Arrange the following schemes launched by the Government of India in chronological order and choose the correct answer from the codes given below : 1. Swachh Bharat Mission 2. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana 4. Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra Scheme Codes :
- (a)2, 1, 4, 3
- (b)4, 2, 1, 3
- (c)1, 2, 3, 4
- (d)3, 1, 2, 4
Correct — C, 1, 2, 3, 4. The four schemes happen to be listed in the order they were launched, one a year. (1) Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on 2 October 2014, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, in two arms — Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). (2) Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana followed in July 2015 as the flagship skilling scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, implemented through the National Skill Development Corporation and aligned to the National Skill Qualification Framework. (3) Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana came in December 2016, in the wake of demonetisation: enacted through the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016, it gave holders of undisclosed income a window, open until 31 March 2017, to declare it on payment of tax and penalty, with a further quarter of the amount locked into an interest-free deposit for four years. (4) Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra was cleared by the Union Cabinet on 22 November 2017 as a new component of the Ministry of Women and Child Development's umbrella Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women, for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. The fastest route through the codes is to fix the oldest scheme rather than build the whole sequence: Swachh Bharat, 2014, is plainly the earliest of the four, and (c) is the only option that begins with 1.
- (a)2, 1, 4, 3 — Puts Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (July 2015) ahead of Swachh Bharat Mission (2 October 2014), and Mahila Shakti Kendra (November 2017) ahead of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (December 2016). Both pairs are inverted, so the option is wrong at both ends of the sequence.
- (b)4, 2, 1, 3 — Opens with the newest of the four. Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra was approved in November 2017, three years after Swachh Bharat Mission, which this option places third. Any code that does not start with Swachh Bharat can be struck out at once.
- (d)3, 1, 2, 4 — Gets the last item right but opens with Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, a December 2016 scheme, and pushes the 2014 and 2015 schemes behind it. This is the option a candidate reaches for if he is thinking of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package of 2020 or the free-foodgrain Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and has half-remembered the name as an old one; the sequence still fails, because in that reading the scheme would be the newest of the four and no code offers 1, 2, 4, 3.
Chronology questions on central schemes are pure recall, and the recall that pays is the launch year plus the sponsoring ministry. The four here belong to four different arms of government: sanitation (Drinking Water and Sanitation, now under Jal Shakti, plus Housing and Urban Affairs), skilling (Skill Development and Entrepreneurship), revenue and black money (Finance, through a taxation amendment), and women's empowerment (Women and Child Development). Learning them by ministry is what stops the names from blurring into one another, because two of them — Garib Kalyan and Mahila Shakti — sound like welfare schemes and only one of them is.
The single most useful fact in this item is that Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016, is not a poverty programme at all despite the name. It was the disclosure window created by the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016 after the note ban of 8 November 2016, under which a declarant paid tax, surcharge and penalty amounting to half the undisclosed income and parked another quarter in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme, interest-free for four years, with the money notionally earmarked for welfare spending. A separate Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package was announced in March 2020 as COVID relief, and its free-foodgrain arm, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, has become the better-known name since. The examiner's key here can only work on the 2016 reading, since the 2020 scheme would come after Mahila Shakti Kendra and produce a sequence (1, 2, 4, 3) that no option offers. Carry both meanings and the year that goes with each.
- Swachh Bharat Mission — launched 2 October 2014, on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, with a rural arm (SBM-Gramin) and an urban arm (SBM-Urban); the earlier Central Rural Sanitation Programme dates back to 1986.
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana — launched July 2015 by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, delivered through the National Skill Development Corporation, with training aligned to the National Skill Qualification Framework and a Recognition of Prior Learning component for the informal workforce.
- Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana — December 2016, created by the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016 after demonetisation; declarations were accepted until 31 March 2017, with 25 per cent of the declared amount locked into the interest-free Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme for four years. It is a black-money disclosure scheme, not a welfare scheme.
- Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra — approved by the Union Cabinet on 22 November 2017 as a new sub-scheme of the umbrella Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women, run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development for 2017-18 to 2019-20; it envisaged 640 District Level Centres for Women and block-level work by college student volunteers in the 115 most backward districts. The Ministry's women-empowerment schemes are now grouped under the umbrella Mission Shakti.
- A distinct Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package was announced in March 2020 as pandemic relief; its free-foodgrain component, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, was recast as an integrated food security scheme from 1 January 2023 covering more than 80 crore beneficiaries.
- 2 October 2014 — Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin and Urban); item 1
- July 2015 — Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship); item 2
- December 2016 — Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, the post-demonetisation disclosure window under the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016; item 3
- 22 November 2017 — Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra approved by the Cabinet (Ministry of Women and Child Development); item 4
The list is already in order, so the answer is (c) 1, 2, 3, 4. Fix the oldest scheme first — Swachh Bharat Mission, 2014 — and (c) is the only code that opens with it.
- Reading Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana as a poverty or food scheme. The 2016 scheme of that exact name is a black-money disclosure window; the welfare package of the same family name came in 2020.
- Confusing Swachh Bharat Mission (2 October 2014) with the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (1986) or the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan that preceded it.
- Trying to build the whole sequence before looking at the codes. In four-item chronologies, fixing the single oldest or newest item usually eliminates three options in one step.
UPPSC asks central schemes either as a chronology like this one or as a Match-the-scheme-with-its-launch-year list (2020 and 2021 both did the latter); UPSC rarely asks bare launch years and instead probes the sponsoring ministry and one design feature. Learn year plus ministry plus one signature feature and both formats are covered.
With reference to Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, consider the following statements: 1. It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. 2. It, among other things, will also impart training in soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial and digital literacy. 3. It aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country to the National Skill Qualification Framework. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 3 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 2 and 3 only
Item 2 of this chronology, examined by UPSC from the design side rather than the date side — the ministry that owns PMKVY and its alignment to the National Skill Qualification Framework, which is exactly the 'year plus ministry plus one feature' unit this chronology rewards.
Assertion (A): The Central Rural Sanitation Programme was launched in 1986 to improve the quality of life of rural people in India. Reason (R): Rural sanitation is a subject in the Concurrent List in the Constitution of India.
- (a) Both A and R are individually true and R is the correct explanation of A
- (b) Both A and R are individually 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(c) A is true but R is false
The ancestor of item 1. Rural sanitation was a central programme from 1986 long before the Swachh Bharat Mission of 2014, and the question also fixes the constitutional point that public health and sanitation is a State List subject.
Match List - I with List - II and select the correct answer from the codes given below the lists : List - I (Scheme) A. P. M. Jan Arogya Abhiyan B. P. M. Vaya Vandan Yojana C. P. M. Rojgar Protsahan Yojana D. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan List - II (Launching Year) 1. 2015 2. 2018 3. 2017 4. 2014 Codes : A B C D
- (a) 2 3 1 4
- (b) 1 2 3 4
- (c) 2 3 4 1
- (d) 2 4 3 1
Answer(a) 2 3 1 4
The same recall in match-list form, and it shares an item with this question — Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is pinned to 2014 there, which is the anchor that solves this chronology in one step.
Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists. List – I (Scheme) A. Aam Aadmi Bima Yojna B. P.M. Aatmanirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojna C. Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojna D. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojna List – II (Year of Launch) 1. 2021 2. 2016 3. 2007 4. 2018 Codes :
- (a) A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4
- (b) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
- (c) A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
- (d) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
Answer(c) A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
Another scheme-to-launch-year list from the same examiner, showing how reliably UPPSC returns to central-scheme dates; four of the schemes it uses are the social-security and health-insurance family that Q96 of this very paper also draws on.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana of 2016 was introduced through which of the following?
- (a)The Finance Act, 2016
- (b)The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016
- (c)The National Food Security Act, 2013
- (d)An executive resolution of the Ministry of Rural Development
Answer(b) The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016 — it created a post-demonetisation window, open till 31 March 2017, for declaring undisclosed income, with a quarter of the declared amount locked into the interest-free Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme for four years.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is implemented by which ministry?
- (a)Ministry of Labour and Employment
- (b)Ministry of Education
- (c)Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
- (d)Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Answer(c) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship — launched in July 2015 and delivered through the National Skill Development Corporation, with training certified against the National Skill Qualification Framework.