Which of the following statement is correct ? A. The applications for the Sixth National Water Awards sought on 15 November 2024. B. National Water Awards are given under nine categories. C. Ministry of Jal Shakti has been organising the National Water Awards since year 2016.
- (1)A, B and C are correct
- (2)A, B and C are incorrect
- (3)A and B are correct
- (4)B and C are correct
Correct — option (2), 'A, B and C are incorrect'. All three statements misstate a documented detail of the National Water Awards. Statement A gets the date wrong: the Ministry of Jal Shakti launched the 6th National Water Awards, 2024 on 23 October 2024, inviting applications through the Rashtriya Puraskar portal with a submission deadline of 31 December 2024 — not on 15 November 2024. Statement B gets the category count wrong: the 6th National Water Awards were conferred across ten categories — Best State, Best District, Best Village Panchayat, Best Urban Local Body, Best School or College, Best Industry, Best Water User Association, Best Institution (other than school or college), Best Civil Society, and Best Individual — not nine. Statement C gets the founding year wrong: the National Water Awards were launched by the Ministry of Jal Shakti's Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in 2018, not 2016; the 1st National Water Awards covered the year 2018, and successive editions followed for 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 before the 6th edition for 2024. With the launch date, the category count and the founding year all incorrect as printed, none of the three statements survives, which is why the correct choice is that A, B and C are all incorrect.
- (1)A, B and C are correct — Credits all three statements when none of them matches the documented record: the 6th National Water Awards were launched on 23 October 2024 (not 15 November), conferred across ten categories (not nine), and the awards scheme itself dates to 2018 (not 2016).
- (3)A and B are correct — Credits the launch date and the category count as accurate. The 6th National Water Awards were actually launched on 23 October 2024, not 15 November 2024, and were conferred across ten categories, not nine — both figures as printed are off from the documented record.
- (4)B and C are correct — Credits the category count and the founding year as accurate. The awards were organised across ten categories, not nine, and the scheme has run since 2018, not 2016 — both statements understate the true figures.
The National Water Awards are conferred by the Ministry of Jal Shakti's Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to recognise outstanding work in water conservation, management and use across India. The scheme was launched in 2018, with editions following for 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, and the 6th National Water Awards, for 2024, were launched on 23 October 2024 with applications invited through the Rashtriya Puraskar portal until 31 December 2024. Awards are given across ten categories spanning states, districts, panchayats, urban local bodies, schools and colleges, industries, water user associations, other institutions, civil society organisations and individuals.
MPSC and UPSC both favour this kind of current-affairs question that prints three plausible-sounding statistics about a recent government scheme — a date, a count, a starting year — and asks the candidate to catch all three errors at once rather than just one. The award's precise details change from edition to edition (this year's launch date, this year's category count), which is exactly why the question rewards close reading of that year's official notification rather than a general sense that 'the government gives water awards'.
- The Ministry of Jal Shakti launched the 6th National Water Awards, 2024 on 23 October 2024, with applications invited via the Rashtriya Puraskar portal until 31 December 2024.
- The 6th National Water Awards were conferred across ten categories: Best State, Best District, Best Village Panchayat, Best Urban Local Body, Best School or College, Best Industry, Best Water User Association, Best Institution (other than school or college), Best Civil Society, and Best Individual.
- The National Water Awards scheme was launched in 2018 by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, with the 1st edition covering the year 2018.
- Subsequent editions covered 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 before the 6th edition, for 2024.
- The Ministry of Jal Shakti itself was created in 2019 by merging the erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
All three statements misstate the documented figures — A, B and C are all incorrect.
- Trusting a round, plausible-sounding number (nine categories, launched 2016) without checking the exact figure for the specific edition being asked about
- Assuming a scheme's founding year matches the year it feels like it 'should' have started, rather than the documented launch year
- Missing that all three statements in a set can be wrong simultaneously — MPSC does not require at least one correct statement in every set
MPSC regularly builds a three-statement current-affairs question entirely from small numeric substitutions on a recent government award or scheme — the launch date shifted by a few weeks, the category count off by one, the founding year moved by a couple of years — and offers 'all incorrect' as a genuine, unflagged option. The defence is not memorising a feeling that the scheme 'is roughly right' but pinning down, for the specific year being asked about, the exact launch date, category count and founding year from the year's own press release.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In which year was the National Water Awards scheme first launched by the Ministry of Jal Shakti ?
- (a)2016
- (b)2017
- (c)2018
- (d)2019
Answer(c) 2018 — the 1st National Water Awards covered the year 2018; subsequent editions followed for 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Ministry of Jal Shakti itself was formed the following year, in 2019.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The 6th National Water Awards, 2024, were conferred across how many categories ?
- (a)Eight
- (b)Nine
- (c)Ten
- (d)Twelve
Answer(c) Ten — Best State, Best District, Best Village Panchayat, Best Urban Local Body, Best School or College, Best Industry, Best Water User Association, Best Institution, Best Civil Society, and Best Individual.