The Kisan Credit Card scheme was introduced in which year, on the recommendation of the R. V. Gupta committee?

The correct answer is B, Gorakhpur. PM-KISAN was announced in the interim budget of February 2019 and formally launched on 24 February 2019 from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, with the first instalment released there, although the scheme was given effect from 1 December 2018. It pays a landholding farmer family six thousand rupees a year in three instalments of two thousand rupees each. A is wrong because Lucknow, the State capital, was not the launch site of this scheme. C is wrong because Prayagraj is associated with the Kumbh and with other announcements of that period, not with PM-KISAN. D is wrong because Varanasi, though the site of many launches, is not where this scheme began. Remember the pairing of place with scheme, because papers often swap Gorakhpur and Varanasi.

The correct answer is B, Krishi Vikas Yojana. The National Mission for Saffron, meant to revive saffron cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir through better corms, irrigation and a spice park, runs as a sub-scheme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the umbrella fund started in 2007 that lets States plan their own agricultural projects. A is wrong because the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is a skill training scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development. C is wrong because Antyodaya Anna Yojana is a food security scheme for the poorest households under the public distribution system. D is wrong because the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana deals with rural electrification and feeder separation for agricultural power supply. Crop-specific missions are usually components of larger umbrella schemes, so trace them to their parent scheme.

The correct answer is B, six thousand rupees in three instalments. PM-KISAN pays each eligible landholding farmer family two thousand rupees every four months, that is six thousand rupees a year, straight into an Aadhaar-seeded bank account; the whole cost is borne by the Union government because it is a central sector scheme. Income tax payers, institutional landholders and certain government servants and professionals are excluded. A, C and D are wrong because they change either the amount or the number of instalments, and both figures are tested together. Keep the related numbers apart in your mind: six thousand rupees a year under PM-KISAN, a pension of three thousand rupees a month after sixty under PM Kisan Maandhan Yojana, and a crop insurance premium of two per cent for kharif crops under the Fasal Bima Yojana.

The correct answer is B, two per cent. The scheme fixed a uniform maximum premium for the farmer: two per cent of the sum insured for kharif food and oilseed crops, one and a half per cent for rabi food and oilseed crops, and five per cent for annual commercial and horticultural crops, with the balance of the actuarial premium shared by the Union and State governments. A is wrong because one and a half per cent is the rabi rate, the usual trap in this question. C is wrong because five per cent applies to commercial and horticultural crops such as cotton and potato. D is wrong because no category under the scheme charges the farmer ten per cent. Also remember that the scheme began in the kharif season of 2016, replacing the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, and that enrolment is voluntary since 2020.

The correct answer is A, Suratgarh in Rajasthan. The scheme was launched on 19 February 2015 from Suratgarh in Sri Ganganagar district, and it gives every holding a card showing the status of the main nutrients and the physical properties of the soil, with crop-wise advice on fertiliser and manure, renewed on a fixed cycle so that the farmer can correct imbalances and reduce wasteful urea use. B is wrong because Sehore is linked with other agricultural programmes, not this launch. C is wrong because Gorakhpur is the launch site of PM-KISAN in February 2019, which is the most common confusion in this question. D is wrong because Anand in Gujarat is known as the home of the dairy cooperative movement and Amul, not of the Soil Health Card. Keep launch places and years paired for each scheme.