UPSC Prelims 2016 · Question 32 of 98

UPSC Prelims 2016 question on UDAY Power Distribution Revival

Which one of the following is a purpose of ‘UDAY’, a scheme of the Government?

  1. Providing technical and financial assistance to start-up entrepreneurs in the field of renewable sources of energy
  2. Providing electricity to every household in the country by 2018
  3. Replacing the coal-based power plants with natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind and tidal power plants over a period of time
  4. Providing for financial turnaround and revival of power distribution companies
Show answer

Answer: D. Providing for financial turnaround and revival of power distribution companies

Verdict

The answer is providing for financial turnaround and revival of power distribution companies. UDAY is a discom rescue scheme.

Analysis

Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana was approved by the Union Cabinet on the Ministry of Power's proposal to give distribution companies a financial turnaround and a durable solution to their losses. Under it, State governments took over seventy five per cent of discom debt as of September 2015, half in one financial year and a quarter in the next, with the balance to be restructured. The renewable start up, household electrification and fuel substitution options describe other energy schemes of the period rather than UDAY.

Source

Economic Survey and The Hindu reporting on UDAY.

How to crack it

Decode the acronym, since Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana names its own beneficiary, and a scheme whose title contains DISCOM must be about distribution companies rather than about generation or consumers. Keep the power sector schemes of this period separated by the segment they target: UDAY for distribution finance, household electrification for connections, and the solar and wind missions for generation. Segment mapping resolves the whole family.

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