UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 46 of 150

Correct — C, Only 1. Statement 2 is the one that decides this question, and it is plainly false. 'Global South' is the standard contemporary name for the developing countries — the states of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania — as against the industrialised 'Global North'. The label is geographic only by rough approximation, since Australia and New Zealand lie deep in the southern hemisphere and belong to the North in this vocabulary, while much of Asia lies north of the equator and belongs to the South. What the term actually tracks is level of development and historical position in the world economy, not latitude. Tying it to developed countries inverts its meaning, so statement 2 falls and every option containing it — (a) and (d) — goes with it. Statement 1 is correct. The Voice of Global South Summit is India's own initiative, launched to give developing countries a platform to set out their priorities and to feed those priorities into the agenda India carried through its G20 presidency. The first edition was held virtually on 12–13 January 2023 under the theme 'Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose', with 125 countries taking part. The second edition followed on 17 November 2023, again virtual, held after the New Delhi G20 Leaders' Summit so that India could report back to the Global South on what its presidency had delivered — most visibly the admission of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20. So India had indeed concluded a second VOGSS, and the answer is (c). One point of honesty that a candidate preparing today needs. By the date of this paper, 22 December 2024, India had gone further still: a third Voice of Global South Summit was held on 17 August 2024 on the theme of an empowered Global South for a sustainable future. The word 'recently' in statement 1 was therefore already trailing events on exam day. The statement remains true as written — India did conclude a second summit, and nothing about a later edition undoes that — which is why the key credits it. But learn the count as three editions to date, 2023, 2023 and 2024, and do not carry away the impression that the second was the latest.

• (a)Only 2 — It picks the one false statement and rejects the true one. 'Global South' refers to developing countries, not developed ones — the developed industrialised world is the 'Global North' in the same vocabulary. And statement 1 is accurate: India held its second Voice of Global South Summit on 17 November 2023.
• (b)Neither 1 nor 2 — It correctly rejects statement 2 but wrongly rejects statement 1 as well. Candidates who knew that a third VOGSS had already been held by August 2024 sometimes reasoned that 'India recently concluded its 2nd summit' was out of date and therefore wrong. That over-reads the statement: it asserts that a second summit was concluded, which is a fact, and a later third edition does not falsify it.
• (d)Both 1 and 2 — Statement 1 is right, but statement 2 cannot be. The whole purpose of India convening the Voice of Global South Summit was to give developing countries a hearing they do not get in forums dominated by the industrialised economies — which makes no sense if 'Global South' meant developed countries. The two statements in this option contradict each other in substance.

'Global South' is the current shorthand for the developing world, and it replaces an older sequence of terms — Third World, developing countries, the North–South divide of the 1980 Brandt Report. It is a political and economic category rather than a strictly geographical one: Australia and New Zealand sit in the southern hemisphere but count as North, while most of Asia sits north of the equator and counts as South. India's Voice of Global South Summit is a virtual leaders' conference convened by India to collect and amplify those countries' priorities, and it was designed to bracket India's G20 presidency — one edition before the presidency's substantive work, one after it, to report back.

This is a two-statement item where one statement is a definition and the other a fact, and the definition is the cheap kill. If you know that Global South means developing countries, statement 2 is false and only options (b) and (c) survive; the entire question then rests on whether India held a second VOGSS, and it did. The trap that catches better-prepared candidates is the opposite of ignorance. Someone who followed the news knows the third summit had already taken place in August 2024 and is tempted by 'neither 1 nor 2' on the ground that the word 'recently' is stale. Read what the statement claims, not what it implies: it says a second summit was concluded, which is true. Note also the deliberate design of the two editions in 2023 — January, before India's G20 year got under way, and November, after the New Delhi Leaders' Summit — because that framing is what makes VOGSS examinable alongside the G20 rather than as an isolated event.

• First Voice of Global South Summit: 12–13 January 2023, virtual, theme 'Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose', with 125 participating countries — 47 from Africa, 31 from Asia, 29 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 11 from Oceania and 7 from Europe.
• Second Voice of Global South Summit: 17 November 2023, virtual, convened after the New Delhi G20 Leaders' Summit so that India could brief developing countries on the outcomes of its presidency.
• Third Voice of Global South Summit: 17 August 2024, virtual — held four months before this paper was set, so by exam day the running count was three, not two.
• 'Global South' denotes the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania; the industrialised economies are the 'Global North'. The division is developmental, not literally hemispheric — Australia and New Zealand are counted as North.
• The signature outcome of India's 2023 G20 presidency for the Global South was the admission of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 at the New Delhi Leaders' Summit in September 2023.

• Reading 'Global South' geographically. Australia and New Zealand are in the southern hemisphere and belong to the Global North; most of Asia lies north of the equator and belongs to the Global South. The test is development, not latitude.
• Over-correcting on a dated 'recently'. A statement that India concluded its second summit stays true even after a third has been held; reject a statement only if what it actually asserts is false.
• Confusing the summit count and the years. Two editions fell in 2023 (January and November) and the third in August 2024, so 'the second summit' and 'the 2024 summit' are different things.

UPPSC asks recent diplomacy as a pair of statements in which one is a factual claim about an event and the other a definition or attribution that can be judged without following the news; UPSC prefers a statement set on the grouping itself — when it was founded, what it was originally for, what India's priorities under it were — as it did with the G-20 in 2023.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Voice of Global South Summit convened by India is best described as

  • (a)A treaty organisation of developing countries with a permanent secretariat in New Delhi
  • (b)A virtual leaders' summit hosted by India to gather and amplify the priorities of developing countries
  • (c)A United Nations body created to monitor development assistance flows
  • (d)A trade bloc of southern-hemisphere economies

  Answer(b) A virtual leaders' summit hosted by India to gather and amplify the priorities of developing countries — the first edition was held on 12–13 January 2023 with 125 countries, the second on 17 November 2023 and the third on 17 August 2024. It is an Indian initiative, not a treaty body, a UN organ or a trade bloc.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following was admitted as a permanent member of the G20 at the New Delhi Leaders' Summit held during India's presidency?

  • (a)The African Union
  • (b)The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
  • (c)The Group of 77
  • (d)The Non-Aligned Movement

  Answer(a) The African Union — its admission at the New Delhi summit in September 2023 was the headline Global South outcome of India's G20 presidency, and it was reported back to developing countries at the second Voice of Global South Summit that November.