On which number Antonio Guterres was chosen as the Secretary-General…

Read the passage and answer the question.

By 2011, the UN had 193 member states. These included almost all independent states. In the UN General Assembly, all members have one vote each. In the UN Security Council, there are five permanent members. These are: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. These states were selected as permanent members as they were the most powerful immediately after the Second World War. The present Secretary-General is Antonio Guterres. He is the ninth Secretary General of the UN. The UN's objective is to prevent international conflict and to facilitate cooperation among states.

On which number Antonio Guterres was chosen as the Secretary-General of the UN?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 3

The correct answer is Option (3) → Ninth

The passage says that the present Secretary-General, António Guterres, is the ninth Secretary-General of the UN.

Note: The passage of Q1 to Q5 is taken from the NCERT section ‘Evolution of the UN’ of the chapter ‘International Organisations’. One short paragraph gave five questions here, so read the facts and numbers of this section closely: member states, permanent members and Secretaries-General.

NCERT (2026-27): “Evolution of the UN … By 2011, the UN had 193 member states. These includeed almost all independent states. In the UN General Assembly, all members have one vote each. In the UN Security Council, there are five permanent members. These are: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. These states were selected as permanent members as they were the most powerful immediately after the Second World War and because they constituted the victors in the War. The UN’s most visible public figure, and the representative head, is the Secretary-General. The present Secretary-General is António Guterres. He is the ninth Secretary-General of the UN. He took over as the Secretary-General on 1 January 2017. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal (1995-2002) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2005-2015).…”