UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q49: Who among the following was the Human Resource

Q: What is the answer to UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q49?

D. Correct — D, Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’. The stem sets three filters at once: the HRD/Education portfolio, the Union Council of Ministers, and the year 2019. **Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’**, the Lok Sabha member from Haridwar, was sworn in as Union Minister of Human Resource Development on 30 May 2019 and held the portfolio until 7 July 2021. Prakash Javadekar held HRD for the first five months of 2019, but he is not from Uttarakhand and is not among the options. The state filter is what leaves Nishank as the answer. On 29 July 2020, when the Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020, the ministry was renamed the Ministry of Education. That is why the stem says ‘Human Resource Development/Education’: Nishank served under both names. **Match the person to the portfolio and the year, not just to the state.**

UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 49 of 147

Verified against the official question booklet. Answer as per UKPSC's provisional answer key.

Answers from UKPSC's provisional answer key. The Commission publishes a provisional key for UKPSC Prelims 2024 and invites objections before issuing a final key. Every answer shown here is the Commission's own provisional answer (key PDF), not our derivation. If the final key changes an answer, this page is updated to match.

Who among the following was the Human Resource Development/Education Minister from Uttarakhand in the Central Government in the year 2019?

(a)Ajay Tamta
(b)B. C. Khanduri
(c)K. C. Pant
(d)Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’

Answer

Why

Correct — D, Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’.

The stem sets three filters at once: the HRD/Education portfolio, the Union Council of Ministers, and the year 2019. Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’, the Lok Sabha member from Haridwar, was sworn in as Union Minister of Human Resource Development on 30 May 2019 and held the portfolio until 7 July 2021.

Prakash Javadekar held HRD for the first five months of 2019, but he is not from Uttarakhand and is not among the options. The state filter is what leaves Nishank as the answer.

On 29 July 2020, when the Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020, the ministry was renamed the Ministry of Education. That is why the stem says ‘Human Resource Development/Education’: Nishank served under both names. Match the person to the portfolio and the year, not just to the state.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Ajay Tamta — Ajay Tamta, Lok Sabha member from Almora, was a Union minister in the same period, but as Minister of State for Textiles from July 2016 to May 2019. He held no post in HRD.
In June 2024 he became Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways. He is the right pick for a question on Uttarakhand’s Minister of State for Textiles in the first Modi government.
(b)
B. C. Khanduri — Major General (retd) B. C. Khanduri’s Union portfolio was Road Transport and Highways in the Vajpayee government, from November 2000 to May 2004, first as Minister of State with independent charge and from 2003 with Cabinet rank.
He was Chief Minister of Uttarakhand twice, from March 2007 to June 2009 and from September 2011 to March 2012, and sat in the Lok Sabha from Garhwal until May 2019. His Union ministership ended in 2004.
(c)
K. C. Pant — K. C. Pant, son of Govind Ballabh Pant, did hold this portfolio, which makes him the tempting option: he was Union Minister of Education from 31 December 1984 to 25 September 1985 in the Rajiv Gandhi government, his tenure ending as the ministry was renamed Human Resource Development.
He went on to be Defence Minister from 1987 to 1989 and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission from 1999 to 2004. He died in November 2012, so the year 2019 rules him out.

Concept

A Union minister is fixed by three coordinates: the portfolio, the period, and the person. Portfolios are allotted afresh at each swearing-in and reshuffle, and a ministry can be renamed mid-tenure, so one seat may carry two names within a single term.

The Union Ministry of Education became the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 1985 and took back the name Ministry of Education on 29 July 2020, the day the Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020.

Uttarakhand elects five members to the Lok Sabha, and in the second Modi government one of them, Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ of Haridwar, held a Cabinet-rank portfolio. His HRD tenure covered the approval of NEP 2020 and the ministry’s renaming.

The four names in the options span three eras of Union office: Pant in the 1980s, Khanduri in the early 2000s, and Tamta and Nishank after 2014. Sorting them by period is the whole task.

Key facts

Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ was Union Minister of Human Resource Development, later Education, from 30 May 2019 to 7 July 2021.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development was renamed the Ministry of Education on 29 July 2020, when the Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020.
Nishank was Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from June 2009 to September 2011, between the two terms of B. C. Khanduri.
Nishank represented Haridwar in the Lok Sabha, winning in 2014 and 2019.
Prakash Javadekar held HRD from July 2016 to May 2019; Dharmendra Pradhan succeeded Nishank as Education Minister on 7 July 2021.
Ajay Tamta, MP from Almora, was Minister of State for Textiles from July 2016 to May 2019 and became Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways in June 2024.
B. C. Khanduri was Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways from November 2000 to May 2004 and twice Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.
K. C. Pant was Union Minister of Education from December 1984 to September 1985 and Defence Minister from 1987 to 1989; he died in November 2012.

Four Uttarakhand names, four Union portfolios

Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’→HRD → Education, May 2019 – July 2021

Ajay Tamta→MoS Textiles 2016–19; MoS Road Transport 2024–

B. C. Khanduri→Road Transport & Highways, 2000–04

K. C. Pant→Education 1984–85; Defence 1987–89

Nishank is the one of the four whose portfolio and year match the stem.

Study next

Union Council of Ministers 2019: members from Uttarakhand and their portfoliosNational Education Policy 2020 and the renaming of MHRDChief Ministers of Uttarakhand in order, with datesLok Sabha constituencies of Uttarakhand and their members since 2014Article 75: appointment and tenure of Union ministers

Common traps

The stem carries two filters, the year 2019 and the home state. Prakash Javadekar held HRD until May 2019 but is not from Uttarakhand; the state filter, not the year alone, isolates Nishank.
K. C. Pant genuinely held the Education portfolio, so recognising a name-portfolio pairing is not enough; his tenure was 1984–85 and he died in 2012.
Ajay Tamta and B. C. Khanduri were both Union ministers from Uttarakhand, but in Textiles and Road Transport respectively; ‘was a Union minister’ is not yet the answer.
The slash in ‘Human Resource Development/Education’ does not point to two people; it reflects one ministry renamed mid-tenure in July 2020.

A person-portfolio-period item gives the portfolio and the year and asks for the holder, with distractors drawn from the same state who held other portfolios, or the same portfolio in another era.

The reverse form gives the person and asks for the portfolio or the constituency; a third form asks in which year a ministry was renamed.

Related PYQs

UKPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q452024

Same paper, same device: a Uttarakhand political figure matched to an office. That item asks for the state’s first Chief Minister, a state office fixed by an ordinal; this one asks for the holder of a Union portfolio in a stated year, so the checking coordinates are a year plus a ministry rather than a position in a sequence.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
In which year was the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development renamed the Ministry of Education?
- (a)2014
- (b)2019
- (c)2020
- (d)2021
Answerc — The renaming took effect on 29 July 2020, with Cabinet approval of the National Education Policy 2020.
2014 is when Smriti Irani took HRD in the first Modi government; 2019 is when Nishank took charge, still as HRD Minister; by July 2021, when Dharmendra Pradhan succeeded him, the ministry was already called Education.
practice — not a real PYQ
Who took over the Union Ministry of Education from Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ in July 2021?
- (a)Prakash Javadekar
- (b)Dharmendra Pradhan
- (c)Smriti Irani
- (d)Ajay Tamta
Answerb — Dharmendra Pradhan became Education Minister on 7 July 2021. Javadekar preceded Nishank at HRD (2016–2019); Smriti Irani held HRD from 2014 to 2016; Ajay Tamta has held Minister of State posts in Textiles and Road Transport and Highways, not Education.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following served as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and later as Union Minister of Human Resource Development?
- (a)B. C. Khanduri
- (b)Harish Rawat
- (c)Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’
- (d)Ajay Tamta
Answerc — Nishank was Chief Minister from 2009 to 2011 and HRD Minister from 2019 to 2021. Khanduri was Chief Minister twice, but his Union portfolio was Road Transport and Highways, held before his state terms.
Harish Rawat was Chief Minister from 2014 to 2017 and earlier a Union minister, including Cabinet Minister for Water Resources, but HRD was not among his portfolios. Ajay Tamta has held Minister of State posts and has not been Chief Minister.
practice — not a real PYQ
Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ was the Lok Sabha member from which constituency when he joined the Union Council of Ministers in 2019?
- (a)Almora
- (b)Garhwal
- (c)Haridwar
- (d)Tehri Garhwal
Answerc — He won Haridwar in 2014 and 2019. Almora returned Ajay Tamta in both elections; Garhwal was B. C. Khanduri’s seat until 2019 and then Tirath Singh Rawat’s; Tehri Garhwal returned Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah.