UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 133 of 150

Correct — B, A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2. Take the four goals in order. SDG 10 is Reduced Inequalities, so A pairs with 3. SDG 13 is Climate Action, which List-II renders as 'Climate change', so B pairs with 1. SDG 14 is Life Below Water, so C pairs with 4. SDG 15 is Life on Land, so D pairs with 2. That gives A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2 — option (b). The set is easy to hold because the last four numbered goals before the institutional ones run in a remembered block: 13 Climate Action, 14 Life Below Water, 15 Life on Land, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, 17 Partnerships for the Goals. Note the internal logic of 13-14-15: the climate goal comes first, then the ocean, then the land — water before land, which is the opposite of the order most candidates assume and is the single most common slip on this item.

• (a)A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4 — Every pair is wrong. It assigns 'Life on land' to SDG 10 (which is Reduced Inequalities), 'Reduced inequalities' to SDG 13 (which is Climate Action), 'Climate change' to SDG 14 (which is Life Below Water) and 'Life below water' to SDG 15 (which is Life on Land) — the whole List-II sequence has been rotated.
• (c)A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 — This is the lazy option — it simply pairs A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 in printed order without reference to the goals. It would require SDG 10 to be about climate change and SDG 13 about life on land, both false. A straight-through matching is almost never the answer in a UPPSC match list, and here it is not.
• (d)A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1 — This is the near-miss and the trap worth understanding. It gets A-3 (SDG 10 = Reduced Inequalities) and C-4 (SDG 14 = Life Below Water) right, then swaps the remaining two: it makes SDG 13 'Life on land' and SDG 15 'Climate change'. In fact SDG 13 is Climate Action and SDG 15 is Life on Land. Anyone who remembers only that 13, 14 and 15 are 'the environmental trio' without fixing their order will land here.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted on 25 September 2015 by all 193 UN member states as the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 169 targets and a deadline of 2030. They succeeded the eight Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and differ from them in being universal — binding on rich and poor countries alike — and in covering environment, inequality, institutions and partnerships rather than poverty and health alone. They are political commitments, not legally binding treaty obligations. The full list: 1 No Poverty; 2 Zero Hunger; 3 Good Health and Well-being; 4 Quality Education; 5 Gender Equality; 6 Clean Water and Sanitation; 7 Affordable and Clean Energy; 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth; 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; 10 Reduced Inequalities; 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities; 12 Responsible Consumption and Production; 13 Climate Action; 14 Life Below Water; 15 Life on Land; 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; 17 Partnerships for the Goals.

Match-list questions on the SDGs are pure recall of the numbering, so the efficient route is to learn the list in blocks rather than as seventeen isolated items. Goals 1-6 are the basic-needs block, carried over in spirit from the MDGs. Goals 7-12 are the economy-and-production block. Goals 13-15 are the environment block, in the order climate, then ocean, then land. Goals 16-17 are the institutional block. Once you hold 13-14-15 in that order, this question resolves in seconds and so does its usual variant. In the exam, do not try to verify all four pairs; find the one pair you are surest of, eliminate every option that contradicts it, and check a second pair only if two options survive. Here A-3 alone kills options (a) and (c), leaving (b) against (d), and the single decision is whether SDG 13 is climate or land. In India, NITI Aayog is the nodal institution for the SDGs and publishes the SDG India Index; the National Indicator Framework is owned by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation — three separate things that should not be conflated.

• SDG 10 = Reduced Inequalities; SDG 13 = Climate Action; SDG 14 = Life Below Water; SDG 15 = Life on Land.
• The 17 SDGs with 169 targets were adopted on 25 September 2015 by all 193 UN member states as part of the 2030 Agenda, with 2030 as the target year.
• They succeeded the eight Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and are universal — applying to developed and developing countries alike — but are political rather than legally binding commitments.
• Goals 16 and 17 close the list: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, and Partnerships for the Goals.
• NITI Aayog is India's nodal institution for the SDGs and publishes the SDG India Index, whose first edition appeared in 2018.

• Swapping SDG 13 and SDG 15 — remembering that the environmental goals cluster at 13-15 without fixing their order
• Conflating the three institutions: NITI Aayog owns the SDG India Index, MoSPI owns the National Indicator Framework, and the UN owns the global indicator framework
• Treating the SDGs as legally binding; they are political commitments under the 2030 Agenda

UPPSC asks the SDGs almost entirely by number — a match list of goal numbers against themes, or 'which of the following is not an SDG'. It has run this exact List-I of SDG 10, 13, 14, 15 more than once. UPSC prefers the framework around them: when they were adopted, how they relate to the MDGs, and which body reports on them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following pairs of Sustainable Development Goal and its theme is correctly matched?

  • (a)SDG 11 — Responsible Consumption and Production
  • (b)SDG 12 — Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • (c)SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  • (d)SDG 17 — Climate Action

  Answer(c) SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. SDG 11 is Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 12 is Responsible Consumption and Production, so (a) and (b) are the swapped pair; SDG 17 is Partnerships for the Goals, and Climate Action is SDG 13.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in

  • (a)September 2000
  • (b)June 2012
  • (c)September 2015
  • (d)December 2015

  Answer(c) September 2015 — adopted on 25 September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda. September 2000 is the Millennium Declaration behind the MDGs, June 2012 is the Rio+20 conference that set the SDG process going, and December 2015 is the Paris Agreement.