UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 76 of 150

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.

• (a)Benin — 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)Gambia — 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)Guinia — 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.

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.

Two independent routes get you to the answer. The first is vocabulary: the question says 'High Commission', and of the four options only Sierra Leone and The Gambia are Commonwealth members — Benin and Guinea are francophone states outside it, so India's mission in either would be an Embassy. That halves the paper instantly. The second is current affairs: the single Indian high-level engagement with West Africa in October 2019 was Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu's visit to Sierra Leone, and Freetown is where the resident Mission actually opened in August 2020. Anchor the whole question to the December 2019 exam date — 'announced' here means the position as of late 2019, when the Mission was a decision, not yet a functioning office.

• Sierra Leone is a West African republic on the Atlantic coast; its capital is Freetown, and it is a member of the Commonwealth — which is why India's mission there is a High Commission and not an Embassy.
• Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu visited Sierra Leone from 12 to 14 October 2019 — the first-ever high-level visit from India to that country.
• That visit produced MoUs on a Joint Commission Meeting and on Foreign Office Consultations, a USD 30 million Line of Credit for irrigation at Tomabum, and the reactivation of a USD 15 million Line of Credit for potable water.
• India's Mission at Freetown opened in August 2020, described by the High Commission itself as being 'in line with the Government of India's decision to open resident Missions in more African countries'.
• Terminology to keep straight: Embassy / Ambassador between non-Commonwealth states; High Commission / High Commissioner between Commonwealth states; Consulate General / Consul General for a sub-national post handling visas, trade and community work.
• Present-day note for a 2026 reader: the High Commission of India at Freetown has been functioning since that August 2020 opening.

• Ignoring the words 'High Commission' — they are not decoration. A High Commission can only be in a Commonwealth country, which eliminates Benin and Guinea before you think about the news at all.
• Confusing Guinea (capital Conakry) with Guinea-Bissau (Bissau) and Equatorial Guinea (Malabo) — three different countries that UPPSC and UPSC both like to shuffle.
• Reading 'in October 2019' as the date the Mission opened. The 2019 date belongs to the announcement and the Vice-President's visit; the office at Freetown opened in August 2020.

UPPSC asks this as a one-line current-affairs recall — a country, a capital, a visit, a scheme name — pegged to the twelve months before the exam; UPSC prefers the underlying institutional point, testing whether you know what a High Commission is, which body extends India's Lines of Credit, or how the India-Africa Forum Summit process works.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following pairs of an African country and its capital is NOT correctly matched?

  • (a)Sierra Leone — Freetown
  • (b)Guinea — Conakry
  • (c)The Gambia — Banjul
  • (d)Benin — Monrovia

  Answer(d) Benin — Monrovia — Monrovia is the capital of Liberia; Benin's constitutional capital is Porto-Novo, with Cotonou as the seat of government.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Lines of Credit extended by the Government of India to developing countries in Africa and elsewhere are operated mainly through which of the following?

  • (a)Reserve Bank of India
  • (b)Export-Import Bank of India
  • (c)NABARD
  • (d)Small Industries Development Bank of India

  Answer(b) Export-Import Bank of India — Exim Bank extends and administers concessional Lines of Credit on behalf of the Government of India under the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (IDEAS).