In October, 2019 India announced to establish a High Commission in which African country ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Sierra Leone. The news the paper is drawing on is India's decision to open a resident diplomatic Mission in Sierra Leone, the West African republic whose capital is Freetown. The announcement belongs to the visit of Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu to Sierra Leone from 12 to 14 October 2019 — the first-ever high-level Indian visit to that country. During it the two sides signed MoUs setting up a Joint Commission Meeting and Foreign Office Consultations, India extended a USD 30 million Line of Credit for irrigation at Tomabum, and an earlier USD 15 million Line of Credit for potable water was reactivated. The Mission itself followed: India's High Commission at Freetown opened in August 2020, which its own website describes as being 'in line with the Government of India's decision to open resident Missions in more African countries'. An honest caveat for the reader: the exact sentence 'India announced in October 2019 that it would open a High Commission in Sierra Leone' is not something we could locate on a primary government source — what is documented is the October 2019 vice-presidential visit and the August 2020 opening at Freetown. The key marks (d) and the documented record points the same way.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Benin is a small French-speaking West African republic on the Gulf of Guinea; Porto-Novo is its constitutional capital and Cotonou the seat of government. It is not a member of the Commonwealth, so an Indian resident mission there would be an Embassy headed by an Ambassador, not a 'High Commission' — the wording of the question alone rules it out. It is not the country tied to the October 2019 outreach.  (b) The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, a narrow strip along the Gambia river almost entirely enclosed by Senegal, with Banjul as its capital. It is a Commonwealth member, so 'High Commission' would be the right term for it — which is exactly why it is the best-constructed trap here. But the October 2019 visit and the resident Mission that followed were to Sierra Leone, not to Banjul.  (c) A misprint for Guinea, the French-speaking republic on the Atlantic coast whose capital is Conakry and which holds some of the world's largest bauxite reserves. Like Benin it is outside the Commonwealth, so the 'High Commission' phrasing does not fit it, and it is not the country associated with the October 2019 announcement. Note that Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea are three different states — the option's spelling is UPPSC's, not a fourth country.

Concept: A country's resident diplomatic mission is called an Embassy when it is sent to a non-Commonwealth state and is headed by an Ambassador; between two Commonwealth member states the same mission is called a High Commission and its head is a High Commissioner. The difference is historical — Commonwealth members once shared a common allegiance and so did not 'send ambassadors' to one another — but the terminology survives, and it is a free elimination tool in any exam question that uses the words 'High Commission'. India has been steadily widening its resident footprint in Africa, opening Missions in countries where it previously worked through a concurrently accredited envoy sitting in a neighbouring capital.

State PCS 2019 Q76 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q76 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer