SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 19 of 99

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Who among the following is appointed as the new Chairman of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in March 2023?

(a)Mamta Shankar
(b)Supratim Bandopadhyay
(c)Shasikanta Das
(d)Deepak Mohanty

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Deepak Mohanty took charge as Chairperson of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority in March 2023.

He came to the chair from inside the regulator, where he was a whole-time member, after a career at the Reserve Bank of India, where he served as an Executive Director.

PFRDA regulates the National Pension System and the Atal Pension Yojana, which is why who heads it is standing current-affairs material: option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Mamta Shankar — This name has not held the PFRDA chair. It is filler in a list otherwise built from serving and former financial administrators, and nothing connects it to pension regulation.
(b)
Supratim Bandopadhyay — Supratim Bandyopadhyay is the predecessor, not the March 2023 appointee. He chaired PFRDA until his term ended, and Deepak Mohanty took over from him.
(c)
Shasikanta Das — The paper's spelling of Shaktikanta Das, then Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI and PFRDA are separate regulators with separate heads.

Concept

PFRDA is the statutory pension regulator, established under the PFRDA Act, 2013.

It regulates the National Pension System and the Atal Pension Yojana, registers pension funds and points of presence, and is charged with protecting subscribers' interests.

For SSC, read each regulator and its head as a pair — PFRDA with its chairperson, the Reserve Bank with its Governor, SEBI with its chairperson. The stem then reduces to recalling one name.

The stem fixes the month, March 2023, and that is where the difficulty sits.

Both the outgoing and the incoming chairperson are in the option list, so a candidate who remembers only that PFRDA changed hands can still land on the wrong one.

Key facts

Deepak Mohanty became Chairperson of PFRDA in March 2023.
He had earlier served as an Executive Director at the Reserve Bank of India.
PFRDA is a statutory body established under the PFRDA Act, 2013.
PFRDA regulates the National Pension System and the Atal Pension Yojana.

Study next

The PFRDA Act, 2013 and the architecture of the National Pension SystemHeads of India's financial regulators: RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDAAtal Pension Yojana: who is eligible and what it pays

Common traps

Picking the outgoing chairperson because the name is the more familiar one.
Assuming the Reserve Bank Governor also heads the pension regulator.

SSC dates these appointments to a month and expects you to hold the year — the Controller General of Accounts appointed in March 2023 is asked at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.3, and the Attorney General appointed in 2022 at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.12.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.