Consider the following statements: 1. The international Solar Alliance was launched at the United National Climate Change Conference in 2015. 2. The Alliance includes all the member countries of the United Nations. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Statement 1 is correct. The International Solar Alliance was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President François Hollande at COP21 in Paris in 2015, and its headquarters is in Gurugram, India. So option A is the answer.

Statement 2 is wrong. At launch, membership was restricted to countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the sunshine countries the alliance was built for. It was never meant to include all UN members. The Framework Agreement was later amended to open membership to all UN member states, so the position has changed since 2016, but for this question the statement was incorrect.

Core concept: the ISA is an intergovernmental coalition that pools finance, technology and capacity for solar deployment. It connects to India's climate diplomacy and leadership of the Global South, and to the energy-transition questions that come up in Mains GS-III.

Trap: candidates see 'launched at COP21' and 'UN' and assume universal membership. The ISA is a treaty-based alliance, not a UN agency.