Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2017 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, GRS-A-TNS); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

A StandUp enterprise can be established in 1. farming sector 2. manufacturing sector 3. service sector 4. trading sector Select the correct answer using the code given below.

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

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) 2, 3 and 4. Taking the four numbered items one at a time:

Statement 1, farming sector — not eligible, and this is the statement the whole item turns on. Stand Up India, launched on 5 April 2016, finances a greenfield enterprise, and the scheme as framed named three sectors in which that enterprise could be set up: manufacturing, services and trading. Cultivation itself was not one of them. This is a bank-credit scheme for entrepreneurs and it deliberately left crop agriculture to the very large separate machinery that already served it — crop loans, the Kisan Credit Card, the priority-sector agriculture targets and the specialised agricultural credit institutions.

Statement 2, manufacturing sector — eligible. It is the first of the three sectors named in the scheme.

Statement 3, service sector — eligible, and named alongside manufacturing from the outset.

Statement 4, trading sector — eligible. This is the statement an unprepared candidate is most likely to reject, because trading is the activity most often shut out of concessional credit schemes on the argument that it adds no value. Stand Up India included it, which matters practically: a large share of first-generation enterprises begin as trading operations.

So the correct combination is 2, 3 and 4, which is option (d). Notice the structure of the option set: three of the four codes contain statement 1, so a candidate who is certain only that farming is excluded can reach the answer by elimination without adjudicating the other three at all. On any statement-list item it is worth scanning the codes first for a statement that appears in most of them — settling that one statement often settles the question.

One piece of context a student should carry, because the scheme has since moved: activities allied to agriculture — pisciculture, beekeeping, poultry, livestock rearing, dairy, fishery, agri-clinics and agribusiness centres, food and agro-processing — were brought within Stand Up India with the Budget changes for 2021-22, which also cut the margin-money requirement and extended the scheme. That is a later development and does not touch this question: the paper asked what the scheme covered as it then stood, and even the widened scheme speaks of activities allied to agriculture rather than of farming itself.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1, 2 and 4 — This code is wrong twice over. It admits statement 1, farming, which the scheme does not cover, and it drops statement 3, services, which is one of the three sectors the scheme named from the beginning. A candidate reaching for this combination has probably reasoned that a credit scheme is for producing and selling things rather than for providing services, which inverts the actual design: services are a larger part of the Indian economy than manufacturing and a large share of Stand Up India lending has gone to service enterprises.
(b)1, 3 and 4 — This admits farming and drops manufacturing, which is the least defensible pairing on the list — manufacturing is the first sector the scheme names. The code exists to complete the set of combinations containing statement 1, and its function in the item is to reward a candidate who has settled the farming question rather than to tempt one who has not.
(c)1, 2 and 3 — This is the most attractive of the three wrong codes, because it assembles the familiar triad of primary, secondary and tertiary activity — farming, manufacturing and services — which is how a candidate instinctively divides an economy. Both of its errors follow from that instinct: it lets farming in, and it leaves trading out. Trading is often excluded from concessional credit lines on the ground that it does not add value, so a candidate applying a general impression of Indian credit policy will drop it here. Stand Up India in fact includes trading and excludes cultivation, which is the reverse of that impression, and the item is built to find out whether the candidate knows the scheme or is generalising from other schemes.

Concept

Stand Up India was launched on 5 April 2016 to push formal bank credit towards two groups that have historically had little of it. It requires every bank branch to lend to at least one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower for setting up a greenfield enterprise, with a composite loan — term loan plus working capital — of between ten lakh rupees and one crore rupees. 'Greenfield' in this scheme means the borrower's first venture in the activity, so it funds new entrepreneurs rather than the expansion of existing ones. Where the enterprise is not an individual proprietorship, at least fifty-one per cent of the shareholding and the controlling stake must be held by a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe entrepreneur or a woman entrepreneur. The sectors originally covered were manufacturing, services and trading. Around the loan sit the supporting instruments: refinance through the Small Industries Development Bank of India, a credit guarantee facility so that banks can lend without collateral, and a handholding portal that connects an applicant to the branch, the training agency and the district authorities. Borrowers contribute a margin, of which a minimum share must be their own money. The Budget changes for 2021-22 widened the scheme to activities allied to agriculture, reduced the margin-money requirement and extended the scheme's run.

Five of the six statement-list questions in this paper fall in this stretch, and this one shows why the format is worth practising separately. The question is not really 'do you know Stand Up India'; it is 'do you know whether farming is in it', because three of the four codes stand or fall on that single item. EPFO sets scheme questions this way because an Enforcement Officer deals with exactly such eligibility boundaries — who is covered, what activity qualifies, what threshold applies — and a boundary is only useful if you know which side of it a case lies on. The habit worth building is to read the numbered statements first, find the one that discriminates most among the codes, and settle that one before spending time on the rest.

Key facts

Stand Up India was launched on 5 April 2016.
It covers greenfield enterprises in the manufacturing, services and trading sectors; farming itself is not one of them.
A greenfield enterprise means the borrower's first venture in that activity.
The loan is a composite one — term loan plus working capital — of between ten lakh rupees and one crore rupees.
Every bank branch is to lend to at least one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower.
For a non-individual enterprise, at least fifty-one per cent of the shareholding and the controlling stake must be with a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe entrepreneur or a woman entrepreneur.
Refinance is through the Small Industries Development Bank of India, and a credit guarantee facility supports collateral-free lending.
Handholding support is provided through the scheme's online portal, linking applicants to branches, training agencies and district authorities.
Activities allied to agriculture — pisciculture, beekeeping, poultry, livestock, dairy, fishery, agri-clinics, food and agro-processing — were included later, with the Budget changes for 2021-22.
The paper prints the scheme's name as 'StandUp', one word with a capital U in the middle.

Three of the four codes contain statement 1, so settling farming settles the item

1. Farming sector — not eligible→Stand Up India, launched on 5 April 2016, finances a greenfield enterprise, and the scheme as framed named three sectors in which that enterprise could be set up. Cultivation was not one of them: this is a bank-credit scheme for entrepreneurs, and it left crop agriculture to the very large separate machinery that already served it — crop loans, the Kisan Credit Card, the priority-sector agriculture targets.

2. Manufacturing, 3. Services, 4. Trading — all eligible→The three sectors the scheme named from the outset. Trading is the one an unprepared candidate is most likely to reject, because it is often shut out of concessional credit on the argument that it adds no value — but a large share of first-generation enterprises begin as trading operations.

How the codes give it away→Statement 1 appears in three of the four codes, so a candidate certain only that farming is excluded reaches the answer by elimination without adjudicating the other three at all. On any statement-list item it is worth scanning the codes first for a statement that appears in most of them.

(c) 1, 2 and 3 — the attractive miss→It assembles the familiar triad of primary, secondary and tertiary activity, which is how a candidate instinctively divides an economy. Both of its errors follow from that instinct: it lets farming in and it leaves trading out, which is the reverse of the scheme's actual boundary.

What the scheme requires→Every bank branch to lend to at least one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower, a composite loan of term loan plus working capital between ten lakh rupees and one crore rupees, for the borrower's first venture in that activity. For a non-individual enterprise, at least fifty-one per cent of the shareholding and the controlling stake must be so held.

The later widening, which does not touch this item→Activities allied to agriculture — pisciculture, beekeeping, poultry, livestock rearing, dairy, fishery, agri-clinics, food and agro-processing — were brought in with the Budget changes for 2021-22. Even the widened scheme speaks of activities allied to agriculture rather than of farming itself.

Study next

Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana — the Shishu, Kishore and Tarun categories and how they differ from Stand Up IndiaPriority sector lending — the categories, the sub-targets and how a scheme like this fits within themCredit guarantee schemes for micro and small enterprises, and why collateral-free lending needs themFinancial inclusion architecture — Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mudra, Stand Up India and the small finance banksThe definition of a greenfield enterprise, and why first-time entrepreneurs are treated as a separate credit class

Common traps

Assuming any enterprise-promotion scheme must cover agriculture; Stand Up India covers manufacturing, services and trading.
Rejecting trading because other concessional credit lines exclude it.
Confusing Stand Up India with Start-up India — the first is a bank-credit scheme for SC/ST and women entrepreneurs, the second a policy programme for innovation-driven firms.
Reading the later inclusion of activities allied to agriculture as the inclusion of farming; they are not the same category.
Adjudicating all four statements when the option set makes one of them decisive.

Government schemes reach EPFO papers as eligibility items far more often than as history items: which sector, which age, which borrower, which amount. A statement-list version like this one is the examiner's way of testing several boundaries at once while still marking a single answer. Prepare each major scheme as four boundaries — who qualifies, what activity qualifies, what the amount range is, and what the delivery channel is — and both the direct and the list forms become routine.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q55Open & attempt →

StandUp India Programme envisages each bank branch to give loan between ₹ 10 lakh to ₹ 100 lakh 1. to at least one SC/ST borrower 2. to at least one woman borrower 3. to at least one rural unemployed youth borrower Select the correct answer using the code given below.

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

Answer(d) 1 and 2

The borrower side of the same scheme, four questions later in this paper — which categories each bank branch must lend to, and the loan band it must lend within.

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q54Open & attempt →

Startup Hubs are agreed to be set up in 1. IIITs 2. IISERs 3. NITs 4. Central Universities Select the correct answer using the code given below.

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

Answer(a) 1, 2 and 3

The institutional side of the same 2016 entrepreneurship push — which categories of national institution were to get Startup Hubs.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Stand Up India scheme, the term 'greenfield enterprise' means
- (a)an enterprise set up on agricultural land
- (b)the borrower's first venture in the activity concerned
- (c)an enterprise that runs entirely on renewable energy
- (d)an enterprise that exports its whole output
Answer(b) the borrower's first venture in the activity concerned
practice — not a real PYQ
The Stand Up India scheme facilitates bank loans in the range of
- (a)fifty thousand rupees to five lakh rupees
- (b)one lakh rupees to ten lakh rupees
- (c)ten lakh rupees to one crore rupees
- (d)one crore rupees to five crore rupees
Answer(c) ten lakh rupees to one crore rupees

Why