RAS question
Which of the following is NOT a focus area of PMDDKY?
Correct answer: (C) Heavy industry development.
Heavy industry development is not a focus area of PMDDKY, which is framed around agriculture and allied-sector improvements such as productivity, crop diversification, irrigation, post-harvest storage and credit access.
Explanation
PMDDKY is an agriculture-centred district development scheme, not an industrialisation programme. The PM India release says the scheme focuses exclusively on agriculture and allied sectors and aims to enhance agricultural productivity, increase crop diversification and sustainable agricultural practices, augment post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block levels, improve irrigation facilities and facilitate long-term and short-term credit. These aims match options A, B and D. Heavy industry development does not appear in this set of objectives, and it sits outside the scheme's stated agriculture-and-allied-sector focus. That is why option C is the odd one out.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Post-harvest storage at the panchayat level is wrong as the answer because the official scheme aims include augmenting post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block levels.
- (B) Irrigation improvement is wrong as the answer because improving irrigation facilities is explicitly listed among the scheme's aims.
- (D) Crop diversification is wrong as the answer because the scheme aims to increase adoption of crop diversification and sustainable agricultural practices.
Concept
This tests government schemes in Indian Economy, especially the ability to separate a scheme's sectoral mandate from unrelated development themes. It recurs in RAS because current schemes are often asked through exclusion-style questions where one option falls outside the official objective list.