Which Central Government scheme, known as the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission, aims to spur social, economic and infrastructure development in rural areas by developing a cluster of about 300 smart villages?

Introduction / Context:
In addition to purely urban and purely rural development schemes, the Government of India has introduced the concept of Rurban clusters, which combine features of rural settings with urban style infrastructure and services. The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission is one such initiative aimed at developing clusters of villages as smart villages. This question asks you to identify the scheme that specifically aims to develop around 300 such Rurban clusters for balanced social and economic development.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The scheme mentioned aims to spur social, economic and infrastructure development in rural areas.
• It does so by developing a cluster of about 300 smart villages or Rurban clusters.
• The options include Soil Health Card, Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana.
• We assume familiarity with major rural development and agricultural schemes of the Central Government.

Concept / Approach:
The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission, often called the Rurban Mission, is designed to create well planned Rurban clusters, where a group of villages is developed with urban style facilities such as good roads, reliable power, internet connectivity, schools and health centres, while retaining the rural character. The mission specifically talks about developing several hundred such clusters across the country. Soil Health Card focuses on soil testing, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a crop insurance scheme, and Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana was an older employment generation programme. Therefore, the scheme associated with smart village clusters is the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Focus on the key phrase in the question: development of a cluster of about 300 smart villages in rural areas. Step 2: Recall that Rurban clusters are groups of rural settlements developed with urban like infrastructure under the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission. Step 3: Soil Health Card is related to soil testing and nutrient management, not cluster based infrastructure development. Step 4: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a crop insurance scheme that protects farmers against losses but does not develop infrastructure clusters. Step 5: Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana focused on self employment opportunities in earlier decades and is not the same as the Rurban Mission. Step 6: Thus, the scheme described in the question is clearly the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission.

Verification / Alternative check:
You can verify by reading summaries of important government schemes. Under rural development, the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission is consistently described as a scheme for creating Rurban clusters or smart villages to bridge the rural urban divide. It often mentions a target of several hundred clusters across different states. In contrast, Soil Health Card and Fasal Bima Yojana appear under agriculture, and Rozgar Yojana appears under employment schemes. This separation of topics in official documents and exam guides confirms that option B is the correct answer for a cluster based smart village development scheme.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A is wrong because the Soil Health Card scheme aims at improving soil fertility knowledge and has nothing to do with developing clusters of smart villages.

Option C is wrong because Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a crop insurance scheme that provides risk cover for crop losses, not a rural infrastructure mission.

Option D is wrong because Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana was an employment generation scheme that promoted self employment, not a scheme for Rurban clusters.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes confuse different rural schemes because they all aim to improve village life in various ways. The presence of similar sounding names and abbreviations can also create confusion in exams. To avoid these mistakes, make clear associations in your notes: link the word Rurban and smart villages with the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission, link Fasal with crop insurance, and link Soil Health with soil testing. These mental links help you quickly identify the right scheme when you see a description in a multiple choice question.

Final Answer:
Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission