The JAM trinity, central to direct benefit transfer in India, stands for which combination?

The correct answer is B, 2014. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched on 28 August 2014 as the national mission for financial inclusion, offering a zero-balance Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account, a RuPay debit card with accident insurance cover and an overdraft facility for accounts operated satisfactorily. Option A is wrong because 2012 is the year the RuPay card network was launched and the year the no-frills account was renamed the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account. Option C is wrong because 2015 is the year of the social security package, when the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, the Atal Pension Yojana and MUDRA were announced. Option D is wrong because 2016 is the year the Unified Payments Interface was launched by NPCI.

The correct answer is C, the National Payments Corporation of India. NPCI, set up in 2008 as the umbrella organisation for retail payments in the country, built and runs the Unified Payments Interface, along with RuPay, IMPS, the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System, the National Automated Clearing House and FASTag. Option A is wrong because the Reserve Bank promoted NPCI with the Indian Banks' Association and regulates payment systems under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, but it does not itself operate UPI; it does operate RTGS and NEFT. Option B is wrong because the State Bank of India is only one of the member banks on the system. Option D is wrong because SEBI regulates the securities market and has no role in retail payments.

The correct answer is B, giving loans and issuing credit cards. Payments banks were licensed on the recommendation of the Nachiket Mor Committee to widen access to deposits and payments, and the Reserve Bank's guidelines expressly bar them from lending and from issuing credit cards; their funds must go into government securities and deposits with other banks. Option A is wrong because taking deposits, up to a ceiling for each customer, is their main business. Option C is wrong because they may issue debit and ATM cards. Option D is wrong because they are allowed to distribute simple financial products such as insurance and mutual funds as an agent. Small finance banks are the other new category and they do lend, mainly in small amounts to the priority sector.

The correct answer is B, fifty thousand rupees. MUDRA loans to non-farm micro enterprises are graded in three named categories: Shishu for loans up to fifty thousand rupees, Kishore for loans above fifty thousand and up to five lakh, and Tarun for loans above five lakh and up to ten lakh, with a higher slab added later for borrowers who have repaid an earlier loan. Option A is wrong because twenty-five thousand is not a MUDRA boundary. Option C is wrong because one lakh falls inside the Kishore range and is not the limit of any category. Option D is wrong because five lakh is the upper limit of Kishore and the lower limit of Tarun, a pairing examiners use as a distractor. All MUDRA loans are collateral-free and are given through banks and microfinance institutions.

The correct answer is B, two lakh rupees. Real Time Gross Settlement is designed for large-value transfers, each settled singly and immediately in the books of the Reserve Bank, and the minimum amount for a customer transaction is two lakh rupees with no upper ceiling. Option A is wrong because one lakh is the figure candidates most often misremember, and it belongs to no current rule of RTGS. Option C is wrong because five lakh is not a threshold in the system. Option D is wrong because it is NEFT, not RTGS, that has no minimum amount; NEFT settles in batches and is used for ordinary payments of any size. IMPS, run by NPCI, is the third system, instant and available through mobile and internet banking, and all three now work on every day of the year.