MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 97 of 100

Correct — option (1), New Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated Kaushal Bhawan, the new building housing the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship along with its associated organisations — the Directorate General of Training, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training, and the National Skill Development Corporation — on 24 January 2024, in New Delhi. The building's foundation stone had been laid in March 2019, and its completion gave the Ministry and its allied bodies a single, purpose-built headquarters. During the visit, the President also toured exhibition stalls set up by beneficiaries of skilling initiatives such as PM Vishwakarma, PM JANMAN and the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). As the seat of the Union Ministry concerned, New Delhi is the natural location for Kaushal Bhawan, and it is where the inauguration took place.

• (2)Hyderabad — Hyderabad hosts a number of national skilling and training institutions, but Kaushal Bhawan, as the headquarters building of the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship itself, was inaugurated in New Delhi, the seat of the central ministries, not in Hyderabad.
• (3)Bengaluru — Bengaluru is a major hub for India's technology and skilling ecosystem, which makes it a plausible-sounding decoy, but the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship's own headquarters building, Kaushal Bhawan, was inaugurated in New Delhi.
• (4)Lucknow — Lucknow has hosted skilling and entrepreneurship events as part of Uttar Pradesh's own initiatives, but Kaushal Bhawan itself, the Union Ministry's headquarters, was inaugurated in New Delhi, where the Ministry is based.

Kaushal Bhawan is the dedicated headquarters building of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, along with its associated organisations, in New Delhi. Its foundation stone was laid in March 2019, and President Droupadi Murmu formally inaugurated the completed building on 24 January 2024, giving the Ministry, the Directorate General of Training, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training, and the National Skill Development Corporation a shared, purpose-built home.

MPSC and UPSC both track the inauguration of dedicated headquarters buildings for Union ministries as current-affairs facts, since they mark institutional milestones and are typically reported with the presiding dignitary, the date and the location together — exactly the three data points this question tests. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship itself, created in 2014, coordinates India's skilling ecosystem, including flagship programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, and a dedicated headquarters building consolidating it with its associated bodies was a long-standing institutional need dating back to the building's 2019 foundation.

• Kaushal Bhawan is the headquarters building of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, located in New Delhi.
• President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated it on 24 January 2024.
• Its foundation stone was laid in March 2019.
• It also houses the Directorate General of Training, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training, and the National Skill Development Corporation.
• During the inauguration, the President visited exhibition stalls of skilling scheme beneficiaries under PM Vishwakarma, PM JANMAN and the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

• Assuming a skilling-related inauguration must take place at a technology or industrial hub city such as Bengaluru or Hyderabad, rather than checking that Kaushal Bhawan is specifically the Union Ministry's own headquarters, located in New Delhi
• Confusing the foundation-stone-laying date (March 2019) with the inauguration date (24 January 2024) for the same building
• Treating any skill-development event reported around January 2024 as interchangeable, when this specific inauguration is tied to a specific building, date and city

MPSC and UPSC both like to test the inauguration of new government buildings and institutional facilities as a where-and-who current-affairs fact, and the wrong options are typically other major Indian cities with a genuine, but different, connection to the same broad theme — in this case, cities known for skilling or technology activity rather than the city that actually hosts the Union Ministry's own headquarters. The defence is to hold the specific city for each such inauguration as a discrete fact, rather than reasoning from which city 'sounds like' it fits the theme.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Kaushal Bhawan, inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu on 24 January 2024, serves as the headquarters of which Union Ministry ?

  • (a)Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
  • (b)Ministry of Labour and Employment
  • (c)Ministry of Education
  • (d)Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

  Answer(a) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship — Kaushal Bhawan also houses its associated organisations, including the Directorate General of Training, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training, and the National Skill Development Corporation.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In which year was the foundation stone of Kaushal Bhawan, later inaugurated in January 2024, laid ?

  • (a)2014
  • (b)2017
  • (c)2019
  • (d)2021

  Answer(c) 2019 — the foundation stone was laid in March 2019, roughly five years before President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the completed building on 24 January 2024.