In alignment with the guidelines of NEP 2020, 'Poshan bhi Padhai bhi' (PBPB) was launched under which one among the following programmes?

Correct — C, Early Childhood Care and Education. Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi is the Ministry of Women and Child Development's national early childhood care and education programme, launched on 10 May 2023 under Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0. Its purpose is in its name: the anganwadi has always delivered supplementary nutrition, and this programme asks it to deliver structured learning as well, so that the roughly 13.9 lakh operational anganwadi centres become the country's pre-school network rather than only its feeding centres. Every child is to receive at least two hours of quality pre-school instruction a day, taught wherever possible in the mother tongue, using play-based and activity-based methods. It carries two curricula: Navchetana, for children from birth to three years, built around early stimulation and the idea that a caregiver's love, talk and play is what a very young brain responds to; and Aadharshila, for children of three to six, about a hundred and fifty play-based activities with lesson plans across all learning domains. Both include screening, inclusion and referral for children with disabilities, and training runs through the Savitribai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development. The NEP 2020 link named in the stem is real: the policy put a foundational stage of three years of pre-school before Class 1, and this programme is how the anganwadi system was asked to deliver it.

• (a)Integrated Teacher Training Programme — That describes NISHTHA, the National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement, run by the Ministry of Education — and it is the answer to Q70 of this very paper. Teacher training is a different intervention from a pre-school curriculum for children.
• (b)Vidya Pravesh — Vidya Pravesh is a three-month play-based school-preparation module for children entering Grade 1, prepared by NCERT for the Ministry of Education. It sits after the anganwadi years, at the school gate, not inside the anganwadi.
• (d)Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan — Samagra Shiksha is the Ministry of Education's integrated scheme for school education from pre-school to Class 12. Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi belongs to the Ministry of Women and Child Development and runs through anganwadis, not schools.

Early childhood care and education covers the years from birth to six, the period in which most brain development happens, and India delivers it mainly through the anganwadi centre — a village-level facility under the Integrated Child Development Services, now folded into Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. The National Education Policy 2020 raised the stakes by defining a five-year foundational stage covering three years of pre-school and Classes 1 and 2, which meant the anganwadi could no longer be treated as only a nutrition post. Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi is the operational answer: a national programme to give every anganwadi a curriculum, trained staff and teaching material so that nutrition and learning are delivered together.

The options are a well-made trap because three of the four are genuine, current education initiatives and the candidate has to sort them by ministry and by stage. The quick discriminator is who the intervention is aimed at. Teacher training programmes act on teachers; Vidya Pravesh acts on the child at the point of entering Class 1; Samagra Shiksha is a school-education scheme of the Ministry of Education. Only early childhood care and education is aimed at the under-six child inside the anganwadi, which is where Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi operates. Note also the pairing inside this paper: Q68 and Q70 are drawn from the same cluster of schemes, and Q70's answer, NISHTHA, is precisely the integrated teacher training programme offered as option (a) here — so getting one right helps with the other. Watch the ministry line generally, because school education sits with the Ministry of Education while the under-six years sit with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and most wrong answers in this area cross that boundary.

• Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi was launched on 10 May 2023 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, under Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0.
• It is India's national early childhood care and education programme, aligned with NEP 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage 2022.
• The target is at least two hours of quality pre-school education a day at about 13.9 lakh operational anganwadi centres, preferably in the mother tongue.
• Navchetana is the framework for children from birth to three years, built on early stimulation through a caregiver's love, talk and play.
• Aadharshila is the curriculum for children of three to six years, with roughly 150 play-based, competency-focused activities.
• Training is delivered through a two-tier model run by the Savitribai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development, and both curricula include screening, inclusion and referral for children with disabilities.
• NEP 2020 defines a foundational stage of five years — three years of pre-school followed by Classes 1 and 2.

• Placing Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi under the Ministry of Education because the stem mentions NEP 2020. Alignment with the policy is not the same as belonging to that ministry.
• Confusing Vidya Pravesh, a school-readiness module at the start of Class 1, with a programme that runs inside the anganwadi.
• Reading the word 'Poshan' and assuming the programme is only about nutrition; the point of the name is that it adds learning to the nutrition already provided.

Usually as a scheme-identification item — which programme is this, or which ministry runs it. It also appears as a statements item pairing the scheme with its curricula, Navchetana and Aadharshila.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Navchetana and Aadharshila, in the news recently, are associated with which one of the following?

  • (a)Curricula for early childhood care and education at anganwadi centres
  • (b)Skill development modules for rural youth
  • (c)Teacher training modules for secondary school science
  • (d)Digital textbooks for Classes 9 to 12

  Answer(a) Curricula for early childhood care and education at anganwadi centres — Navchetana covers birth to three years and Aadharshila covers three to six years, both under Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the National Education Policy 2020, the foundational stage of schooling covers which one of the following?

  • (a)Classes 1 to 5
  • (b)Three years of pre-school followed by Classes 1 and 2
  • (c)Classes 3 to 5 only
  • (d)Pre-school only

  Answer(b) Three years of pre-school followed by Classes 1 and 2 — five years in all, which is why the anganwadi was brought into the school structure.