UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 55 of 147

Correct — B, February 24, 2019.

PM-KISAN was announced in the Interim Budget 2019-20 on 1 February 2019. The Prime Minister formally launched it at Gorakhpur on February 24, 2019, transferring the first ₹2,000 instalment to more than one crore farmer families at the same event. UKPSC's key treats that launch as the scheme coming into effect.

The idea to carry away: PM-KISAN has two dates — launched 24 February 2019, benefits reckoned from 1 December 2018. The first instalment covered the December 2018 – March 2019 trimester, so official documents describe the scheme as operational from 1.12.2018 even though it was unveiled in February 2019.

Among the four options, the launch date is the one that answers the stem. The retrospective date does not appear as printed; the option that resembles it carries the year 2019, a year too late.

• (a)
  April 1, 2018 — April 1, 2018 is the start of financial year 2018-19, the year in whose final trimester PM-KISAN's first instalment was booked. The scheme itself was announced on 1 February 2019, and its benefits were reckoned back to 1 December 2018, eight months after this date.
• (c)
  December 1, 2019 — This reads like the retrospective start but carries the wrong year. PM-KISAN is operational from 1 December 2018, so that the first ₹2,000 instalment could cover December 2018 – March 2019.

  By 1 December 2019 the scheme had paid instalments for three trimesters and had been extended to all landholding farmer families; that date merely opens a later December–March trimester.

• (d)
  April 1, 2019 — April 1, 2019 is the start of financial year 2019-20, the first full year of PM-KISAN and the year for which the Interim Budget provided ₹75,000 crore. It also opens the April–July trimester, the scheme's second instalment period.

  The scheme had already been launched, and its first instalment paid, in February 2019, so this date comes after it took effect.

PM-KISAN is a Central Sector Scheme, fully funded by the Government of India, that pays landholding farmer families ₹6,000 a year as income support. The money goes by Direct Benefit Transfer into bank accounts in three equal instalments of ₹2,000, one for each four-month trimester: April–July, August–November and December–March.

A family for the scheme means husband, wife and minor children who own cultivable land as per State land records. States and Union Territories identify the eligible families; the Centre pays. Certain higher-status categories are excluded even when they own land.

• PM-KISAN was announced in the Interim Budget 2019-20, presented by Piyush Goyal on 1 February 2019.
• The Prime Minister launched PM-KISAN at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, on 24 February 2019, transferring the first ₹2,000 instalment to more than one crore farmers.
• The scheme is treated as operational from 1 December 2018; its first instalment covered the December 2018 – March 2019 trimester.
• Benefit: ₹6,000 per year in three instalments of ₹2,000, for the trimesters April–July, August–November and December–March.
• PM-KISAN is a Central Sector Scheme with 100 per cent funding from the Government of India, run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• It initially covered small and marginal farmer families with up to 2 hectares; a Cabinet decision on 31 May 2019 extended it to all landholding farmer families.
• The cut-off date for land ownership used to determine eligibility is 1 February 2019, the date of the Interim Budget.
• Excluded categories include institutional landholders, constitutional post-holders, legislators, most government employees, pensioners drawing ₹10,000 a month or more, income-tax payers and registered professionals.
• PM Kisan Maan-Dhan Yojana, launched at Ranchi on 12 September 2019, is a separate pension scheme paying ₹3,000 a month after age 60 to small and marginal farmers.

• Reading 'came into effect' as the retrospective start, 1 December 2018, and then picking the option that reads 'December 1' without checking that it says 2019.
• Confusing the launch date, 24 February 2019, with the announcement date, 1 February 2019, which is the Interim Budget and also the land-ownership cut-off.
• Treating 1 April 2019 as the start because it is the first full financial year; the first instalment had already been paid in February 2019.
• Mixing up PM-KISAN (₹6,000 a year income support) with PM Kisan Maan-Dhan (₹3,000 a month pension), which was launched in September 2019.
• Calling PM-KISAN a Centrally Sponsored Scheme; it is a Central Sector Scheme with no State share.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), the annual income support of ₹6,000 is paid:

  • (a)in two half-yearly instalments of ₹3,000
  • (b)in three four-monthly instalments of ₹2,000
  • (c)in twelve monthly instalments of ₹500
  • (d)as a single annual payment in December
  Answerb — The operational guidelines release ₹6,000 a year as three instalments of ₹2,000, one per four-month trimester: April–July, August–November and December–March.

  Option (a) has the wrong count and amount, (c) invents a monthly schedule, and (d) contradicts the three-instalment design.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  With reference to PM-KISAN, consider the following statements: 1. It is a Central Sector Scheme with 100 per cent funding from the Government of India. 2. It was initially restricted to small and marginal farmer families with landholding up to 2 hectares. 3. It provides a monthly pension of ₹3,000 to farmers after the age of 60. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  • (a)1 only
  • (b)1 and 2 only
  • (c)2 and 3 only
  • (d)1, 2 and 3
  Answerb — Statements 1 and 2 are correct: PM-KISAN is 100 per cent Centre-funded, and until the Cabinet decision of 31 May 2019 it was restricted to families with up to 2 hectares.

  Statement 3 describes PM Kisan Maan-Dhan, the separate pension scheme, so (c) and (d) fail; (a) leaves out the true statement 2.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Prime Minister launched PM-KISAN by transferring the first instalment to farmers at:

  • (a)Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh
  • (b)Ranchi, Jharkhand
  • (c)Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
  • (d)Gandhinagar, Gujarat
  Answera — The Prime Minister launched PM-KISAN at Gorakhpur on 24 February 2019 by transferring the first ₹2,000 instalment to more than one crore farmers.

  Ranchi (b) is where PM Kisan Maan-Dhan was launched on 12 September 2019; Varanasi (c) and Gandhinagar (d) belong to other events, not to this launch.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is NOT an exclusion category under PM-KISAN as it stands today?

  • (a)Institutional landholders
  • (b)Persons who paid income tax in the last assessment year
  • (c)Farmer families whose landholding exceeds 2 hectares
  • (d)Retired pensioners drawing a monthly pension of ₹10,000 or more
  Answerc — Landholding size stopped being a bar once the scheme was extended to all landholding farmer families in 2019.

  Institutional landholders (a), last-year income-tax payers (b) and pensioners drawing ₹10,000 a month or more (d) are each listed as exclusions in the operational guidelines.