SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 12 of 100

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.

In which year was Ujala Yojana launched?

(a)2016
(b)2014
(c)2017
(d)2015

Answer

Why

Correct — D. UJALA — Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All — was launched in January 2015.

It renamed and absorbed the earlier Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme, and it is run by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power. Households buy LED bulbs at a fraction of the retail price, the cost being recovered through the electricity saved.

Its municipal twin, the Street Lighting National Programme, dates from the same launch, which puts the answer at option (d) — 2015.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
2016 — 2016 is the year of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the LPG connection scheme. Ujala and Ujjwala are different programmes and the near-identical names are the whole trap here.
(b)
2014 — 2014 belongs to Jan Dhan Yojana, Make in India and Swachh Bharat. The LED programme came in the January that followed.
(c)
2017 — 2017 is the year of Saubhagya, the household electrification scheme. Getting a connection and making the lighting on it efficient are two different programmes.

Concept

UJALA works by demand aggregation. EESL pools the demand of millions of households, buys LED bulbs in bulk at a price no individual buyer could get, and sells them on cheaply through distribution companies.

The saving is real on both sides: an LED draws a small fraction of the power an incandescent bulb does for the same light, so households pay less and the utility sheds peak load.

That is why the programme is classed as energy efficiency rather than as a subsidy — the state is buying avoided generation, not giving away bulbs.

Launch-year questions reward grouping rather than memorising one date at a time. 2015 carries Digital India, the Smart Cities Mission and UJALA. 2016 carries Ujjwala. 2017 carries Saubhagya and the GST rollout.

Key facts

UJALA stands for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All.
It was launched in January 2015 and renamed the earlier Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme.
Energy Efficiency Services Limited, under the Ministry of Power, implements the scheme.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a separate LPG connection scheme, was launched in 2016.

Study next

EESL's demand-aggregation model and how UJALA bulbs are pricedEnergy-efficiency programmes: UJALA, the Street Lighting National Programme and Perform-Achieve-TradeCentral scheme launch years from 2014 to 2017, grouped by ministry

Common traps

Reading Ujala as Ujjwala and answering 2016.
Guessing 2014 because the government's best-known flagship schemes cluster in that year.

The bare launch-year format recurs with different schemes. Digital India is asked at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.3 and the Smart Cities Mission at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.13, both 2015.

The Atal Innovation Mission comes up at 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.7, and the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.