Regarding ‘Atal Pension Yojana’, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It is a minimum guaranteed pension scheme mainly targeted at unorganized sector workers. 2. Only one member of a family can join the scheme. 3. Same amount of pension is guaranteed for spouse for lifetime after the subscriber’s death. Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

The correct answer is C (1 and 3 only). Atal Pension Yojana, launched in 2015 and run by PFRDA, guarantees a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 from age 60. It is aimed at unorganised sector workers, so statement 1 is correct.

• Statement 1 is correct. The guarantee and the target group are the scheme's defining features.
• Statement 2 is wrong. The scheme places no one-member-per-family restriction. Any eligible citizen aged 18 to 40 can open an account, and several family members can join separately.
• Statement 3 is correct. After the subscriber's death, the spouse continues to receive the same pension for life. The accumulated corpus goes to the nominee only after both have died.

The core concept is a government-backed defined-benefit floor on a contributory scheme. This links to social security and the debate on extending pension coverage beyond the organised sector, a recurring Mains theme.

Trap: Candidates often treat APY as a family-level scheme because of its low premiums and drop statement 1 or 3 by assuming the spouse's benefit is reduced. Check each feature against the scheme's design rather than the premium amount.