Which Article of the Constitution makes it the duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people?

The correct answer is C, 2013. The National Food Security Act, often called the Right to Food Act, was passed by Parliament in 2013 and converted the subsidised grain of the Targeted Public Distribution System from a scheme benefit into a legal entitlement, enforceable through a District Grievance Redressal Officer and a State Food Commission. A, 2005, is wrong, though it is the year of two other landmark laws, the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which is why the option is attractive. B, 2009, is wrong because the year belongs to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. D, 2016, is wrong; no central food security law dates from that year, which saw the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code instead. Note too that the Act was brought into force with effect from July 2013, which is why some sources give that month with the year.

The correct answer is A, 5 kg per person per month. The Act creates two categories of beneficiary. A priority household receives five kilograms of foodgrain for every member every month, so a family of five draws twenty-five kilograms. B, 35 kg per household per month, is the standing trap: that is the quantity for an Antyodaya Anna Yojana household, which is a household entitlement and does not change with the number of members. C, 10 kg per person per month, is wrong because no category under the Act carries that scale, although ten kilograms a family was the original quota of the Targeted Public Distribution System in 1997. D, 25 kg per household per month, is wrong, though it was the Antyodaya quota when the scheme began in 2000, before it was raised to thirty-five kilograms in 2002. So read the unit in each option carefully: per person in one case and per household in the other.

The correct answer is B, up to 75 per cent of the rural and up to 50 per cent of the urban population. Those two ceilings together work out to about two-thirds of the country, and the Union Government fixes the state-wise coverage within them while the states identify the households. A is wrong because the figures are reversed and reduced; no provision of the Act carries fifty and twenty-five per cent. C is wrong because the Act deliberately moved away from the poverty line as the test: the priority category is wider than the old Below Poverty Line list, and identification is left to state criteria rather than to a poverty estimate. D is wrong because the Act is not universal; it excludes a part of the population, and a universal distribution system is what India had before the targeting of 1997.

The correct answer is B, the eldest woman of the household aged eighteen or above. The Act provides that the ration card shall be issued in the name of the eldest woman of the household who is eighteen years of age or more, so that the entitlement is held by a woman; if there is no such woman, the eldest male member holds it until a female member turns eighteen. A is wrong because the eldest male is only the fallback and not the rule. C is wrong because income decides whether the household is covered at all, not who holds the card. D is wrong because the gram panchayat has a role in identification, social audit and vigilance but no power to nominate the head of a household for this purpose.

The correct answer is C, 3, 2 and 1. The Act fixed the issue price at three rupees a kilogram for rice, two rupees for wheat and one rupee for coarse grains, and provided that these prices would hold for three years from the date of commencement, after which the Central Government could revise them up to the minimum support price. A and B are wrong because they shuffle the same three figures, which is exactly how the option is set in examinations; remember the descending order, rice the dearest and coarse grain the cheapest. D is wrong because those are not statutory figures at all. From the start of 2023 the grain due under the Act has in practice been supplied free, but the prices written into the Act remain three, two and one.