UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 97 of 150

Correct — A, Only 2. Statement 2 is right: both the World Solar Bank — a dedicated multilateral financing vehicle for solar deployment — and the One Sun One World One Grid initiative for interconnecting solar grids across time zones were taken forward under the International Solar Alliance's umbrella; OSOWOG was carried into the Green Grids Initiative launched at the Glasgow climate conference. Statement 1 breaks on its final clause. The opening half is the description the Government of India itself uses — the ISA is presented as the first treaty-based international intergovernmental organisation to be headquartered in India, its Secretariat sitting on the National Institute of Solar Energy campus at Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, Haryana. But '38 member countries' is badly out of date. By the October-2025 exam the Alliance had long passed a hundred: ISA's own figures give about 119 countries as signatories to the Framework Agreement, of which roughly 99 have deposited instruments of ratification and are full members. A single stale number is enough to sink an otherwise accurate statement — which is exactly the kind of falsifier UPPSC likes to bury at the end of a long clause.

• (b)Both 1 and 2 — This is the trap for the candidate who reads the first two-thirds of statement 1, recognises the true 'first treaty-based intergovernmental organisation headquartered in India' formula, and stops there. The membership figure attached to it is wrong by an order of magnitude — the ISA is well past a hundred members, not 38 — so statement 1 cannot be accepted.
• (c)Neither 1 nor 2 — Statement 2 is correct, so this cannot be the answer. The World Solar Bank and One Sun One World One Grid are both initiatives launched under the ISA banner, not schemes of some other body — OSOWOG in particular is the Alliance's flagship idea of a single interconnected solar grid spanning continents and time zones.
• (d)Only 1 — This reverses both truth values. It accepts the statement that carries the false membership count and rejects the statement that is actually correct. If you can only be sure of one thing in this question, be sure that '38 member countries' is wrong.

The International Solar Alliance is a treaty-based intergovernmental organisation created to pool demand, finance and technology for solar energy among sun-rich countries. It was launched by India and France on 30 November 2015 alongside the Paris climate conference (COP-21); its Framework Agreement was opened for signature at Marrakech in November 2016 and entered into force on 6 December 2017 once fifteen countries had ratified it. India hosts the Secretariat at the National Institute of Solar Energy campus, Gwal Pahari, Gurugram — which is why Indian official material describes it as the first treaty-based intergovernmental organisation headquartered in India.

In a two-statement question, the examiner's falsifier is usually one specific, checkable detail hidden inside an otherwise textbook-true sentence. Here the whole of statement 1 reads correctly until the last three words. Membership numbers of a live international body are exactly the sort of figure that ages badly, and a figure as low as 38 should trigger suspicion immediately for an organisation routinely reported as spanning more than a hundred countries. Once statement 1 falls, only options (a) and (c) survive; statement 2 names two initiatives that are firmly associated with the ISA, so (a) follows. Note also the deliberate distortion of scale — the Alliance was conceived for 'sunshine countries', and even the original tropical membership pool was far larger than 38.

• The International Solar Alliance was launched jointly by India and France on 30 November 2015 at the Paris climate conference (COP-21); its Framework Agreement opened for signature at Marrakech in November 2016 and entered into force on 6 December 2017 after fifteen ratifications
• Its Secretariat is at the National Institute of Solar Energy campus, Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, Haryana — Indian government material describes the ISA as the first treaty-based international intergovernmental organisation headquartered in India
• Membership is far above the 38 in the question: ISA's own 'Who We Are' figures give about 119 signatories to the Framework Agreement, of which roughly 99 have ratified and are full members — the headcount moves as ratifications come in, so treat it as 'well over a hundred' rather than a fixed number, and note that signatories outnumber full members, not the other way round
• The Alliance was conceived for 'sunshine countries' lying between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn; that restriction is gone: an amendment to the Framework Agreement adopted at the first ISA Assembly (2018) opened membership to ALL United Nations Member States regardless of latitude, and it entered into force on 8 January 2021 — non-tropical members now join on fully equal terms, voting rights included. Sources that still describe them as non-voting are pre-2021
• One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) — the plan to link solar generation across time zones through a trans-national grid — was carried forward as the Green Grids Initiative launched at the Glasgow climate conference, and the World Solar Bank was proposed under the ISA as a dedicated financing institution for solar projects

• Accepting a long statement because its first half is textbook-correct — the falsifier in statement 1 is only the membership figure at the very end
• Confusing where the ISA was launched (Paris, COP-21) with where it is headquartered (Gurugram) and where its Framework Agreement was opened for signature (Marrakech)
• Quoting a precise membership number in an answer; ratifications keep arriving, so the safe formulation is 'well over a hundred member and signatory countries'

UPPSC has asked the ISA both as a one-line location question — where is its Secretariat — and, as here, as a statement pair whose falsifier is a number. UPSC prefers the institutional angle: when and where it was launched, and whether membership is automatic for all UN states.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Framework Agreement of the International Solar Alliance was opened for signature at which one of the following venues?

  • (a)COP-21, Paris, 2015
  • (b)COP-22, Marrakech, 2016
  • (c)COP-24, Katowice, 2018
  • (d)COP-26, Glasgow, 2021

  Answer(b) COP-22, Marrakech, 2016 — the Alliance was launched at Paris in 2015, but its Framework Agreement was opened for signature at Marrakech in November 2016 and entered into force on 6 December 2017.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'One Sun One World One Grid' (OSOWOG) refers to

  • (a)a scheme to give every Indian village a rooftop solar panel
  • (b)an initiative to interconnect solar power grids across countries and time zones
  • (c)a global fund to compensate countries for fossil-fuel phase-out
  • (d)a satellite constellation for measuring solar irradiance

  Answer(b) an initiative to interconnect solar power grids across countries and time zones — taken forward under the International Solar Alliance and carried into the Green Grids Initiative at the Glasgow climate conference.