UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — At BRICS, India must bank on the NDB
Q1. India's representation on the highest decision-making organ of the New Development Bank is exercised by which one of the following?
- A. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, through its Department of External Investments and Operations
- B. The Minister of External Affairs, through the Economic Diplomacy and States Division of the Ministry
- C. The Union Finance Minister, who sits on and chairs meetings of the Bank's Board of Governors
- D. The Vice-Chairperson of NITI Aayog, through its Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office
Q2. At Fortaleza in July 2014, alongside the New Development Bank the BRICS countries also concluded a treaty establishing the Contingent Reserve Arrangement with an initial size of USD 100 billion. How many of the five founding members committed USD 18 billion each to this arrangement?
- A. Three founding members only
- B. Four founding members only
- C. Two founding members only
- D. All five founding members equally
Q3. Consider the following statements comparing membership of the New Development Bank with membership of BRICS:
1. Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates have taken part in the NDB's Board of Governors meetings as newly joined members of the Bank, even though Bangladesh is not a full member of BRICS.
2. The NDB's founding membership was confined to the five original BRICS economies, whose Governors were later joined at the Bank's annual meetings by those of its new members.
3. Every country admitted to BRICS as a full member from 2024 onwards has thereby automatically become a member of the New Development Bank.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates have taken part in the NDB's Board of Governors meetings as newly joined members of the Bank, even though Bangladesh is not a full member of BRICS.
- The NDB's founding membership was confined to the five original BRICS economies, whose Governors were later joined at the Bank's annual meetings by those of its new members.
- Every country admitted to BRICS as a full member from 2024 onwards has thereby automatically become a member of the New Development Bank.
- A. 2 and 3 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 1 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q4. The New Development Bank's India Regional Office — tasked with project origination, technical assistance, pipeline development, project monitoring and regional portfolio management — has been set up at which one of the following?
- A. Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai, functioning under the Maharashtra government's finance department
- B. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), the country's international financial services centre
- C. The Hyderabad Financial District, Telangana, hosting multilateral lenders' South Asia operations
- D. Electronics City, Bengaluru, Karnataka, alongside the bank's sustainable infrastructure unit
Q5. The 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit held at Bharat Mandapam was attended by the leaders of how many BRICS full member countries and how many BRICS partner countries respectively?
- A. Nine member countries and five partner countries
- B. Ten member countries and eight partner countries
- C. Eleven member countries and ten partner countries
- D. Eleven member countries and five partner countries
Q6. In BRICS terminology, the category under which states such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Vietnam are associated with the grouping is best described as which one of the following?
- A. A probationary tier whose occupants are elevated to full membership automatically after two consecutive summit cycles
- B. A tier reserved for states that subscribe to the Contingent Reserve Arrangement without taking part in leaders' summits
- C. A transitional tier that confers voting rights in the New Development Bank pending ratification of full membership
- D. A tier for structured engagement with BRICS that widens its outreach without altering its full-membership structure
Q7. Consider the following countries:
1. Egypt
2. South Africa
3. Indonesia
4. Iran
Which of the above is/are correctly identified as countries that attained full BRICS membership in 2024 or later?
- Egypt
- South Africa
- Indonesia
- Iran
- A. 1, 3 and 4 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2, 3 and 4 only
- D. 1, 2 and 4 only
Q8. Under the founding Agreement of the New Development Bank, the Bank's first regional operational centre — to be established concurrently with its headquarters — was to be located in which country?
- A. Brazil, as the Bank's Latin America regional office at Fortaleza
- B. Russia, as the Bank's Eurasian regional centre for project origination
- C. Egypt, as the Bank's North Africa regional centre for infrastructure lending
- D. South Africa, as the Bank's Africa Regional Centre
Q9. What was the initial authorised capital of the New Development Bank as fixed by its founding Agreement?
- A. USD 50 billion
- B. USD 100 billion
- C. USD 150 billion
- D. USD 200 billion
Q10. Under the Sixteenth General Review of Quotas concluded by the IMF Board of Governors in December 2023, by what proportion were members' quotas increased?
- A. 25 per cent
- B. 50 per cent
- C. 75 per cent
- D. 100 per cent
Q11. Consider the following statements regarding the currency question in BRICS as of 2026:
1. India's official position is that de-dollarisation is not part of its financial agenda.
2. India has supported the use of central bank digital currencies for BRICS payments while ruling out a bloc-wide BRICS payment network.
3. Intra-bloc trade in national currencies figured on the agenda of the September 2026 Summit, with calls for the New Development Bank to expand local-currency lending and guarantees.
4. BRICS has adopted a single common currency to replace the US dollar in intra-bloc trade.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- India's official position is that de-dollarisation is not part of its financial agenda.
- India has supported the use of central bank digital currencies for BRICS payments while ruling out a bloc-wide BRICS payment network.
- Intra-bloc trade in national currencies figured on the agenda of the September 2026 Summit, with calls for the New Development Bank to expand local-currency lending and guarantees.
- BRICS has adopted a single common currency to replace the US dollar in intra-bloc trade.
- A. 1 and 3 only
- B. 2 and 4 only
- C. 1, 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2, 3 and 4