UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 23 of 150

Correct — A, Hong Kong. In the Global Business Cities Index published in January 2022 — a ranking compiled by the data firm Statista, not by any government or UN body — Hong Kong stood first with the benchmark score of 100. The rest of the top four followed close behind: London 95.08, Paris 94.63 and Frankfurt 90.71, with Amsterdam, Tokyo, Singapore and Oslo filling out the top eight. The scores matter as much as the order here, because they show how tight the field is: barely ten points separate the first city from the eighth, so this is pure recall of a published table rather than something a candidate can reason out. Note the anchor — the question means the ranking as it stood at the June-2022 exam; a ranking of this kind is re-issued and its order should not be carried forward to later years.

• (b)Paris — Paris was third, with a score of 94.63 — inside the top four but behind both Hong Kong and London. It is a tempting answer because Paris is the most obvious 'European business capital' name in the list, but the index did not put it first.
• (c)Frankfurt — Frankfurt was fourth, at 90.71 — the last of the four options in the index's own order. Frankfurt's reputation rests on being the seat of the European Central Bank and Germany's financial centre, which makes it a strong finance city but not the leader of this particular ranking.
• (d)London — London was second, at 95.08, and is the closest thing to a trap in this question — it is the answer most candidates give, and it is genuinely first in several other city rankings. In this index, published in January 2022, it finished just under five points behind Hong Kong.

A large family of 'global city' rankings scores cities on business environment, connectivity, infrastructure, talent and cost of living, and they disagree with one another because they weight those things differently. The Global Business Cities Index referred to here is one such ranking, put out in January 2022 by the data company Statista; its top place went to Hong Kong. Knowing who publishes an index is as important as knowing its result, because state exams frequently ask the publisher rather than the rank — and because a ranking from a private data firm carries different weight from one issued by the World Bank or the UNDP.

There is nothing to derive here; this is a current-affairs recall item anchored to the months just before the 12 June 2022 exam. The useful discipline is to store index questions as a triple — name of the index, publishing body, headline result and date — rather than as a single fact. That way the same preparation answers 'which body publishes X', 'what was India's rank in X' and 'which city/country topped X'. The trap in this question is the pull of London and Paris; note that Hong Kong topped several business and financial-centre rankings of that period, so the answer is not as surprising as it first looks.

• Global Business Cities Index, January 2022 — Hong Kong first, with the benchmark score of 100
• The rest of the top four: London 95.08, Paris 94.63, Frankfurt 90.71
• Positions five to eight: Amsterdam 90.70, Tokyo 90.04, Singapore 89.70, Oslo 89.63
• The index was compiled by the data company Statista — it is not a government or intergovernmental publication
• The whole top eight sits within about ten points, so small methodology changes can reshuffle the order between editions

• Answering from reputation instead of the table — London and New York 'feel' like the top business city and often are, in other indices
• Assuming every global index is published by a UN body or the World Bank; several widely quoted ones come from private firms and think tanks
• Carrying a rank forward: an index result is tied to its edition, and this question is anchored to the January 2022 edition current at the June-2022 exam

UPPSC likes naming an index and a month and asking for the top country, city or region — the 2021 paper did it with the Global Peace Index and the 2023 paper with the Social Progress Index. UPSC almost never asks the winner; it asks who publishes the index or which indicators go into it, so prepare the publisher and the components as well as the headline.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'Ease of Doing Business' rankings for countries were published by which of the following?

  • (a)World Economic Forum
  • (b)World Bank
  • (c)United Nations Development Programme
  • (d)Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

  Answer(b) World Bank — the Doing Business report was a World Bank Group publication; the World Economic Forum publishes the Global Competitiveness and Global Gender Gap reports instead.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Global Business Cities Index published in January 2022, which city was placed second, immediately behind the leader?

  • (a)Singapore
  • (b)Tokyo
  • (c)London
  • (d)Amsterdam

  Answer(c) London — it scored 95.08 against Hong Kong's benchmark 100, with Paris third and Frankfurt fourth.