The resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 3 March, 2021 decided to celebrate the year 2023 as the International Year of
- (a)Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development
- (b)Glass
- (c)Millets
- (d)Camelids
Correct — C, Millets. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets, taking the decision at its seventy-fifth session in March 2021 on a proposal moved by India. The other three options are all real United Nations observances, which is what makes the item work — but none of them is 2023. Glass and Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development were both observances of 2022, and Camelids of 2024. So the only option that matches the year named in the stem is millets. The purpose of the year was to draw attention to a group of hardy, short-duration, low-water cereals — sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail, kodo, little and barnyard millet among them — as nutrition-dense grains suited to dry lands and warming climates.
- (a)Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development — A genuine United Nations observance, but of 2022, not 2023.
- (b)Glass — Also a real observance of 2022. Two of the four options share that year, which is the trap for anyone who remembers the name but not the date.
- (d)Camelids — The International Year of Camelids fell in 2024 — the year after the one the stem asks about.
The General Assembly designates international years to focus attention on a subject for twelve months, usually on a member state's proposal and with an agency such as the Food and Agriculture Organization leading the programme. The millets year was India's proposal, and it fitted a domestic policy push as well as a global one: millets need far less water than rice or wheat, tolerate poor soils and heat, mature quickly, and carry more fibre and micronutrients than the fine cereals that displaced them.
The item is not really about millets — it is about matching an observance to its year, and three of the four options are correct observances of the wrong year. If the year is what you have to recall, use the anchor that is easiest to hold: the millets year was proposed by India and was heavily publicised here through 2023, which is why it is the one an Indian paper would test. The March 2021 date in the stem is the decision date, not the observance date, and separating the two is worth doing deliberately, because international years are almost always declared a year or two in advance. A present-day note: 2023 has since passed and 2024 was the International Year of Camelids, so this is now a historical designation rather than a current one.
- The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets at its seventy-fifth session in March 2021.
- The proposal was moved by India.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization led the observance.
- 2022 was both the International Year of Glass and the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
- 2024 was the International Year of Camelids.
- Confusing the year the resolution was adopted with the year being observed.
- Assuming only one international year is declared for a given year — 2022 carried several.
- Treating a designation as still current; the observance ends with the year.
As a match between an observance and its year, or as a question on which country proposed a particular international year.
With reference to 'Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion', which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. This initiative aims to demonstrate the improved production and post-harvest technologies, and to demonstrate value addition techniques, in an integrated manner, with cluster approach. 2. Poor, small, marginal and tribal farmers have larger share in the total cultivation of millets in the country. 3. Millets can be raised in rainfed and are more suitable to hilly regions.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 2 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 1 and 2 only
The domestic policy behind the international year. India had been promoting millets through a national initiative well before it moved the proposal at the United Nations, and that programme is where the crop's association with small, marginal and tribal farmers comes from.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The International Year of Millets, 2023, was observed following a proposal moved at the United Nations by
- (a)Brazil
- (b)India
- (c)Ethiopia
- (d)Indonesia
Answer(b) India — the General Assembly adopted the declaration at its seventy-fifth session in March 2021.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The International Year of Camelids was observed by the United Nations in which year?
- (a)2021
- (b)2022
- (c)2023
- (d)2024
Answer(d) 2024 — the year after the International Year of Millets.