CBSE Class 12 Economics Human Capital Formation in India Worksheet Set B

Question. Give the meaning of Human Capital?
Answer: It refers to the stock of skilled, ability, expertise, education and knowledge embodies in the people.

Question. Why has India not been able to achieve 100 percent literacy even till today? (HOTS)
Answer: India has not been able to achieve 100 percent literacy because of its failure to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years.

Question. How is on-the-job-training a source of human capital formation?
Answer: On-the-job-training is a source of human capital formation as it increases the skill and efficiency of the workers and leads to an increase in production and productivity.

Question. How much educational cess was imposed by the government to all union taxes?
Answer: 2 per cent

Question. What do the differences in male and female literacy rates indicate?
Answer: The differences in male and female literacy rates indicate that education in India is gender biased.

Question. Name the various forms of health expenditure.
Answer: Preventive medicine, curative medicine, social medicine, provision of clean drinking water and good sanitation are the various forms of health expenditure.

Question. Which five year plan recognized the importance of human capital?
Answer: The Seventh Five year Plan

Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Why are less women found in regular salaried employment ?
Answer: (i) Lesser women are found in regular salaried employment as compared to men because a larger proportion of women are engaged in the economic activities without stable contracts and steady income. The stable contracts and steady income are two features prevalent in the regular salaried employment.
(ii) Women are engaged in informal segments of the economy, where they are not entitled to any social security benefits.
(iii) Women work in more vulnerable situations than men and have lower bargaining power and, consequently are paid lesser than the male workforce. Thus, the women workers are more likely to be found in the self-employment and casual work as compared to men rather than regular salaried employment.

Question. What are the causes of deforestation in India ? 
Answer: Following are the causes of deforestation :
(i) Construction of buildings due to the growing population.
(ii) Use of overgrazing and encroachments.
(iii) Indiscriminating sites of development projects.
(iv) Diversion of forestry for non-forestry purposes.
(v) Increase in population resisting into more demand for fuel wood and timber. 

Question. Outline the steps involved in attaining sustainable development in India ?
Answer: (i) Balance between present and future generation.
(ii) Optimum use of resources.
(iii) Use of non-conventional Source of energy.
(iv) Decrease in poverty by providing lasting and secure livelihoods.
(v) Minimisation of cultural destruction and social instability.
(vi) More reliance on alternative resources of energy

Question. What are the causes of difference in Rural and Urban workers ratio ?
Answer: (i) In rural areas :
(a) People have limited resources to get income and employment.
(b) Most of the people are deprived of school, college education, etc.
(ii) In urban areas :
(a) Urban people have more employment opportunities. 
(b) They get the appropriate job to suit their skills and qualifications. 
It shows that the difference in worker ratio is higher in urban areas than that of rural areas.

Question. Why is employment considered so important in the Indian development policy?
Answer: Employment is considered so important in the Indian development policy because of following reasons :
(i) More employment will lead to higher level of national income since, production and employment are directly related.
(ii) Employment is crucial to removal of poverty.

Question. How important is natural gas as a new resource?
Answer: Natural gas is a commercial source of energy. Liquified gas is used as cooking gas. It is also used in some thermal plants as fuel. Natural gas is likely to play a major role in bridging the gap between demand and supply of liquid hydrocarbon in future. At present, it is being used as a feed stock for core sector industries like fertilisers. 

Question. Discuss the role of three services needed in supply of electricity. Should they be in different hands?
Answer: Following are three services needed in supply of electricity :
(i) Generation of electricity
(ii) Transmission of electricity
(iii) Distribution of electricity All these services should be in different hands.
Transmission of electricity should be in the hands of the government. The government and private sector may operate in the areas of generation of electricity and distribution of electricity. It would bring in more and more financial resources in power sector as well as competition.

Question. Low employment among women is a reflection of economic backwardness of a country. You have been asked to suggest the measures for increased employment opportunities for women.
Answer: We shall suggest the following measures to increase the employment opportunities for women :
(i) Education and training opportunities for women should be further expanded, diversified and made more easily accessible.
(ii) Residential accommodation for working mothers should be increased.
(iii) There should be much more facilities of crèches and child care during the working hours of mothers.
(iv) There should be large scale publicity and building of public opinion in favour of employment of women.

Question. Victor is able to get work only for two hours in a day. Rest of the day, he is looking for work. Is he unemployed ? Why ? What kind of job could persons like victor do ?
Answer: (i) Yes, victor is an unemployed worker. He works for two hours a day but a major portion of the day he is looking for work and is unemployed. This implies that he is an underemployed worker. 
(ii) The situation of underemployment refers to a situation in which a person gets work for lesser time than the time he actually can and wants to work.
(iii) According to the National Sample Survey statistics, a person who is employed for less than 28 hours in a weak is called underemployed. Victor could do jobs like delivering couriers, bank tellers, etc.

Question. What is National Forestry Action Plan(NFAP) 1992?
Answer: This programme was adopted in 1992. In it, five point strategy to promote forestry in the country are mentioned as below :
(i) Protection of existing forest resources of the country.
(ii) Increase in productivity of forests.
(iii) Reducing the demand for products.
(iv) Expanding the existing forest areas.
(v) Strengthening the policy and constitutional framework. 

Question. Keeping in view your locality, describe any 4 strategies of sustainable development.
Answer: (i) No degradation of resources;
(ii) Check on pollution;
(iii) Integrated policy between economic development and environment;
(iv) Establishment of industries as per environmental norms.

Question. What are the sources of Human Capital Formation?
Answer: These below 5 are the sources of Human Capital Formation:
• Expenditure on Education
• Expenditure on Health
• On-the-job training
• Expenditure on Migration
• Expenditure on Information With Brief Explanation

Question. What is the importance/role of Human Capital Formation in India?
Answer: There are 7 importance of Human Capital Formation:
• Effective use of Physical Capital
• Higher Productivity and Production
• Inventions, Innovations and Technological improvement
• Modernization of attitudes
• Increases life expectancy
• Improves quality of life
• Control of population

Question. Why the need for on-job-training for a person?
Answer: • Such training has the advantage that it can be provided fast and without much cost.
• It increases the skill and efficiency of the workers.
• It increases the Production and Productivity of the workers.
• Workers may be trained in the firm itself under supervision of a skilled worker.
• Workers may be sent for off-campus training.

Question. How Education contributes to economic growth of a country?
Answer: • Education confers higher earning capacity on people
• It gives better social standing and pride
• It enables one to make better choices in life
• It provides knowledge to understand the changes taking place in society
• It also stimulates innovations
• It facilitates adaptation of new technologies

Question. How will you know whether a worker is working in the informal sector ?
Answer: The following features help to recognise a worker working in the informal sector :
(i) A worker working in an enterprise (other than the public sector establishments and the private sector establishments hiring 10 or less than 10 workers).
(ii) This sector includes millions of farmers, agricultural labourers, owners of small enterprises and self-employed. These sections of people are not hired worker.
(iii) A worker working in informal sector does not enjoy social security benefits such as provident fund, gratuity, pension, etc. 1 (iv) The economic interest of the workers working the informal sector is not protected by any labour laws other than Minimum Wages Act. Therefore, workers in the informal sector are highly exposed to the uncertainties of the market and have low bargaining power.

Question. What are the main characteristics of health of the people of our country ?
Answer: (i) Health is not only mere absence of disease but also includes the state of complete physical, mental, and social well being of an individual. In other words it means a sound physical and mental state of the individual. A person’s ability to work depends upon his health. A healthy person can contribute more actively Hence, health and development of a person are the integral parts of a nation’s social and economic development.
(ii) It is very difficult to assess public health in terms of the single set of measures. So, various other indicators have been taken into account, like infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, life expectancy and nutrition level along with the communicable and non-communicable disease.

Question. Analyse the recent trends in sectoral distribution of workforce in India.
Answer: (i) The three major sectors of the economy i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary collectively are known as occupational structure of an economy. The primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, etc. The secondary sector consists of manufacturing and construction activities. Tertiary sector includes various services like transport, communication, trade, etc.
(ii) Primary sector is the prime source of employment for the majority of the workers in India. Its contribution is the source of employment for the majority of the workers in india. Its contribution is as high as 48.9% of our total workforce, about 24.3% and 26.8% of the total workforce is employed in the secondary and the service sector respectively. 1 (iii) People living in the urban areas are largely engaged in secondary and tertiary sectors and those in the rural areas are involved basically in primary sectors. Also, the tertiary sector is taking a lead over the secondary sector as a source of employment and increasing share in India’s GDP.
(iv) As far as the distribution of male and female is considered, a high percentage of total female workforce are engaged in the primary sector than in the secondary and tertiary sector.

Question. Write down the causes of unemployment in India.
Answer: Causes of unemployment are as follows :
(i) Increase in population : Population in India is increasing at an average rate of 1.9% per annum. It is creating an army of unemployed persons every year. Due to this reason, the back log of unemployment is continuously increasing. 
(ii) Slow rate of economic growth : India being an underdeveloped country, could not grow more than 4% to 5% per annum during planning, period. It could not absorb the growing labour force in industries, agriculture and services. 
(iii) Low rate of capital formation : The main reason for unemployment in India is the deficiency of capital. Rate of capital formation is not matching with increasing rate of labour force. It is mainly due to low rates of saving and investment. 
(iv) Backwardness of Indian agriculture : Agriculture occupies a dominant place in our economy. Being backward, it cannot provide employment to the farmers throughout the year. It has created seasonal unemployment in the country.

Question. What is the state of rural infrastructure in India?
Answer: (i) During the colonial rule, the British aimed at developing infrastructure to facilitate their trade affairs. At the time of independence, Indian government found lack of sound infrastructure to realise their dream of economic development and growth. Most of the infrastructural development concentrated in the urban areas. The infrastructural development in the rural areas is still very slow as compared to the size of the rural population.
(ii) The women in the rural areas are still making use of bio fuel like cow-dung and fuel wood to meet their energy needs. The census of 2001 states that only 55% of the households has electricity connection whereas 45% still use kerosene. About 90% of the rural households use bio fuels for cooking. Tap water is used by only 30% of the rural households and improved sanitation is available to only 20%, although it has considerably increased in the recent past.
(iii) As the infrastructure is an essential element of economic growth, so, it has become the need of the hour to address the problem the infrastructure. The government of India invested only small proportion of GDP on infrastructure i.e. only 34% that is lesser than that of China and Indonesia.
(iv) The economists see India as the third biggest country in the world. For that to happen India will have to boost its infrastructure, especially rural infrastructure. This will not only promote economic development of our country but also enhance economic welfare.

Question. Mention the salient features of the unemployment situation in India.
Answer: Following are some of the salient features of the unemployment situation in India :
(i) The incidence of unemployment is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
(ii) Unemployment rates for women are higher than those for men. Under-employment is higher in case of women.
(iii) Incidence of unemployment among the educated is much higher.

Question. What do you mean by formal and informal sector?
Answer: (i) Formal sector : All public sector and private sector establishments which employ 10 or more hired workers are called formal sector establishments. Those who work in such establishments are called formal sector workers.
(ii) Informal sector : In this sector there is no hired worker. Thus, informal sector includes millions of farmers, agricultural labourers, owners of small enterprises and people working in those enterprises are self-employed.

Question. How is unemployment an economic as well as a social problem?
Answer: Unemployment is an economic and social problem. Unemployment is an economic problem in the sense that unemployed persons will be consumers only without being a producer. Non utilisation of human resources due to unemployment involves double cost of maintenance and loss of output. Unemployment is a social problem in the sense that it causes enormous sufferings to unemployed workers due to their reduced or nil income. Many social evils like dishonesty, immorality, drink-ing, gambling, robbery, etc are the outcome of unemployment. It causes social disruption in the society and the government has to incur a heavy unproductive expenditure on law and order.

Question. How has population explosion and the advent of industrial revolution resulted in environmental crisis?
Answer: With population explosion and with the advent of industrial revolution to meet the growing needs of the expanding population, the demand for resources for both production and consumption went beyond the rate of regeneration of the resources, the pressure on the absorptive capacity of the environment increased tremendously, this trend continues even today. Thus, what has happened is a reversal of supply-demand relationship for environmental quality, we are now faced with increased demand for environmental resources and services but their supply is limited due to overuse and misuse. Hence, the environmental issues of waste generation and pollution have become critical today.

Question. How are the rates of consumption of energy and economic growth connected ?
Answer: (i) The rate of consumption of energy is crucial for economic growth or development process of a nation.
(ii) The consumption of renewable sources of energy is related to sustainable economic development.
(iii) The renewable sources of energy are free from pollution and health hazards. (iv) Energy consumption is essential for promoting agricultural and industrial process, Hence, more use of renewable source of energy leads to more sustained economic development.

Question. Mention the government organisations that regulate the health and education sectors.
Answer: The Indian government regulates Education and Health sectors through the following organisations:
(i) NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training) : The organisation is responsible for designing the textbook upto 12th standard. 
(ii) UGC (University Grants Commission) : This organisation is the prime funding authority for university education. It also enforces rules and regulations regarding higher education(iii) AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) : It enforces rules and regulations regarding technical engineering-education in the country. 
(iv) ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research): This organisation formulates the rules and regulations relating to education and research in health sector.

Question. Expansion of one industry facilitates the expansion of the other. How economic growth can become a dynamic process and a self-propelling activity of change? Which value is applicable in this situation?
Answer: Availability of proper means of transport and communication, ample sources of energy and a developed system of banking and finance generate an environment of inter-industrial linkages. In this situation, expansion of one industry facilitates the expansion of the other. Accordingly, growth becomes a dynamic process and a self propelling activity of change. Value of understanding is applicable in this situation.

Question. ‘Sustainable development is a paradigm shift in development thinking’. Comment.
Answer: Sustainable development implies meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life, without compromising on the needs of future. The strategies for sustainable development imply the use of non-conventional sources of energy to minimise the adverse environmental impacts. Promotion of natural resources, conservation, preserving regenerative capacity of ecological system and avoiding the imposition of environmental rules on future generations would lead to sustainable development.

Question. What do you mean by transmission and distribution losses ? How can they be reduced ? 
Answer: Electric power transmission and distribution losses refer to the losses that occur in transmission between the sources of supply and points of distribution, In other words, the loss of power that arises due to the inherent resistance and transformation inefficiencies in the electrical conductors and distribution transformers respectively are called transmission and distribution losses. 
The following measures should be taken to reduce power transmission and distribution losses :
(i) Improved technology of transmission and distribution should be used. 
(ii) Electricity distribution network should be privatised. This will infuse efficiency, thereby, eliminating wastages. 
(iii) Theft cases of electricity should be handled strictly by the trustworthy employees, strict imposition of fines and penalties should be imposed.

Question. Explain the relationship between environment and the economic development.
Answer: There are two views on how economic development affects environment. According to first view, economic development degrades our environment by using natural resources for production of goods and services. Economic development results in pollution in the form of air pollution, water pollution and land pollution. 

Question. ‘Unemployment is related to poverty’. Comment.
Answer: Poor people do not have enough resources for economic purpose. For example., a poor farmer cannot use good variety of seeds and equipment. Therefore, he and his family members may remain unemployed. Due to poverty, they are not in a position to maintain efficiency and productivity. It is not possible for poor men to have proper education to improve their mental ability. Poverty encourages farmers to mortgage their land to money lenders which in long run, increases unemployment.

Question. Is it necessary to generate employment in the formal sector ? Why ?
Answer: (i) Formal sector refers to the organised sector of the economy. It includes government departments, public enterprises and private establishments that hire 10 or more workers. Workers of the formal sectors enjoy social security benefits and also they remain protected by the labour laws. 
(ii) The informal sector is an unorganised sector of the economy. People engaged in this sector do not enjoy any social security benefits and do not have any trade unions and consequently, have low bargaining power. This makes them more vulnerable to the uncertainties of the market. 
(iii) Creating more jobs in the formal sector will not only absorb workforce from the informal sector but also help in reducing poverty and income inequalities.
(iv) In order to safeguard the interests of the informal sector and to utilise this portion of the workforce for achieving economic growth, it is very important to generate more employment opportunities in the formal sector rather than in the informal sector.

Question. Explain the two categories into which infrastructure are divided. How are both interdependent?
Answer: Infrastructure is broadly classified under two categories :
(i) Economic infrastructure : Economic infrastructure refers to the elements of economic change that aid in the process of production and distribution, it improves the quality of economic resources and, thus raises the productivity of the economy as a whole. In this way, it serves as a support system to economic growth. Energy, transportation, communication, banking and financial institutions are some of the examples of economic infrastructure. Greater the economic infrastructure, greater will be the production and more generation of employment opportunities. Thus, expenditure incurred on the economic infrastructure can be regarded as a necessary condition for economic growth.
(ii) Social infrastructure : Social infrastructure refers to all those facilities and institutions that enhance the quality of human capital. Educational institutions, hospitals, nursing homes, housing facilities etc. are some of the examples of social infrastructures. The availability of such infrastructures raises the human productivity, thereby, improves the quality of standard of living. Unlike economic infrastructure, social infrastructure indirectly increases the productivity and production of goods and services. For example : availability of better health care and medical facilities enable a perennial supply of healthy workforce that in turn is reflected in the form of increased production levels.

Question. What are the needs of a sustainable development?
Answer: The needs of sustainable development are as follows : 
(i) Limiting the human population to a level within the carrying capacity of the environment.
(ii) Technological progress should be input efficient and not input consuming.
(iii) Renewable resources should be extracted on a sustainable basis, i.e., rate of extraction should not exceed rate of regeneration.
(iv) For non-renewable resources, rate of depletion should not exceed the rate of creation of renewable substitutes.
(v) Inefficiencies arising from pollution should be corrected.

Question. Justify that energy crisis can be overcome with the use of renewable sources of energy.
Answer: (i) When the resources are extracted at more rapid pace than its regeneration, then we say that the carrying capacity of the environment reduces. The environment fails to perform its function of sustaining life and this results in an environmental crisis.
(ii) These environmental crisis are the result of a fall in the absorptive and carrying capacity of the environment. In today’s scenario, the rate of consumption of resources is faster than the rate of their production, consequently, the resources get exhausted quickly.
 (iii) Renewable resources get renewed or replenished quickly. These are unlimited and are not affected by human activities, such as solar and wind energy.
(iv) Energy crisis can be overcome by the increased use of cost-effective technology of searching the renewable resources of energy.

Question. The following table shows the population and worker population ratio for India in 1999-2000. Can you estimate the work force (rural and urban) for India ? 

Answer: Worker Population Ratio = Number of Workers/Total Population x 100
Number of Workers = Population/100 x Worker Population Ratio 

Question. Why are regular salaried employees more in urban areas than in rural areas ?
Answer: (i) Regular salaried employees are those hired workers who are on the permanent pay rolls of their employers. They are usually skilled workers and are entitled to all types of social security benefits. The concentration of these workers is higher in the urban areas as compared to the rural areas because such jobs require skilled and specialised workers. 1 (ii) The opportunities to acquire and enhance such skills are available more in the urban areas and these skills are acquired through the process of training and education that cannot be accessed in the rural areas due to the lack of investment, infrastructure and low literacy level of rural people. Further, the big companies are concentrated only in the urban areas due to the presence of infrastructure and availability of modern facilities like banks, transport and communication, etc.
(iii) The bulk for the jobs for the regular salaried employees are concentrated more in the urban areas resulting in the increase in number of the regular salaried employees.

Question. What problems are being faced by the power sector in India ?
Answer: Problems faced by the power sector are as follows:
(i) The installed capacity of India to generate electricity is not sufficient enough to meet an annual economic growth of 8%.
(ii) The state electricity Boards (SEBs) that distribute electricity suffered a great loss of more than ` 500 billion due to transmission and distribution of electricity. (iii) The wrong pricing of electricity like supply is electricity at subsidised rates to agricultural sector and theft of electricity has exaggerated the problems of power sector.
(iv) The high power tariffs and prolonged power cuts is another challenge in the power sector.
(v) The thermal power station faces the scarcity of the raw materials to generate electricity.

Question. Differentiate between Economic Development and Sustainable development.
Answer: 

Question. Infrastructure contributes to the economic development of a country. Do you agree ? Explain.
Answer: Yes, Infrastructure acts as a support system for production activity in the economy and thereby contributes to economic development. The following point explain the role of infrastructure :
(i) Infrastructure increases productivity : Infrastructure economic and social facilitates production. The availability of quality infrastructure guarantees increase in production and productivity. Infrastructure ensures easy movement of goods and raw materials thereby reducing inefficiencies and lead to efficient utilisation of scarce resources and eliminate wastages. 
(ii) Infrastructure encourages investment : Infrastructure provides an environment conducive to investment lack of facilities discourage investment. For example, an investor will not invest in absence of basic infrastructure such as transport and communication.
 (iii) Infrastructure generates linkages in production : Infrastructure promotes economic development by way of various linkages forward and backward linkages. In other words infrastructure provides scope for expansion of one industry due to the expansion of the other by way of forward and backward linkages. The process of economic growth becomes a dynamic process in the presence of sufficient infrastructure facilities.
(iv) Infrastructure enhances size of the market : Infrastructure widens the size of the market. The fast and cost effective movement of raw materials and finished goods in bulk enables a producer to offer his products across the country and even across international boundaries.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question. Write down the various types of unemployment in India.
Answer: Various types of unemployment are as follows :
(i) Voluntary unemployment : “Those people are known to be voluntarily unemployed, who are not working by choice”. They do not avail for an employment opportunity because they consider
such a job as below their dignity. Higher education is one of the major causes of being voluntarily unemployed in India. 
(ii) Disguised unemployment : Disguised unemployment means that number of workers employed in a job are much more than actually required. It is invisible in nature but when some workers are withdrawn from a work, total production remains unchanged. It is said to be disguised unemployment. 
(iii) Open employment : “By open unemployment we mean all those unemployed-who have no work to do while they are willing to work on prevailing wages.” 
(iv) Educated unemployment : Such type of unemployment which arises due to expansion of educational facilities at school and university level, is known as educated unemployment. It can be found among professionals as well as among people holding General Educational Degrees. 
(v) Frictional unemployment : That unemployment which arises due to imperfections of labour market is known as frictional unemployment. It arises due to movement of labour from one industry to another or from one place to another. It is of temporary nature and vanishes with the removal of market imperfections. 
(vi) Structural unemployment : Structural unemployment arises due to change in demand pattern and supply structure. With the passage of time, when demand pattern of goods changes there will be change in demand pattern for labour.
Some labour in one sector becomes idle while there may be demand in the other sector. Since labour cannot immediately switch over to new pattern, therefore, it causes structural unemployment.

Question. How do the following factors contribute to the environmental crises in India ? What problems do they pose for the government ?
(i) Rising population
(ii) Air pollution
(iii) Water contamination
(iv) Affluent consumption standard
(v) Illiteracy
(vi) Industrialisation
(vii) Urbanisation
(viii) Global warming
(ix) Poaching
(x) Reduction of forest coverage.
Answer: (i) Rising Population : India supports approx 16% of the world’s human and 20% of livestock population on a mere 2.5% of the world’s geographical area, The high density of population and livestock and the competing uses of land for forestry, agriculture, pastures, human settlement and industries exert an enormous pressure on the country’s finite land resources. Hence, it becomes very difficult for the government to provide all types of facilities to such a huge population. All the measures adopted by the government cannot become fruitful unless we adopt a path of sustsinable development. Development to enhance our current living styles, without concern for other factors will deplete resources and degrade environment at a speed that is bound to result in both environmental and economic crisis.
(ii) Air Pollution : In India, air pollution is wide-spread in urban areas because of vehicles, factories and other reasons. Air pollution is a great concern because it has serious harmful effects on the general population. For example, the number of motor vehicles has increased from about 3 lakh in 1957 to 230 million to 2016. This growth directly contributes to air pollution.
(iii) Water Contamination : Life depends to a great extent on water. However, increase in population, waste disposal from factories etc., contaminate water. The development process has also polluted water and is responsible for the decreasing level of water that is harmful for animals living in water. The government has taken many steps to solve the problem of water contamination but it had failed to achieve desired success.
(iv) Affluent Consumption Standards : The affluent consumption and production standards used by developed countries have placed a huge stress on the environment. In developed countries, the government exerts less strictness on society because they have small amount of population and abundant resources. Hence, they try to make affluent society. But in this way, sometimes the resources remain unutilised or sometimes they are over-utilised. Either the resources are under-utilised or over-utilised, they generally lead to wastage of resources.
(v) Illiteracy : Illiteracy is a serious hurdle in the development process. The government has taken a number of measures to tackle the problem of Illiteracy but it failed to give desired results and had lead to deforestation, pollution, shortage of basic necessities like health, sanitation etc. 
(vi) Industrialisation : The cost of industrialisation is environmental degradation. The result of industrialisation is that the demand for resources for both production and consumption has gone beyond the rate of regeneration of the resources. Hence, problems have started taking place.
(vii) Urbanisation : Urbanisation has resulted in environmental degradation. The government has tried hard to provide benefits and programmes in the rural and backward areas but in a quest to earn more and rapidly, people migrate to urban areas making them slums.
(viii) Global Warming : It refers to a gradual increase in the shortage temperature of the earth’s lower atmosphere as a result of increase in green-house gases since the Industrial Revolution much of the recent observed and projected global warming is human induced. It is caused by man made increases in carbon dioxide and other green-house gases through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. A UN Conference on Climate
Change, held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, resulted in an international agreement to fight global warming which called for reductions in emissions of green-house gases by industrialised nations.
(ix) Poaching : Destroying wildlife is termed as Poaching or entering into other’s field forcefully is known as Poaching. Preservation of wildlife is essential to maintain ecological balance. The government is very much worried about the killing of animals at a massive scale and it has taken stern measures against the criminals.
(x) Reduction of Forest coverage : The need for reduction of forest coverage or deforestation arises due to the growing demand for land, wood, rise in population and river valley projects. Deforestation leads to reduction in oxygen level in air, soil erosion, climate change & global warming due to rise in the CO2 level. Thus, measures are needed to promote afforestation, opening up of sanctuaries and national parks such as Jim Corbett National Park.

Question. What factors contribute to human capital formation.
Answer: Factors that contribute to human capital formation are as follows :
(i) Education : Education not only raises the standard and quality of living but also encourages modern attitudes of people. Moreover, education increases the productive capacity and productivity of a nation’s workforce by honing their skills. Further, education increases the acceptability of the modern techniques and also facilitates a primitive economy to break the shackles of tradition and backwardness. An investment in educational sector has two-fold benefits. It not only increases the income earning capacity but also reduces the skewed distribution of income, thereby forming an egalitarian society. 1½ (ii) Health : There is a saying “The greatest wealth is health.” The wealth of the country can be increased with the efforts of healthy workforce. Investment in health sector increases, efficiency and productivity of a nation’s workforce. In contrast to an unhealthy person, a healthy person can work better with more efficiency and consequently, can contribute relatively more to the GDP of a country. Good health and medical facilities not only increase the life expectancy but also improve quality and standard of living. Investing in health sector ensures the perennial quality and standard of living.
(iii) On-the-job training : Training refers to the act of acquiring skills, knowledge and competency required to perform a particular job efficiently and effectively. On-the-job training is the most effective kind of training to a trainee, imparting him with the technical skills and know-how at the actual work site. In this type of training, a trainee is assisted and trained by a trainer when the trainee is actually doing the job. This helps the trainee not only to acquire the theoretical and practical skills simultaneously but also enables him to learn from the experiences of his trainer and thereby can increase his efficiency and productivity. 
(iv) Migration : Migration refers to the movement of people from underdeveloped or developing countries to developed countries in search of better avenues. Migrations contribute to human capital formation as it facilitates the utilisation of inactive or underdeveloped skills of an individual. The cost of migration involves cost of transportation and cost of living at the migrated places. Usually, the cost of migrating is very high due to the high cost of transportation and high cost of livelihood in the developed countries. But still, people migrate in search of better job opportunities and handsome salaries. Migration of human capital helps the underdeveloped countries to acquire technical skills, efforts reducing methods and efficient way of performing tasks.

Question. Trace the relationship between human capital and economic growth.
Answer: Human capital is believed to be positively related to economic growth though, it is difficult to establish a relation of cause and effect from the growth of human capital to economic growth, but we can see that human capital formation is related to economic growth in the following manner :
(i) Increase in Labour Productivity : Investment in human capital through expenditure on education, health, etc. enhances the productivity of labour as they become physically fit and skilled in their jobs. It leads to efficient utilisation of the material inputs and capital. With increase in productivity output increases at an increasing rate and hence, economic growth decelerates. The population itself become an asset in accelerating economic growth, if it is trained and educated on sound lines.
(ii) Innovations : Research and development is necessary for innovations in an economy which lead to advancement in technology and creation of new products. Human capital formation helps in preparing learned scientists and researchers in various subjects who bring out innovative products, technologies and processes and thus, add to the economic growth.
(iii) Absorptive Capacity : Advanced technology can be adopted only if the skills and knowledge required for using that technology is present in the country. Investment in education and on-the-job training help to create these skills and knowledge base and thus, helps in absorption of new technologies which lead to higher production and thus, economic growth.
(iv) Participation Rate : Human capital formation makes a greater proportion of population capable of participating in the economic, social and political activities of a nation. Thus, raising the participation of people in the process of economic growth.

Question. How can we increase the effectiveness of healthcare programmes?
Answer: We can increase the effectiveness of healthcare programmes in the following manner :
(i) The wide gap between rural and urban areas, poor and rich in utilising health care facilities must be addressed through more investment in health facilities in rural and backward areas by the government as private investment is not forthcoming in these areas.
(ii) Women’s health across the country should be taken into greater focus as a healthy mother gives birth to a healthy offspring and health status of population can be improved.
(iii) Regulated private sector health services, NGOs and community participation can improve the effectiveness of health care facilities and play an important role in spreading health awareness.
(iv) Indian system of medicine including Ayurveda and Naturopathy should be explored and used to support public health as they are based on natural healing and are of preventive nature.

Question. What is seasonal unemployment? Suggest measures for reducing this kind of unemployment in India. 
Answer: It occurs in case of agriculture, ice-cream factories, woollens factories, etc. which are a seasonal occupation. In the off-season, there is no work.
The result is seasonal unemployment.
Following measures may be suggested to reduce seasonal unemployment :
(i) Promotion of multiple cropping, i.e., raising more than one crop on the same piece of land in a year by spread of irrigation use of fertilizers, mechanisation, etc.
(ii) Development of activities allied to agriculture such as animal husbandry, dairy farming, horticulture, etc to provide extra employment throughout the year.
(iii) Public investment in rural areas in such fieldsas irrigation, drainage, flood control, land and environment, improvement of rural roads, schools, hospitals, etc.
(iv) Promotion of on-farm investment. Over haul of machinery, training of farm labour and programmes for eradication of illiteracy during slack seasons.
(v) Mechanisation of peak season activities so that a proportion of the labour force is permanently shifted from agriculture to non-seasonal activities and surplus labour in the slack season is reduced.
(vi) Establishment of a variety of industries which operate at different times of the year so that labour may be kept employed almost throughout the year by shifting from one seasonal industry to another.

Question. Identify any six factors contributing to land degradation in India.
Answer: Degradation of land refers to the gradual but con-sistent loss of fertility. This is emerging as a serious concern in the context of environmental issues in India. The following are the factors that contribute to land degradation in India :
(i) Soil Erosion : The removal of upper layer of the soil caused by agents like strong Winds or floods is termed as soil erosion. The top most layer of the soil carries major & essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus & potassium consequently, the loss of this layer deteriorates the quality & productivity of land. 1 (ii) Alkalinity & salinity of soil : The salinity & alkalinity is caused by the problem of water logging. Water logged on the top layer of soil absorbs all the nutrients present in the soil, thereby, reducing its fertility. 
(iii) Deforestation : The growing population along with their ever growing demand leads to large scale destruction of forests ever. The reduction of forest coverage leads to soil erosion that in turn causes climate change. 
(iv) Shifting cultivation : The practice of shifting cultivation and subsistence farming carried by the small and the marginal farmers result is the replenishment of soil nutrients & hence, its fertility.
(v) Excessive use of Fertilizers : The excessive use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides & pesticides lowers the quality & fertility of soil.
(vi) Desertification : The spread of Deserts in arid and semi-arid areas is referred to as desertification. It occurs due to overgrazing of the animals, This results in the reduction of lush green areas that in turn leads to replenishment of soil fertility.

Question. Establish the need for acquiring information relating to health and education expenditure for the effective utilisation of human resources.
Answer: (i) The degree of availability of jobs, salaries and admission related information plays an important role in the determination of human capital. The availability of jobs and admissions related information not only help the students to opt for the best choice according to their interest areas but also leads to an effective utilisation of human skills and knowledge. Some of the important medium of catering different information related to jobs, eligibility criteria, posts and salaries are Employment news (Rozgar Samachar), Employment exchanges, various TV programs and government and non-government websites.
(ii) Expenditures on education enhance human skills and their utilisations. On the other hand, the expenditure on health improves health, efficiency, quality of living and life expectancy of people. The expenditure incurred on the availability of medical information and health awareness determines the health of the people. The acceptability and use of the medical information and family welfare programmes are often obstructed by lack of its publicity and promotion. 
(iii) People are reluctant to opt for various health measures due to the lack of complete knowledge and information. For example, few years back, people knew very little about polio and about its vaccination. But due to the constant efforts by various government and non-government organisations under the Pulse Polio immunisation programme, people are now well aware of polio. Therefore, it is due to the continuous publicity and various awareness campaigns, this programme has gained public consciousness. Thus, the expenditure on the spread of information (of education and health) determines the effectiveness and efficacy of human capital.

Question. What role does the government play in generating employment opportunities ? 
Answer: The government generates employment through direct and indirect efforts. The government makes direct efforts at employing people in various departments for administrative purposes. It runs various enterprises and when they result in increased output of goods and services, they lead to further increase in employment.
The various private enterprises that are linked to the government enterprises might also benefit from increased output of these enterprises and thus, increase their output and employment also. This way government indirectly also generates employment.

Question. Explain the supply-demand reversal of environmental resources.
Answer: Before the advent of industrial revolution, the rate of resource extraction was less than the rate of regeneration of these resources. But with expanding population and its growing needs, the demand for resources for both production and consumption went beyond the rate of regeneration of the resources. This has resulted in a reversal of supply-demand relationship for environmental resources as now there is very high demand for environmental resources and services, but their supply is limited due to overuse and misuse.

Question. Differentiate the six systems of Indian medicine?
Answer: The following are the six systems of medicines constituted by ISM (Indian Systems of Medicine) :
(i) Ayurveda : Ayurveda is one of the traditional systems of medicine that is still used in India. It is a holistic way to achieve health through body, mind and spirit. The ayurvedic practitioners recommend diet and lifestyle changes along with drug therapy. They have identified a number of medical preparations and surgical procedures for curing various ailments and diseases that are not completely curable in other medical systems. The methods of ayurveda such as applying herbs and massage can also be applied along with other systems.
(ii) Yoga : Yoga as an art organised and was practiced in India from thousand Years. It has references in ‘Upanishads’ and ‘Puranas’ composed by Indian Aryans in the vedic period. The main credit for systematising yoga goes to Patanjali who wrote ‘Yoga Sutra’, two thousand years ago. Yoga Sutra is the most important basic text on Yoga. 
(iv) Siddha : Siddha comes from the world Siddhi which means an object to attain perfection or heaven. This is the oldest among the Indian Medical systems namely Ayurveda and Unani. It is also known as Siddha Vaidya in India and also the oldest medical, system in the world. As nowadays, people’s preference to natural health remedies and herbal health remedies is increasing day by day Siddha has emerged as an important and unique system of Indian medicine when compared to other traditional medical systems in existence.
(v) Homeopathy and Naturopathy : Homeopathy consists of two words ‘Homeo’ meaning similar and ’Pathos’ meaning suffering or treatment. In this system, a drug and a disease that produce similar symptoms cancel each other. It is popular among the people due to its remarkable healing capacity. Also, its remedies are free from side effects. Naturopathy deals with the healing power of nature as it assumes that all healing powers are within our body. This means that within every human organism there is a healing energy. Naturopathy regards that when we go against nature only then we fall ill. ‘Fasting’ has been described as nature’s way to recover. A thorough rest that includes fasting is the most favourable condition in which an ailing body can purity and recover itself.

Question. Today development has become a burden on nature/environment’. Comment.
Answer: The present thinking with regard to relationship between nature and development is that there should be maximum exploitation of natural resources for development. As a result, people are using nature beyond its carrying capacity. Our present technology is creating a number of environmental problems. A number of non-degradable materials are being produced in present day through the production technology. Following are the some important reasons responsible for the heavy burden on nature :
(i) Rise in human population in underdeveloped countries.
(ii) Affluent consumption style in developed countries.
(iii) Misuse of production technology in almost all the countries and poor planning of development. As a result of above, there is a reckless use of resources creating negative effects on the society. The negative effects of development on nature are:
(i) Pollution
(ii) Degradation of resources According to second view, economic development improves environment quality. The discovery of new materials and sources not only use less of natural resources, but sometimes replace them. Thus, with economic development, degradation of environment decreases. From the above discussion, we find that relationship between environment and economic development is dynamic and complex. It is difficult to decide whether the economic development leads to degradation of environment or not. Undoubtedly, economic development leads to excessive extraction of natural resources and generation of pollutants, but it introduces new processes, materials and discoveries. We should be careful and ensure that the economic development should not damage the environment.

Question. How has the consumption pattern of energy changed over the years?
Answer: Commercial energy consumption makes up about 74% of the total energy consumed in India.
This includes coal with the largest share of 54%, followed by oil at 32%, natural gas at 10% and hydro energy at 2 %. The transport sector was the largest consumer of commercial energy in 1953- 54. However, there has been continuous fall in the share of the transport sector while the share of agriculture which was the lowest in 1953-54 at just 1 % has risen continuously to become 18 % in 2009-10 with progress in irrigation facilities and mechanisation of agriculture.
The share of household sector in energy consumption has more than doubled since, 1953- 54 to 2009-10. Share of industrial sector however, has not changed much since, 1953-54. After rising from 40 % in 1953-54 to 50 % in 1970-71, again came down to 45 % by 1990-91 and has remained constant since, then. There has been an overall increase in the use of energy with the rapid rate of economic growth.

Question. Compared to urban women, more rural women are found working. Why ?
Answer: The percentage of female workforce in the rural areas is nearly 30% while it is only 14% in the urban areas. This depicts that as compared to the urban women more rural women accounts for higher share in the female workforce. While on the one hand, the rural women are less educated, unskilled and low productive, on the other hand, urban women being more skilled and productive have higher probability to get employment.
Ironically, the urban female accounts for lesser share in the female workforce as compared to their rural counterparts. The following are the reasons for low share of urban females in the total female workforce: 
(i) As in the agricultural and allied activities high degree of skills and specialisations are not required. So, rural women engage themselves to support their family on farms. 
(ii) As poverty in the rural areas is more widespread than in the urban areas, so, the rural women engage themselves in low productive jobs just to support the livelihood of their families. 
(iii) As the urban family usually earn comparatively higher income than the rural families and further poverty in the urban areas is not as widespread as that of in the rural areas So, there is lesser need for female members to get themselves employed. 
(iv) The decision to take up jobs by the female members depends on the family rather than herself. 
(v) Although female literacy in India is improving, yet it has to get much better before urban female accounts for higher share in the total female workforce.

Question. Explain how investment in education stimulates economic growth.
Answer: Education stimulates economic growth as it :
(i) Eradicates skewed income distribution : Education not only increases the income earning capacity but also reduces the skewed distribution of income, thereby, forms an egalitarian society. 
(ii) Raises standard of living : Education enhances the income earning capacity of people, thereby, it raises the standard of living and also improves the quality of living.
(iii) One solution for other economic problems : The importance of education is not only limited to make people educated but also to facilitate an undeveloped economy to solve different but interrelated macro-economic problems like poverty, income inequality, population, investments, under-utilisation of resources. 
(iv) Increases the participation rate : It fosters economic development by increasing the participation of people in the process of growth and development. 
(v) Acceptability of modernisation : An educated public of a nation has greater acceptability of modernisation and modern techniques. This not only helps the economy to grow but also facilitates a primitive economy to break the shackles of tradition and backwardness.
(vi) Develops mental abilities : Education develops the mental abilities of people and helps them to make their choice rationally and intellectually. Education churns out good citizens by inculcating values in them.

Question. Disuss the reforms which have been initiated recently to meet the energy crisis in India ?
Answer: The following reforms have been initiated :
(i) Privatisation in power generation sector :
The government earlier had the monopoly in the generation and distribution of electricity.
Now, private sector has been given the rights to generate power. 
(ii) Privatisation in power transmission : The Indian government has approved Tata Power, Reliance Infrastructure and Powergrid Corporation of India for constructing transmission networks in joint venture.
(iii) Rationalisation of Tariff : Tariff rates have been revised upwards to discourage wasteful consumption of power and bring down the losses of SEBs.
(iv) Setting up regulatory mechanism : The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) along with State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has been established in 19 states under the Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act 1998, These commissions and authority regulate tariff, promote efficiency and competition.
(v) Promote the use of CFLs to conserve energy : A new and advanced lighting technology called the compact fluorescent lamp is a more efficient alternative to domestic energy consumption. According to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the Compact Fluorescent Lamps consume 80% less power as compared to ordinary bulbs.
(vi) Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) : APDRP has been initiated in the year 2000-01 with the motive of improving financial viability, reducing transmission and distribution losses and promoting transparency through computerisation.

Question. Explain carrying capacity of environment with examples.
Answer: Carrying capacity of the environment may be defined as the amount of natural resources which can be drawn from it and the maximum amount of pollutants that can be discharged without damaging it seriously. For example, crude petroleum, the source of petrol and diesel used in motor vehicles is available in limited supply. It cannot be reproduced again. With the present rate of use of these resources, will lead to the depletion of these resource within less than half a Century. Similarly, air pollution has created a problem of ozone depletion. Air pollution has developed a hole exposing human life to die dangerous ultraviolet rays of Sun. Hence, industrial development must be in accordance with the carrying capacity of environment.

Question. You are residing in a village. If you are asked to advice the village panchayat, what kind of activities would you suggest for the improvement of your village which would also generate employment.
Answer: The following are the suggestions that can generate employment opportunities in village :
(i) Increase production : It is of prime importance to increase production in the agricultural and industrial sectors in order to increase employment. For this purpose, small scale and cottage industries should be promoted. This will not only generate new employment opportunities but also assist the industrial sector, as the production of the small scale and cottage industries act as subsidiaries to the industrial sector.
(ii) Increase productivity : The demand and productivity for labour are directly related to each other. Rural workers should be imparted technical knowledge and modern know-how that will not only increase their productivity but also enhance their acceptability of modernisation. 
(iii) Control over population : Population explosion is one of the important concerns for India. Rural people should be aware of various birth control measures and also the benefits associated with family planning and nuclear-family. 
(iv) Creating non-agricultural employment : India being an agrarian economy employs a major proportion of workforce in the agricultural sector. The development of this sector is still a far way and, consequently, suffers from disguised unemployment. Moreover, as agriculture is a seasonal occupation, so, many farmers remain unemployed for 3 to 4 months in a year. Thus, it is necessary to engage these people in non-agricultural sectors for the phase they are off from cultivation. Creation of non-agricultural jobs like pottery, handicrafts, not only reduces disguised unemployment but also contributes to enhanced income of the farmers in the off-season, which could be invested in the farm to improve farm productivity and farm products. 
(v) Easy credit and finance : The lack of credit acts as a bottleneck for the rural growth. Thus, financial institutions and banks should be set up to provide easy credit to the rural people. 
(vi) Education and health facilities : Along with primary and secondary schools, night schools for adults, imparting technical education and technical know-how, proper sanitation and hospitals should be established in the rural areas.

Question. Discuss the need for promoting women’s education in India.
Answer: Women have always been neglected when it comes to education in India. The access to education has always been biased towards male population due to our social system which is patriarchal. The lack of education has caused exploitation of women and has resulted in a lower social status of women in India. There is an imminent need for promoting female education in India, because of the following reasons :
(i) Women education is essential for providing them economic independence and empowering them to save them from exploitation and domestic violence.
(ii) Women education is essential in order to raise the social status of women so that the quality of life of women can be improved.
(iii) Educating woman helps in promoting family welfare programmes and thus, in population control.
(iv) Educated woman are aware of the importance of health care and thus, take proper care of their family members contributing in human capital formation.
(v) Educating a woman means educating a family. An educated woman can inculcate moral values in her children and can facilitate their education.

Question. State any four pressing environmental concerns of India. ROR Correction for environment damages involves op-portunity costs. Explain.
Answer: Four pressing environmental concerns of India are:
(i) Land degradation : Land in India suffers from varying degrees and types of degradation stemming, mainly from unsuitable use and inappropriate management practices. 
(ii) Bio-diversity loss : In India, the per capita forest land is only 0.08 hectare against the requirement of 0.47 hectare to meet basic needs, resulting in an excess falling of about 15 million cubic meters forests over the permissible limits. Similarly, soil is being eroded at a rate of 5.3 billion tonnes a year for the entire country, as a result of which, the country loses 0.8 million tonnes of nitrogen, 1.8 million tonnes of phosphorus and 26.3 million tonnes of potassium every year.
(iii) Management of fresh water : In our country management of fresh water is altogether faulty. Unplanned urbanisation, loss of rain water (as it seeps into the earth), faulty systems of waste disposal are responsible for polluted water. 
(iv) Air Pollution : Air pollution is very dangerous for plants, animals and human beings. It is a serious concern mainly in urban areas where the dust and smoke emitted by factories, vehicles etc. pollute the environment very badly.
In order to rectify these problems, the government has to undertake such projects which involve heavy investment. Hence, it is said that opportunity costs of correcting the imbalances created by environmental degradation is quite high.

Question. In your view, is it essential for the government to regulate the fees structure in education and health care institutions? If so, why?
Answer: (i) Education and health sectors are the two key sectors responsible for the formation of good quality human capital. The development of these two sectors are emphasised by almost all the less developed countries.
(ii) In India, expenditures on both education and health sectors are carried out by all the three tiers of the government and also by private institutions. While, private institutions are guided by market and profit motive, the public institutions are guided by the main motive of rendering services and to enhance human capital.
(iii) As the cost of education and health facilities provided by the private institutions is higher, so it is difficult for the majority of the population to avail these services because of their economic inability. Thus, it is very important for the government to provide quality education and health facilities to this section of the population.
(iv) As the Indian constitution counts right to free education and medical facilities as the fundamental right of citizens, So it is the responsibility of the government to provide education and health services to all, moreover, the private institutions are unable to reach the remote and rural areas where people lack initiative for education and health. In this context, the role of government is to encourage them and to make them aware of the advantages of education and health.
(v) There are some underprivileged sections of population like ST, SC, OBC, the interests of whose can only be protected by the interference of the government.
(vi) The people as individual consumers do not have complete information about the quality of services and the related costs. This often leads to the exploitation of people. Hence, the government intervention in health and education sector to regulate the fees structure is must in order to enhance the quality of human capital.

Question. Discuss the main drawbacks of health care systems.
Answer: In recent years, India has embarked upon the development of vast health infrastructure. This is evident from the fall in the death rate, infant mortality rate, life expectancy. But more need to be done in the field of health care. The following are some of the deficiencies in the Indian health care :
(i) Unequal distribution of health care services: The health care services are unequally distributed across rural and urban areas. Rural areas that supports 70% of the population, has only half of the hospitals. Further, the doctor-population ratio is as worse as : 2,000. This implies that for every 2,000 people, there is only one doctor in India. Only half of the dispensaries are set up in villages, Most of the health care facilities have been confined mostly to the urban areas.
(ii) Communicable diseases : Various communicable diseases like AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), HIV (Human Immune deficiency Virus), and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) have made their way to India. All these deadly disease pose serious threat to human capital reserve, thereby, impeding economic growth.
(iii) Poor management : The health care centres lack trained and skilled personnels in the rural areas. Therefore, rural people have to rush to the urban health care centres. This becomes worse in the absence of proper roads and other cost effective means of transportation.
(iv) Lack of modern facilities and techniques : The government health centres are usually devoid of the basic facilities like blood testing, X-Rays etc. These centres lack modern techniques and medical facilities like CT Scan, sonography etc. in order to avail these services people need to depend on the private hospitals that charge exorbitant fees.

Question. What should be the main elements of employment policy in India in the present context ?
Answer: Following should be the main elements of employment policy in India in the present context:
(i) The employment policy should emphasis on both fuller and more productive employment.
(ii) Employment policy must have the objective of higher rate of capital formation.
(iii) Employment should be generated in the normal process or development.
(iv) Employment policy should give more emphasis on self employment.
(v) Measures should be taken to increase employment opportunities for women.
(vi) Emergence of destablishing disproportions in the economy should be avoided through greater efficiency in planning.
(vii) There should be an effective reform of the educational system. Emphasis should be on vocational and technical knowledge.
(viii) Cottage industries should be promoted to reduce seasonal unemployment.

Question. Explain relevance of inter-generational equity in the definition of sustainable development.
Answer: Sustainable development in itself makes it obligatory for the development process to be such that the basic needs of not only the present generation, but also of the future generations are taken care of. It becomes the moral duty of this generation to handover the earth to the future generation in good form. Therefore, if the resources are overused or misused, they will deplete so fast that the production capacity of the future generations would not be sustainable. Sustainable development aims at maximising the welfare of both present and future generations. It does not mean hindering the existing pace of economic growth, but refers to a judicious or optimum utilisation of resources in such a manner that pace of economic growth sustains with inter generational equity.

Question. How has women’s health become a matter of concern?
Answer: Women constitute about half the total population in India. They suffer many disadvantages as compared to men in the areas of education, participation in economic activities and healthcare. The child sex ratio has been detonated from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011. There is growing incidence of female foeticide in the country. Close to 300,000 girls under the age of 15 are not only married but have already borne children, at least once. More than 50 % of married women between the age group of 15 and 49 years suffer from anaemia caused by iron deficiency. It has contributed to 19 % of maternal deaths. Abortions are major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in India So, it is very close that women’s health has become a matter of concern.

Question. Is environmental crisis a recent phenomenon? If so, why?
Answer: Yes, environmental crisis is a recent phenomenon. The environment has been able to perform its functions without any interruption till the resource extraction was not above the rate of regeneration of the resource and the wastes generated were within the assimilating capacity of the environment. But today, environment fails to perform its third and vital function of life sustenance resulting in an environmental crisis. The rising population of the developing countries and the affluent consumption and production standards of the developed world have placed a huge stress on the environment in terms of its first two functions. Many resources have become extinct and the wastes generated are beyond the absorptive capacity of the environment. As a result, we are today at the threshold of environmental crisis.

Question. Highlight any two serious adverse environmental consequences of development in India.
OR
India’s environmental problems pose a dichotomy-They are poverty induced and at the same time due to affluence in living standards—Is this true?
Answer: Two serious problems caused by environmental degradation in India are :
(i) Water Contamination
(ii) Poverty (i) Water Contamination : Development in India has taken a heavy price from the Indian society. In a hurry to develop the industrial sector, the businessmen and the government has forgotten to take the preventive measures for the waste disposal. The government has made rules and regulations, but in the absence of their strict implementation, our country has to face many environmental problems, water contamination is one of them. Water contamination has not only given birth to many water borne diseases but also has affected aqua-animals adversely. 
(ii) Poverty : The industrial revolution has made the rich more richer and poor more poorer. The reason behind this situation is poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. We are one of the ten most industrialised nations of the world but this situation has brought with it unwanted and unanticipated consequences of unplanned urbanisation, pollution, poverty, increasing level of under unemployment and disguised unemployment. Yes, India’s environmental problems pose a dichotomy. They are poverty induced and at the same time, due to affluence in living standards as development activities in India resulting in prosperity of Indian economic & its infrastructure as well as creating threat of pollution due to rapidly growing development activities.