Back to: MBOSE Social Science Class 10

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?

Income of the fourth family 

= Average per capita income X number of families – Sum of income of three families.

= Rs 5000 X4 – (Rs 4000 + Rs 7000 + Rs 3000)

=Rs 20,000 – Rs 14,000

= Rs 6000

Development does not have the same meaning. Each individual has his/ her own goals or aspiration
(a) Development for a farmer might be proper irrigation facilities.
(b) For an urban youth, it may be employment.
(c) For a landless labourer, it may be land or better wages in minimum time.
(d) For a girl, it might mean gender equality or more freedom.

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

• People need proper respect from the society to improve better.
• They also need proper sanitation facilities to stay healthy and focus on their work.
• And also they need better education facilities for the education of their children.

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

• Average income of two Countries.
• Average speed of two vehicles over a distance.
• Average height of the students in two different classes of a school.

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

• Average income gives us an idea what an average person is likely to get out of the total national income.
• Average income is used to classify the countries into rich, poor or developing nations.
• Average income is used to make economic policies.

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

• Not only per capita income but also homogeneity or equity of performance should be reflected while comparing two or more societies.
• If a society has higher per capita income but much of it’s income is with a small group, then it cannot reflect the development of the society.
• Similarly, when society has little less per capita income but inequality is quite less and almost all sections of the society contribute to the income, it reflects inclusiveness and real development.

We cannot conclude that all sections of the economy have become better, just because records shows that average income in a country has been increasing over a period of time. This is because , Different sections of the economy may have become worse or better. In India at the current situation average income has increased every year, the service sector has increased very much, but there is not much growth in agriculture or in income of the agricultural labourers.

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

India cannot become a developed country unless and until it controls over population, poverty, unemployment , corruption , criminal rates, democracy and many such problems and evils.  India is one of the filthiest country in the world. Even water and food are unsafe. More than half of the people do not have toilets. According to survey, most of the Indian people follow the religion and caste system, causing war, terrorism and lack of nationalism. So. India cannot become a developed country without transformation in the economy of the country.

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

The World Banks uses the per capita income to classify different countries. The per capita income is calculated by dividing the total income of the country by the population of the country. For the year 2017, the countries with per capita income of US $ 12,056 per annum income declared rich counties and the countries with per capita income of US $ 355 or less are called low income countries. The limitations of the criteria are:

• It covers only the economic aspect ignoring, peace, health, environment, education, longevity etc.
• The method does not provide us the distribution of income.

World Bank only relies on a single factor, i.e, per capita income for measuring economic development where as UMDP takes into account many other factors like infant mortality, health care facility education level which help aids in improving the quality of life and helps in making the citizens more productive. India was ranked 135 amongst other countries as per HDI- 2014.

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

We use average because they are useful for comparing differing quantities of same category. However there are limitations to use the averages. Even though they are useful for comparison, they may also hide disparities. For example suppose in a country the annual income of a vegetable vendor is Rs 50000, while an MNC employee earns an annual package of Rs 6 lakh. The average income of this country, therefore, will be Rs 325000. Both the individuals have a big difference in income but the average gives a misleading picture. The actual income remains unknown. One can clearly consider this as a rich country there by ignoring the income disparity between two individuals. Averages are useful for comparision , they also hide disparities.

Kerala, with lower per capita income has a better human development ranking than Haryana. Hence, per capita income is not a useful criterion at all and should not be used to compare states. Do you agree? Discuss.

Kerala, with lower per capita income has a better human development ranking than Haryana. Hence, per capita income is not a useful criterion at all and should not be used to compare states. This is true because the literacy rate, infant mortality rate. Healthcare facilities etc are better in Kerala in comparison to Haryana. The per capita is only calculated by calculating the average income of the state, irrespective of any other factor.

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

The present sources of energy used by people in India include firewood, coal, petroleum, crude oil, natural gas cow dung and Solar energy.  Currently the consumption of energy in India is too high in comparision to its production and reserves. India’s known reserves of oil would last about 30-40 years only and it is necessary to used them wisely. The other possibilities fifty years from now can be using solar energy, wind energy ,nuclear energy, geothermal energy , hydroelectric energy , tidal energy , bio mass energy and bio-diesal specially with the danger of oil resources running out.

Why is the issue of sustainability important for development?

Sustainability indicates the maintenance of good standards of health and education for the people of the country over a long period of time. Sustainable development seeks to increase economic welfare of the future generation. It has following features

• Improved standard of living of the people.
• High economic growth.
• Efficiency.
• Productivity
• Removal of poverty.
• Environmental protection.

The issue of sustainability important for development.

• Suppose presently a particular country is quite developed. We would certainly like this level of development to go up further or at least be maintained for future generations.
• Since the second half of the 20^th century, a number of scientists have been warning that the type and level of the development are not sustainable.
• Ground water is an example or renewable resource. But if we use more than what is replenished by nature, and then we would be overusing this resource.

Once non renewable resources would be exhausted; we won’t be able to use them in future. So using the resources judiciously will help in maintaining the sustainability of development of our ecosystem.

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

The statement “The Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one person” was given by the Indian National Leader Mahatma Gandhi as the natural resources made by the earth is over used in the  need to development.

Earth provides enough resources to meet the needs of all but the present generation has become greedy and uses everything for their own progress , like deforestation, indiscriminate  use of fuels , petroleum, coals and chemicals etc. So, if we want to make our earth developed we must generate more resources not to fulfill our greeds only by the natural resources we must generate many artificial resources as well as which can be helpful for our next generations.

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

• Pollution caused by Vehicles and the excess use of fuels in vehicles causing extreme air pollution and depletion of the ozone layer.
• Industrial waste collected in residential areas and discarded into water bodies.
• Deforestation
• Mining
• Soil Erosion
• Decrease in levels of ground water.