Which of the following statements correctly reflect India's recent (2024) economic diplomacy and domestic investment facilitation…

Question

Which of the following statements correctly reflect India's recent (2024) economic diplomacy and domestic investment facilitation reforms?

1) The India-Uzbekistan BIT allows unconditional access to international arbitration without exhausting local remedies.

2) The National Infrastructure Readiness Index (NIRI) solely ranks Smart Cities and excludes private investment indicators.

1. A. Only 1
2. B. Only 2
3. C. 1 and 2 Both are correct
4. D. Neither 1 nor 2 is correct (Correct answer)

Correct Answer

Option D — Neither 1 nor 2 is correct

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is Neither 1 nor 2 is correct.

Key Points

• Statement 1 is incorrect. India's Bilateral Investment Treaties follow the 2016 Model BIT, which requires an investor to exhaust local remedies for a defined period before resorting to international arbitration. "Unconditional access" is the opposite of that design.
• Statement 2 is incorrect. An infrastructure readiness index of this kind assesses states and investment conditions broadly; describing it as ranking only Smart Cities and excluding private investment indicators misstates its scope.
• Since both fail, the answer is that neither is correct.

Additional Information

• Words such as unconditional, solely, only, all and never are strong claims, and in statement-based questions they are far more often wrong than right — treat them as flags to verify.
• India's Model BIT 2016 replaced the earlier 1993 template after a series of investor-state disputes, and notably excludes taxation measures from its scope.
• Related investment-facilitation machinery worth knowing: Invest India (the national investment promotion agency), the National Single Window System, the PM GatiShakti master plan and the National Infrastructure Pipeline.

प्रश्न (हिन्दी में)

निम्नलिखित में से कौन सा कथन भारत की हालिया (2024) आर्थिक कूटनीति और घरेलू निवेश सुविधा सुधारों को सही ढंग से दर्शाता है?

1) भारत-उज़्बेकिस्तान BIT स्थानीय उपायों का उपयोग किए बिना अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मध्यस्थता तक बिना शर्त पहुँच की अनुमति देता है।

2) राष्ट्रीय अवसंरचना तत्परता सूचकांक (NIRI) केवल स्मार्ट शहरों को रैंक करता है और निजी निवेश संकेतकों को शामिल नहीं करता है।

1. A. केवल 1
2. B. केवल 2
3. C. 1 और 2 दोनों सही हैं
4. D. न तो 1 और न ही 2 सही है