Question 1

The CAG is only authorised to conduct financial and compliance audits of government expenditure.

Accepted Answer

The CAG also conducts 'Performance Audits' (like Report No. 20 of 2025 on PMKVY) to evaluate the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of government programmes, assessing whether they met their stated operational goals.

Question 2

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) completely eliminates leakages and ghost beneficiaries by digitising payments.

Accepted Answer

As the PMKVY audit shows, if the backend portal lacks robust data validation controls, digitisation merely creates a database of fake or dummy entries (like account number '123456'), leading to systemic failure.

Question 3

Consider the following statements regarding the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the performance audit of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): 
1. The CAG is restricted by the Constitution to conducting financial audits and cannot evaluate the operational efficiency or placement outcomes of government schemes. 
2. The PMKVY is implemented centrally by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) acting as its primary implementation agency. 
3. The CAG's Performance Audit Report No. 20 of 2025 revealed that over 90% of PMKVY beneficiary records in phases 2.0 and 3.0 had missing, invalid, or dummy bank account details.
How many of the statements given above are correct?

Accepted Answer

(b) Only two — Statement 1 is incorrect: The CAG has the mandate to conduct 'Performance Audits' (like the PMKVY report) to assess the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of schemes, including placement outcomes. Statement 2 is correct: PMKVY is the flagship scheme of MSDE, implemented by NSDC. Statement 3 is correct: The CAG report found that 94.53% (90.66 lakh) of beneficiaries had blank, null, or invalid dummy bank details.

Question 4

Match the following components or phases of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) with their specific focus/feature as highlighted during the CAG audit context:
List I (Component/Phase)
1. PMKVY 1.0
2. PMKVY 3.0
3. RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning)
4. Skill India Portal (SIP)

List II (Feature)
A. Certifying the existing uncertified workforce of large employers.
B. Decentralised, demand-driven model implemented through District Skill Committees.
C. The digital platform flagged by CAG for containing dummy data like '11111111111' in beneficiary fields.
D. The initial pilot phase launched in 2015 to establish a skill certification and reward ecosystem.

Select the correct code:

Accepted Answer

(a) 1-D, 2-B, 3-A, 4-C — 1-D: PMKVY 1.0 was the 2015 pilot phase. 2-B: PMKVY 3.0 introduced decentralisation through District Skill Committees. 3-A: Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) assesses and certifies the existing uncertified workforce. 4-C: The Skill India Portal is the IT backbone where the CAG found over 94% invalid or dummy bank account details.

Question 5

Assertion (A): Despite implementing Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanisms in PMKVY, over 34 lakh certified candidates remained unpaid at the end of the scheme's initial phases.
Reason (R): The Skill India Portal lacked strict IT validation controls, allowing the widespread entry of null, blank, or dummy bank account numbers like '123456'.
Select the correct answer:

Accepted Answer

(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A. — Assertion A is true; the CAG Report No. 20 of 2025 highlighted massive failures in DBT payouts with over 34 lakh candidates remaining unpaid. Reason R is also true and directly explains A; because the backend IT portal (Skill India Portal) accepted garbage data (dummy numbers, invalid inputs), the DBT mechanism failed when it attempted to process the actual financial transfers, leaving millions of legitimate beneficiaries unpaid.

CAG Flags Severe Lapses in PMKVY Implementation

UNSC Holds Emergency Consultations on India-Pakistan Tensions