UPSC Prelims 2023 · GS Paper I
Question 74: Economy and Social Development
Consider the following statements :
- 1.The Self-Help Group (SHG) programme was originally initiated by the State Bank of India by providing microcredit to the financially deprived.
- 2.In an SHG, all members of a group take responsibility for a loan that an individual member takes.
- 3.The Regional Rural Banks and Scheduled Commercial Banks support SHGs.
How many of the above statements are correct?
AnswerUPSC’s answer is (b).
Statements 2 and 3 are correct. In an SHG, members take joint responsibility for loans to individual members, and Regional Rural Banks, scheduled commercial banks and cooperative banks lend to SHGs under the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme. Statement 1 is wrong: the programme was initiated by NABARD, which launched a pilot SHG-Bank Linkage project in 1992, not by the State Bank of India.
- 1. NABARD, not SBI, started the SHG-Bank Linkage pilot in 1992.
- 2. Members share responsibility for loans to individual members.
- 3. RRBs and scheduled commercial banks lend to SHGs.
How you could have got this
No shortcut here: in a “how many” question, ruling out options doesn’t help. Every statement has to be judged.
The red flag in statement 2 is “all”. In UPSC’s papers, statements with “all” were true 41% of the time (76 statements). A hint, not a rule.
Which options go is worked out from UPSC’s key and the options, not by a model.
Why each option is right or wrong
- (a) Only one undercounts; statements 2 and 3 are both true.
- (b) Correct: statements 2 and 3 hold.
- (c) Statement 1 wrongly credits SBI, so not all three.
- (d) Statements 2 and 3 are true, so not none.
Answer: UPSC’s key. Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.
Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2023, General Studies Paper I, Series A. The paper on upsc.gov.in.