Headquarters of the World Meteorological Organization is located in
- (a)Washington
- (b)Geneva
- (c)Moscow
- (d)London
Correct — B, Geneva. The World Meteorological Organization has its secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. It was set up in 1950 as the successor to the International Meteorological Organization, a non-governmental body founded back in 1873, and became a specialised agency of the United Nations the following year. Its membership stands at 193 — 187 Member States and six Member Territories — and it coordinates weather, climate and water observations worldwide, which is why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a joint creation of the WMO and the UN Environment Programme.
- (a)Washington — Washington DC hosts the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and the Organization of American States, but no United Nations specialised agency on weather.
- (c)Moscow — Moscow hosts no United Nations specialised agency. The city is easy to guess for a body that predates the Cold War, but the WMO's home has always been Geneva.
- (d)London — London is the seat of the International Maritime Organization and of Amnesty International — the near-identical initials of the maritime body are exactly what make this the trap option here.
Geneva is the single densest cluster of United Nations bodies outside New York. The World Meteorological Organization sits there alongside the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross, together with the United Nations Office at Geneva itself.
Headquarters questions are pure recall, so the efficient way to prepare is by city rather than by organisation — learn the Geneva cluster, the Rome cluster of food bodies, the Vienna cluster of atomic and drug-control bodies, and the Paris seat of UNESCO. That single grouping answers most of what NDA and UPSC ask on this topic. The WMO's headquarters has not moved since the exam.
- The World Meteorological Organization was established in 1950 and is headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland.
- It succeeded the International Meteorological Organization, a non-governmental body founded in 1873.
- It has 193 Members — 187 Member States and 6 Member Territories.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up jointly by the WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme.
- Mixing up the World Meteorological Organization with the International Maritime Organization, which is in London.
- Assuming that any old international body must be headquartered in a capital city; Geneva is not Switzerland's capital, Bern is.
NDA asks one headquarters question in most papers, sometimes as a direct city question and sometimes hidden inside a statement or a matching set.
Consider the following statements : 1. The Headquarters of the International Organization for Standardization are located in Rome 2. ISO 9000 relates to the quality management system and standards. 3. ISO 14000 relates to environmental management system standards. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3
- (d) None
Answer(c) 2 and 3
Another Geneva body, tested by planting a false city in a statement. The standards organisation is in Geneva, not Rome — the same Geneva cluster that answers this NDA question.
Where are the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) located?
- (a) Dubai
- (b) Jeddah
- (c) Islamabad
- (d) Ankara
Answer(b) Jeddah
The same one-line headquarters format used by UPSC. Both exams reward the same preparation — a city-wise list of international bodies rather than an organisation-wise one.
The headquarters of National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC) is located at
- (a) New Delhi
- (b) Lucknow
- (c) Kolkata
- (d) Bhopal
Answer(b) Lucknow
The identical headquarters format two years later, moved from an international body to a national laboratory. Keep both lists — Indian institutions and international agencies.
The Headquarters of South-Eastern Railway is located at
- (a) Bilaspur.
- (b) Secunderabad.
- (c) Kolkata.
- (d) Bhubaneswar.
Answer(c) Kolkata.
A third variant of the same one-mark recall question. Railway zone headquarters, national laboratories and United Nations agencies are the three lists NDA draws this question from.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The headquarters of which one of the following organisations is located in London?
- (a)World Meteorological Organization
- (b)International Maritime Organization
- (c)World Health Organization
- (d)Food and Agriculture Organization
Answer(b) International Maritime Organization — the other three are at Geneva, Geneva and Rome respectively.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and
- (a)the World Bank
- (b)the World Meteorological Organization
- (c)the Food and Agriculture Organization
- (d)the International Atomic Energy Agency
Answer(b) the World Meteorological Organization — the two bodies set up the panel in 1988.