Question

Arrange the following crop insurance schemes of India in their chronological order:
(A). Pilot Crop Insurance Scheme
(B). Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme
(C). National Agricultural Insurance Scheme
(D). Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

• A. (A), (B), (C), (D).
• B. (D), (C), (B), (A).
• C. (B), (A), (D), (C).
• D. (C), (B), (D), (A).

Hint:

Memorize the timeline: Pilot (1979) $\to$ Comprehensive (1985) $\to$ NAIS (1999) $\to$ PMFBY (2016) for crop insurance schemes in India.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The crop insurance schemes in India evolved over time to address the needs of farmers. The correct chronological order is:
1. Pilot Crop Insurance Scheme (1979): Introduced as an experimental initiative to provide insurance coverage to farmers against crop losses in select areas.
2. Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme (1985): Expanded the scope of the Pilot scheme, offering broader coverage but limited to specific crops and farmers with crop loans.
3. National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS, 1999–2000): A more extensive scheme aimed at covering all farmers and a wider range of crops, with improved risk coverage.
4. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY, 2016): A flagship scheme with comprehensive risk coverage, lower premiums, and technology-driven implementation (e.g., remote sensing for loss assessment).
Thus, the sequence (A), (B), (C), (D) corresponds to the chronological order, making option (1) correct.

Answer 2

Anchor-point elimination:
Rather than recalling every exact year, anchor the sequence using two well-known facts: the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched in 2016, making it unmistakably the most recent scheme, and the Pilot Crop Insurance Scheme was India's first experimental attempt at crop insurance, making it unmistakably the earliest. This immediately rules out any option that does not start with the Pilot scheme and end with PMFBY.
Among the remaining possibilities, the Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme (1985) necessarily precedes the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (1999-2000), since the comprehensive reforms came before the later, more extensive national scheme.
This anchor-and-order method reproduces the sequence Pilot, Comprehensive, National Agricultural, PMFBY, i.e. (A), (B), (C), (D), confirming option (1).