‘The Service Area Approach was implemented under the purview of

The correct answer is B) Lead Bank Scheme. The Service Area Approach was introduced in 1989 as a way to make rural credit planning more systematic. Under it, each rural bank branch adopts a cluster of villages, assesses their credit needs, and plans lending for them. The approach operates within the Lead Bank Scheme, which began in 1969 and assigns each district to a lead bank that coordinates credit planning among banks and government agencies.

Why the others are wrong:

• A) IRDP was an anti-poverty asset-creation programme from 1980. It was later merged into SGSY in 1999. It was not a credit-planning framework for bank branches.
• C) MGNREGA (2005) is a statutory wage-employment guarantee. It has no link to bank lending areas.
• D) National Skill Development Mission (2015) is a skilling initiative under the skill development ministry.

For Mains, this connects to financial inclusion and the flow of institutional credit to agriculture and rural areas.

Trap: aspirants often pick IRDP because it is the most familiar rural scheme. The question tests banking-sector credit architecture, not rural poverty programmes.