Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner (APFC) 2016 recruitment test, advertisement 170. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, B-CRHE-O-PAPA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Consider the following statements about All India Radio : 1. It is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board. 2. It was so named in 1936. 3. It does not provide DTH services. 4. FM Rainbow and FM Gold are its subsidiary channels. Which of the above statements are correct ?

(a)1, 2 and 3 only
(b)3 and 4 only
(c)1, 2 and 4 only
(d)1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer

Why

Correct — C, (c) 1, 2 and 4 only.

Four statements, and each has to be judged on its own.

STATEMENT 1 — 'It is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board.' CORRECT. Prasar Bharati, the Broadcasting Corporation of India, was created by the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, which was brought into force in 1997. All India Radio and Doordarshan are its two constituent divisions, and the corporation is run by the Prasar Bharati Board, on which sit a Chairman, an Executive Member who is the chief executive, whole-time members for finance and personnel, part-time members, the Directors General of the two divisions and a representative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The purpose of the arrangement was to move public broadcasting out of direct departmental control.

STATEMENT 2 — 'It was so named in 1936.' CORRECT. The service began in 1930 as the Indian State Broadcasting Service, and it was renamed ALL INDIA RADIO in 1936. The name Akashvani was adopted later, in 1956, and both names remain in use — which is why the statement is careful to say 'so named', meaning named All India Radio.

STATEMENT 3 — 'It does not provide DTH services.' INCORRECT, and this is the statement the question turns on. All India Radio's channels ARE carried on satellite direct-to-home: a set of AIR radio channels is available on the country's free DTH platform, which is how listeners outside the reach of a terrestrial transmitter receive them. Satellite distribution is in fact how a national broadcaster solves the coverage problem that terrestrial FM cannot.

STATEMENT 4 — 'FM Rainbow and FM Gold are its subsidiary channels.' CORRECT. Both are All India Radio FM services — FM Rainbow as the music and entertainment network and FM Gold as the news and entertainment channel — and they sit alongside AIR's other services such as Vividh Bharati.

So 1, 2 and 4 stand and 3 falls, which is option (c).

THE STRUCTURE OF THE OPTION SET REDUCES THE WORK. Being confident that statement 1 is true removes option (b), and being confident that statement 4 is true removes option (a). What is then left, (c) and (d), differs in one respect only: whether statement 3 is accepted. So the entire item comes down to one question — does All India Radio reach listeners by satellite ? Finding the single statement on which the remaining options disagree is worth doing early on any list item.

The four statements each end in a full stop, the question sentence follows them, and no line inviting a code is printed. The negation in statement 3 is set in ordinary roman type.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1, 2 and 3 only — Makes two errors that happen to cancel in length but not in substance. It accepts statement 3, which is false — All India Radio's channels are carried on satellite direct-to-home — and it drops statement 4, which is true, since FM Rainbow and FM Gold are both AIR services. A candidate choosing this has probably reasoned that radio is a terrestrial medium and that direct-to-home is a television arrangement, while treating the two FM brand names as though they belonged to private broadcasters. Both intuitions are outdated: satellite distribution carries radio as readily as television, and FM Rainbow and FM Gold are the public broadcaster's own FM networks rather than commercial stations.
(b)3 and 4 only — The option that rejects the two most securely documented statements in the set. That All India Radio is a division of Prasar Bharati and is governed by its Board is the basic constitutional fact about Indian public broadcasting since the corporation was brought into being; that the service acquired the name All India Radio in 1936 is the standard date in its own institutional history. To choose this option is to deny both while accepting the one statement that is actually false. It is on the page as the reverse-image of the answer, which is a routine way to fill out a four-option set on a statement item, and it can be discarded as soon as either statement 1 or statement 2 has been confirmed.
(d)1, 2, 3 and 4 — The likeliest wrong choice, because three of the four statements ARE correct and the fourth is negatively phrased. A candidate who verifies statements 1, 2 and 4, finds all three sound, and has no particular knowledge about satellite radio will naturally take the option that accepts everything. The discipline that prevents it is to test a negative statement by asking what it would take to DISPROVE it, rather than looking for evidence in its favour: statement 3 claims an absence, and a single AIR channel available on a direct-to-home platform is enough to defeat it. Negatively worded statements should always be read twice on a list item, because agreeing with the surrounding true statements creates a pull towards accepting them too.

Concept

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN INDIA is organised around one autonomous corporation with two operating divisions.

PRASAR BHARATI — the Broadcasting Corporation of India, established by the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, brought into force in 1997. It is the statutory autonomous body that owns and runs the public broadcasters, and its stated object is to inform, educate and entertain the public and to serve those areas and interests a commercial broadcaster would not. ALL INDIA RADIO and DOORDARSHAN — its two constituent divisions, the radio and television arms. THE PRASAR BHARATI BOARD — the governing body, comprising a Chairman, an Executive Member who serves as chief executive, whole-time members for finance and personnel, part-time members, the Directors General of the two divisions ex officio, and a representative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The corporation's creation was the culmination of a long argument about the independence of state broadcasting, pressed hardest after the Emergency and given shape by the Verghese Committee's recommendation for an autonomous body. Prasar Bharati remains dependent on government grants for a large part of its finances, which is the standing tension in its autonomy.

ALL INDIA RADIO'S OWN HISTORY runs longer than the corporation's. Broadcasting in India began with private and club transmissions in the 1920s; the Government took it over and ran it as the INDIAN STATE BROADCASTING SERVICE from 1930; the service was renamed ALL INDIA RADIO in 1936; and it took the additional name AKASHVANI in 1956. Both names are still current, which is why questions phrase the point as 'so named'.

ITS SERVICES are layered by purpose. The national and regional stations carry news, spoken word and programming in a very large number of languages and dialects. VIVIDH BHARATI is the popular entertainment and commercial service. The FM networks — FM RAINBOW for music and entertainment and FM GOLD for news and entertainment — were built for urban listeners. The External Services broadcast abroad. AIR's news division is one of the largest news organisations in the country.

DISTRIBUTION is where the older mental picture goes wrong. A national broadcaster cannot reach every listener by terrestrial transmitter, particularly on FM, whose range is short. Satellite distribution solves this: AIR channels are carried on the free direct-to-home satellite platform, alongside television channels, so a listener with a dish receives them anywhere in the country. Radio also now reaches listeners over the internet and through mobile applications.

THE WIDER LANDSCAPE includes private FM broadcasting, licensed in phases since the 1990s but not permitted to broadcast its own news, and COMMUNITY RADIO, a small-scale local tier run by educational institutions and non-profit organisations.

Institutions of the Union — how they were created, who governs them and what they do — are steady examinable material on EPFO papers, and the statement format is how they are usually asked. This paper prints thirty items with a numbered list, and eighteen of those run to four statements, so the format is worth practising as a format and not only as content.

The method it demands is adjudication statement by statement. Naming the right option set is the last step, not the work; the work is four independent verdicts. It is very common for a candidate to read a list, feel that it 'sounds right overall' and take the option that accepts everything, and that is exactly what a set containing three true statements and one false one is designed to catch.

A second technique pays for itself on almost every list item: after forming a view on the statements you are sure about, look at which options survive and identify the single statement on which they still disagree. Here, confidence about statements 1 and 4 leaves only two options standing, separated solely by statement 3. That converts a four-way problem into a one-way one and tells you precisely where to spend your remaining attention.

Third, treat a NEGATIVE statement with particular care. Statement 3 asserts that something does not happen, and a single counter-example defeats it. Statements of absence are the hardest to verify and the easiest to accept by default, which is why examiners use them.

The factual lesson is worth generalising too. Questions about broadcasting, telecommunications and IT infrastructure often rest on an assumption about technology that has since changed — that radio is terrestrial, that direct-to-home is for television, that satellites carry only long-distance traffic. Checking whether the technical premise still holds is frequently the whole of the question.

Key facts

All India Radio and Doordarshan are the two constituent divisions of PRASAR BHARATI, the Broadcasting Corporation of India, and are governed by the Prasar Bharati Board.
Prasar Bharati was established by the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, which was brought into force in 1997.
The service started as the Indian State Broadcasting Service in 1930, was renamed ALL INDIA RADIO in 1936, and took the additional name Akashvani in 1956.
All India Radio's channels ARE carried on satellite direct-to-home, which is how listeners beyond the reach of a terrestrial transmitter receive them — so a claim that it provides no DTH service is false.
FM Rainbow and FM Gold are All India Radio's own FM services, the first for music and entertainment and the second for news and entertainment.
Vividh Bharati is All India Radio's popular entertainment and commercial service, and the External Services broadcast abroad.
The Prasar Bharati Board comprises a Chairman, an Executive Member as chief executive, whole-time members for finance and personnel, part-time members, the two Directors General ex officio and a representative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Private FM broadcasters have been licensed in phases since the 1990s but are not permitted to broadcast their own news; community radio forms a separate small-scale local tier.

Study next

Prasar Bharati: its statutory basis, the composition and powers of its Board, its sources of finance and the recurring question of its autonomy.The history of broadcasting in India from the 1920s club transmissions through the Indian State Broadcasting Service to All India Radio and Akashvani.All India Radio's services — national and regional stations, Vividh Bharati, the FM networks and the External Services — and what each is for.Doordarshan and the free direct-to-home satellite platform, and how satellite distribution supplements terrestrial transmission for both radio and television.Private FM radio licensing in phases, the restriction on private news broadcasting, and the community radio tier.The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the bodies around it — the Press Council of India, the Press Information Bureau and the Central Board of Film Certification.The technique of adjudicating four-statement items one statement at a time, and locating the single statement on which the surviving options disagree.

Common traps

Taking the option that accepts every statement because most of them are true. One false statement in a list of four defeats it.
Accepting a negatively worded statement by default. A claim that something does NOT happen is defeated by a single counter-example, and should be tested that way.
Assuming radio is a purely terrestrial medium and that direct-to-home is a television arrangement. Satellite distribution carries radio channels as well.
Confusing the year the service was NAMED All India Radio, 1936, with the year it began as the Indian State Broadcasting Service, 1930, or with 1956 when it took the name Akashvani.
Treating FM Rainbow and FM Gold as private commercial stations. Both are All India Radio's own networks.
Mixing up the Act's year of enactment, 1990, with the year the corporation actually came into being, 1997.

Institutions of the Union are asked on EPFO papers through numbered statement lists more often than through any other format, and the statements are built to a pattern: one about the governing or parent body, one about a date of establishment or renaming, one about a function or a service, and one negative statement asserting that the institution does not do something. The negative statement is very often the false one, because absence is what a candidate is least likely to have checked. The reliable method is to reach a verdict on each statement independently before looking at the options at all, then to see which options survive and which single statement still separates them. For any institution, hold four things: the statute that created it, the ministry or corporation it sits under, its composition, and its principal services.

Related PYQs

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q57

Which of the following are the roles of the Finance Commission in India ? 1. The distribution of money collected through taxes 2. Evaluation of Centrally sponsored schemes 3. Evolve principles based on which funds are allotted among States 4. To develop Five Year Plans Select the correct answer using the codes given below :

(a) 1 and 4 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 4 only
(d) 2 and 3 only

Answer(b) 1 and 3 only

The roles of the Finance Commission — the same four-statement format applied to another institution of the Union, and answered by the same statement-by-statement adjudication.

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q50

Which of the following are the functions of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) ? 1. To ensure expeditious clearance of the proposals for foreign investment 2. To review periodically the implementation of the proposals cleared by the Board 3. To undertake all other activities for promoting and facilitating FDI as considered necessary from time to time 4. To interact with the FIPC being constituted separately by the Ministry of Industry Select the correct answer using the codes given below :

(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 1, 2 and 4 only
(c) 1, 2, 3 and 4
(d) 3 and 4 only

Answer(c) 1, 2, 3 and 4

The functions of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board on this paper: another numbered list about what a named body does, where the discrimination is between real functions and plausible ones.

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q18

What is Know India Programme (KIP) ?

(a) A programme for children aged 12 – 15 years from rural areas to make them aware of different aspects of India
(b) A programme that facilitates visits of rural teachers to different parts of the country
(c) An out-reach programme of the Ministry of External Affairs to build closer ties with India's neighbourhood
(d) A programme for diaspora youth to promote awareness among them about different aspects of India

Answer(d) A programme for diaspora youth to promote awareness among them about different aspects of India

What the Know India Programme is — the same demand to know a named Government initiative precisely rather than by association.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
All India Radio and Doordarshan are the two constituent divisions of which one of the following ?
- (a)The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
- (b)Prasar Bharati
- (c)The Press Council of India
- (d)The Press Information Bureau
Answer(b) Prasar Bharati — the Broadcasting Corporation of India, the statutory autonomous body that owns and runs both public broadcasters and is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is the parent ministry but does not itself contain the two as divisions; the Press Council is a statutory body for print media standards; and the Press Information Bureau is the Government's own publicity and communication agency.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is the popular entertainment and commercial service of All India Radio ?
- (a)Yuvavani
- (b)Vividh Bharati
- (c)Akashvani
- (d)FM Gold
Answer(b) Vividh Bharati — All India Radio's light entertainment and commercial service. Akashvani is not a service at all but the broadcaster's own alternative name; Yuvavani is its youth programming; and FM Gold is one of its FM networks, carrying news alongside entertainment rather than serving as the general entertainment service.

Why