Summits, indices and reports for CLAT

Every year brings a G20 summit, a BRICS summit, a climate COP and dozens of ranking reports in which India moves a few places up or down. Aspirants tend to handle these badly in one of two ways. Some memorise every rank in every index, a list that is out of date as soon as the next edition appears. Others skip reports entirely, and then lose the easy question that asks who publishes one.

The marks lie in between. For summits, learn the grouping, not just the meeting. For indices, learn the publisher and what is measured, and note India's position only for the major ones. This guide shows how.

How these topics are asked

A passage on a summit usually describes what the grouping is, who joined recently and what was agreed. A passage on a report explains what it measures and where India stands. The questions then tend to fall into four kinds:

• Publisher: which organisation brings out the index or report.
• Method: what the index measures, or which indicator is not part of it.
• Membership: which country is or is not a member of a grouping.
• Host or presidency: where a summit was held, or which country chaired.

Notice that three of the four are stable facts. Only the fourth, and India's latest rank, change every year.

Groupings and summits

For each summit held during your preparation year, note four things: host city and country, the theme if one was announced, new members, and the one or two outcomes the newspapers led with. For the organisations themselves, see international affairs and organisations.

Indices and their publishers

The World Bank discontinued its Doing Business report in 2021 after irregularities were found in its data. Older books still quote it, so be careful with any question that treats it as current.

How to read a rank

Rank changes make headlines, but the headline can mislead, and a passage may test whether you notice.

Worked example. Suppose India ranks 110th of 150 countries in one edition of an index and 105th of 130 in the next. The headline says "India up five places". Now compare relative positions. In the first edition, India is at 110 ÷ 150 ≈ 0.73, that is, about 73% of the way down the list. In the second, it is at 105 ÷ 130 ≈ 0.81, about 81% of the way down. Fewer countries were ranked, so a better rank actually reflects a weaker relative position.

Other checks worth making: did the method change between editions, and is the index based on the publisher's own data or on perception surveys? When a passage raises these points, questions often turn on them.

What to note, and what to skip

A sample CLAT-style passage

For decades, countries were compared mainly by the size of their economies. In 1990 the [1] challenged that habit with its first Human Development Report. The report, shaped by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq with Amartya Sen among its early contributors, argued that the purpose of development is to widen people's choices, and that income is only one means to that end.

Its central measure, the Human Development Index, combines three dimensions. A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy at birth. Knowledge is measured by two indicators: the mean years of schooling of adults and the expected years of schooling of children entering school. A decent standard of living is measured by gross national income per person, adjusted for purchasing power. Since 2010 the three dimension scores have been combined by a geometric mean, so that very poor performance in one dimension cannot be fully offset by strong performance in another.

The index has its critics. It says nothing directly about inequality, political freedom or the environment. The report's authors have responded by adding companion measures over the years, including an inequality-adjusted version and indices that capture gender gaps and multidimensional poverty.

Q1. Which organisation fills [1]?

(a) World Bank (b) United Nations Development Programme (c) International Monetary Fund (d) World Economic Forum

Q2. Which of the following is not an indicator in the HDI as described?

(a) Life expectancy at birth (b) Mean years of schooling (c) Gross national income per person (d) Infant mortality rate

Q3. Why, according to the passage, is a geometric mean used?

(a) It gives more weight to income.
(b) It stops a strong score in one dimension from fully making up for a very poor one in another.
(c) It makes the index easier to calculate.
(d) It allows more countries to be ranked.

Q4. Which criticism of the HDI does the passage mention?

(a) It ignores inequality, political freedom and the environment.
(b) It relies on perception surveys.
(c) It is published only once every five years.
(d) It excludes developing countries.

Q5. The Global Gender Gap Index is published by:

(a) UNDP (b) UN Women (c) World Economic Forum (d) World Bank

Answers:

1. (b) The Human Development Report comes from UNDP.
2. (d) Infant mortality is not one of the four indicators the passage lists.
3. (b) Stated in the second paragraph.
4. (a) Stated in the third paragraph. (b) is a criticism of other indices, not this one.
5. (c) Background. UNDP publishes its own gender indices, which is exactly why this is a trap; the Gender Gap Index is the WEF's.

What to do next

• Learn the publishers table until you can name every publisher from the index name.
• Make a summit table for your exam year: host, theme, new members, outcomes.
• Note India's latest rank for the four major indices only, and check them again in the final month.
• For each new report you read about, write what it measures in one line.
• Read awards, sports and appointments next.