UPSC Prelims 2023 — practice paper

The Stability and Growth Pact (1997) is the framework for fiscal discipline in the European Union. It sets treaty-based limits for member countries of a general government budget deficit of 3% of GDP and public debt of 60% of GDP (TFEU Article 126/Protocol-12), and an 'Excessive Deficit Procedure' is applied in case of violations. There is no direct relation/provision for sharing infrastructure or technology—SGP's scope is limited to fiscal rules and monitoring. Therefore, Statement 1 is correct, while Statements 2 and 3 are incorrect.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) produces nearly three-quarters of the world's mined cobalt, which is a key metal for EV batteries. According to the USGS Minerals Yearbook 2023, in 2023, the DRC supplied approximately 74% of global mined cobalt. Our World in Data also states that the DRC holds 'around three-quarters' (approximately 3/4) share, and the Cobalt Institute (2022) report gives this share as ~73%. Argentina, Botswana, and Kazakhstan are not major cobalt producers, therefore the correct option is DRC.

Intangible assets are identifiable non-monetary assets that do not have a physical form (IAS 38). 'Brand identity'—which is often a collection of marketing-related intangibles such as trademarks/trade names—and 'customer mailing lists' are both recognized as separate intangible assets in a business combination (examples from IFRS 3; IFRS for SMEs Educational Module 19). 'Intellectual property' (such as patents/copyrights) is inherently an intangible asset (IAS 38). In contrast, the accounting for 'inventory' is done under IAS 2 as inventory, which is not an intangible asset. Therefore, 1, 3, and 4 are intangible—total three.