Education & Skill Development Schemes

Why This Chapter Matters

Education and skill schemes show up in almost every SSC and RRB paper, usually as a one-line factual question: which year, which ministry, what does the scheme actually do. Expect two to four questions from this chapter alone in a typical SSC CGL or RRB NTPC General Awareness section, and this topic repeats across CHSL, MTS, CPO and state police exams too because school education and skilling are subjects every coaching institute drills hard.

Here is the single biggest mistake aspirants make: they memorise scheme names as a flat list and mix up which scheme replaced which. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan did not vanish, it got absorbed into Samagra Shiksha. Mid-Day Meal did not get scrapped, it got renamed PM POSHAN. Students who learn schemes as isolated facts panic when a question asks "which scheme subsumed SSA?" Students who learn the timeline — what came first, what replaced it, and why — answer that question in three seconds. This chapter builds that timeline for you, sector by sector: school education first, then nutrition-linked education, then the big policy shift of NEP 2020, then skilling and apprenticeship. Read it in that order and the facts will stick together instead of floating loose in your head.

1. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to Samagra Shiksha: The School Education Timeline

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was launched in 2000-01 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (renamed Ministry of Education in 2020). Its one-line objective: universalise elementary education for children aged 6 to 14, in line with the constitutional goal that every child gets free and compulsory schooling. SSA became the administrative backbone that later helped implement the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), which made elementary education a legal right, not just a policy goal.

Think of SSA as the scheme that built the pipes. It funded new schools, extra classrooms, teacher recruitment, and free textbooks in villages that had none of this in 2000. By the mid-2010s, India had a parallel scheme for secondary schools called Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), launched in 2009, plus a separate scheme for teacher training. Three different schemes covering three stages of school life meant three different funding streams and three sets of paperwork for the same child moving through school.

Samagra Shiksha

In 2018, the government merged SSA, RMSA, and Teacher Education into one umbrella scheme: Samagra Shiksha, run by the Ministry of Education. Its one-line objective: treat school education as one continuous system from pre-school to senior secondary (classes 1 to 12), instead of funding each stage separately. "Samagra" means holistic in Hindi, and that is exactly the point — one scheme, one child, one continuous run through school without a break in funding at each stage.

Exam trap: Questions often ask "SSA was merged into which scheme?" or "Which scheme replaced SSA and RMSA?" The answer is always Samagra Shiksha, and the merger year is 2018. Do not confuse this with the RTE Act, which is a law, not a scheme, and was passed in 2009 — a full nine years before the merger.

Analogy: Picture three separate ration shops in a village, one for rice, one for wheat, one for pulses, each with its own queue and its own babu. Samagra Shiksha is the day the government combined them into one shop with one counter. Same grain, same beneficiaries, far less running around.

Samagra Shiksha also folds in components that did not exist as clearly defined line items under the older schemes: digital initiatives for classrooms, support for children with special needs, gender-sensitive infrastructure like separate toilets for girls, and vocational education starting at the secondary level. This last point matters for this chapter because it is the first place school education starts talking to skill development, a thread you will see again when we reach Skill India later in this chapter. A student in a Samagra Shiksha-funded senior secondary school can now take a vocational subject alongside regular academics, which was almost unheard of under the old fragmented SSA-RMSA structure.

Exam trap: Do not answer "RTE Act" when asked which scheme merged SSA and RMSA — the RTE Act is a law that guarantees a right, it did not administratively combine any schemes. The scheme that did the merging is Samagra Shiksha, and only Samagra Shiksha.

2. Nutrition-Linked Education: Mid-Day Meal to PM POSHAN

Feeding children in school is one of the oldest and most cost-effective tricks in Indian education policy — a hot meal gets a hungry child into the classroom and keeps them there.

The scheme began life as the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, launched in 1995, and became popularly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Run by the (then) Ministry of Human Resource Development, its one-line objective was simple: provide one hot cooked meal to every child in government and government-aided primary schools, to improve both nutrition and school enrollment/attendance.

In September 2021, the scheme was renamed PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman), still under the Ministry of Education. The rename was not cosmetic. PM POSHAN expanded coverage to include pre-primary (balvatika/anganwadi-linked) children in government schools, and it formally linked school meals to the wider goal of fighting malnutrition, tying in with POSHAN Abhiyaan run separately by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Exam trap: "Mid-Day Meal Scheme" and "PM POSHAN" are the same lineage, not two different schemes. If a question gives you a launch year of 1995, it wants Mid-Day Meal / National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education. If it gives you 2021, it wants PM POSHAN. Both belong to the Ministry of Education.

Memory hook: Think of it as "1995 hunger, 2021 name" — the problem being solved (hunger in the classroom) is the same scheme born in 1995, it just got a sharper, more ambitious name in 2021.

You have probably seen this scheme in action even if you never called it by name — the child in your neighbourhood government school eating rice-sambar or khichdi at lunch is living proof of a policy that has run continuously for three decades.

The scheme's real achievement is not the meal itself, it is what the meal buys: attendance. Enrollment and daily attendance in government primary schools rose sharply after the scheme's early years, because a guaranteed lunch removed one major reason poor families kept children, especially girls, at home to help with chores instead of sending them to school. The nutrition side matters just as much as the enrollment side — a mid-morning or midday meal directly tackles classroom hunger, which studies have repeatedly linked to poor concentration and higher dropout rates. PM POSHAN today also promotes the use of locally grown, nutrient-rich foods and encourages states to add micronutrient fortification like iodised salt and fortified oil to the meal, which is a detail examiners sometimes slip into "select the correct feature" style questions.

Exam trap: A question may ask which ministry runs PM POSHAN. Do not answer Ministry of Women and Child Development just because nutrition sounds like their territory — PM POSHAN sits with the Ministry of Education, because it is fundamentally a school-attendance and school-nutrition scheme delivered through the school system, unlike POSHAN Abhiyaan, which is broader and does sit with Women and Child Development.

3. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) was launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat, Haryana, jointly by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the Ministry of Education. Note the exam-friendly detail here: BBBP is a genuinely tri-ministerial scheme, but if a question asks for the "nodal ministry," the answer is the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Its one-line objective: reverse the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and ensure survival, protection, and education for the girl child. Panipat was chosen deliberately because Haryana had (and still struggles with) one of India's worst child sex ratios, so launching the scheme there sent a pointed message.

BBBP works on three fronts at once: preventing gender-biased sex selection, ensuring survival and protection of girl children, and ensuring their education. It is easy to remember the girl-child scheme cluster if you group them by what problem each one solves — BBBP tackles the sex ratio and awareness gap, while Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (covered in a later chapter) tackles the financial security gap for a girl child's future.

Exam trap: Do not confuse BBBP's launch location (Panipat, Haryana) with its nodal ministry (Women and Child Development). Exams like to test both separately in the same paper — one question on where, another on which ministry.

Analogy: Think of BBBP as a three-legged stool. Knock out any one leg and the stool falls. Awareness campaigns against sex-selective practices are one leg, health interventions for the survival of girl infants are the second leg, and school enrollment drives for girls are the third. A scheme that only ran awareness campaigns without also pushing school enrollment would have addressed attitudes but not outcomes, which is exactly why BBBP was designed to work across ministries instead of staying inside one department.

BBBP districts were originally chosen based on Census data showing the worst child sex ratios, with a strong concentration in states like Haryana, Punjab, and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Over time the scheme expanded to cover all districts in the country, but its origin story, a targeted intervention in the worst-affected pockets before going national, is itself a pattern worth remembering, because several other schemes in this book (Aspirational Districts Programme, for instance, covered in a later chapter) follow the same "worst-first" logic.

4. National Education Policy 2020

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2020, replacing the earlier National Policy on Education, 1986 (itself modified in 1992). NEP 2020 falls under the Ministry of Education, and it is a policy framework, not a scheme that disburses money to individuals — this distinction matters for exam questions that ask you to classify it.

Its one-line objective: restructure Indian education from the foundational stage through higher education to make it more flexible, multidisciplinary, and rooted in Indian context and languages, while raising the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education.

Four facts examiners love to test:

• NEP 2020 replaces the old 10+2 school structure with a new 5+3+3+4 structure: five years of Foundational stage (ages 3-8, including pre-school), three years of Preparatory (ages 8-11), three years of Middle (ages 11-14), and four years of Secondary (ages 14-18).
• It recommends that the medium of instruction up to at least Class 5, and preferably till Class 8, be the home language, mother tongue, or regional language wherever possible.
• It sets a target Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of 50% in higher education by 2035.
• It allows multiple entry and exit points in undergraduate education, with an Academic Bank of Credits to store credits earned, so a student who leaves after one year gets a certificate, after two years a diploma, and after three or four years a full degree — no credential is wasted.

Analogy: Think of the old education system as a train with only one boarding station and one destination station — if you got off early, you had nothing to show for the ride. NEP 2020's multiple entry-exit system is like a train with ticket stamps at every stop: get off after one stop, you still walk away with something in hand.

Exam trap: NEP 2020 is frequently confused with a "scheme" that provides scholarships or funds directly. It does not. It is the overarching policy; specific schemes like Samagra Shiksha and PM POSHAN operate within its broader vision. If an MCQ asks "under which policy does the 5+3+3+4 structure fall," the answer is NEP 2020, not any individual scheme.

NEP 2020 also renamed the Ministry of Human Resource Development back to the Ministry of Education, a name it had carried decades earlier before being changed to HRD in 1985. That single administrative rename is a favourite one-mark question because it looks like trivia but actually tests whether you have followed the ministry's naming history closely. Another frequently tested detail is the policy's emphasis on foundational literacy and numeracy for children up to Class 3, backed by a dedicated national mission called the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat), launched in 2021 to operationalise this specific NEP 2020 goal. NIPUN Bharat is worth remembering as NEP 2020's most concrete early-grade implementation vehicle, the same way Samagra Shiksha is NEP's implementation vehicle for the wider school system.

On higher education, NEP 2020 also proposes phasing out the rigid distinction between affiliating universities and colleges, encourages every college to eventually become either a research university, a teaching university, or an autonomous degree-granting college, and pushes for a single regulatory body instead of the multiple overlapping regulators that existed earlier. These structural reforms are typically tested in a general, conceptual way rather than through specific numbers, so understand the direction of change rather than trying to memorise every regulatory detail.

5. Skill India Mission and PMKVY

India's population is young, and turning that youth bulge into a productive workforce needed a dedicated push. That push arrived through two closely linked but distinct initiatives.

Skill India Mission

Skill India Mission was launched in 2015 by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) — a ministry itself created only in 2014, specifically to give skilling a dedicated cabinet-level home instead of leaving it scattered across other ministries. Skill India's one-line objective: train over 40 crore people in India in different skills by 2022 (the original target year), through a mix of vocational training, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurship support, so that "Make in India" and India's demographic dividend have a trained workforce to run on.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

PMKVY is the flagship implementation scheme under the Skill India umbrella, launched in 2015 by the same ministry, MSDE. Its one-line objective: enable Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training, get certified through the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF), and even receive a monetary reward for successful completion.

Exam trap: Skill India Mission is the umbrella mission (the big vision); PMKVY is one flagship scheme running under that umbrella (the delivery mechanism). Exams sometimes ask "PMKVY works under which mission?" — the answer is Skill India Mission. Do not treat them as two unrelated things and do not treat them as identical either.

Memory hook: "Skill India is the roof, PMKVY is the room you actually train in." One is the structure, the other is where the real work — the classroom training and the certificate — happens.

You have almost certainly seen a PMKVY training centre if you live near any town — those blue-and-white banners advertising free training in tailoring, electrical work, or mobile repair, with a certificate and sometimes a cash incentive at the end, are PMKVY in action.

PMKVY runs through two broad components that exams sometimes probe separately: Short Term Training (STT), aimed at school or college dropouts and unemployed youth who need a fresh, job-ready skill in a matter of weeks or months, and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), aimed at people who already have skills gained informally, say a mechanic who learned on the job with no formal certificate, and simply need their existing competence assessed and certified. RPL matters a great deal in a country where most skilled work, from carpentry to plumbing to tailoring, is still learned through informal apprenticeship rather than a classroom, so certifying that informal skill gives workers a credential they can show employers or use to access formal credit.

Memory hook: Remember PMKVY's two arms as "teach the new, certify the known" — STT teaches a fresh skill from scratch, RPL certifies a skill someone already knows.

The Skill India ecosystem also includes the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a public-private partnership body that works with industry to design training curricula and set standards under the NSQF framework mentioned above. NSDC is not itself a scheme, but questions occasionally test whether you know it exists as the implementing/coordinating body behind much of Skill India's on-ground training network, so keep it in mind as supporting context rather than a fact to memorise a launch year for.

6. National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)

NAPS was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Its one-line objective: promote apprenticeship training across India by sharing the cost of stipends with employers, so companies have a financial incentive to take on more apprentices under the Apprentices Act, 1961.

Here is where most students trip up, so read this part carefully.

Exam trap: NAPS is frequently confused with NATS (National Apprenticeship Training Scheme), an older scheme that predates NAPS and is meant specifically for graduate engineers, diploma holders, and graduates from other streams doing apprenticeship after their formal education, historically administered through the Board of Apprenticeship Training under the education/skill ministries. NAPS, by contrast, is the broader scheme covering apprentices trained under the Apprentices Act more generally, including those from ITIs, and its distinguishing feature is that the government reimburses part of the stipend cost directly to employers. If a question mentions "government sharing stipend cost with employers," it wants NAPS. If it mentions "for graduate/diploma engineer apprentices," it is pointing at NATS.

Analogy: Imagine a shopkeeper reluctant to train a new helper because paying their wages while they learn is a cost with no guaranteed return. NAPS is the government saying, "you train them, we'll pay part of their stipend." That single financial nudge is what gets more employers to open their doors to apprentices instead of just experienced hires.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched 2000-01 by the (then) Ministry of Human Resource Development to universalise elementary education.
• The RTE Act (Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education) became law in 2009, backed administratively by SSA.
• Samagra Shiksha launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Education, merging SSA, RMSA, and Teacher Education into one scheme.
• Samagra Shiksha covers school education continuously from pre-school through senior secondary (classes 1-12).
• Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), launched 2009, focused on secondary education before being merged into Samagra Shiksha.
• Mid-Day Meal Scheme (originally National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education) launched in 1995.
• Mid-Day Meal Scheme was renamed PM POSHAN in 2021, under the Ministry of Education.
• PM POSHAN extended coverage to pre-primary/balvatika children in government schools.
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat, Haryana.
• BBBP's nodal ministry is the Ministry of Women and Child Development, run jointly with Health and Education ministries.
• BBBP targets the declining Child Sex Ratio and promotes girl-child survival, protection, and education.
• National Education Policy 2020 was approved in July 2020, replacing the 1986 policy.
• NEP 2020 introduces the 5+3+3+4 school structure, replacing the old 10+2 system.
• NEP 2020 recommends mother-tongue/regional-language instruction up to at least Class 5.
• NEP 2020 targets 50% Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education by 2035.
• NEP 2020 introduces multiple entry-exit points and an Academic Bank of Credits in higher education.
• Skill India Mission launched in 2015 by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
• MSDE itself was created as a separate ministry in 2014.
• PMKVY (Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana) launched in 2015, the flagship scheme under Skill India Mission.
• PMKVY certifies trainees against the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and offers a monetary reward on completion.
• National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) launched in 2016 by MSDE.
• NAPS shares apprentice stipend costs with employers under the Apprentices Act, 1961.
• NATS (National Apprenticeship Training Scheme) is the older, separate scheme for graduate/diploma-level apprentices, distinct from NAPS.
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan's legal successor in spirit is the RTE Act, while its administrative successor is Samagra Shiksha — these are two different kinds of "successor."
• PM POSHAN is not a new scheme from scratch; it is a renamed and expanded Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
• Skill India Mission's original target was training over 40 crore people by 2022.
• BBBP is one of the rare schemes with three joint ministries but a single designated nodal ministry.
• NEP 2020 is a policy framework, not a direct cash-transfer or scholarship scheme.
• Samagra Shiksha's name reflects its "holistic" approach — one scheme replacing three fragmented ones.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Launch Year, Ministry, and Objective at a Glance

Scheme	Launch Year	Ministry	One-Line Objective
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan	2000-01	Ministry of Human Resource Development (now Education)	Universalise elementary education (ages 6-14)
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan	2009	Ministry of Human Resource Development	Universalise access to secondary education
Samagra Shiksha	2018	Ministry of Education	Merge SSA, RMSA, Teacher Education into one pre-school-to-Class 12 scheme
Mid-Day Meal Scheme	1995	Ministry of Education (then HRD)	Hot cooked meal for primary schoolchildren to boost nutrition and enrollment
PM POSHAN	2021 (rename)	Ministry of Education	Expanded, renamed Mid-Day Meal covering pre-primary too
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao	2015	Ministry of Women and Child Development (joint)	Improve child sex ratio; protect and educate the girl child
National Education Policy 2020	2020	Ministry of Education	Restructure schooling (5+3+3+4) and higher education (multiple entry-exit)
Skill India Mission	2015	Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship	Train India's youth in market-relevant skills at scale
PMKVY	2015	Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship	Free short-term skill training with NSQF certification and reward
National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme	2016	Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship	Share apprentice stipend cost with employers

Table 2: Renamed, Merged, or Commonly Confused Pairs

Old Name / Term A	New Name / Term B	What Changed
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan + RMSA + Teacher Education	Samagra Shiksha	Three separate schemes merged into one (2018)
Mid-Day Meal Scheme	PM POSHAN	Renamed and expanded to pre-primary in 2021
National Policy on Education, 1986	National Education Policy 2020	Replaced after 34 years with a new policy framework
NAPS (Apprentices Act, ITI-linked, stipend-sharing)	NATS (older, graduate/diploma apprentices)	Different target groups; do not treat as the same scheme
Skill India Mission (umbrella mission)	PMKVY (flagship scheme under it)	Mission versus one scheme within that mission

Practice MCQs

Q1. In which year was Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched? (a) 1995 (b) 2000-01 (c) 2009 (d) 2018

Q2. Samagra Shiksha, launched in 2018, merged which three components into a single scheme? (a) MGNREGA, PMAY, Ayushman Bharat (b) SSA, RMSA, and Teacher Education (c) Mid-Day Meal, ICDS, and POSHAN Abhiyaan (d) PMKVY, NAPS, and NATS

Q3. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was renamed as which scheme in 2021? (a) Samagra Shiksha (b) PM POSHAN (c) POSHAN Abhiyaan (d) Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

Q4. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao was launched in 2015 from which location? (a) New Delhi (b) Panipat, Haryana (c) Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (d) Jaipur, Rajasthan

Q5. Which ministry is the nodal ministry for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao? (a) Ministry of Education (b) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (c) Ministry of Women and Child Development (d) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

Q6. PMKVY operates as a flagship scheme under which larger mission? (a) Digital India Mission (b) Skill India Mission (c) Atmanirbhar Bharat (d) Make in India

Q7. Which act made elementary education a legal right for children in India, and in what year? (a) Apprentices Act, 1961 (b) RTE Act, 2009 (c) NEP, 2020 (d) Education Act, 1986

Q8. NEP 2020 replaces the earlier 10+2 school structure with which new structure? (a) 4+4+4+2 (b) 5+3+3+4 (c) 6+4+2 (d) 3+5+4+3

Q9. As per NEP 2020, up to which class is mother-tongue or regional-language instruction recommended wherever possible? (a) Class 2 (b) Class 5 (c) Class 8 (d) Class 10

Q10. Which ministry runs the Skill India Mission and PMKVY? (a) Ministry of Education (b) Ministry of Labour and Employment (c) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (d) Ministry of Corporate Affairs

Q11. What is the primary distinguishing feature of the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)? (a) It provides free laptops to apprentices (b) It shares stipend costs of apprentices with employers (c) It builds new ITI campuses (d) It is meant only for postgraduate students

Q12. In which year was the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) created as a separate ministry? (a) 2010 (b) 2014 (c) 2016 (d) 2020

Q13. NEP 2020 sets a Gross Enrollment Ratio target of 50% in higher education to be achieved by which year? (a) 2025 (b) 2030 (c) 2035 (d) 2040

Q14. Which of the following statements correctly distinguishes NAPS from NATS? (a) NAPS is for graduate engineers only; NATS covers all apprentices (b) NAPS shares stipend costs broadly under the Apprentices Act; NATS historically targets graduate/diploma-level apprentices (c) NATS was launched after NAPS (d) NAPS and NATS are two names for the exact same scheme

Q15. Which of the following pairs is correctly matched (scheme — original launch year)? (a) Samagra Shiksha — 1995 (b) PM POSHAN — 2015 (c) Mid-Day Meal Scheme — 1995 (d) NEP 2020 — 2018

Answer Key

Q	Answer	Reason
Q1	(b)	SSA was launched in 2000-01 to universalise elementary education; RMSA (2009) and Samagra Shiksha (2018) came later.
Q2	(b)	Samagra Shiksha (2018) merged SSA, RMSA, and Teacher Education into one continuous pre-school-to-Class-12 scheme.
Q3	(b)	The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was renamed PM POSHAN in 2021 and expanded to cover pre-primary children too.
Q4	(b)	BBBP launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat, Haryana, chosen for its historically poor child sex ratio.
Q5	(c)	Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal ministry, even though Health and Education are joint partners.
Q6	(b)	PMKVY is the flagship delivery scheme running under the broader Skill India Mission (2015).
Q7	(b)	The RTE Act, 2009 made free and compulsory elementary education a legal right, building on SSA's groundwork.
Q8	(b)	NEP 2020 replaces 10+2 with 5+3+3+4: Foundational, Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary stages.
Q9	(b)	NEP 2020 recommends mother-tongue/regional-language medium up to at least Class 5, preferably till Class 8.
Q10	(c)	Both Skill India Mission and PMKVY are run by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, created in 2014.
Q11	(b)	NAPS's core mechanism is government sharing part of the apprentice stipend cost with employers to encourage hiring.
Q12	(b)	MSDE was carved out as a dedicated ministry in 2014, a year before Skill India Mission and PMKVY launched in 2015.
Q13	(c)	NEP 2020 targets 50% Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education by 2035.
Q14	(b)	NAPS is the broader stipend-sharing scheme under the Apprentices Act; NATS historically serves graduate/diploma apprentices — treating them as identical is a common exam trap.
Q15	(c)	The Mid-Day Meal Scheme dates back to 1995; Samagra Shiksha is 2018, PM POSHAN is a 2021 rename, and NEP is 2020, not 2018.