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CHAPTER-1
DEVELOPMENT

Q1. Development of a country can generally be determined by

(i) its per capita income
(ii) its average literacy level
(iii) health status of its people
(iv) all the above

Ans:- (iv) all the above

Q2. Which of the following neighbouring countries has better performance in terms of human development than
India?
(i) Bangladesh
(ii) Sri Lanka
(iii) Nepal
(iv) Pakistan

Ans:- (ii) Sri Lanka

Q3. Assume there are four families in a country. The average per capita income of these families is Rs 5000. If
the income of three families is Rs 4000, Rs 7000 and Rs 3000 respectively, what is the income of the fourth
family?
(i) Rs 7500
(ii) Rs 3000
(iii) Rs 2000
(iv) Rs 6000

Ans:- (iv) Rs 6000

Q4. What is the main criterion used by the World Bank in classifying different countries? What are the
limitations of this criterion, if any?
Answer : Per Capita Income is the main criterion used by the World Bank in classifying different countries. The
limitation of this criterion are:
 It doesn’t show distribution of income.
 It also ignores other factors such as infant mortality rate, literacy level, healthcare, etc.

Q5. In what respects is the criterion used by the UNDP for measuring development different from the one
used by the World Bank?
Answer:- World bank only uses per capita income for measuring development while UNDP uses many other
factors like infant mortality, healthcare facility education level which help in improving the quality of life and
helps in making the citizens more productive.

Q6. Why do we use averages? Are there any limitations to their use? Illustrate with your own examples related
to development.
Answer: We use averages because they are useful for comparing differing quantities of the same category. For
example, to compute the per capita income of a country, averages have to be used because there are differences
in the incomes of diverse people. However, there are limitations to the use of averages. This does not show
distribution of thing between people. For an example, if a country has very high per capita income then we can’t
say that citizen living in that country are very rich because we are not knowing about the distribution of wealth
in that country. Some people might be richer while other people are very poorer in that country.

Q7. Kerala, with lower per capita income has a better human development ranking than Punjab.
Hence, per capita income is not a useful criterion at all and should not be used to compare states. Do
you Discuss.
Answer: No, I do not agree with the statement that per capita income is not a useful criterion at all. Kerala, with
lower per capita income has a better human development ranking than Punjab because, human development
ranking is determined using a combination of factors such as health, education, and income. So, this does not
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imply that per capita income is not useful. Rather, per capita income is one of the development factors and can
not be neglected. The World Bank uses per capita income as the criterion for measuring development and
comparing states. But this criterion has certain limitations because of which determination of Human
Development Index (HDI) is done using this criterion along with some other development factors like health,
education etc.

1. Find out the present sources of energy that are used by the people in India. What could
be the other possibilities fifty years from now?

Q8. Why is the issue of sustainability important for development?

Answer: The issue of sustainability is important for development because development must be in tandem with
the future. If natural resources are not sustained, then development will stagnate after a point of time. Exploiting
resources unethically will ultimately undo the development that a country may have achieved. This is because in
the future, those resources will not be available for further progress.

Q9. “The Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one
person”. How is this statement relevant to the discussion of development? Discuss.
Answer: “The Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one
person”. This statement is relevant to the discussion of development since both resources and development go
hand in hand. For the sustainability of development, the maintenance of resources is also crucial. As the statement
claims, the Earth has enough resources- renewable and non-renewable to satisfy everyone’s needs; however, these
need to be used with a view to keep the environment protected and clean so that a balance of production and use
is maintained, and shortages are avoided.

Q10. List a few examples of environmental degradation that you may have observed around you.
Answer: Few examples of environmental degradation:

 Deforestation
 Soil erosion
 Falling levels of ground water
 Depletion of the ozone layer and combustion from automobiles causing extreme air pollution
 Water Pollution

Q11. For each of the items given in Table 1.6, find out which country is at the top and which is at the bottom.

TABLE 1.6 SOME DATA REGARDING INDIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS FOR 2004

Country Per Capita Life Literacy Rate Gross HDI

Incomein Expectancy for 15+ yrs Enrolment Rank in

US$ at birth population Ratio for three the

levels world

Sri Lanka 4390 74 91 69 93

India 3139 64 61 60 126

Myanmar 1027 61 90 48 130

Pakistan 2225 63 50 35 134

Nepal 1490 62 50 61 138

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Bangladesh 1870 63 41 53 137

Answer:

(i) Per Capita Income in US$: Top country – Sri Lanka; Bottom country – Myanmar

(ii) Life Expectancy at birth: Top country – Sri Lanka; Bottom country – Myanmar

(iii) Literacy Rate for 15+ years population: Top country – Sri Lanka; Bottom country – Bangladesh

(iv) Gross Enrolment Ratio for three levels: Top country – Sri Lanka; Bottom country – Pakistan

(v) HDI Rank in the world: Top country – Sri Lanka; Bottom country – Nepal

Q12. The following table shows the proportion of undernourished adults in India. It is based on a
survey of various states for the year 2001. Look at the table and answer the following questions.

State Male (%) Female (%)

Kerala 22 19

Karnataka 36 38

Madhya Pradesh 43 42

All Sates 37 46

(i) Compare the nutritional level of people in Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

(ii) Can you guess why around 40 per cent of people in the country are undernourished even though it is
argued that there is enough food in the country? Describe in your own words.

Answer:

(i) The nutritional level of people of Kerala is quite higher than the people – both males and females of
Madhya Pradesh. Their ratio of the under-nourished is less than that of Madhya Pradesh.

(ii) There is enough food in the country, even then 40% of the people in the country are undernourished
because:

 A large number of people are so poor that they cannot afford nutritious food.
 In most of the states, the Public Distribution System (PDS) does not function properly and the poor
people cannot get cheap food items.
 There is lack of educational and health facilities in many parts of the country. So many people
remain backward and poor. As such, they are unable to get nutritious food.

Q13. Write down the features of a developed country? Name the countries having the highest and lowest
per capita income in 2019 (US Dollars).
Ans:
● Any country whose literacy rate, per capita income, and service rate is high, those countries are called a
developed country.
● The per capita income of a country is a measure of its number of people’s economic output.
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● Countries with per capita income having to be $128000 per annum are called developed countries.
Example – Qatar.
● Countries with a per capita income of $800 or less are known as developing countries. Example: Central
African Republic.

Q14. What is IMR and why is it important? Which state has a high and low infant mortality rate?
Ans:
● IMR is the total number of children that die within 1 year of age as a proportion of 1000 births
in a year.
● This shows the efficiency of health facilities in a country.
● Madhya Pradesh has a high infant mortality rate of 48 deaths per 1000 live births and Nagaland has a
low infant mortality rate of 4 deaths per 1000 live births.

Q15. What is India’s per capita income in 2020? Which is the richest state of India? And which state of India
makes more income?
Ans:
● As per the world development indicators, India has $7680 per capita income.
● Maharashtra is the richest state in India with a nominal GDP of 28.78 lakh crore.
● Sikkim has the lowest GDP of 0.287 lakh crore.
● Goa has the highest per capita income of $6698 (Rs. 4,30,081)

Q16. Other than income, what are the other factors that are important for our lives?
Ans: Important factors for our lives are:
● Safe environment for women at their workplace.
● Freedom, respect, treatment, and security.
● Pollution-free environment.
● Political rights

Q17. What do you mean by development? Write down the aspect of development.
Ans: Development is the improvement of citizens' lives in terms of income, lifestyle, etc. Major aspects
of development are:
● Development for anyone can be destructive for others.
● Different people have different goals in life.

Q18. Which neighboring country of India has better performance in terms of Human development?
Ans:
● Sri Lanka performed better in terms of human development than India.
● Its per capita income is $4390, 91% literacy rate, 93 HDI rank, 74 life expectancy at birth
which is better than India and other neighboring countries that are Myanmar, Pakistan, Bhutan,
Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Q19. Why do we use averages and what are their limitations? Provide some examples where the word
“average” is used to compare situations.
Ans:
● Averages are used to compare different parameters of the same category, not people.
● Averages do not provide information about the distribution of a particular thing between people.
● Example: where the word average is used for comparing situations are:
i) To find out the literacy rates in the country.
ii) Height and weight of students in a class with a total number of students.
iii) To find the average income of people in the state.
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Q20. “A development for one individual can be destructive for others”. Explain this statement with two examples.
Ans: Here are two examples are:
● A businessman hires workers, those who are providing them more wages which is a development
for workers, but on the other hand, it gives a loss for a businessman as he could have hired 2 or
more workers at the same price.
● Industrialists construct apartments and buildings for his/her personal development and for the
nation. These apartments are destructive for farmers as they could have used this land for
irrigation.