SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 25 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.

As per the UNDP, the rank of Sri Lanka in the Human Development Index (2022) is:

(a)72/189
(b)74/189
(c)75/189
(d)73/189

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The rank the key marks is 73, and that is the number option (d) carries.

In the Human Development Report released in September 2022, Sri Lanka was placed 73rd with an HDI value of 0.782, inside the high human development band and the highest ranked of the South Asian countries in that edition.

Read the option as its rank number. The denominator printed here — 189 — is the same on all four options, while the report that placed Sri Lanka 73rd ranked 191 countries and territories.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
72/189 — 72 is one place too high. In the edition the question refers to, Sri Lanka is 73rd and Seychelles holds 72.
(b)
74/189 — 74 is one place too low. Sri Lanka at 73 sits immediately above Bosnia and Herzegovina, which holds 74.
(c)
75/189 — 75 is two places off. The HDI value of 0.782 that the report gives Sri Lanka puts it at 73, not in the middle seventies.

Concept

The Human Development Index is published by the UNDP in its Human Development Report. It compresses three dimensions into a single value between 0 and 1.

A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy at birth. Knowledge is measured by mean and expected years of schooling. A decent standard of living is measured by gross national income per capita.

Countries are ranked on the composite value and sorted into four bands: very high, high, medium and low human development.

The question dates the report to 2022 but prints 189 in every option. The report released in September 2022 covered 191 countries and territories, so no option carries a denominator that matches the edition — the rank number is what the item is really testing, and 73 is the rank that edition gave Sri Lanka.

Key facts

In the Human Development Report released in September 2022, Sri Lanka ranked 73rd with an HDI value of 0.782.
That report covered 191 countries and territories.
Sri Lanka was placed in the high human development band and was the highest ranked South Asian country in that edition.
The HDI combines life expectancy, years of schooling and gross national income per capita into a value between 0 and 1.

Study next

The three HDI dimensions and the indicator used for eachUNDP's related measures: Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Inequality Index, Multidimensional Poverty IndexReading a rank question for its edition: which report, and how many countries it covered

Common traps

Answering from a different edition of the report, where the same country holds a different rank.
Trusting the denominator printed in the options rather than the rank number.

SSC frames report-based ranks as as-per questions that name the body and the year. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways annual report is used that way at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4, and the Tea Board of India report at 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.24.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.