Consider the following statements: 1. New Development Bank has been set up by APEC. 2. The headquarters of New Development Bank is in Shanghai. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

The correct answer is B. Only statement 2 is correct.

• Statement 1 is wrong. The New Development Bank was set up by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), not APEC. Its founding agreement was signed at the 2014 BRICS summit in Fortaleza, and it began operations in 2015. APEC is an Asia-Pacific economic forum with no such bank.
• Statement 2 is correct. The NDB is headquartered in Shanghai, with a regional office in South Africa. Its membership has since grown beyond the original five BRICS members, but the headquarters has not changed.

The core concept here is the rise of alternative multilateral financing institutions, which exist alongside the World Bank and IMF and mainly fund infrastructure and sustainable development in emerging economies. For Mains GS-II and GS-III, this links to debates on India's role in global economic governance and on infrastructure financing gaps.

Trap: Aspirants often mix up the NDB with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is headquartered in Beijing, or assume any Asia-linked bank must come from APEC.