Which among the following is not included in the ten main themes of the Union budget for the financial years 2017-18?

The correct answer is A. Export performance was not among the ten themes Finance Minister Arun Jaitley set out in his Budget speech of 1 February 2017, which was the first budget presented as a merged Union Budget with Railways. The themes were built around the groups the government wanted to reach: farmers and the rural population (D), the poor and the underprivileged (B), and youth (C), alongside infrastructure, the financial sector, the digital economy, health, education and ease of doing business.

The core concept is the thematic framing of a budget, which tells you the government's policy priorities for the year. For Mains GS-3, connect it to how the budget linked rural incomes, agricultural credit and employment to the broader growth story.

• B, C, D: each is a named theme of that speech, so none of them is the answer.
• A: export performance was not presented as a headline theme that year; the emphasis was on domestic demand, rural incomes and infrastructure.

Trap: candidates pick youth or rural population because they sound like generic policy themes, and then they lose track of which items were actually in the speech's list. Memorise the list of ten, not just the general idea.