Contemporary Events: World: UPSC Previous Year Questions (General Knowledge)
99 previous year UPSC Prelims questions on contemporary world events appear here, from 1996 to 2010. They concern summits and conferences, treaties and military exercises, countries in the news and awards. Each explanation describes the event as it was reported at the time, so treat the facts as dated.
Explanations state facts as of the year each question was asked; words like “recently” refer to that year.
Showing 81–90 of 99 questions
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UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q81. According to the World Development Report, low income economics are those for which the per capita GNP in 1994 was:
Explanation
The World Development Report (WDR) 1996, published by the World Bank, classified economies into different income groups based on their Gross National Product (GNP) per capita. According to this report, low-income economies were defined as those with a per capita GNP of $725 or less in 1994. The classification was based on World Bank estimates using the Atlas method, which adjusts for exchange rate fluctuations to provide a more stable measure of income across countries.
UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q82. The recent Land Mines Conference to sign the historic treaty was held in the Capital city of:
Explanation
The historic treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, known as the Ottawa Treaty or Mine Ban Treaty, was opened for signature in Ottawa, Canada, on December 3, 1997. Representatives from over 120 countries attended this conference to sign the treaty.
UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q83. Nobel Prize in Economics for the year 1997 was awarded for contribution in the area of:
Explanation
In 1997, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded jointly to Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes for their development of a new method to determine the value of derivatives. Their work led to the formulation of the Black-Scholes-Merton model, a foundational tool in financial economics for pricing options and other derivative instruments.
UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q84. The currency of the proposed European Monetary Union will be:
Explanation
The European Monetary Union (EMU) introduced the Euro () as its official currency. The decision to adopt a single currency was part of the Maastricht Treaty (1992), and the Euro was officially launched on January 1, 1999, for electronic transactions and accounting purposes. Physical Euro banknotes and coins entered circulation on January 1, 2002 in 12 European Union (EU) countries. Today, the Eurozone consists of 20 EU member states that use the Euro as their official currency.
UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q85. Assertion (A): The United States of America has threatened to ask the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to apply sanctions against the developing countries for the nonobservance of ILO convention. Reason (R): The United States of America itself has adopted and implemented those ILO conventions.
Explanation
Assertion (A) is true: USA has, in the past, pressured the World Trade Organization (WTO) to impose trade sanctions on developing countries for alleged violations of International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, particularly concerning child labor and labor rights. This aligns with Assertion (A), making it true. Reason (R) is false because the USA itself has not ratified several key ILO conventions, including those related to freedom of association, collective bargaining, and forced labor. The USA has been selective in adopting ILO conventions, often opposing ILO-enforced labor standards through WTO trade measures.
UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q86. World Environment Conference to discuss global warming was held in 1997 in:
Explanation
The World Environment Conference to discuss global warming in 1997 was held in Kyoto, Japan. This conference led to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.
UPSC 1998General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q87. The number of economically active women (excluding students and those doing domestic duties in their homes) as a percentage of all women of working age (generally those aged 15-64 years) was the highest in 1996 in
Explanation
Option (b) is correct: China had the highest participation rate, exceeding 70%, primarily due to state policies emphasizing gender equality in employment and a high demand for labor in both agricultural and industrial sectors. The socialist economic model historically encouraged women to contribute to the workforce. Options (a) is incorrect: The United States (USA) had a participation rate of approximately 59%, reflecting a strong labor market with relatively high employment opportunities for women, particularly in the service sector. Options (c) is incorrect: Russia had around 57% female workforce participation. After the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, many women remained active in the labor market, although economic instability led to job losses in certain sectors. Options (d) is incorrect: South Korea had the lowest rate among the given countries at approximately 47%, as traditional gender roles were still prevalent, and workforce participation among married women was relatively lower compared to Western economies.
UPSC 1997General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q88. The Prime Minister of which one of the following countries is chosen by the ruling prince from a list of three candidates put up to him by the President of France?
Explanation
In Monaco, the Prime Minister (Minister of State) is not directly elected by the people but is instead appointed by the Prince of Monaco from a list of three candidates proposed by the President of France. This is because of Monaco’s close political ties with France, as established in the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1918. While Monaco is an independent country, France plays a significant role in its governance, especially in defence and foreign relations.
UPSC 1997General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q89. The world’s fastest computer has been able to perform (as of Dec. 1996):
Explanation
As of December 1996, the world’s fastest computer was ASCI Red, developed by Intel and Sandia National Laboratories under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). It was the first computer to break the 1 teraflop (10¹² floating point operations per second) barrier in December 1996. It had 9,298 Pentium Pro processors and achieved a sustained performance of 1.06 teraflops (1.06 × 10¹² operations per second) in 1997 on the LINPACK benchmark.
UPSC 1997General Knowledge · Contemporary Events: World
Q90. The Basque separatist organization is active in:
Explanation
As of 1997, the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was still active in Spain, conducting violent attacks to push for an independent Basque state. The group, founded in 1959, intensified its activities in the 1980s and 1990s, targeting Spanish government officials, security forces, and civilians.
Answer key for these questions
Q
UPSC year
Correct answer
81
1998
(c) US $ 725 or less
82
1998
(a) Canada
83
1998
(b) Financial Economics
84
1998
(b) Euro
85
1998
(c) A is true both R is false
86
1998
(d) Kyoto
87
1998
(b) China
88
1997
(d) Monaco
89
1997
(c) 1012 operations per second
90
1997
(d) Spain
What UPSC has tested in Contemporary Events: World
The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10) was held at Johannesburg.
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference of 1944 is known as the Bretton Woods Conference.
Hand-in-Hand 2007 was a joint anti-terrorism military training between India and China.
Nicaragua was planning a canal to rival the Panama Canal.
Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth near the end of 2006.
Bangkok has been the venue of the Asian Games the maximum number of times.
Frequently asked questions
How many previous year UPSC questions are there on Contemporary Events: World?
This page covers 99 previous year UPSC Prelims GS Paper-I questions on Contemporary Events: World (General Knowledge), asked from 1996 to 2010. Each has the correct answer and an explanation.
What was the Bretton Woods Conference?
The 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, which created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It set up the post-war system of fixed exchange rates.
Which exercise was Hand-in-Hand 2007?
A joint anti-terrorism military training between India and China, held in 2007 in China. It was the first such exercise between the two armies and marked a step in their defence cooperation.
Where was the Rio+10 summit held?
At Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, ten years after the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro. It reviewed progress on sustainable development and is formally called the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
