Consider the following pairs : Regions often mentioned in news : Reason for being in news 1. North Kivu and Ituri : War between Armenia and Azerbaijan 2. Nagorno-Karabakh : Insurgency in Mozambique 3. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia : Dispute between Israel and Lebanon How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
- (a) Only one
- (b) Only two
- (c) All three
- (d) None ✓ UPSC's answer
Why the answer is (d)
• Pair 1 is wrong: North Kivu and Ituri are provinces of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the news for M23 and ADF militia violence — not the Armenia–Azerbaijan war.
• Pair 2 is wrong: Nagorno-Karabakh is the Armenian-populated enclave over which Armenia and Azerbaijan fought, retaken by Azerbaijan in 2023 — not Mozambique's insurgency (that is in Cabo Delgado).
• Pair 3 is wrong: Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are Ukrainian regions occupied and 'annexed' by Russia in 2022, not areas of Israel–Lebanon dispute (that is the Shebaa Farms and maritime boundary).
• Every reason has been mismatched, so none is correct.
• Hence option (d).
Why the other options are wrong
- (a) Only one
- None of the pairs is correct.
- (b) Only two
- All three pairs are mismatched.
- (c) All three
- Each region has been paired with the wrong conflict.
Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2023, held on 28 May 2023. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.