NCERT Most important question:
Q1. Write some lines on the comparative development experiences of India and its neighbouring countries.
Ans: India and its neighbors have nearly identical growth policies, which are as follows:
- Following their independence in 1947, India, Pakistan, and China all embarked on their respective developmental paths at the same time. The People’s Republic of China, on the other hand, was founded in 1949.
- All three countries had begun to outline their development strategies in a similar manner. India introduced its Five Year Plan in 1951-56, whereas Pakistan presented its first Five Year Plan, known as the Medium Term Plan, in 1956. In 1953, China unveiled its first Five-Year Plan.
- India and Pakistan pursued similar methods, such as establishing a large public sector and increasing government spending on social development.
- Until 1980, the three countries had comparable growth rates and per capita incomes.
- Economic reforms were implemented in all three countries. The reforms began in India in 1991 while in 1978, and 1988 in China and Pakistan respectively.
Q2. Write a short note on the history of revolution of PRC.
Ans: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a country with a long history and culture. Unlike many other countries, practically the entire country of China was ruled by a single authority for many centuries. Several dynasties ruled China, including the Xia, Shang, Han, and Tang. The Qing Dynasty was China’s last ruling dynasty (also known as Manchu Dynasty). China, like many other countries around the world, has a long history of fighting tyrants and dictatorships for equality and prosperity.
The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 appeared to be the conclusion of the quest for a better living. At the time, China’s Communist Party (CPP), a leading political union, was established. Workers, peasants, the tiny bourgeoisie, and national capitalists were defined as an alliance of four socioeconomic classes.
The CPP, as the working-class leader, was to lead the four classes. The Chinese Communist Revolution, also known as the 1949 Revolution, was the climax of the Chinese Communist Party’s ascension to power since its formation in 1921, as well as the second half of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1949). This time is referred to as the War of Liberation in the official media. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, also known as the Cultural Revolution, was a social-political movement that occurred in the People’s Republic of China from 1966 to 1976.
Q3. What are the reasons for the low population growth in China?
Ans: The reasons for the low population growth in China are:
- One Child Policy: For many years, China has rigidly enforced the “one child” restriction. This rigidly enforced rule meant that many Chinese couples could only have one child for more than three decades. If they possessed more than one, they risked hefty penalties and varied degrees of harassment from local authorities.
China’s Communist Party authorities implemented the strategy in 1980 in order to slow the country’s out-of-control population growth. This approach also resulted in a decrease in China’s sex ratio, or the proportion of females per thousand males.
However, in 2015, one child policy was ruled out in China, thus allowing families to have two children owing to massive decline in population growth.
- Costs of Raising Children: In China, raising a child is expensive, especially in cities, thus it acts as a hindrance for the couples to think of another child.
- Better Socio-Economic Position of Women: The average improvement in female socioeconomic position over the last 20 years has contributed to a decline in population rate.
- High Cost of Real Estate: Another lethal factor is the high cost of real estate in China.
Q4. What were the economic reforms introduced in all the three countries (India, China and Pakistan)?
Ans: Following their independence in 1947, India and Pakistan implemented planned development programs that relied on the public sector to drive the process of growth and development.
In 1949, China adopted a more strict growth strategy and decided to place government control over all essential areas of manufacturing activity. In 1958, the Great Leap Forward (GLF) initiative was initiated, with the goal of extensive industrialization of the economy.
China adopted the Commune system of agricultural production, which was a collective agriculture method. China’s export-driven manufacturing is a critical component of its economic success story.
Until roughly 1980, the economies of India, China, and Pakistan did not show much variance in GDP growth rate, which was around 4% per year. The breakthrough in GDP growth rate was recorded in the early 1980s in China, the mid-1980s in Pakistan, and the 1990s in India. In 2005, India and Pakistan both saw GDP growth of 6 to 8%, while China experienced GDP growth of around 10% each year.
Q5. Is it possible for India to introduce ‘One Child Norm’ like China to reduce population? Write your views.
Ans: Rising population has been a major source of concern for our country in recent decades. To combat the dramatic increase, we have so far resorted to measures such as giving free Family Health Planning services to married couples etc.
One of the conceivable options is to implement a one-child policy, similar to what the Chinese have done, but true to say is not easy to implement such a policy in a country like ours.
Implementing this would be a difficult task, given the likelihood of protests from political parties, ethnic communities, religious bodies, and other idle social organizations.
Assume that if India implements it, there will be a great deal of confusion. For example, it should be in both rural and urban areas, or in either. In India, around 70% of the population lives in rural areas, with the remainder living in metropolitan or semi-urban areas.
China, too, has a rural majority, but its program has only been applied for families residing in cities. Given that India is a labor-intensive nation recognized for its inexpensive labor, such a restriction may result in a labor shortage in the long run, affecting the nation’s economic growth.
To summarize, the One Child Norm appears to be a need, but its implementation in India necessitates careful juxtaposition of facts and data.
Q6. What is demography and demographic indicators?
Ans: Demography is the study of population science. Demographers study population dynamics by focusing on three major demographic processes:
- Birth,
- Migration, and
- Ageing (including death).
The quantitative and qualitative features of the human population are studied in this. The quantitative elements of the population include its composition, density, distribution, growth, migration, size, and structure.
Sociological elements such as school quality, crime, development, diet and nutrition, race, social class, wealth, and well-being are examples of qualitative features.
Demography’s significance stems from its contribution to better preparing the government and society to deal with the difficulties and demands of population expansion, aging, and migration. Demographic dynamics and distributions have an impact on a wide range of social outcomes.
Demography employs a wide range of demographic indicators. For example:
- Life expectancy at birth is the number of years that newborn infants would survive if they were subject to the mortality risks that existed at the time of their birth for a cross-section of the population.
- The annual number of deaths per 1,000 people is known as the crude death rate.
- The annual number of births per 1,000 people is referred to as the crude birth rate.
- The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman if she lived to the end of her child-bearing years and had children at each age based on current age-specific fertility rates.
- The percentage of the population residing in urban areas, as determined by the most recent population census, is referred to as the urban population.
Q7. Explain the following:-
(a) Special Economic Zones (SEZ)
Ans. A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a clearly defined duty-free enclave that is treated as foreign territory for the purposes of trade operations, duties, and tariffs. In other words, a special economic zone (SEZ) is a geographical area with economic rules that differ from those of the rest of the country. It is a region where business and trade laws differ from those found elsewhere in the country.
SEZs are placed within a country’s borders and have the following goals
- Improved commerce,
- Increased investment,
- Job development, and
- efficient administration.
There are currently eight operational SEZs in India, which are located in Santa Cruz (Maharashtra), Cochin (Kerala), Kandla and Surat (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Falta (West Bengal), and Noida (Uttar Pradesh). In addition, a SEZ in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) is now operational.
(b) Great Leap Forward (GLF)
China’s Second Five Year Plan was named the Great Leap Forward (1958-62). The Great Leap Forward was a 1950s economic and social movement that intended to transform China from an agrarian economy to modern society. It was a short-term endeavor by the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao Zedong, also known as Mao Tse-tung, to turn China into a society capable of competing with other Western industrialized nations.
The Great Leap Forward, China’s second five-year plan, was inaugurated in January 1958, and millions of Chinese citizens were relocated to communes to work on farms or in industry. Private farming was forbidden. It was the result of Mao Zedong’s impatience for industrial and manufacturing development.
(c) GPCR (Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution)
In the 1960s, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong became concerned that the current party leadership in China was increasingly heading towards a revisionist direction, with a major focus on expertise rather than ideological purity. The Cultural Revolution was a political, social, and cultural movement inspired by Mao Zedong’s cult and directed by a group of political figures known as the ‘Gang of Four.’
The Cultural Revolution rallied and encouraged Chinese youth to criticize and attack anyone perceived to be an enemy of the Chinese Communist Revolution’s objectives. Although the origins of the Cultural Revolution were diverse, at least two variables had a role in it. Mao Zedong’s efforts to reclaim his dominant position as China’s policymaker were one cause. The second was the ‘Mao Cult.’
Q8. What are the reasons for the slow growth and re-emergence of poverty in our neighbouring country, Pakistan?
Ans. Experts feel that Pakistan’s progress has been driven primarily by years of a good harvest. Furthermore, growth was driven by finance from external borrowings and Middle Eastern remittances. The economy suffered when the crops failed. These issues contributed to Pakistan’s slow growth and the re-emergence of poverty.
India has always had an advantage over Pakistan in some areas, such as having more trained labor, making good investments in education, and improving basic health care facilities.
Agriculture and food production was not founded on an institutional framework of technology. Rather, it was founded on favorable circumstances. When conditions were favorable, economic growth exhibited positive trends and vice versa. They are becoming more reliant on foreign borrowings, and repaying the loans is becoming increasingly challenging. Inadequate infrastructure in the manufacturing sector, which also impedes expansion.
There are numerous causes for this, some of which are highlighted below:
- Terrorism: It is a major impediment to Pakistan’s economic development. It has been a war-torn country since 2002. This has long been a contributing factor to Pakistan’s unfavorable worldwide image, limiting foreign investment in the country.
- Corruption: Since 1947, corruption has firmly established its roots. It has now become a very political subject, with even the country’s prime leaders being accused of it.
- A Lack of High-Quality Education: Education is a critical component of economic success. Unfortunately, our present literacy rate is 60%, with the lowest rate in South Asian countries. Around 25 million children are not attending school.
- Inadequate Health-Care Facilities: Public hospitals paint grim visions of a lack of proper drugs, beds, and equipment, among other things. Because of a lack of basic health care, approximately 170 women die from pregnancy for every 100,000 births.
- Tax Evasion: A regressive tax system takes roughly 90% of taxable income from ordinary males. Large firms, landlords, business owners, and politicians fail to pay their fair amount of taxes. They earn a lot but pay less tax; on the other side, the poor earn less yet pay more tax. Pakistan should improve its export competitiveness by lowering the cost of doing business.
Hence, Pakistan should take a strategic approach to increase its exports to neighboring markets, and work upon enhancing its general economic condition as because of the country’s general economic challenges, ordinary men and and women has to face economic inadequacy and deprivation.
