DDU-GKY 2.0 to Train 70,000 Rural Youth from October 2026

The correct answer is about 70,000. The Ministry of Rural Development has said that roughly that many rural young people, organised into 2,015 batches across 24 States and Union Territories, are expected to start their training in the opening month of the rollout. Option A is simply a smaller figure with nothing in the announcement to support it. Option D confuses two different numbers: the larger figure refers to the targets that 24 States and Union Territories have already allotted to Project Implementation Agencies over more than 1,200 projects, which is a target for allocation and not the count of trainees walking into a classroom in the first month. Option C is likewise unsupported by anything in the ministry's statement. The distinction between a target allotted on paper and a batch actually commencing is exactly the sort of fine point that examiners like to test, so keep the trainee figure, the batch count and the number of States and Union Territories together in memory as one set.

The correct answer is the Ministry of Rural Development. The announcement on the rollout of DDU-GKY 2.0 came from that ministry, which is also the body pressing States and Union Territories to allot targets to their implementing agencies and holding review meetings with them in phases. DDU-GKY is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme offering placement-linked skill training to poor rural youth, and its rural focus is the reason it sits with the rural development ministry rather than elsewhere. Option A is a plausible distractor because skilling is that ministry's broad remit, but this particular scheme is not run by it. Option B is wrong because employment policy and labour welfare, not the delivery of this training programme, fall to that ministry. Option D is wrong because school and higher education are outside the scope of a placement-linked vocational scheme of this kind. Candidates should also note the course length of 3 months to 12 months and the requirement that courses be aligned with the National Skill Qualification Framework.

The correct answer is 31 October 2026. The Ministry of Rural Development has fixed that day as the outer limit by which States and Union Territories are to finish allotting targets to their Project Implementation Agencies, so that batches can actually begin. Option A is wrong because it falls before the month in which training is itself meant to open, which would leave no room for the allocations the ministry is still chasing. Options C and D are wrong because both push the deadline well past the start of training and would defeat the purpose of the ministry's push for speed; it has called this a crucial phase for action by the States and is holding review meetings in phases precisely to avoid such slippage. For the examination, link the deadline with the two other dates in this story, namely the month in which batches open and the two-year cycle of 2026-28 for which more than 9 lakh targets have been allocated across all 31 participating States and Union Territories.