UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — How agriPV can turn India’s farms into dual-purpose powerhouses

Q1. Which one of the following ministries is the nodal ministry for the implementation of the PM-KUSUM scheme, including the proposed 10 GW Agri-PV component under PM-KUSUM 2.0?

  • A. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
  • B. Ministry of Power
  • C. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
  • D. Ministry of Rural Development

Q2. In the Indian renewable-energy policy context, the term 'agrivoltaics' (Agri-PV) most precisely refers to which one of the following?

  • A. Co-location of solar photovoltaic panels with crop cultivation on the same parcel of agricultural land, with panels elevated or row-spaced to permit farming beneath or between them
  • B. Installation of floating solar photovoltaic plants on irrigation reservoirs and canal stretches passing through agricultural areas
  • C. Use of solar photovoltaic energy to power cold-storage and food-processing units located within Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yards
  • D. Rooftop solar photovoltaic systems on rural households whose surplus electricity is dedicated to running community-owned agricultural pumps

Q3. Under whose authority and in which year was the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyaan (PM-KUSUM) scheme — the principal policy vehicle now being scaled into PM-KUSUM 2.0 with a 10 GW Agri-PV component — first launched?

  • A. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in 2014
  • B. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, in 2019
  • C. Ministry of Power, in 2015
  • D. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, in 2010, as a sub-component of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission