NRIDA and IIM Kolkata Sign MoU on PMGSY-IV Impact Study

The correct answer is IIM Kolkata. The National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, which works under the Ministry of Rural Development, signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Management Kolkata for a four-year longitudinal study of roads built under PMGSY-IV and PM-JANMAN. The signatories were NRIDA Director General Aditi Singh and IIM Kolkata Director Alok Kumar Rai, with Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal present. Option A, IIM Ahmedabad, is a different management institute and was not party to this agreement, so it is wrong. Option C, IIT Roorkee, is an engineering institute and was not involved here either. Option D, the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, works in the same sector and therefore looks plausible, but it is not the partner named in this MoU, so it is also incorrect.

The correct answer is 250. The study will examine that many rural roads, spread across ten States and Union Territories, fifty districts and one hundred and fifty blocks, with a household survey of roughly five thousand families to capture changes in mobility, accessibility and socio-economic conditions. Option A is the number of blocks covered rather than the number of roads, which makes it a tempting but incorrect choice. Option B and option D are round figures that do not match the coverage announced, so both are wrong. Aspirants should keep the four coverage numbers in order, from States and Union Territories to districts, then blocks and finally roads, because questions often swap one of them for another. The States and Union Territory in the study are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.

The correct answer is 14 months. The assessment is built in three stages. First comes the baseline or pre-construction survey lasting fourteen months, then a transition period of roughly twelve months, and finally the endline or post-construction survey lasting twenty-two months. Because the same households and the same roads are revisited at each stage, the design is described as longitudinal and can show change over time rather than compare unrelated samples. Option A is shorter than the stated baseline period and is wrong. Option C is the length of the endline survey that follows construction, not the baseline, so it is a common trap. Option D is longer than any single stage in the design and does not match the plan at all. The full study runs for four years and will feed into programme review and future rural infrastructure planning.