesting structure in buildings, and it is cited as the first state in the country to make such harvesting compulsory. Other states and the model building bye-laws later carried similar provisions, and many municipal corporations now link building plan approval to a harvesting structure. Option A is wrong because Maharashtra, though an early mover on watershed work through the Pani Panchayat and Jalyukt Shivar efforts, was not first with this building rule. Option C is wrong because Gujarat is linked in this topic with the Sardar Sarovar canal network and the revival of stepwells and virdas. Option D is wrong because Rajasthan is the home of the traditional desert structures such as the tanka, the kund and the johad rather than of the first legal mandate.

The correct answer is A, the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The plan, released in 2008, set up eight national missions, among them the National Solar Mission, the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, the National Water Mission, the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, the National Mission for a Green India, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat and the National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. The water mission aims at integrated water resources management and at raising water use efficiency by twenty per cent. Option B is wrong because the National Water Policy is a statement of principles, not a parent of missions, though it also stresses efficiency. Option C is wrong because Namami Gange is a river cleaning programme for the Ganga basin. Option D is wrong because the rural drinking water programme supplied village water and was later folded into Jal Jeevan Mission.

The correct answer is C, 75. Mission Amrit Sarovar was launched on 24 April 2022, National Panchayati Raj Day, as part of the celebration of seventy-five years of independence, and the number 75 in the target of seventy-five ponds in every district of the country comes from that anniversary. Each amrit sarovar is planned to hold about ten thousand cubic metres of water, and the work is done by converging funds already available under schemes such as the rural employment guarantee programme and the watershed component of the rural development programmes. Option A, option B and option D are wrong simply because they are not the announced figure; twenty-five, fifty and one hundred are the usual distractors for a target of this kind. Remembering the link between the number 75 and the anniversary of independence is the quickest way to hold this fact.