Which organization is giving financial support for the ‘Tejaswini Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme’?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, IFAD (the International Fund for Agricultural Development). The Tejaswini Rural Women's Empowerment Programme in Madhya Pradesh (and Maharashtra) is financed by IFAD, a specialised agency of the United Nations that funds agriculture and rural-development projects in poorer countries. IFAD's loan supports the programme, which works by strengthening women's self-help groups (SHGs) and widening poor rural women's access to finance and livelihoods.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The International Monetary Fund lends to governments for balance-of-payments and macroeconomic stability — it does not fund grassroots rural women's SHG programmes.  (b) The International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) finances private-sector businesses, not state-run rural women's empowerment schemes.  (d) The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is a management school, not a development-finance organisation.

Concept: IFAD is a UN specialised agency (set up in 1977) dedicated to financing agriculture and reducing rural poverty in developing countries, usually through loans and grants to governments. Tejaswini is an IFAD-assisted programme delivered through women's self-help groups, giving poor rural women access to microfinance, livelihoods and their own institutions. The trap is that every option is a finance-sounding acronym — but only IFAD is a rural-development fund.

State PCS 2018 Q68 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2018 Q68 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer