UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 78 of 150

Correct — C, Space Research. There is no Sustainable Development Goal called Space Research, and nothing resembling it appears anywhere in the list of seventeen. The other three are goals in their own right and are among the most frequently quoted: Zero Hunger is Goal 2, Quality Education is Goal 4, and Gender Equality is Goal 5. The seventeen Goals were adopted on 25 September 2015 by all 193 member states of the United Nations as the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and 2030 is the horizon the stem refers to. One point of vocabulary is worth fixing while you are here: in the framework's own language the seventeen are GOALS, and beneath them sit 169 TARGETS that spell out what each goal means in measurable terms. This question uses 'target' loosely to mean the goals themselves, so read it as asking which of the four is not one of the seventeen.

• (a)Quality Education — This is Goal 4 of the seventeen — 'ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all'. It is a genuine SDG, so it cannot be the answer to a question asking which is NOT one.
• (b)Zero Hunger — This is Goal 2, sitting immediately after No Poverty at Goal 1. It is a genuine SDG, and one of the two or three most frequently named in Indian policy documents, so it cannot be the odd one out.
• (d)Gender Equality — This is Goal 5. It is a genuine SDG and, like Quality Education and Zero Hunger, appears constantly in NITI Aayog's SDG India Index reporting, so a candidate is likely to have met all three by name before meeting the list in full.

The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, succeeding the eight Millennium Development Goals that ran from 2000 to 2015. In order the seventeen are: 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. Under the seventeen sit 169 targets. India tracks its progress through NITI Aayog's SDG India Index, first published in 2018.

Learn the seventeen in numerical order, not as a loose set. Every question in this family — and both UPPSC and UPSC set them repeatedly — is answered instantly once the numbering is fixed, whether the paper asks which item is not on the list, as here, or asks you to match goal numbers to their subjects. The numbering also protects you against the specific trap examiners love, which is swapping neighbours: 13 Climate Action, 14 Life Below Water and 15 Life on Land sit consecutively and are constantly interchanged. In this question the odd one out is easy because space research is not a development objective at all, but note that even a technology-sounding goal exists — Goal 9, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure — so the elimination has to rest on knowing the list rather than on a feeling that 'science is not development'.

• The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted on 25 September 2015 by all 193 UN member states, with 2030 as the target year
• Zero Hunger is Goal 2, Quality Education Goal 4, Gender Equality Goal 5 — space research is not a Goal at all
• Beneath the 17 Goals sit 169 targets; 'goal' and 'target' are distinct terms in the framework even though this question uses them loosely
• The SDGs succeeded the eight Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000 to 2015
• India monitors progress through NITI Aayog's SDG India Index, first published in 2018

• Swapping neighbouring goals — 13 Climate Action, 14 Life Below Water and 15 Life on Land are constantly interchanged
• Treating any desirable national objective as an SDG; the list is fixed at seventeen and closed
• Confusing the eight MDGs (2000-2015) with the seventeen SDGs (2015-2030), or the 17 Goals with the 169 targets

This is among the most reliably repeated areas in the UPPSC paper: the commission has asked SDG numbering as a four-way match in 2023 and again in 2025, and as an odd-one-out here in 2022. UPSC prefers the framework's history and provenance — when the goals were adopted, and by whom — so learn the numbered list for UPPSC and the 2015 adoption story for UPSC.

• practice — not a real PYQ

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

  • (a)2000
  • (b)2012
  • (c)2015
  • (d)2016

  Answer(c) 2015 — adopted on 25 September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, succeeding the Millennium Development Goals that ran from 2000 to 2015.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following pairs: 1. SDG 13 — Climate Action 2. SDG 14 — Life on Land 3. SDG 15 — Life Below Water How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

  • (a)Only one
  • (b)Only two
  • (c)All three
  • (d)None

  Answer(a) Only one — SDG 13 is Climate Action, but 14 is Life Below Water and 15 is Life on Land, so pairs 2 and 3 have been swapped.