What is the total financial outlay of the PRIP Scheme?

The correct answer is Rs 50 crore. The Department of Pharmaceuticals announced that the New Discovery track will provide financial assistance of up to this amount per company, per project or per portfolio of projects, subject to minimum co-funding of a quarter of the project cost from bona fide institutional investors. Option A is the ceiling of the Early Stage track, which supports start-ups and MSMEs at the lowest readiness levels, so it is a genuine figure but from a different track. Option D is the ceiling of the Later Stage track, which applies to projects at higher readiness levels and is capped at a share of the approved cost. Option B is not a ceiling under any of the three tracks. Learn the three ceilings as a set, since the paper setter swaps them between tracks.

The correct answer is Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma and MedTech. The scheme is run by the Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, and it is designed to strengthen the country's pharmaceutical and medical technology research ecosystem by helping start-ups, MSMEs and large companies move up the innovation value chain. Options B, C and D are invented expansions built from similar vocabulary, and such near-miss acronyms are the standard way of setting a distractor. Note that the scheme covers both pharmaceuticals and medical devices, which is why MedTech appears in the name, and that its priority areas include novel medical devices alongside new medicines and complex generics. Candidates should also note that the scheme is meant to help start-ups, MSMEs and large companies alike move up the innovation value chain, so the applicant categories are as worth learning as the name itself.

The correct answer is TRL 1, 2 or 3. Start-ups and MSMEs taking up New Chemical Entity or New Biological Entity projects at those three readiness levels may apply under this exclusive track, and the department will support them to progress to higher levels but not beyond TRL 6. Option B describes the eligibility band of the Later Stage track, which is open to industry as well as start-ups and MSMEs, so it is the closest and most tempting wrong choice. Option C names levels that fall outside what any of the tracks admit for entry. Option D is wrong because the scheme sets definite bands for each track rather than admitting every level. Note that the Early Stage track shares the same entry band but caps support at TRL 5.

The correct answer is paddy. The sanction covers pulses and oilseeds only, and paddy is a cereal bought through a separate central pool arrangement rather than through the Price Support Scheme. Option A, tur or arhar, is very much covered: the single biggest item in the approval is tur in Uttar Pradesh. Option D, soybean, is covered twice over, in Karnataka and again in Telangana, and is the main oilseed in the sanction. Option B, sunflower, is covered in Karnataka alone, the smallest of the three Karnataka items. Moong is the fourth crop named and appears in all three states. So the odd one out is paddy, which is not part of this pulses-and-oilseeds approval at all, and a candidate who remembers that the scheme handles pulses, oilseeds and copra can rule it out at once.

The correct answer is Uttar Pradesh. It was allotted Rs 3,992.57 crore of the sanction, the largest of the three state shares, almost all of it for tur: 4,66,000 metric tonnes worth Rs 3,937.70 crore, along with 6,250 metric tonnes of moong worth Rs 54.87 crore. Option A, Karnataka, stands second with Rs 1,107 crore, spread across soybean, moong and sunflower, so it is covered by the approval but is not the largest. Option B, Telangana, is third with Rs 448.42 crore for soybean and moong. Option D, Madhya Pradesh, is a large producer of pulses and oilseeds and therefore a plausible guess, but it is not among the three states named in this particular sanction. Only Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana are covered.