SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 20 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

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Read the below statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Mark the correct options: Assertion (A): UDAN Scheme improves regional air connectivity. Reason (R): It provides financial viability gap funding to airlines.

(a)Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
(b)Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
(c)A is true, but R is false
(d)A is false, but R is true

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Assertion is true. UDAN, the Regional Connectivity Scheme, exists to connect unserved and underserved airports.

Reason is true. On UDAN routes a share of seats is sold at capped fares, and the operating airline is paid Viability Gap Funding (VGF).

R explains A. Such routes would not pay on their own. VGF is what makes airlines fly them, and that flying is the improved connectivity → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A — R is the mechanism behind A, not a side fact. Airlines fly UDAN routes because VGF covers the gap between cost and capped-fare revenue, so the funding produces the connectivity.
(c)
A is true, but R is false — R is true. Viability Gap Funding to the selected airline is UDAN's core subsidy, paid on routes where a share of seats carries a capped fare.
(d)
A is false, but R is true — A is true. Improving regional air connectivity is UDAN's stated purpose: it targets unserved and underserved airports rather than the main metro routes.

Concept

UDAN stands for Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik. It is the Regional Connectivity Scheme of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, launched under the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016.

Airlines bid for routes to unserved and underserved airports. On each UDAN flight a share of seats is sold at a capped fare, and Viability Gap Funding covers the gap between the airline's cost and that revenue.

The first UDAN flight connected Shimla and Delhi in April 2017.

Key facts

UDAN stands for Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik, the Regional Connectivity Scheme of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
UDAN caps the fare on a share of seats and pays the operating airline Viability Gap Funding.
It targets unserved and underserved airports.
The first UDAN flight connected Shimla and Delhi in April 2017.

Study next

Viability Gap Funding in Indian infrastructure schemesNational Civil Aviation Policy, 2016Assertion-Reason technique: telling a cause from a true side fact

Common traps

Choosing 'R is not the correct explanation' because R sounds like a funding detail: when R is the mechanism that brings A about, it explains A.
Taking UDAN for a metro-route scheme: it targets unserved and underserved airports.

Here the scheme is tested on how it works, through Assertion-Reason. The acronym itself is asked at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.18 (the full form of UDAN).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 308 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.