Daily Quiz #2 UPSC Prelims Marathon – July 2, 2019

Explanation: The World Bank in its world development report (2012) classified the various countries on the basis of gross national income (GNI) per capita. Developing countries are divided into:
•Low income countries with 2011 GNI per capita of $ 936 and below
•Middle income countries with GNI per capita ranging between $ 936 and $ 11,455. Further divided into two sub-categories:
1. Lower middle income with per capita of $ 936 to $ 3,705
2. Upper middle income countries with per capita income $ 3706 to $ 11,455.
India’s GDP Per Capita reached 2,041.091 USD in Mar 2019, compared with 2,015.228 USD in Mar 2018. Indian economy with an acceleration in its growth rate of GDP to an average of 8.0 percent by 2030, India will very soon enter the group of upper middle income countries.

Explanation: India is a low income developing economy. The basic characteristics of the Indian economy are as follows:
•Low per capita income- The per capita income of an Indian in 2013 was $1570. It is among the lowest in world.
•Occupational pattern: primary producing- In India, in 2011, about 58% of the working population was engaged in agriculture and its contribution to the national income was 17.2%.
•Heavy population pressure- The rate of growth of population which was about 1.31 per cent per annum during 1941-50 has risen to 1.93 per cent during 1991-2001. The chief cause of this rapid spurt to population growth is the steep fall in death rate from 49 per thousand during 1911-20 to 7.4 per thousand in 2008 as compared to this, the birth rate has declined from about 49 per thousand during 1911-20 to 22.1 per thousand in 2010.
•Prevalence of chronic unemployment and underemployment.
•Steadily improving rate of capital formation.
•Mal-distribution of wealth / assets- In rural areas 27 per cent of households owing less than 20000 worth of assets accounted for 2.4 per cent of total assets. As against it, 9.6 per cent of rich households owing assets worth 2.5 lakhs and above accounted for nearly 49 per cent of total assets, similar picture in urban areas.
•Poor quality of human capital- The Indian public expenditure on primary and higher education and research and development in 2002-04 was 3.3 per cent of GDP. The corresponding figure for USA was 5.9 per cent of GDP. The public expenditure on health was miserably low at 1.1 per cent of GDP in 2007.

Explanation: Economic development in the sense of rise in real GNP and per capita real income is by itself of not much significance in India unless we remove unemployment and underemployment also. The employment strategy of planned development will have to be directed
a)To adopt an employment intensive sectoral planning
b)To regulate technological change to protect and enhance employment.
c)To promote area planning for full employment.
The focus should be to expand employment through labour absorbing technologies.
The expansion of infrastructural and social services i.e. road construction, rural electrification, water supply, rural schools and community health schemes besides irrigation and housing programmes will help to generate massive employment opportunities.

Explanation: India today posses about 2.4 per cent of the total land area of world but she has to support about 17 per cent of world population. At the beginning of 20th century India’s population was 236 million and according to 2001 census the population of India is 1027 million.
A study of growth rate of India’s population falls into four phases:
1.1891-1921 Stagnant population
2.1921-1951Steady growth
3.1951-1981Rapid high growth
4.1981-2011High growth with definite signs of slow down.

Explanation: National Income refers to the money value of all the goods and services produced in a country during a financial year. In other words, the final outcome of all the economic activities of the nation during a period of one year, valued in terms of money is called as a National income.