BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 148 of 143

Correct — D, Sustainable Development. The Union Budget 2024-25, presented on 23 July 2024, contains a section headed 'Budget Priorities' in which the Finance Minister said that, in line with the strategy set out in the interim budget, 'this budget envisages sustained efforts on the following 9 priorities for generating ample opportunities for all'. The nine, in the speech's own order, are: (1) Productivity and resilience in Agriculture, (2) Employment and Skilling, (3) Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice, (4) Manufacturing and Services, (5) Urban Development, (6) Energy Security, (7) Infrastructure, (8) Innovation, Research and Development, and (9) Next Generation Reforms. Three of this question's four options are lifted from that list word for word — option (a) is priority 1, option (c) is priority 2 and option (b) is priority 6. 'Sustainable Development' appears nowhere among the nine, and that is what makes it the answer. Read the option list carefully and it half-announces itself: the nearest thing to a sustainability heading in the official list is Energy Security, and the setter has put Energy Security on the paper as a separate option, so the two cannot both be on the list. Be clear about what is and is not being claimed. The budget is full of sustainability content — natural farming for a crore farmers, climate-resilient crop varieties, an energy transition pathway — but the question asks about the named headings under 'Budget Priorities', and 'Sustainable Development' is not one of them.

• (a)Productivity and Resilience in Agriculture — This is priority number one in the speech's own list, printed almost exactly as the option reads. Under it fall the review of agricultural research, the release of 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops, and the plan to bring one crore farmers into natural farming over two years.
• (b)Energy Security — Priority number six, and the reason a candidate looking for a 'green' heading can be misled: Energy Security is where the budget's energy-transition material sits, so it occupies the space that 'Sustainable Development' appears to claim. Both cannot be on the list, and Energy Security is the one that is.
• (c)Employment and Skilling — Priority number two, and one of the most discussed headings of that budget, carrying the employment-linked incentive schemes and the internship programme announcements. Its prominence in the coverage makes it a safe elimination for anyone who followed the budget at all.

The Union Budget speech is a structured document, and the structure is examinable in itself. Part A sets out the government's priorities and expenditure announcements; Part B carries the tax proposals, direct and indirect. Since 2021 the speech has usually organised Part A around a small numbered list of pillars or priorities, and the 2024-25 speech chose nine, framed as a roadmap for 'Viksit Bharat' — the developed-India-by-2047 formulation that the interim budget of February 2024 had promised to detail. The speech explicitly says that 'subsequent budgets will build on these, and add more priorities and actions', which is why the list is dated to a particular year rather than being a standing framework. For a Bihar candidate the same budget matters for a second reason: it announced Purvodaya, a plan for the all-round development of the eastern region covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, and a substantial package of Bihar-specific projects underneath it.

Questions on a budget's official list are answered by learning the list, not the budget. Nine headings are a manageable memory load and they recur across an entire examination season, so the return is high. Where the list has not been memorised, two structural cues help. First, an odd-one-out option that is a broad, generic virtue — 'sustainable development', 'inclusive growth', 'good governance' — is more often the manufactured one than a specific, slightly awkward phrase like 'Next Generation Reforms', because real official headings tend to be oddly worded and specific. Second, look for overlap between options: if two options would occupy the same conceptual slot, as Energy Security and Sustainable Development do, only one of them is likely to be genuine. The Bihar content of this budget is worth carrying alongside the list, since the Commission examines both: the industrial node at Gaya on the Amritsar–Kolkata Industrial Corridor, ₹26,000 crore of road projects, a 2400 MW power plant at Pirpainti within a ₹21,400 crore power package, ₹11,500 crore for flood control, and temple-corridor and tourism development at Vishnupad, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir and Nalanda.

• The Union Budget 2024-25 was presented on 23 July 2024 and set out nine 'Budget Priorities' in pursuit of Viksit Bharat
• The nine are: Productivity and resilience in Agriculture; Employment and Skilling; Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice; Manufacturing and Services; Urban Development; Energy Security; Infrastructure; Innovation, Research and Development; and Next Generation Reforms
• 'Sustainable Development' is not among them; the speech states that subsequent budgets will build on these nine and add more priorities
• The budget announced Purvodaya, a plan for the all-round development of the eastern region covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, and an industrial node at Gaya on the Amritsar–Kolkata Industrial Corridor
• Bihar road projects worth ₹26,000 crore were announced — the Patna–Purnea Expressway, the Buxar–Bhagalpur Expressway, spurs to Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Vaishali and Darbhanga, and an additional two-lane bridge over the Ganga at Buxar — plus ₹21,400 crore of power projects including a new 2400 MW plant at Pirpainti
• ₹11,500 crore was committed for flood control and irrigation in Bihar, including the Kosi–Mechi intra-state link, along with development of the Vishnupad and Mahabodhi temple corridors and of Rajgir and Nalanda

• Assuming a plausible development slogan must be on an official list; the real headings are specific and sometimes awkwardly worded
• Missing the overlap cue — Energy Security and Sustainable Development would occupy the same slot, and only one is genuine
• Confusing the interim budget of February 2024 with the full budget of 23 July 2024, which is the one that carried the nine priorities

BPSC asks the Union Budget as list recall — which item is or is not among the announced priorities, pillars or schemes — and it prefers the negative form, 'which one is not included', because that punishes partial memory more effectively. UPSC does not ask a budget's list of priorities; it asks either a specific technical announcement from a named budget or the constitutional machinery of the budget process, so the same document has to be read for its procedure as well as its headlines.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Purvodaya, announced in the Union Budget 2024-25, is a plan for the development of which group of States ?

  • (a)Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh
  • (b)Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan
  • (c)Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland
  • (d)Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha

  Answer(a) Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh — the budget described Purvodaya as covering human resource development, infrastructure and economic opportunity in the eastern region.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Union Budget 2024-25, the new 2400 MW power plant announced for Bihar is to be set up at

  • (a)Barauni
  • (b)Pirpainti
  • (c)Kahalgaon
  • (d)Nabinagar

  Answer(b) Pirpainti — part of a ₹21,400 crore package of power projects for Bihar announced in the same budget.