UPSC Prelims 2014 · Question 16 of 100
UPSC Prelims 2014 question on Chechnya Darfur Swat Valley
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2014
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectInternational Relations
- TopicCurrent Affairs
- DifficultyMedium
- TypeMatch
Consider the following pairs:
Region often in news : Country
1. Chechnya : Russian Federation
2. Darfur : Mali
3. Swat Valley : Iraq
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
Show answer
Answer: A. 1 only
Verdict
The answer is 1 only. Chechnya is correctly paired with the Russian Federation; the other two regions are placed in the wrong countries.
Analysis
Pair 1 is CORRECT. Chechnya is a republic within the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus. Pair 2 is INCORRECT. Darfur is a region of western Sudan, not Mali, and its conflict is a Sudanese one. Pair 3 is INCORRECT. Swat Valley lies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, not Iraq, and reached the news through militancy and the subsequent military operation there. The common thread the question exploits is that all three regions were genuinely in the news for conflict, so recognition alone does not help.
Source
The Hindu and Indian Express current affairs coverage.
How to crack it
In a places in news matching set, being able to recall why a place was in the news is worthless if you cannot place it on a map. Whenever a conflict region appears in the paper, write down region, country and neighbouring country in the same line. Here a single confident pairing, Chechnya with Russia, combined with a single confident rejection, Swat with Iraq, is enough to eliminate every option except the first.
More questions on Current Affairs
← Full 2014 question paper · All International Relations questions