2.42 Lakh Special Gram Sabhas Held in India on Gandhi Jayanti

The correct answer is more than 2.42 lakh. That many Special Gram Sabhas were scheduled across the country on the GPDP Portal and the Panchayat NIRNAY Portal for Gandhi Jayanti, and they were attended by residents, elected representatives, Panchayat functionaries and officials. Option A, more than 1.42 lakh, understates the count and would be the answer only if roughly a lakh fewer sittings had been held. Option C, more than 3.42 lakh, and option D, more than 4.42 lakh, both overstate it; a candidate who recalls only the digits after the decimal point is exactly the one these two distractors are built to catch. The safest way to carry this story is to learn the count together with what the sittings launched, namely the People's Plan Campaign 2026-27, and with the financial year for which the Panchayat Development Plans are to be prepared. Those three details together make up almost every question set on this release.

The correct answer is Sabki Yojana, Sabka Vikas, the title of the People's Plan Campaign for the year, under which Panchayats will prepare their Panchayat Development Plans for the financial year that follows. Option B, Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, is wrong as the answer, though it is a real programme of the same ministry: under it training and capacity building are supported across nine themes of local development, but it was not the campaign launched at these sittings. Option C, Swachhata Hi Seva, is wrong because that cleanliness campaign was drawing to a close at the time rather than beginning, and it belongs to the sanitation effort and not to Panchayat planning. Option D, Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari, is wrong in the same way, being a water conservation effort that featured in the discussions rather than the campaign being inaugurated. Candidates should attach the slogan to the planning campaign and remember that it is led by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

The correct answer is Rs 4,35,236 crore. This is the amount the Sixteenth Finance Commission has recommended for Rural Local Bodies for the award period 2026-31, and it marks an increase of nearly 84 per cent over what the Fifteenth Finance Commission provided, with the annual per capita grant rising from about Rs 400 to nearly Rs 950. Options A, B and D are each wrong because they change the leading digit of the award while keeping the rest of it intact, which is the standard way a paper setter builds distractors around a large figure. Candidates should therefore learn the whole number rather than its shape, and should pair it with the award period and with the percentage increase, since a question may ask for any one of the three. The per capita figures are worth remembering as well, because they convert the headline award into a number a student can picture.

The correct answer is 2027-28. The Special Gram Sabhas opened the People's Plan Campaign, and the plans the Panchayats will draw up under it are for the financial year 2027-28, which is the year after the campaign year itself. Option B, 2026-27, is the year of the campaign rather than the year of the plans, and the gap between the two is the single most common slip on this story, which is why that option is placed here. Option A, 2025-26, lies in the past and cannot be a planning year for a campaign now beginning. Option D, 2028-29, runs a year beyond the plans under preparation. More than 2.55 lakh Gram Panchayats prepare these participatory plans and upload them on the eGramSwaraj portal, while the Panchayat Advancement Index helps each one identify its achievements and its gaps, so candidates should learn the campaign year and the plan year as a pair.