World Panorama (UPSC) Part-III

• India and the European Union (EU) began negotiations on a Broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in Brussels, Belgium in 2007.

• India and the EU expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy. Both parties believe that a comprehensive and ambitious agreement that is consistent with World Trade Organisation rules and principles would open new markets and would expand opportunities for Indian and EU businesses.

• The negotiations cover Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Competition, Trade Defence, Government Procurement, Dispute Settlement, Intellectual Property Rights & Geographical Indications, Sustainable Development.

The Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) is a global, open platform that facilitates the preparation and structuring of complex infrastructure Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to enable mobilization of the private sector and institutional investor capital. The GIF platform coordinates and integrates the efforts of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), private sector investors and financiers and governments interested in infrastructure investment in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs).

GIF works with various multilateral development banks that serve as implementing partners for GIF-supported projects. These include the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, Islamic Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and World Bank.

About Global Gender Gap Index
• It is an annual index designed to measure gender equality.
• It benchmarks gender-based gaps in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.
• It is released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
Highlights of 2024 Report

• India’s gender parity score stands at just 64.1 per cent, placing it among the lowest-ranked countries in the South Asian region.
• In educational attainment, India scored 97.1%, reflecting gains in female literacy and secondary education enrolment.
• One dimension where India increases parity is in Economic Participation and Opportunity, where its score improves by 0.9 per cent to 40.7 per cent.
• India also records higher parity in health and survival, driven by improved scores in sex ratio at birth and in healthy life expectancy.
• India recorded a slight drop in political empowerment, with parity dropping by 0.6 points since the previous edition. Female representation in Parliament fell from 14.7 per cent to 13.8 per cent in 2025
• Iceland retains the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, closing 92.6% of the gender gap – the only economy to reach 90% parity.
• European countries account for eight of the top ten rankings; Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have all been in the top ten since 2006.
• The bottom 10 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2025—led by Pakistan, Sudan, Chad, and Iran—continue to show the widest gender disparities globally.

• Catalonia had been in news due to referendum where people decided to vote for secession from Spain. So, #1 is right.
  Crimea had been gifted to Ukraine in 1954 but Putin annexed the province back in 2014 So, #2 is wrong, Crimea is not in Hungary.
• In 2017, India has decided to give 25 Million Pesos aid to Philippines to fight Islamic State in Mindanao Province. This is the first time that India has decided to extend monetary assistance outside to any state to fight terrorism. This signals a rise of India's image as a Net Security Provider. So, #3 is right. Thus by elimination, we get Option c: 1 and 3 Only.
• Now just to gain knowledge about #4: Oromia is not in Nigeria but in Ethiopia, it has been in news in 2017, due to Ethnic violence, terrorism and general anarchy that is common in such African countries and also in some Indian states.

• In 1947, the United Nations agreed a plan partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with international rule over Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, which gave them 56% of the land.

• The state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948. A day later, five Arab states attacked. The war ended with Israel controlling 77% of the territory.

• Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, ending up in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

• In a 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt, securing control of all territory from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley.

• The Palestinians remain stateless, with most living under Israeli occupation or as refugees in neighbouring states.

• ILO Convention No. 138: minimum age of entry into work shall not be less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling and, in any case, shall not be less than 15 years.
• ILO Convention No. 182: "Worst Forms of Child Labour" have to be prohibited urgently.