Key Concepts: Development | Social Studies (SST) Class 10 PDF Download

What Development Promises: Different Peoples & Goals

• Different people can have different developmental goals
• What may be development for one may not be development for the other person. It may even be destructive for the other.

Economic Development of India

Income and Other Goals

• Development is the sum total of income plus quality of life. Besides seeking more income one way or another, people also seek things like equal treatment, freedom, security, respect for others.
• Different people have different goals in their life. What may be development for one may not be developed for another. This can be understood by the following: 
  Example: To get more electricity, an industrialist may want more dams. But this may submerge the land and disrupt the lives of people who are displaced, such as tribes.
• One common thing among all people is the desire for more income. With this income, they buy goods and services for their daily needs. Quality of life depends on non-material things also.
  Example: A job may give you less pay but may offer regular employment that enhances your sense of security.

National Development

• Ideas of development differ at an individual and national level.
  Example: A landless rural labourer may desire more days of work and better wages at the individual level, but at the national level, he may want a good education and health facilities in the local area.

How to Compare Different Countries or States?

• The average income can be calculated by dividing national income by the population. It is also called per capita income.The standard of living of people in a country depends on their per capita income. 
• Countries with higher per capita income are more developed than others with less per capita income.
• Education and health also play an important role in the country’s development.
  To know about other criteria we should be familiar with some terms:
  (a) Infant Mortality Rate (IMF): It indicates the number of children who die before the age of one year, as a proportion of 1000 live children born in that particular year.
  (b) Literacy Rate: It measures the proportion of the literate population in the 7 and above age group.
  (c) Net Attendance Ratio: It is the total number of children of age group 6-10 attending school as a percentage of a total number of children in the same age group.
• The human development index is the quality of life index prepared by UNDP.
  It has mainly three indicators:
  (a) Life Expectancy at Birth: It denotes the average expected length of life of a person at the time of birth.
  (b) Gross Enrollment Ratio: It shows the enrollment ratio in primary schools, secondary schools and in higher education.
  (c) Per Capita Income: It is calculated in dollars for all countries so that it can be compared.
  Adding all the three indicators and dividing by 3, gives the human development index:
  
  LE = Life expectancy
  GER = Gross enrollment ratio
• Human Development Report published by UNDP is useful for comparison between different countries regarding the educational level of their people, their health status and real per capita income.

Income and Other Criteria

• When we think of a nation or a region, besides average income, public facilities are equally significant attributes.
• Public Facilities: These are the services provided by the government to its citizens. Some of the important public facilities include infrastructure, sanitation, public transport, health care, water, etc.
• Public facilities are those which are provided by the government to satisfy the collective needs of the people.
  Example: Schools, hospitals, community halls etc. It is the best and the cheapest way to provide these goods and services collectively.

Sustainability of Development

Sustainable development is a process that fulfils the needs of the present generation, without causing any harm to the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.
Achieving Sustainability will enable the earth to continue supporting human life

• It requires the preservation of stock of resources including exhaustible natural resources and environmental resources.
• Recent studies show that groundwater in India is exhausted because of overuse. 1/3^rd of the country is overusing its groundwater reserves.
• Another area is the exhaustion of natural resources. The resources of crude oil would last only for 43 years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1: What is the main criterion used by the World Bank in classifying different countries?
Ans: The World Bank uses average income or per capita income as a criterion for classifying different countries.

Q.2: What do final goods and services mean? (2014)
Ans: The various production activities in the primary, secondary and tertiary sector produce large number of goods and services for consumption and investment are final goods and services.

Q.3: “What may be development for one may not be development for the other.” Explain with a suitable example. (Board Question)
Ans: Different persons have different notions of development because life situations of persons are different. For example, Construction of dams leads to generation of hydroelectricity, thus development. However many people have to be displaced from their villages, hence it may not be development for them.