SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 8 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In 2022, Vinay Mohan Kwatra took charge as the Foreign Secretary of India. Prior to this, he served as the ambassador to which of the following countries?

(a)Nepal
(b)Maldives
(c)Bhutan
(d)Sri Lanka

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Vinay Mohan Kwatra took over as Foreign Secretary of India on 1 May 2022, succeeding Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

He came to the post straight from Kathmandu, where he had been serving as India's Ambassador to Nepal. Before Nepal he was Ambassador to France.

The posting immediately prior to the Foreign Secretary's chair was Nepal, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Maldives — The Maldives was not his posting. India's mission there is headed by a High Commissioner rather than an Ambassador, since the Maldives is a Commonwealth member.
(c)
Bhutan — Bhutan is not a Commonwealth member, so India's envoy in Thimphu is styled Ambassador and the vocabulary hint does not rule this option out. It falls on the record instead: Kwatra came to the Foreign Secretary's chair from Kathmandu.
(d)
Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka takes an Indian High Commissioner, not an Ambassador, and Kwatra did not hold that post. The stem's own word ambassador is a usable hint here.

Concept

The Foreign Secretary is the senior-most career diplomat in the Ministry of External Affairs and its administrative head, distinct from the External Affairs Minister, who is a political office-holder.

SSC asks the office in two ways: who holds it, and where the holder served immediately before. Recent Foreign Secretaries have often stepped up from a major bilateral posting.

A second, cheap discriminator sits in the vocabulary. India sends an Ambassador to a non-Commonwealth country and a High Commissioner to a Commonwealth country, so the stem's own noun narrows the field.

Nepal is not a Commonwealth member, so India's envoy in Kathmandu is correctly styled Ambassador. That single point of protocol makes the keyed option consistent with the stem in a way the Commonwealth options are not.

Key facts

Vinay Mohan Kwatra took charge as Foreign Secretary of India on 1 May 2022.
He succeeded Harsh Vardhan Shringla in that post.
He served as India's Ambassador to Nepal before becoming Foreign Secretary.
India appoints High Commissioners to Commonwealth countries and Ambassadors elsewhere.

Study next

The Ministry of External Affairs and the difference between Foreign Secretary and External Affairs MinisterAmbassador against High Commissioner, and which neighbours take whichRecent appointments to the top constitutional and administrative offices of India

Common traps

Choosing a Commonwealth neighbour, when the stem's own word ambassador points away from those.
Confusing the Foreign Secretary with the Foreign Minister, two entirely different offices.
Mixing Kwatra up with Harsh Vardhan Shringla, his predecessor, who took a separate G20 role afterwards.

SSC has asked the same set of names from a different angle: 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.18 asks who was chief coordinator for India's G20 summit, with Kwatra among the options and Harsh Vardhan Shringla keyed.

Diplomatic vocabulary is tested on its own too, as at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.18 on the one-word substitute for a country's representative abroad.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.