Solution of Chapter 1. Development (Understanding Economic Development Book)

Why do different persons have different notions of development? Which of the following explanations is more important and why?

(a) Because people are different.

(b) Because life situations of persons are different.

Do the following two statements mean the same? Justify your answer.

People have different developmental goals.

People have conflicting developmental goals.

Give some examples where factors other than income are important aspects of our lives.

Explain some of the important ideas of the above section in your own words.

Look at the picture on the right. What should be the developmental goals for such an area?

Read the newspaper report and answer the questions that follow:

A vessel dumped 500 tonnes of liquid toxic wastes into open-air dumps in a city and in the surrounding sea. This happened in a city called Abidjan in Ivory Coast, a country in Africa. The fumes from the highly toxic waste caused nausea, skin rashes, fainting, diarrhea etc. After a month, seven persons were dead, twenty in hospital and twenty six thousand treated for symptoms of poisoning.

A multinational company dealing in petroleum and metals had contracted a local company of the Ivory Coast to dispose the toxic waste from its ship.

(i) Who are the people who benefited and who did not?

(ii) What should be the developmental goal for this country?

What can be some of the developmental goals for your village, town or locality?

Give three examples where an average is used for comparing situations.

Why do you think average income is an important criterion for development? Explain.

Besides size of per capita income, what other property of income is important in comparing two or more societies?

Suppose records show that the average income in a country has been increasing over a period of time. From this, can we conclude that all sections of the economy have become better? Illustrate your answer with an example.

From the text, find out the per capita income level of middle-income countries as per WDR 2006.

Write a paragraph on your notion of what should India do, or achieve, to become a developed country.

Look at data in Tables 1.3 and 1.4. Is Punjab ahead of Bihar in literacy rate etc. as it is in terms of per capita income?

Table 1.3: Per Capita Income of Select States

Table 1.4: Some Comparative Data on Maharashtra, Kerala and Bihar

Explanation of some of the terms used in this table.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) indicates the number of children that die before the age of one year as a proportion of 1000 live children born in that particular year.

Literacy Rate measures the proportion of literate population in the 7 and above age group.

Net Attendance Ratio is the total number of children of age group 6-10 attending school as a percentage of total number of children in the same age group.

Think of other examples where collective provision of goods and services is cheaper than individual provision.

Does availability of good health & educational facilities depend only on amount of money spent by the government on these facilities? What other factors could be relevant?

In Tamil Nadu, 75% of the people living in rural areas use a ration shop, whereas in Jharkhand only 8% of rural people do so. Where would people be better off and why?

Developement of a country can generally be determined by

Which of the following neighboring countries has better performance in terms of human development in India?

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?

What is the main criterion used by the World Bank in classifying different countries? What are the limitations of this criterion, if any?

In what respect in the criterion used by the UNDP for measuring development different from the one used by the World Bank.

Why do we use averages? Are there any limitations to their use? Illustrate with your own examples related to development.

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 agree? Discuss.

Find out the present source of energy that is used by the people of India. What could be the other possibilities fifty years from now?

Why is the issue of sustainability important for development?

“The Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one person.” How this statement is relevant to the discussion of development? Discuss.

List a few examples of environmental degradation that you may have observed around you.

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

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

(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.