SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 1 · 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 11 September 2026.

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SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

What is the key objective of India’s Green Credit Programme, recently operationalised under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986?

(a)Generate green bonds for renewable industries
(b)Reward voluntary environmental actions by individuals or entities
(c)Penalize high carbon footprint industries
(d)Enforce green finance for real estate sector

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The Green Credit Programme is a market-based mechanism that rewards voluntary environmental actions.

Individuals, companies and other entities earn green credits for specified activities, such as tree plantation on degraded land.

It is designed as an incentive, not a penalty. The Prime Minister's message on the programme's portal sets it against the carbon-credit system, which he says reflects a 'wrong doer's penance'.

Reward for voluntary action → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Generate green bonds for renewable industries — Green bonds are debt, not credits. They raise money for green projects, while a green credit is a unit of incentive earned for an environmental action.
(c)
Penalize high carbon footprint industries — Penalising polluters is the opposite design. The programme pays in credits for voluntary action, and the Prime Minister's message on its portal describes the carbon-credit system as a 'wrong doer's penance'.
(d)
Enforce green finance for real estate sector — It enforces nothing on any sector. Sustainable building and infrastructure is one of its eight activity heads, but participation is voluntary and the reward is a credit.

Concept

The Green Credit Programme was notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in October 2023, through the Green Credit Rules, 2023, made under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

The programme grew out of Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment).

The rules name eight activity heads: tree plantation, water, sustainable agriculture, waste management, air pollution reduction, mangrove conservation, ecomark, and sustainable building and infrastructure.

The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun, is the programme's administrator.

Keep it apart from India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023, notified under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, which sets up a carbon market. The Green Credit Programme rests on a different law and rewards voluntary action.

Key facts

The Green Credit Rules, 2023 were notified by MoEFCC in October 2023 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
ICFRE, Dehradun, administers the Green Credit Programme.
The rules list eight activity heads, including tree plantation, water and waste management.
The programme is linked to Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment).

Study next

Mission LiFE and pro-planet individual actionCarbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 and India's carbon marketThe Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Central Government's powers under it

Common traps

Mixing up green credits with carbon credits: green credits reward voluntary actions under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
Assuming an environmental scheme must penalise polluters: this one is built as a reward.

The parent law is tested at 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.15, which keys the Central Government as the body the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 empowers to set up anti-pollution authorities.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 156 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.