NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Economics Chapter - 1 Development

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

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

 (iv) all the above

(ii) Sri Lanka

(iv) Rs 6000

Per Capita Income is the main criterion used by the World Bank in classifying different countries. The limitations of this criterion are:

• It doesn’t show the distribution of income.

• It also ignores other factors such as infant mortality rate, literacy level, healthcare, etc.

The World Bank only uses per capita income for measuring development while UNDP uses many other factors like infant mortality and healthcare facility education level which help in improving the quality of life and in making the citizens more productive.

We use averages because they are useful for comparing differing quantities of the same category. For example, to compute the per capita income of a country, averages have to be used because there are differences in the incomes of diverse people. However, there are limitations to the use of averages. This does not show the distribution of things between people. For example, if a country has a very high per capita income then we can’t say that citizens living in that country are very rich because we do not know about the distribution of wealth in that country. Some people might be richer while other people are very poor in that country.

 The present sources of energy that are used by the people of India are electricity, coal, crude oil, cow dung, and solar energy. Other possibilities fifty years from now, could include ethanol, bio-diesel, nuclear energy, and better utilisation of wind energy, especially with the imminent danger of oil resources running out.

A few examples of environmental degradation:

• Deforestation

• Soil erosion

• Falling levels of groundwater

• Depletion of the ozone layer and combustion from automobiles causing extreme

• air pollution

• Water Pollution

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

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

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

Bangladesh

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

Pakistan

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

a.The nutritional status of the populace of Kerala is superior to that of Madhya Pradesh.

b.Despite claims that there is enough food in the nation, one-fifth of the population suffers from undernourishment for the following reasons:

• The difference in food grain distribution through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

• The impoverished people in the nation cannot afford wholesome meals.

• People with lower levels of education experience unemployment, which makes it difficult for them to pay for food, which is a basic need.

• At the fixed-price stores, the ration is not distributed properly.

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