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International relations & current affairs

Prelims · International relations & current affairs · 60 questions

Government schemes & initiatives

Every UPSC Prelims question on this topic, 2016–2026, newest first. Tap an option to check yourself; the answer and explanation open below it.

Government schemes & initiatives questions per year: 2016: 5, 2017: 6, 2018: 3, 2019: 1, 2020: 3, 2021: 1, 2022: 2, 2023: 3, 2024: 3, 2025: 2, 2026: 2 Asked in 11 of 11 years · most in 2017 (6)

UPSC syllabus: “Current events of national and international importance.” See the full syllabus →

Prelims 2022 · Q19

Medium

With reference to Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, consider the following statements:

  1. 1.Private and public hospitals must adopt it.
  2. 2.As it aims to achieve universal health coverage, every citizen of India should be part of it ultimately.
  3. 3.It has seamless portability across the country.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) 3 only

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), launched in September 2021, builds a digital backbone so health records can move with a patient anywhere in India. The government describes it as voluntary, so neither hospitals nor citizens are compelled to join; only the portability statement holds.

  • ✗ 1. ABDM is voluntary. Hospitals, clinics and labs, public or private, choose to register on the Health Facility Registry; nothing makes adoption compulsory.
  • ✗ 2. Creating an ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) number is a citizen's choice. The mission encourages enrolment through awareness drives but does not require every citizen to be part of it.
  • ✓ 3. The ABHA number and linked records are designed to work across providers and states, so a patient can share records and get care seamlessly wherever they are.

Remember · ABDM (2021, run by the National Health Authority): voluntary, consent-based digital health ecosystem; ABHA number gives each person a portable, interoperable health record.

Sources

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

Prelims 2022 · Q31

Medium

Consider the following:

  1. 1.Aarogya Setu
  2. 2.CoWIN
  3. 3.DigiLocker
  4. 4.DIKSHA

Which of the above are built on top of open-source digital platforms?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

All four are parts of India's digital public infrastructure (the 'India Stack') and are built on open-source software that the government offers to other countries: DIKSHA on the Sunbird platform, DigiLocker on an open-source stack, Aarogya Setu's code published on OpenForge and GitHub, and CoWIN's certificates on the open-source DIVOC building block.

  • ✓ 1. The National Informatics Centre released Aarogya Setu's source code in 2020; its Android, iOS/KaiOS and backend code is hosted on the government's OpenForge platform.
  • ✓ 2. At the CoWIN Global Conclave on 5 July 2021 the Prime Minister announced that the CoWIN platform was being made open source and offered to any country; its certificates use the open-source DIVOC building block.
  • ✓ 3. MeitY's India Stack portal states that DigiLocker is developed on an open-source stack whose components can be shared with other countries.
  • ✓ 4. DIKSHA, NCERT's national platform for school education, is built on Sunbird, a free and open-source platform.

Remember · India Stack (digital public goods): Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, CoWIN, Aarogya Setu, DIKSHA (built on Sunbird) — open-source, interoperable, offered to other countries.

Sources

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

Prelims 2022 · Q74

Hard

Consider the following statements:

  1. 1.The India Sanitation Coalition is a platform to promote sustainable sanitation and is funded by the Government of India and the World Health Organization.
  2. 2.The National Institute of Urban Affairs is an apex body of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in Government of India and provides innovative solutions to address the challenges of Urban India.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

UPSC's official answer: (d) · the answer UPSC accepted, and the one that counts in the exam

Also defensible: (b)

  • Statement 1 is wrong on any reading: the India Sanitation Coalition is a multi-stakeholder platform launched at FICCI in 2015, and nothing on its own site names the Government of India or the WHO as its funders.
  • Statement 2 copies NIUA's own profile almost word for word. NIUA says it 'seeks to provide innovative solutions to address the challenges of a fast urbanising India' and that 'in 1976, NIUA was appointed as an apex body to support and guide the Government of India in its urban development plans'. On NIUA's description, statement 2 is correct and the answer is (b).
  • UPSC's key reads 'apex body of the Ministry' strictly: NIUA calls itself 'an Autonomous Body of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs', a registered society that the Ministry funds and works with, not the Ministry's apex body. On that reading both statements fail and the answer is (d).

UPSC's key is (d), reading 'apex body of the Ministry' strictly; on NIUA's own profile statement 2 reads as correct, giving (b). In the exam, when a statement upgrades an autonomous institute into a ministry's 'apex body', expect UPSC to mark it wrong.

This box is Minimalist IAS's analysis, with its sources; it does not change UPSC's answer.

UPSC's key treats both statements as wrong. The India Sanitation Coalition is a multi-stakeholder platform launched at FICCI in 2015; the National Institute of Urban Affairs is an autonomous body of the Ministry, not an apex body of it.

  • ✗ 1. The coalition was launched in June 2015 at FICCI (the industry chamber) and brings many organisations onto one platform for sanitation. UPSC's key marks this statement incorrect; we could not confirm the funding detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
  • ✗ 2. NIUA describes itself as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs — a research and capacity-building institute, registered as a society, that the Ministry funds and works with. It is not an 'apex body of the Ministry': the Ministry has no apex body, and NIUA's advisory role to the Government does not make it one, so UPSC's key marks the statement wrong.

Remember · India Sanitation Coalition: FICCI-hosted, multi-stakeholder platform (2015). NIUA: autonomous research institute of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (est. 1976), not a department.

Sources

  • India Sanitation Coalition, Who We Are ↗ · reference work “India Sanitation Coalition (ISC), launched in June 2015, at Federation of Indian Chamber Commerce and Industry (FICCI), enables and supports safe and sustainable sanitation by bringing multiple organizations on a common platform”
  • NIUA recruitment notice hosted by Finance Department, Government of West Bengal ↗ “The National Institute of Urban Affairs, an Autonomous Body of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, New Delhi, invites applications from eligible candidates for the post of Executive Officer … In 1976, NIUA was appointed as an apex body to support and guide the Government of India in its urban development plans.”

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

Prelims 2022 · Q84

Medium

Consider the following statements:

  1. 1.Gujarat has the largest solar park in India.
  2. 2.Kerala has a fully solar powered International Airport.
  3. 3.Goa has the largest floating solar photovoltaic project in India.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct: Cochin International Airport in Kerala was the world's first fully solar powered airport. In the exam year the largest solar park was Bhadla in Rajasthan, not a Gujarat park, and Goa did not host India's largest floating solar project.

  • ✗ 1. The Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan has a total capacity of 2,245 MW, which made it the largest operating solar park in India when this question was set.
  • ✓ 2. UNEP calls Cochin International Airport, in Kerala, the world's first solar powered airport.
  • ✗ 3. In the exam year (2022) India's largest floating solar project was NTPC's 100 MW plant at Ramagundam in Telangana, which the Ministry of Power announced as fully operational on 1 July 2022. It is not in Goa.
  • • Since then A Central Electricity Authority report of September 2025 shows Gujarat's planned solar-park capacity (12,150 MW, including the Khavda parks) now above Rajasthan's (11,355 MW). The answer for 2022 is unchanged.

Remember · Bhadla (Rajasthan, 2,245 MW) was India's largest operating solar park in 2022; Cochin Airport (Kerala) is the world's first fully solar powered airport.

Sources

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

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