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.

Which one of the following is the amount of annual premium of the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) for accident and disability cover up to ₹ 2,00,000?

(a)₹ 100
(b)₹ 50
(c)₹ 20
(d)₹ 12

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) ₹ 12. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana was launched in May 2015 with an annual premium of twelve rupees for accidental death and permanent total disability cover of ₹ 2,00,000, with ₹ 1,00,000 for permanent partial disability. Twelve rupees a year is a rupee a month, and the roundness of that figure is the reason it was chosen: the scheme was designed to be affordable at the very bottom of the income distribution and to be explicable in one sentence at a bank counter.

The mechanics follow from the price. A premium that small cannot be collected in cash, so it is auto-debited from the subscriber’s savings bank account in one instalment, and the scheme is open to account holders aged 18 to 70 who consent to that debit. The cover runs for one year from 1 June to 31 May and renews annually. The risk is carried by public sector general insurance companies and any other insurers willing to offer the product on similar terms, in tie-up with the participating banks, rather than by the Government directly; what the Government supplies is the design, the distribution through the banking system, and the scale that makes the price possible.

One thing has changed since this paper was set, and it should be held as history rather than as a correction. The premium was revised for the first time with effect from 1 June 2022, from ₹ 12 to ₹ 20 a year, because seven years of claims experience had made the original rate unviable for the insurers; the life cover scheme of the same family, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, went from ₹ 330 to ₹ 436 on the same date. The cover amounts were not changed. So ₹ 12 is the right answer to this question, and ₹ 20 is the right answer to the same question asked about any year from 2022 onwards — which is exactly the kind of moving figure that repays keeping a date against it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)₹ 100 — One hundred rupees is more than eight times the premium the scheme actually charged, and it is the figure a candidate reaches for when reasoning from the size of the cover rather than from the design of the scheme. Two lakh rupees of accident cover for a hundred rupees a year would still be cheap by commercial standards, which is what makes the option feel safe; but the whole point of the Jan Suraksha schemes was to price cover in single or double digits so that it could be sold to people for whom a hundred rupees is a real sum. Even after the 2022 revision the premium is ₹ 20.
(b)₹ 50 — Fifty rupees is not the premium of this scheme or of either of its two companions, so it has no anchor anywhere in the Jan Suraksha family. It functions here purely as a middle value between ₹ 100 and ₹ 20, which is a common way of building a numerical option set: the examiner brackets the true figure so that a candidate who is guessing from magnitude alone has no way in. If a rupee figure in a scheme question does not attach to a scheme you can name, that is a reason to distrust it rather than to accept it as plausible.
(c)₹ 20 — Twenty rupees is the trap of the moment for anyone revising this paper today, because ₹ 20 is what Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana costs now — the premium was raised from ₹ 12 to ₹ 20 with effect from 1 June 2022. It was not the premium in 2017 and it is not the answer to this question. This is worth pausing on as a method point: a previous year paper is a snapshot of the law and of the figures as they stood, and updating a scheme’s numbers in your head without recording when they changed is the way a candidate loses marks on older papers and gains none on newer ones. Keep both figures with their dates attached.

Concept

The three Jan Suraksha schemes were announced in the Budget of February 2015 and launched together in May of that year, and they divide the ground between them cleanly. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is the accident cover: ₹ 2,00,000 for accidental death or permanent total disablement, ₹ 1,00,000 for permanent partial disablement, for savings bank account holders aged 18 to 70, at an annual premium of ₹ 12 when it was launched and ₹ 20 since 1 June 2022. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana is the life cover: ₹ 2,00,000 on death from any cause, for account holders aged 18 to 50, at ₹ 330 a year when launched and ₹ 436 since the same date. Atal Pension Yojana is the pension: a guaranteed monthly pension of ₹ 1,000 to ₹ 5,000 from the age of 60 for subscribers who join between 18 and 40. All three run on the same delivery idea — the bank account as the point of enrolment, auto-debit as the collection mechanism, and a cover year of 1 June to 31 May for the two insurance schemes — which is what made mass enrolment possible after the Jan Dhan account drive. The insurance schemes are underwritten by insurance companies rather than by the Government, and the premiums are set to be actuarially self-supporting at scale, which is why they could be revised when claims experience turned against them.

Scheme numbers are a staple of EPFO papers and they are the most perishable material a candidate carries, so they need to be learnt as figures with dates rather than as figures. Build the Jan Suraksha table once — scheme, cover, age band, premium, and the date of any revision — and the same table answers a question set on a 2017 paper, a 2020 paper and a current one. The discipline that matters is not to overwrite an old figure with a new one: when a premium or an age limit changes, the earlier value does not become wrong, it becomes historical, and a previous year paper is asking about the value that was current when it was set.

Key facts

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana was launched in May 2015 with an annual premium of ₹ 12.
It gives ₹ 2,00,000 for accidental death or permanent total disability and ₹ 1,00,000 for permanent partial disability.
It is open to savings bank account holders aged 18 to 70 who give consent to auto-debit of the premium.
The cover year runs from 1 June to 31 May and renews annually.
The premium was revised for the first time with effect from 1 June 2022, from ₹ 12 to ₹ 20 a year; the cover amounts were unchanged.
On the same date the premium of Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana rose from ₹ 330 to ₹ 436 a year.
The schemes are underwritten by public sector general insurance companies and other insurers willing to offer the product on similar terms, in tie-up with participating banks.
Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana covers death from any cause for ₹ 2,00,000 and is open to account holders aged 18 to 50.

The Jan Suraksha family, held as figures with dates attached to them

(d) ₹ 12 — the premium in 2017→Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana was launched in May 2015 at twelve rupees a year — a rupee a month, and the roundness of the figure is why it was chosen: the scheme had to be affordable at the very bottom of the income distribution and explicable in one sentence at a bank counter.

(c) ₹ 20 — the trap of the moment→What the scheme costs now. The premium was revised for the first time with effect from 1 June 2022, from ₹ 12 to ₹ 20 a year, because seven years of claims experience had made the original rate unviable for the insurers. The cover amounts were unchanged. Not the premium in 2017, and not the answer here.

(a) ₹ 100 and (b) ₹ 50→One hundred rupees is more than eight times what the scheme charged, and is what a candidate reaches for when reasoning from the size of the cover rather than from the design. Fifty attaches to no scheme in the family at all — it brackets the true figure so that a guess from magnitude alone has no way in.

What the premium buys→₹ 2,00,000 for accidental death or permanent total disablement, and ₹ 1,00,000 for permanent partial disablement, for savings bank account holders aged 18 to 70 who consent to auto-debit. The cover year runs from 1 June to 31 May and renews annually.

Its two companions→Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana — ₹ 2,00,000 on death from any cause, ages 18 to 50, ₹ 330 a year at launch and ₹ 436 since the same 2022 date. Atal Pension Yojana — a guaranteed monthly pension of ₹ 1,000 to ₹ 5,000 from the age of 60, for subscribers who join between 18 and 40.

Who carries the risk→Public sector general insurance companies and other insurers willing to offer the product on similar terms, in tie-up with the participating banks — not the Government directly. What the Government supplies is the design, the distribution through the banking system, and the scale that makes the price possible, which is also why the premiums could be revised when claims experience turned.

Study next

The three Jan Suraksha schemes side by side — cover, age band, premium and revision datesPradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and why financial inclusion had to come before insurance at this scalePradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana — eligibility, exclusions and the lien periodPradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Ayushman Bharat, the other large insurance schemes with different funding modelsHow an insurance premium is set, and why claims experience forced the 2022 revision

Common traps

Answering with the current premium of ₹ 20 on a paper set before 1 June 2022.
Confusing the premium of the accident cover with that of the life cover; ₹ 12 and ₹ 330 at launch, ₹ 20 and ₹ 436 now.
Mixing up the age bands: 18 to 70 for the accident scheme, 18 to 50 for the life scheme, 18 to 40 for the pension scheme.
Assuming the Government pays the claims. The insurance schemes are underwritten by insurers; the Government designs and distributes them.

Scheme questions in this paper arrive in pairs, as they do here with Atal Pension Yojana immediately before this item, and the examiner tends to test the number that is easiest to state and hardest to remember: a premium, an age ceiling, a cover amount. Prepare them as a table you can reconstruct rather than as isolated facts, and attach a date to every figure that a government can revise.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q89Open & attempt →

Which one of the following statements is not correct for Atal Pension Yojana?

(a) There is guaranteed minimum monthly pension for the subscribers ranging between ₹ 1,000 and ₹ 5,000 per month.
(b) The benefit of minimum pension would be guaranteed by the Government of India.
(c) Government of India co-contributes 50% of the subscriber’s contribution or ₹ 1,000 per annum, whichever is lower.
(d) It is applicable to all citizens of India aged above 40 years.

Answer(d) It is applicable to all citizens of India aged above 40 years.

Asks which statement is not correct for Atal Pension Yojana — the pension member of the same Jan Suraksha family, printed immediately before this item and best revised alongside it.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The accidental death and permanent total disability cover available under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is
- (a)₹ 50,000
- (b)₹ 1,00,000
- (c)₹ 2,00,000
- (d)₹ 5,00,000
Answer(c) ₹ 2,00,000
practice — not a real PYQ
The eligible age band for enrolment under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is
- (a)18 to 40 years
- (b)18 to 50 years
- (c)18 to 70 years
- (d)21 to 60 years
Answer(c) 18 to 70 years

Why