CSP 2015 IndEconomy Key Test 1 dt 30.11.2014

CSP 2015 IndEconomy  Key Test 1 dt 30.11.2014

1.	B	21.	C	41.	A	61.	a
2.	A	22.	B	42.	D	62.	d
3.	A	23.	C	43.	B	63.	d
4.	C	24.	B	44.	A	64.	a
5.	A	25.	B	45.	D	65.	a
6.	A	26.	C	46.	D	66.	c
7.	C	27.	D	47.	B	67.	a
8.	B	28.	C	48.	C	68.	b
9.	A	29.	B	49.	C	69.	d
10.	A	30.	C	50.	C	70.	a
11.	A	31.	A	51.	B	71	b
12.	C	32.	D	52.	C	72	b
13.	B	33.	B	53.	b	73	b
14.	A	34.	B	54.	a	74	d
15.	A	35.	B	55.	c	75	a
16.	B	36.	A	56.	d	76	d
17.	B	37.	C	57.	d	77	c
18.	A	38.	D	58.	d	78	c
19.	D	39.	C	59.	b	79	b
20.	D	40.	C	60.	b	80	c

Explanation

1. The erstwhile Planning Commission was a non-constitutional and non-statutory body created by a “Cabinet Resolution”. It is scrapped also by a cabinet resolution. 

3. Gandhi believed in decentralization and not centralization. Hence, answers is A.

8. During 11^th FYP [2007 to 2012], 8% growth has been achieved during the plan period as against the target of 9%. This is the highest ever in a FYP in India so far. This shall not be confused with the growth rate achieved in a particular year, but for an entire plan period.

10. The West has used the term, “Hindu Growth of rate”, to describe the low growth rate of India during the seventies and eighties due to implementation of socialistic mode of planning. The term is nothing to do with growth around 3 to 4%. It is used in the context of contentment of India with low growth rate though the potential is huge if they follow economic reforms and shun the socialistic model followed by the India from Soviet Union.

12. This kind of questions look simple, but they are difficult to answer. You have to follow a simple technique of elimination based on the basic duty of each and every organization.  Say for example, Finance Commission’s duty is to make recommendations on the sharing of taxable resources between Centre and States, not planning. The NDC approves the 5Y plans and highest body in India in this matter. The Ministries implement the plans and not involved in the Planning of India at National level and the Parliament has to approve the Budget which consists of all the planned schemes and discuss the use of these programmes for welfare of the people of India and therefore has role in the Planning of the Country. You can see the options also and eliminate easy ones, you would find the answer. 

13 to 15, 18 and 20.Monitorable Targets of the 12^th Plan:

Twenty Five core indicators listed below reflect the vision of rapid, sustainable & more

Inclusive growth of the twelfth Plan:

Economic Growth

1. Real GDP Growth Rate of 8.0 per cent.

2. Agriculture Growth Rate of 4.0 per cent.

3. Manufacturing Growth Rate of 10.0 per cent.

4. Every State must have an average growth rate in the Twelfth Plan preferably higher

than that achieved in the Eleventh Plan.

Poverty and Employment

5. Head-count ratio of consumption poverty to be reduced by 10 percentage points

over the preceding estimates by the end of Twelfth FYP.

6. Generate 50 million new work opportunities in the non-farm sector and provide skill

certification to equivalent numbers during the Twelfth FYP.

Education

7. Mean Years of Schooling to increase to seven years by the end of Twelfth FYP.

8. Enhance access to higher education by creating two million additional seats for each

age cohort aligned to the skill needs of the economy.

9. Eliminate gender and social gap in school enrolment (that is, between girls and

boys, and between SCs, STs, Muslims and the rest of the population) by the end of

Twelfth FYP.

Health

10. Reduce IMR to 25 and MMR to 1 per 1,000 live births, and improve Child Sex Ratio

(0–6 years) to 950 by the end of the Twelfth FYP.

11. Reduce Total Fertility Rate to 2.1 by the end of Twelfth FYP.

12. Reduce under-nutrition among children aged 0–3 years to half of the NFHS-3 levels

by the end of Twelfth FYP.

Infrastructure, Including Rural Infrastructure

13. Increase investment in infrastructure as a percentage of GDP to 9 per cent by the

end of Twelfth FYP.

14. Increase the Gross Irrigated Area from 90 million hectare to 103 million hectare by

the end of Twelfth FYP.

15. Provide electricity to all villages and reduce AT&C losses to 20 per cent by the end

of Twelfth FYP.

16. Connect all villages with all-weather roads by the end of Twelfth FYP.

17. Upgrade national and state highways to the minimum two-lane standard by the end

of Twelfth FYP.

18. Complete Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors by the end of Twelfth

FYP.

19. Increase rural tele-density to 70 per cent by the end of Twelfth FYP.

20. Ensure 50 per cent of rural population has access to 40 lpcd piped drinking water

supply, and 50 per cent gram panchayats achieve Nirmal Gram Status by the end of

Twelfth FYP.

Environment and Sustainability

21. Increase green cover (as measured by satellite imagery) by 1 million hectare every

year during the Twelfth FYP.

22. Add 30,000 MW of renewable energy capacity in the Twelfth Plan

23. Reduce emission intensity of GDP in line with the target of 20 per cent to 25 per

cent reduction over 2005 levels by 2020.

Service Delivery

24. Provide access to banking services to 90 per cent Indian households by the end of

Twelfth FYP.

25. Major subsidies and welfare related beneficiary payments to be shifted to a direct

cash transfer by the end of the Twelfth Plan, using the Aadhar platform with linked bank

accounts.

17. Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan [NBA]:

The main objectives of the NBA are as under:

·         Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas.

·         Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Nirmal Bharat by 2022 with all gram Panchayats in the country attaining Nirmal status.

·         Motivate communities and Panchayati Raj Institutions promoting sustainable sanitation facilities through awareness creation and health education.

·         To cover the remaining schools not covered under SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) and AnganwadiCentres in the rural areas with proper sanitation facilities and undertake proactive promotion of hygiene education and sanitary habits among students.

·         Encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.

·         Develop community managed environmental sanitation systems focusing on solid & liquid waste management for overall cleanliness in the rural areas.

21 and 24. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation came into existence as an Independent Ministry during 15.10.1999.  [It was made by merging Department of Statistics and the Department of Programme Implementation.]  The Ministry has two wings, one relating to Statistics and the other Programme Implementation. The Statistics Wing called the National Statistical Office (NSO) consists of the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the Computer Centre and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).

The Programme Implementation Wing has three Divisions, namely, (i) Twenty Point Programme (ii) Infrastructure Monitoring and Project Monitoring and (iii) Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.

Ø  The CSO is one of the two wings of the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) and is responsible for coordination of statistical activities in the country and for evolving and maintaining statistical standards. It releases the advance estimates of National Income. Its activities include compilation of National Accounts; conduct of Annual Survey of Industries and Economic Censuses, compilation of Index of Industrial Production, as well as Consumer Price Indices. It also deals with various social statistics, training, international cooperation, Industrial Classification etc.

Ø  The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) is one of the wings of NSO. It is the largest organisation in India conducting surveys on socio-economic, demographic, agricultural and industrial subjects for collecting data from households and from enterprises located in villages and in the towns. It is a focal agency of the Govt. of India for collection of statistical data in the areas which are vital for developmental planning. It was established in 1950. NSSO has 4 divisions, 1. Survey Design and Research Division (SDRD); 2. Field Operations Division (FOD); 3. Data Processing Division (DPD) and Co-ordination and Publication Division (CPD)

National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) [Established in 1956] is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research institute, committed to assisting the government, civil society and the private sector to make informed policy choices. NCAER’s research priorities include rural development, household behaviour, growth, trade, and economic management. In its mid-year review of the economy, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has lowered its 2014-15 growth forecast for India to 5 per cent. In July, the think-tank had put out a growth forecast of 5.7 per cent. 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture. It is the apex body for co-ordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country. With 100 ICAR institutes and 70 agricultural universities spread across the country this is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world.The ICAR has played a pioneering role in ushering Green Revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development that has enabled the country to increase the production of foodgrains by 5 times, horticultural crops by 9.5 times, fish by 12.5 times, milk 7.8 times and eggs 39 times since 1951 to 2014, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security. It has played a major role in promoting excellence in higher education in agriculture. It is engaged in cutting edge areas of science and technology development and its scientists are internationally acknowledged in their fields.

32. India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 17% of the GDP and employed 51% of the total workforce in 2012. As Indian economy has diversified and grown, agriculture's contribution to GDP has steadily declined from 1951 to 2011, yet it is still the largest employment source and a significant piece of the overall socio-economic development of India. Industry accounts for 26% of GDP and employs 22% of the total workforce. India's services sector has the largest share in the GDP, accounting for 57% in 2012, up from 15% in 1950. It is the 12th largest in the world by nominal GDP, and fourth largest when purchasing power is taken into account. The services sector provides employment to 27% of the work force. Information technology and business process outsourcing are among the fastest-growing sectors, having a cumulative growth rate of revenue 33.6% between 1997 and 1998 and 2002–03 and contributing to 25% of the country's total exports in 2007–08

34. India is going to be most populous country by 2050, not by 2040 and will house 19.4% of the world’s population in it by 2050. The area of land under cultivation or arable land in India is largest in the world with 51% of the area is under cultivation. The percentage of land under cultivation in USA is 18%, China 16% and Canada at 5%, all the countries which are geographically bigger than India. India accounts for a meager 2.4% of the earth’s geographical area, yet it supporting 17.5% of the World population as per 2011 census.

36. The expert panel headed by former RBI governor C. Rangarajanhas fixed a new poverty figures during December, 2014. Those spending over Rs.32 a day in rural areas [Rs.972 a month] and Rs.47 [Rs.1,407 a month] in towns and cities should not be considered poor.

41. Green Gross Domestic Product is the index of the Economic growth of a particular country which enshrines the environment consequences of the economic growth. It doesn’t mean monetary value of the Forests or the growth of Green Investments. It means that it accounts the monetized loss of biodiversity, costs caused by climate change.

·         Green GDP is conventional gross domestic product figures adjusted for the environmental costs of economic activities. It's a measure of how a country is prepared for sustainable economic development. 

This means that GDP may have some indicators such as Waste per capita or CO₂emissions growth/ decline.

·         It was China which announced as early as 2004 that a Green GDP with Chinese GDP Index will be released. China, a pioneer in the factoring in costs of environmental degradation into economic growth estimates, first published its green GDP data for the year 2004 in 2006.

But it is India which has given the most promising national activity on the Green GDP. In 2009, India's Environmental Minister, Jairam Ramesh had announced that "It is possible for scientists to estimate green GDP" As a consequent to this, an exercise was started under the country's chief statistician Pronab Sen. India's GDP numbers will be adjusted with economic costs of environmental degradation by 2015.

47, 49, 59 and others:

Ø  Frictional Unemployment - This type of unemployment occurs because of workers who are voluntarily changing between jobs. Some are looking for better jobs. Due to a lack of perfect information, it takes times to search for the better job. Others may be moving to a different geographical location for personal reasons and time must be spent searching for a new position.

Ø  Structural Unemployment - Changes occur in market economies such that demand increases for some jobs skills while other job skills become outmoded and are no longer in demand. For example, the invention of concrete mixtures increased demand for them among the builders and contractors and decreased the demand for daily concrete mixing labors.  Similarly, frequent use of tractor for tilling in India has reduced demand for those ploughing labors with oxen in rural India.

Ø  Cyclical Unemployment - This occurs due to downturns in overall business activity.
As previously noted, full employment does not equate to zero unemployment. Some unemployment is normal in a market economy and is actually expected as part of an efficient labor market. Full employment is defined as the level of employment that occurs when unemployment is normal, taking into account structural and frictional factors.

Ø  The natural rate of unemployment is that amount of unemployment that occurs naturally due to imperfect information and job shopping. It is the rate of unemployment that is expected when an economy is operating at full capacity. At this time in the U.S., the natural rate of unemployment is considered to be about 5%.

Ø  Disguised un-employment: If a person doesn’t contribute anything in the production process or in other words, if he can be removed from the work without affecting the productivity adversely, he will be treated as disguisedly unemployed. The marginal productivity of such unemployed person is zero. Agriculture sector of underdeveloped/developing economies possess this type of un-employment at a large scale. 

Ø  A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth or a significant decline in national economic activity that lasts more than just a few months. A depression is a severe economic catastrophe in which real gross domestic product (GDP) falls by at least 10%. A depression is much more severe than a recession and the effects of a depression can last for years. It is known to cause calamities in banking, trade and manufacturing, as well as falling prices, very tight credit, low investment, rising bankruptcies and high unemployment.

57. Poverty gap is the mean shortfall from the poverty line (counting the non-poor as having zero shortfall), expressed as a percentage of the poverty line. This measure reflects the depth of poverty as well as its incidence. The Poverty Gap Index is a measure of the intensity of poverty. The Poverty line is taken consumption of goods and services at $.1.25 per day on Purchase power Parity [PPP] basis. It is also defined as the average poverty gap in the population as a proportion of the poverty line. The poverty gap index is an improvement over the poverty measure headcount ratio which simply counts all the people below a poverty line, in a given population, and considers them equally poor. Poverty gap index estimates the depth of poverty by considering how far, on the average, the poor are from that poverty line. The poverty gap index, sometimes referred to as poverty gap ratio or PG index is defined as average of the ratio of the poverty gap to the poverty line. It is expressed as a percentage of the poverty line for a country or region

The Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum. The 2013 report covers 136 major and emerging economies. The Global Gender Gap Index is an index designed to measure of gender equality.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was developed in 2010 by Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative and the United Nations Development Programme^[1] and uses different factors to determine poverty beyond income-based lists. It replaced the previous Human Poverty Index.

The MPI is an index of acute multidimensional poverty. It shows the number of people who are multidimensionally poor (suffering deprivations in 33.33% of weighted indicators) and the number of deprivations with which poor households typically contend.

The index uses the same three dimensions as the Human Development Index: health, education, and standard of living. These are measured using ten indicators.

Dimension	Indicators
Health	·         Child Mortality ·         Nutrition
Education	·         Years of school ·         Children enrolled
Living Standards	·         Cooking fuel ·         Toilet ·         Water ·         Electricity ·         Floor ·         Assets

Each dimension and each indicator within a dimension is equally weighted.

The Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum. The 2013 report covers 136 major and emerging economies. The Global Gender Gap Index is an index designed to measure of gender equality. The report examines four critical areas of inequality between men and women in 130 economies around the globe, over 93% of the world’s population:

·         Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment

·         Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education

·         Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures

·         Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio. In this case parity is not assumed, there are assumed to be less female births than male (944 female for every 1,000 males), and men are assumed to die younger. Provided that women live at least six percent longer than men parity is assumed, if it is less than six percent it counts as a gender gap.^[4]

Thirteen out of the fourteen variables used to create the index are from publicly available "hard data" indicators from international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization

64. The Millennium Development Goals are 1. to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2. to achieve universal primary education; 3. to promote gender equality and empowering women; 4. to reduce child mortality rates; 5. to improve maternal health; 6. to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; 7. to ensure environmental sustainability and 8. to develop a global partnership for development. [This is very important for Mains 2015, especially implementation of MDGs. Critically evaluate the implementation of MDGs?]

65. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN organization. The work of the UNFPA involves promotion of the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. This is done through major national and demographic surveys and with population censuses. The data generated are used to create programmes to reduce poverty and address issues concerning the rights of particular minority population groups. One of their aims is to ensure that "every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect".^[1] Their work involves the improvement of reproductive health; including creation of national strategies and protocols, and providing supplies and services to these minority groups, as well as internal migrants and refugees, the elderly and the handicapped. The organization has recently been known for its worldwide campaign against obstetric fistula and female genital mutilation.

The UNFPA supports programs in more than 150 countries, territories and areas spread across four geographic regions: Arab States and Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. Around three quarters of the staff work in the field. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and part of its Executive Committee

68 and 69. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes data as per 2011 census

State with highest proportion of Scheduled Castes	Punjab (28.9 %)
State with lowest proportion of Scheduled Castes	Mizoram (0.03 %)
UT with highest proportion of Scheduled Castes	Chandigarh (17.5%)
UT with lowest proportion of Scheduled Castes	D & N Haveli (1.9% )
District with highest proportion of Scheduled Castes	Koch-Bihar (50.1%)
District with lowest proportion of Scheduled Castes	Lawngtlai Mizoram (0.01%)
Scheduled Tribes
State with highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes	Mizoram ( 94.5 % )
State with lowest proportion of Scheduled Tribes	Goa (0.04 %)
UT with highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes	Lakshadweep (94.5 %)
UT with lowest proportion of Scheduled Tribes	A & N Islands (8.3 %)
District with highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes	Sarchhip, Mizoram ( 98.1%)
District with lowest proportion of Scheduled Tribes	Hathras, Uttar Pradesh (0.01%)

Broadly the STs inhabit two distinctgeographical area – the Central Indiaand the North- Eastern Area. More thanhalf of the Scheduled Tribe populationis concentrated in Central India, i.e.,Madhya Pradesh (14.69%), Chhattisgarh(7.5%), Jharkhand (8.29%), AndhraPradesh (5.7%), Maharashtra (10.08%),Orissa (9.2%), Gujarat (8.55%) andRajasthan (8.86%). The other distinctarea is the North East (Assam, Nagaland,Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura,Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh).

70. The total fertility rate (TFR), sometimes also called the fertility rate, period total fertility rate (PTFR) or total period fertility rate (TPFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if:

1.   She were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and

2.   She were to survive from birth through the end of her reproductive life

An alternative fertility measure is the net reproduction rate (NRR), which measures the number of daughters a woman would have in her lifetime if she were subject to prevailing age-specific fertility and mortality rates in the given year. 

A world map showing countries by total fertility rate (TFR), according to the CIA World Fact book's 2013 data.

77. With over 11 million of its residents in slums, Maharashtra has the highest slum population; 4.6 million of them in ‘identified’ slums. Andhra Pradesh follows with over 10 million in slums, and West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have over 6 million slum residents each. Over 1 million of Delhi’s 1.7 million slum residents live in ‘identified’ slums. Slum Population in Mumbai - The financial capital of India known as Mumbai is home to estimated 6.5 million slum people. Nearly half of Mumbai's Population lives in small shacks surrounded by open sewers. Nearly 55% of Mumbai's population lives in Slum areas.These slum families have a far better child sex ratio than the urban Indian average.

Slum Population in Delhi - After Mumbai, Delhi has the second largest slum Population in India. Nearly 1.8 million people lives in slum areas in capital of India - New Delhi. These people are mostly unemployed or daily wage workers who cannot even afford basic necessities of life.

79. The National Commission on Population works under the Department of Health and Family Welfare. The ex-officio chairman of the commission is the PM of India.

The mandate of the commission is

·         to review, monitor and give direction for implementation of the National Population Policy with the view to achieve the goals set in the Population Policy

·         promote synergy between health, educational environmental and developmental programmes so as to hasten population stabilization

·         promote inter sectoral coordination in planning and implementation of the programmes through different sectors and agencies in center and the states

·         develop a vigorous peoples programme to support this national effort

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