← RAS syllabus
RAS (Rajasthan)Stage 2: Main Examination
World Economy: WTO, World Bank and IMF
What the official syllabus says
RAS Main Examination, Paper I: General Studies I, Unit II (Economics), Part B: World Economy.
- Global economic Issues: Role of WTO, World bank and IMF.
Topics in detail
The line is short but asks for the role of three institutions in global economic issues. Learn each institution's origin, structure, functions and its relationship with India, then the issues where they act.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
- From GATT (1947) to the WTO (1995): the Uruguay Round and the Marrakesh Agreement
- Structure: Ministerial Conference, General Council, dispute settlement and the Appellate Body
- Principles: most-favoured-nation treatment, national treatment, special and differential treatment for developing countries
- Main agreements: Agriculture (amber, blue and green box subsidies), TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS, sanitary and phytosanitary measures
- Issues for India: public stockholding for food security, fisheries subsidies, e-commerce, the stalled Doha Round, the dispute settlement crisis
World Bank Group
- Bretton Woods conference (1944); IBRD and IDA; the IFC, MIGA and ICSID
- Functions: development loans, concessional credit, technical help, knowledge products
- World Bank lending to India and to Indian states; poverty and development indicators it publishes
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- Origin and purpose: stability of exchange rates and the balance of payments
- Quotas, voting shares and Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)
- Surveillance, lending programmes and conditionality; India's 1991 IMF programme
- Reform of quotas and governance; criticism of conditionality
Global economic issues
- Globalisation and its critics; protectionism and trade wars; regional trade agreements
- Global financial crisis of 2008 and the role of the G20
- Developing countries' debt; commodity price shocks; climate finance
- New institutions: the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
- Calls to reform the Bretton Woods institutions so that developing countries get a larger voice
The three institutions compared
| Institution | Set up | Main job | Typical tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMF | 1944 (Bretton Woods) | Monetary and balance-of-payments stability | Surveillance, short and medium-term loans, SDRs |
| World Bank | 1944 (Bretton Woods) | Long-term development and poverty reduction | Project and policy loans, grants, research |
| WTO | 1995 (successor to GATT) | Rules for world trade | Negotiated agreements, trade policy reviews, dispute settlement |
Points to prepare for each issue
- What the institution can and cannot do; who decides (member countries, voting shares or consensus)
- India's position: food security and farm subsidies at the WTO, quota reform at the IMF, development finance from the World Bank
- Recent reports that give data: the IMF's World Economic Outlook, the World Bank's development reports, the WTO's trade statistics
Overlaps
India's trade and balance of payments are on Indian Economy; India's role in the WTO and other global platforms, and the global political economy, are also in Paper III.