The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is an initiative under which of the following missions?

The correct answer is B, 2008. The National Action Plan on Climate Change was released on 30 June 2008 by the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, and it set out the eight National Missions through which India would act on climate change at home. Option A is wrong because 2005 is the year of no climate plan; the Council on Climate Change itself was constituted only in 2007. Option C is wrong because 2010 is the year the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched, that is, one mission under the plan rather than the plan itself. Option D is wrong because 2015 is the year of the Paris Agreement and of India's first Nationally Determined Contribution, as well as the year the National Solar Mission target was raised to 100 GW. The plan came seven years before Paris, which is why it is described as the frame into which the later pledges were fitted.

The correct answer is C, eight. The plan of 2008 works through eight National Missions: Solar, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture, and Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. Option A is wrong because six leaves two of them out, a common trap when candidates forget the Strategic Knowledge and Himalayan missions, which are the two that build knowledge rather than assets. Option B is wrong because ten would include the later proposals on wind energy and health, which were suggested after 2014 but are not part of the original plan. Option D is wrong because twelve is simply larger than any count of the missions, original or proposed. Remember the figure eight with the nodal ministries attached, because papers often ask which ministry runs a named mission.

The correct answer is C, 2010. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched in January 2010 under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, with an initial target of 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power by 2022; the target was raised to 100 GW in 2015. Option A is wrong because 2008 is the year the parent plan, the NAPCC, was released, not the year any mission began operating. Option B is wrong because 2009 saw the plan's missions being drafted and approved in principle, but the Solar Mission's formal launch came in the following January. Option D is wrong because by 2012 the mission was already in its first phase, and 2012 is better remembered as the start of the first cycle of the Perform, Achieve and Trade scheme. Pair the mission with its ministry and its revised target, as both are asked.

The correct answer is B, 20 per cent. One of the five goals of the National Water Mission is a 20 per cent improvement in water use efficiency, alongside comprehensive water data, attention to areas most vulnerable to shortage, more recycling and better basin-level planning; the mission is handled by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Option A is wrong because 10 per cent understates the stated goal and is not a figure the mission documents use. Option C is wrong because 25 per cent is a plausible-looking round number but belongs to no goal of the mission. Option D is wrong because 40 per cent is far above anything the mission promises; such a jump in efficiency is not claimed by any national water programme. Papers pair this figure with the Green India Mission's 5 million hectares, so learn the two together.

The correct answer is D, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. That ministry is the nodal ministry for climate change in the Government of India, coordinates the plan and its reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and itself runs the National Mission for a Green India. Options A, B and C each name a ministry that runs only one of the eight missions: the Ministry of Power handles the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency through the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy handles the National Solar Mission, and the Ministry of Jal Shakti handles the National Water Mission. The trap is to confuse a mission's ministry with the plan's nodal ministry, so keep the coordinating role separate from the individual missions.