MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 50 of 100

Correct — D, the International Year of Cooperatives. The UN General Assembly, by resolution A/RES/78/289 adopted on 19 June 2024, proclaimed 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives, under the theme 'Cooperatives Build a Better World'. It is the second such year — the first was 2012 — and the global campaign is led by the International Cooperative Alliance with the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs as focal point. The purpose is to spotlight the cooperative business model as a route to the Sustainable Development Goals, and member states were invited to set up national committees for the observance. Note that 2025 also carries other UN designations (Quantum Science and Technology, Glaciers' Preservation, Peace and Trust), but Cooperatives is the only one of them on offer here.

• (a)International Year of Forests — That was 2011, not 2025. (2020 was separately the International Year of Plant Health, another forestry-adjacent trap.)
• (b)International Year of Millets — 2023 was the International Year of Millets — proposed by India and led by the FAO. High-recall and therefore the strongest distractor in this set, but two years too early.
• (c)International Year of Sustainable Energy — 2012 was the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. Interestingly, 2012 was also the first International Year of Cooperatives — the same year carried both designations, which is what makes this option feel plausible.

The UN General Assembly proclaims 'International Years' by resolution to focus global attention on a theme for a calendar year, usually naming a lead agency or partner network to coordinate it. More than one designation can run in the same year. The 2025 International Year of Cooperatives revisits the 2012 observance and argues that member-owned, member-governed enterprises — dairy and credit cooperatives, producer societies, mutuals — deliver employment and services where investor-owned firms and the state both fall short. India is central to that story, holding one of the world's largest cooperative networks.

Do not memorise UN years as loose trivia; memorise them as a chain (2011 Forests, 2012 Cooperatives and Sustainable Energy for All, 2023 Millets, 2024 Camelids, 2025 Cooperatives again). Setters pick the years on either side of the answer, so the neighbours are the traps. Pair the year with the Indian policy hook wherever one exists — Millets 2023 was India's proposal, and Cooperatives 2025 lines up with India's Ministry of Cooperation and its 'Sahkar se Samriddhi' push, which is how UPSC and MPPSC both like to extend the question.

• UNGA resolution A/RES/78/289, adopted 19 June 2024, declared 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives
• Theme: 'Cooperatives Build a Better World'; the International Cooperative Alliance leads the global campaign
• It is the second International Year of Cooperatives — the first was 2012
• India created a separate Ministry of Cooperation in July 2021
• Cooperatives entered the Constitution through the 97th Amendment (2011) — Article 43B in the Directive Principles and Part IXB; the Supreme Court in 2021 struck down Part IXB so far as it applied to cooperative societies within states, leaving it valid for multi-state cooperatives

• Picking Millets (2023) because it is the best-remembered recent observance
• Assuming only one International Year is declared per year — 2025 carried several designations
• Assuming every International Year is a UNESCO declaration — most are UN General Assembly resolutions, implemented by a designated agency or partner body

MPPSC and other state PSCs ask 'the UN declared year X as the International Year of what' or the reverse; UPSC prefers a match-the-pairs format across several years, or shifts to the Indian cooperative sector — Ministry of Cooperation, Part IXB, cooperative banking regulation.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The theme of the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives 2025 was:

  • (a)Cooperatives Build a Better World
  • (b)Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World
  • (c)Cooperatives for Sustainable Development
  • (d)One Earth, One Cooperative

  Answer(a) 'Cooperatives Build a Better World' — the theme announced for IYC 2025.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following provisions relating to cooperative societies was inserted into the Constitution by the 97th Constitutional Amendment Act?

  • (a)Article 39A
  • (b)Article 43B
  • (c)Article 48A
  • (d)Article 51A(j)

  Answer(b) Article 43B — a Directive Principle on the promotion of cooperative societies, added along with Part IXB and the right to form cooperatives under Article 19(1)(c).