Q.1. Why is domestic services of house women not treated as economic activities?
Answer: Domestic Services by Women. In India, most women generally look after domestic affairs like cooking of food, washing of clothes, cleaning of utensils, looking after children, etc. They are not treated as economic / productive activities. This is mainly because of two reasons :
(i) Such activities are performed out of love and affection and hence their valuation is not possible.
(ii) They do not add to the flow of goods and services in the economy.
Q.2. Are the following activities economic or noneconomic
activities? Give reasons.
(a) Vilas sells fish in the village market.
(b) Vilas cooks food for his fam ily.
(c) Sakal works in a private firm.
(d) Sakal looks after his younger brother and sister.
Answer:
(a) It is an economic activity, as it involves remuneration.
(b) It is a noneconomic activity, as it is a domestic service.
(c) It is an economic activity, as it is done in expectation of monetary reward.
(d) It is a noneconomic activity, as it is done out of love and affection.
Q.3. Differentiate between Market Activities and NonMarket
Activities.
Answer:
Difference between Market Activities and NonMarket Activities.
1. Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs the activity. These include production of goods and services for sale in the market.
2. On the other hand, nonmarket activities are the production activities performed for selfconsumption. These include consumption and processing of primary products and own account production of fixed assets.
Q.4. Differentiate between voluntary and involuntary unemployment. Give an example.
Answer :
(a) A person is said to be unemployed when he is able and willing to work at the prevailing wage rate but does not find work. This is involuntary unemployment.
(b) If some persons are voluntarily unemployed (i.e., they prefer to remain out of work at prevailing wage rates) they will not be treated as unemployed. This is voluntary unemployment.
Q.5. Discuss the factors responsible for the distribution of population in India.
Answer : Physical factors like shape and height of land, resources, climate etc. that affect distribution of population in India like;
Resources : Areas rich in resources (e.g., coal, oil, wood etc.) tend to be densely populated like western Europe.
Shape and height of land : Low land which is flat, e.g., Ganges valley in India.
Climate : Areas with moderate temperature climates tend to be densely populated as there is enough rain and heat to grow crops like U.K.
Human factors : Political, social and economic factors also affect distribution of population in India like good job opportunities encourage high population densities, particularly in large cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad having dense population. Countries with stable governments tend to have high population density.
Q.6. Why is human resource the most important resource? What steps can be taken to improve the quality of human resource? How does an improved quality of human resource help in establishing a virtuous cycle?
Answer : Existing 'human resource' is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy, which adds to the productive power of the country just like 'physical capital formation'. So human resource is the most important resource. Steps to be taken to improve quality of human resource. Quality of human resource can be improved through better education, food and health facilities. The quality of population depends upon the literacy rate, health of a person indicated by life expectancy and skill formation acquired by the people of the country.
Role of improved quality of human resource in establishing a virtuous cycle. Better contribution to productive power of country. Existing human resource with good educational background can acquire specific skills in a better way and can contribute to national productivity more efficiently.
Higher earnings and greater contributions to society. Improved quality of human resources can give higher rates of return in future in the form of higher earnings and greater contributions to society.
Q.7. How does unemployment have a detrimental impact on the overall growth of an economy?
Answer : Wastage of manpower resource : In case of unemployment, manpower who is an asset for an economy turns into liability because utilisation of manpower becomes nil.
Economic overload : Unemployment tends to increase economic overload because dependence of unemployed on the working population increases. So the quality of life is adversely affected.
Unemployment leads to social waste : Inability of educated people who are willing to Q.11. Give three measures taken by government to improve literacy condition in India.
Answer :
(i) Opening of Navodaya Vidyalayas : Government has started to estabish Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district vocational streams have been developed to equip large number of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills.
(ii) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan : It is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all the children of age group 614 years. It is an initiative of the central government in partnership with states, local government and the community for achieving the goal of universalisation of elementary education.
(iii) Midday Meal Scheme : It is a programme aimed to encourage attendance and retention of children in schools and improve their nutritional status.
Q.12. Suggest any three ways to transform population load into an asset.
Answer:
The three ways to transform population load into an asset are :
(i) To improve literacy rate : Education provides new aspirations and developed values of life. Education helps in enhancing the national income, cultural richness nad increases the efficiency of governance.
(ii) Health : The health of a person helps him to realise his potential and the ability to fight illness. Increase in longevity of life in an indicator of good quality of life marked by selfconfidence. It involves protection of children from infection, ensuring nutrition and along with mother and child care.
(iii) Formation of skills : Providing vocational and skilled based education helps the people to get employment and therefore they contribute to the national income later on.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS (5 MARKS) :
Q.1. How the investment in Human Capital can be of immense importance for a society as a whole? State any four advantages.
Answer:
Human Capital can be defined as the knowledge, ability, skill and physical capactity of the people which help them to produce more. Human beings can be turned into resources only if their qualitative aspects are developed. Education and health are the major human resource inputs of a country. Human capital is beneficial both individually as well as socially.
(i) Human capital contributes to the social development of the country.
(ii) Human capital contributes to the economic development of the country.
(iii) Human capital helps in proper utilisation of resources available or imported in the country.
(iv) Human capital also contributes in the race of development from an
underdeveloped to a developed nation.
Q.2. Is it necessary to check population growth?
Answer : India has vast manpower. But she could not utilise this manpower for country’s economic development. Rather, population growth has posed a big threat for the country. It needs to be controlled without further delay. It has become a big hurdle in the way of country’s economic development in the following ways :
(i) Despite considerable growth in national income, per capita income could not increase much due to fast population growth.
(ii) Fast population growth is considered as one of the major causes of unemployment in India.
(iii) Heavy pressure of population has led to the problem of overcrowding in cities, unplanned urbanisation, emergence of slums etc.
All these factors lead us to believe that rapidly growing population has become a big challenge before the Indian economy. It is the biggest roadblock in the path of its economic development. Indian poverty is deeply rooted in population growth. It, therefore, becomes highly necessary to check population growth in India.
Q.3. Explain steps taken by the Government to solve the problem of
unemployment in India.
Answer :
(i) Opening schools in villages : Opening vocational and elementary schools in villages create employment opportunities for people living these. Earlier people were involved in primary sector only but now they have better employment opportunities in other sectors also.
(ii) Small scale manufacturing: Opening opportunities of selfemployment
in the form of small scale manufacturing units like basket weaving etc ads to the employment opportunities in removes disguised and seasonal unemployment away people.
(iii) Introduction to modern farming methods: Use of modern farming methods gave the surplus members of family to get involved in other employment opportunities.
(iv) Proper health facilities: Improvement in health facilities in urban and rural areas improved in quality of human resource which in turn work more efficiently and contributed to national income.
(v) NREGA 2005: According to this Act the NREGA was launched in February 2006. The scheme guaranteed 100 days of wage employment in a year to every household in 200 districts.
Q.4. What are the strategies that the government has undertaken to reduce unemployment?
Answer : Strategies undertaken by the government to reduce unemployment.
(i) Rural SelfEmployment
Scheme : Our government has introduced various schemes for creating selfemployment opportunities in rural areas. In April 1999, Swarna Jayanti GramSewa Rozgar Yojana (SGSY) was introduced whose main aim was to improve opportunities of selfdevelopment in rural areas.
(ii) Wageemployment
Schemes : Main objective of this scheme was to provide
opportunities for wage earning to rural people. Since June 23, 1999, all these schemes were merged with Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY).
(iii) Various schemes for providing employment to educated in urban areas : Various schemes (like Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana PMRY), Swarn Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) has been started by the government for providing employment to the educated youth in urban area.
Q.5. Describe in brief the role of human resources in economic development.
Answer :
Role of Human Resource:
(i) Higher Productivity. Investment in human capital yields a return just like investment in physical capital. This can be seen directly in form of higher incomes earned because of higher productivity of the more educated or the better trained persons as well as the higher productivity of healthier people. India’s Green Revolution and IT Revolution are good examples of human resources development.
(ii) Better Utilisation of Resources. Countries like Japan have invested in human resource. They did not have any natural resource. They could become rich/developed because of investments in people specially in the fields of education and health. These people have made efficient use of other resources like land and capital. Efficient technologies developed by people have made these countries developed.
(iii) Source of Demand. Human beings make demand for the output of goods and services produced in the country.
Expansion of market for various types of foods and services further leads to increase in production.
Q.6. What factors compel the rural people to migrate to cities?
Ans. People have started moving from rural to urban areas because of the following factors :
(i) Education facilities : Urban areas have more organised and better quality education facilities opportunities vocational education and education in specialised areas has increased in urban areas. In urban areas focus is on increasing access, quality, vocationalisation and networking on the use of information technology.
(ii) Health facilities : Availability of better hospitals and medical facilities make people move from rural to urban areas. States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has poor health indices. Therefore, in search of proper medical assistance people often move from rural to urban sectors.
(iii) Employment facilities : Disguised unemployment in primary sector and rise of employment opportunities in secondary and tertiary sector has given rise to migration of people from rural areas to urban areas. In order to increase the income of family, people move from one occupation to another and one area to another.
(iv) Other facilities: Like availability of electricity, Transport facilities etc
Q.7. What is an economic activity? What are various activities undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector?
Answer:
Economic activities : All such activities which give us some income are called economic activities. Pulling cyclerickshaw, cleaning houses, selling vegetables and working in schools, factories, banks etc. are economic activities.
Activities undertaken in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sectors :
(i) Primary Sector : Activities concerned with collecting or making available material provided by nature are included in primary sector like agriculture, poultry farming, mining, fishing etc.
(ii) Secondary Sector : The activities which are associated with transforming raw material or primary products into commodities useful to man such as manufacturing etc.
(iii) Tertiary Sector : The activities which are essential for running modern factories in a big way are termed as tertiary sector. Activities like trading, banking, health, education, insurance etc. are included in tertiary sector.
Very Important Questions:
Q.1. What is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan? What are its objectives?
Ans. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all the children of the age group 614 years by the year 2010. It is a time bound initiative of central government, in partnership with the states, the local government and the community for achieving the goal of universalisation of elementary education. They also took an initiative to increase the enrollment of students in elementary education by introducing the schemes like midday meal.
Q.2. Define human resource. When does a human resource become human capital?
Answer : The population of a country available for the production activities is called human resource. Human resource becomes human capital when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care. When the existing 'human resource' is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy, we call it 'human capital formation'. Human capital adds to the productive power of the country. It is the stock of skills and productive knowledge embodied in them.
Q.3. Distinguish between labour force and work force.
Answer : Labour force of a country includes all those persons in the age group of 1560, who are actually working or willing to work. Workforce, on the other hand, consists of persons who are actually engaged in some kind of work and excludes those who are willing to
work but do not find work. Thus, the difference between the two (i.e. labour force and workforce) is the number of persons unemployed.
Q.4. What is the nature of unemployment as found in India?
Answer : Nature of unemployment in India. In India, unemployment is widespread. Unemployment is found both in its rural and urban areas. There is seasonal and disguised unemployment in its rural areas. People here are dependent on agriculture. Certain months do not provide much work to the people depending upon agriculture. In urban areas, educated unemployment has become a serious problem. Many educated youths are not able to find jobs. Unemployment among graduates and postgraduates has increased faster than among the matriculates.
Q.5. ‘Unemployment is an economic as well as a social evil.’ Explain the statement.
Answer : Unemployment — A Serious Problem Today, unemployment is considered one of the most threatening problems before the country. The society is deprived of the goods and services that the unemployed people could have produced. Unemployment among the educated persons is more serious. This is due to investments made in them. Unemployment is not only an economic evil, it is a social problem too. Unemployment spreads social unrest and tension as unemployed
people are a frustrated class of the society.
Q.6. What are the two types of economic activity? State two characteristics of each.
Answer: Economic activities are those activities which add value to the national income. Economic activities have two parts :
(i) Market activities.
(ii) Nonmarket activities.
Market activities :
(i) These are the activities performed for payment or profit.
(ii) They include production of goods and services.
Nonmarket activities :
(i) These involve production for selfconsumption.
(ii) It includes consumption of primary production and production of fixed assets.
