Who declared the 153rd IPU Assembly open at its inaugural ceremony?

The correct answer is Arusha, Tanzania. The Indian parliamentary delegation led by Harivansh, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, is taking part in the assembly at Arusha, and the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania organised the formal inaugural ceremony there. President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan addressed that ceremony and declared the assembly open, and the delegation also met the Speaker of the Tanzanian Parliament, Mussa Azzan Zungu, along with several ministers of the Tanzanian government. Options A, C and D name other East African capitals and are offered because candidates often remember only that the assembly was held in East Africa. Note that Arusha, not the Tanzanian capital, is the host city, which is the kind of detail a question setter likes: the country and the city both have to be carried in memory, along with the edition number of the assembly.

The correct answer is the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Harivansh. He headed the delegation at the assembly and attended the inaugural ceremony along with members of Parliament Aparajita Sarangi, Anurag Singh Thakur, N. K. Premachandran and Dr Sasmit Patra, and he also led the bilateral meetings with the Speakers of the Australian House of Representatives and the Tanzanian Parliament. Option A is wrong because the Speaker of the Lok Sabha did not head this delegation, though presiding officers of either House do lead such delegations on other occasions. Option B is wrong because the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is the Vice-President of India and was not part of this delegation. Option D is wrong because no such role is recorded for this assembly. The safest approach is to remember the office and the name together, since questions are set on either one.

The correct answer is Geneva. India noted that it had hosted the world’s largest artificial intelligence summit in February this year, and said Switzerland would carry that journey forward through the Geneva AI Summit next year, with both countries committed to making artificial intelligence responsible, inclusive and human-centric. Option A, Zurich, is a distractor drawn from the separate Zurich University agreement on building the capacity of Indian science start-ups, which is a different outcome of the same summit. Option B, Bern, is the Swiss capital but was not named as the venue. Option D, Davos, is well known for the annual World Economic Forum meeting and is an attractive wrong choice for that reason, but it has nothing to do with this announcement. Candidates should remember the pairing of the Indian AI summit held in February with the Geneva AI Summit due next year.

The correct answer is the European Free Trade Association. The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement that took effect in October of the previous year was concluded between India and the EFTA countries, and it is the first free trade agreement India has with any economic bloc in Europe. Switzerland is an EFTA member, and the Swiss President gave the agreement his personal backing, which is why it figured so prominently in the summit statement. Option A is wrong because the European Union is a separate and much larger bloc, and India has no free trade agreement in force with it. Option C is wrong because the Benelux Union groups Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and is not a party to this agreement. Option D is wrong because the Eurasian Economic Union is a different grouping altogether and has no role in this pact. Aspirants should link TEPA firmly with EFTA and with the twin targets of investment and jobs that the agreement carries.

The correct answer is 100 billion dollars. The agreement is described as an ambitious blueprint for investment, innovation, jobs and shared prosperity, and the two sides expect it to deliver investment of 100 billion dollars in India together with 10 lakh direct jobs across a span of 15 years. These two numbers, the money and the jobs, are the pair most often asked about the pact, so they should be learnt together. Option A, 50 billion dollars, is half the figure and is incorrect. Option B, 75 billion dollars, does not appear in the summit statement at all. Option D, 250 billion dollars, overstates the commitment by a wide margin. Note also that the figure is an investment target over a defined period and not a one-time inflow, and that the jobs promised are direct jobs rather than total employment of every kind.