Government schemes in UPSC Prelims: what 29 past questions actually ask

Most aspirants prepare schemes by reading a long list of names and launch dates. The past papers suggest that’s the wrong bet. UPSC asks what the scheme is for, who runs it, and how it works.

This post looks at the 29 scheme questions asked from 2016 to 2026 and turns them into a plan.

What the numbers say

Three things stand out.

It almost never skips a year. Ten of the 11 papers had at least one scheme question. Only 2021 had none.

It used to be much bigger. 2016 had 9 questions and 2017 had 8. That is 17 of the 29 in just two years. Since 2019 the area has settled at 1 to 3 questions a year, with 3 in 2024.

The questions got harder. In the early years, UPSC often asked a simple one-line question like “SWAYAM aims at…” with four options. 8 of the 29 questions were in this one-line form, and 7 of those came in 2016 and 2017. Since 2019, almost every question has been a set of statements about the scheme’s details. Both “How many of the above are correct?” questions came in 2023.

What UPSC is really testing

By our count, the 29 questions fall into four groups:

• What the scheme is for: 13 questions. UDAY, MUDRA, SWAYAM, Mission Indradhanush, Green India Mission, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India.
• How it works: 11. Who can join a pension scheme and at what age, what Anaemia Mukt Bharat provides, whether MPLADS money lapses at the end of the year, whether Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is compulsory.
• Who runs it: 3. National Career Service, PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana and Atal Innovation Mission.
• Funding and dates: 2. Who pays for the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme, and the funding share and period of the Revamped Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan.

The biggest group is purpose, but look at when those questions came. All 13 were asked between 2016 and 2018. Since 2019, the 10 scheme questions have mostly tested how a scheme works, who pays for it, and who runs it. If you only know a one-line purpose for each scheme, you are preparing for the old paper.

Two themes repeat inside these groups:

• Pension schemes: 3 questions. Atal Pension Yojana (2016), National Pension System (2017) and PM Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (2024).
• Mother and child health: 5 questions. Mission Indradhanush, National Nutrition Mission, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Anaemia Mukt Bharat and PM Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan.

The trap most questions share

The wrong option is what a scheme with that name sounds like it should do. SWAYAM means “self”, so students pick self-help groups. It is an online education platform. UDAY is a power-sector scheme, so students pick household electrification. It is about rescuing power distribution companies. “Green” India Mission sounds like a green revolution, but it is about forests. Smart India Hackathon is not the Smart Cities Mission.

The same trap shows up in the “who runs it” questions. In all three, the wrong answer was the body whose name matches the subject. PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana is a skilling scheme, so the Labour Ministry sounds right. It belongs to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The National Career Service sounds like a job for the Department of Personnel and Training. It is run by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Atal Innovation Mission sounds like Science and Technology. It is under NITI Aayog.

In the newer questions the trap has moved into the details. One small fact in a statement is changed:

• PM Shram Yogi Maan-dhan: the entry age is 18 to 40, but the statement said 21 to 40. Family pension goes to the spouse only, but the statement added unmarried daughters.
• Anaemia Mukt Bharat: the statement said calcium. The scheme gives iron and folic acid.
• Revamped RGSA: the end date of March 2026 was right, but the start year was wrong. The statement also said 100% central funding for all States. That is true only for Union Territories.

When a statement feels right because it fits the name, slow down. Check the one detail that would make it wrong.

How to prepare

1. Make one line per scheme with five fields. For every major scheme, write down:

• what it is for, in your own words
• which ministry or body runs it
• who can join (age, group, income)
• what the person gets (pension amount, loan, service)
• who pays (fully central, or shared with States, and in what ratio)

The first field covers the old questions. The other four cover the new ones.

2. Never trust the name. For each scheme, write one line on what it is not. Stand-Up India is not Start-Up India. SWAYAM is not self-help groups. This is the line that saves marks.

3. Learn the ministry, not just the subject. NITI Aayog, the Skill Development Ministry and the Labour Ministry are the bodies UPSC has used to confuse students.

4. Go deep on two families. Pension schemes and mother-and-child health schemes have come up again and again. For pensions, know the entry age, the pension amount and who gets the family pension. For health, know exactly what each scheme provides and to whom.

5. Note the funding pattern. Central Sector schemes are fully paid by the Centre. Centrally Sponsored schemes are shared with States, often with a different ratio for North-east and hill States. Two recent questions turned on this.

6. Solve the past questions before reading more. They show the exact level of detail UPSC wants. Start with the must-do page for schemes, then see the wider governance topic.

What to skip: budget outlays and progress figures, such as how many crore rupees were spent or how many accounts were opened. Launch dates rarely decide the answer either, with one exception: the period of the Revamped RGSA in 2026.

Two questions that show the pattern

2016 · What it is for. ‘SWAYAM’, an initiative of the Government of India, aims at what? Providing affordable and quality education to citizens for free. The trap was self-help groups, because “swayam” means self. See the question

2024 · How it works. Four statements on PM Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana. Only the statements on the age-based contribution and the ₹3,000 minimum pension were correct. The entry age and the family pension had each been changed by one small detail. See the question

For the other high-yield areas, see the must-do list. Species is the one area asked every single year, and we wrote about it here.