Class 9 Economics Chapter 1 Question Answers - Economics

Q1. Describe in brief the role of human resources in economic development.

Ans: Role of Human Resource.

• Higher Productivity: Investing in people, through education and training, leads to higher incomes and better work performance. For instance, India's Green Revolution and IT boom show how skilled and educated people can boost productivity.
• Better Utilization of Resources: Countries like Japan have become wealthy by investing in their people, even though they lack natural resources. By focusing on education and health, they have used their land and capital more efficiently and developed advanced technologies.
• Source of Demand: People create demand for goods and services, which in turn boosts production. As markets expand, production increases to meet the growing demand.

Q2. Is it necessary to check population growth?

Ans:  India has a large number of people, which, instead of being an asset, has created problems for the country's economic progress. The rapid increase in population is causing several issues:

• Limited Growth in Per Capita Income: Even though the total income of the country (national income) is increasing, the income per person (per capita income) isn't growing much. This is because the population is increasing so fast that the economic gains are spread too thin among too many people.
• Unemployment: With so many people, there aren't enough jobs for everyone, leading to high unemployment rates. This makes it hard for many people to find work and support themselves and their families.
• Urban Overcrowding: Cities are becoming very crowded due to the large population. This results in unplanned expansion of cities (urbanisation), leading to the development of slums and poor living conditions.

Q3. What are the strategies that the government has undertaken to reduce unemployment?

Ans: Strategies undertaken by the government to reduce unemployment.

• Rural Self-Employment Scheme: Our government has introduced various schemes for creating self-employment opportunities in rural areas. In April 1999, Swarna Jayanti Gram-Sewa Rozgar Yojana (SGSY) was introduced whose main aim was to improve opportunities of self-development in rural areas.
• Wage-employment Schemes: The main objective of this scheme was to provide opportunities for wage earning to rural people. Since June 23, 1999, all these schemes were merged with Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY).
• Various schemes for providing employment to educated in urban areas : Various schemes (like Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana PMRY), Swarn Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) has been started by the government for providing employment to the educated youth in urban area.

Q4. What is an economic activity? What are various activities are undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector? 

Ans: Economic activities : All such activities which give us some income are called economic activities. Pulling cycle-rickshaw, cleaning houses, selling vegetables and working in schools, factories, banks etc. are economic activities.

Activities are undertaken in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sectors :

• Primary Sector: Activities concerned with collecting or making available material provided by nature are included in primary sectors like agriculture, poultry farming, mining, fishing etc.
• Secondary Sector: The activities which are associated with transforming raw material or primary products into commodities useful to man such as manufacturing etc.
• Tertiary Sector: The activities which are essential for running modern factories in a big way are termed as tertiary sector. Activities like trading, banking, health, education, insurance etc. are included in tertiary sector.

Q5. Study the graph and answer the following questions :

(a) By how much have literacy rates of the population gone up since 1951? 1
(b) Why is the literacy rate lower among women? 1
(c) Explain two measures introduced by the government to improve enrolment in elementary education in the country. 

(a) Literacy rate of population in 1951 was 19%, while in 2001 the rate shot up to 65%. So there is an increase of 46% in 50 years.
(b) Literacy rate is low among women because of sex discrimination. Females are not provided equal opportunities of education in rural areas as of male members of family.
(c) Sarva Siksha Abhiyan: The main objective of this initiative introduced by the Central Government was to provide elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years by 2010.

Mid-day Meal Scheme: This scheme was introduced to encourage attendance and retention of children and improve their nutritional status.

Q6. Why did Japan emerge as a developed country in spite of its poor natural resource?

Ans: Japan emerged as a developed country inspite of its poor natural resource because :

• they did not have any other resource they invested in the development of human resource and import other required resources.
• they invested in better health and education facilities for people to make them efficient so that they can efficiently use resources like land and capital.
• efficiency and the technology evolved by the educated and literate people have made it rich and developed.
• they provide skill based education to the population so that they largely supported in the national income.

Q7. Discuss about the employment scenario in the three sectors in India.

Ans: 

• Primary Sector: Agriculture is the most labour absorbing sector of the economy. In recent years, there has been a decline in the dependence of population on agriculture partly because of disguised unemployment. Some of the surplus is moving from primary to secondary or tertiary sectors.
• Secondary Sector : Small scale manufacturing units absorb most of the labour in secondary sector.
• Tertiary Sector : Various new services have started employing labour in tertiary sector like biotechnology, information technology and so on.

Q8. "In the past and present migration of the people from rural to urban areas has shown an upward trend." What factors compel the rural people to migrate to cities?

• Education: Urban areas offer better and more organized education, including vocational training and specialized courses. There is a greater focus on improving access, quality, and the use of information technology in education in cities.
• Healthcare: Cities have better hospitals and medical facilities. In states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where health services are poor, people move to urban areas seeking better medical care.
• Employment: There is hidden unemployment in farming (primary sector), and more job opportunities in manufacturing and services (secondary and tertiary sectors) in urban areas. To increase their family income, people move to cities for better job prospects.

Q9. How does Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan help in improving elementary education in India?

Ans: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a major education program in India that started to make sure that every child between 6 and 14 years old gets a good basic education. The program began in 2001 and aims to provide quality education to all children by working together with the central government, state governments, local authorities, and the community.

• Increased Literacy Rates: Before SSA, not many people could read or write. In 1951, only 18% of people were literate. By 2001, this number had increased to 65%, largely due to efforts like SSA.
• Expansion of Schools: SSA has helped build more schools, making education accessible to children in over 500,000 villages across India. This means more children, even in remote areas, can go to school.
• Mid-Day Meal Scheme: To encourage children to attend school and to provide them with nutritious food, the government introduced the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. This program provides free lunches to children in schools, which helps improve their health and keeps them coming to school regularly.
• Increasing the Literate Population: Thanks to SSA, more children are getting educated, which means more people in India can read and write. This helps improve the overall literacy rate and contributes to the country's development.

Q10. Explain some strategies made by Government to solve the problem of unemployment in India.

Ans: Opening schools in villages : Opening vocational and elementary schools in villages create employment opportunities for people living these. Earlier people were involved in primary sector only but now they have better employment opportunities in other sectors also.

• Small scale manufacturing : Opening opportunities of self-employment in the form of small scale manufacturing units like basket weaving etc adds to the employment opportunities in removes disguised and seasonal unemployment away people.
• Introduction to modern farming methods : Use of modern farming methods gave the surplus members of family to get involved in other employment opportunities.
• Proper health facilities : Improvement in health facilities in urban and rural areas improved in quality of human resource which in turn work more efficiently and contributed to national income.

Q11. How the investment in Human Capital can be of immense importance for a society as a whole? State any four advantages.

Ans: Human Capital can be defined as the knowledge, ability, skill and physical capacity of the people which help them to produce more. Human beings can be turned into resources only if their qualitative aspects are developed. Education and health are the major human resource inputs of a country. Human capital is
beneficial both individually as well as socially.

• Human capital contributes to the social development of the country.
• Human capital contributes to the economic development of the country.
• Human capital helps in proper utilisation of resources available or imported in the country.
• Human capital also contributes in the race of development from an underdeveloped to a developed nation.

Q12. Explain difference between vicious and virtuous cycle of life with reference to human resource.

Ans: Quality of present human resource affects the quality of human resource for the coming generation. 

• For example, educated parents are found to invest more heavily on the education, health and nutrition of their child. They are more conscious about the qualtiy upbringing of their child. Thus, they create a virtuous cycle of life. 
• Uneducated parents who are themselves lacking in education, health, nutrition and hygiene and are not conscious of the importance of these in the lives of their children. They are unable to provide quality upbringing of their children. Thus, they create a vicious cycle of life.