Test: Class 9 Economy NCERT Based - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Till the mid-1960s, the seeds used in cultivation were traditional ones with relatively low yields. Traditional seeds needed less irrigation.

Farmers used cowdung and other natural manure as fertilizers. All these were readily available with the farmers who did not have to buy them. The Green Revolution in the late 1960s introduced the Indian farmer to cultivation of wheat and rice using high yielding varieties (HYVs) of seeds.

Compared to the traditional seeds, the HYV seeds promised to produce much greater amounts of grain on a single plant. As a result, the same piece of land would now produce far larger quantities of foodgrains than was possible earlier.

HYV seeds, however, needed plenty of water and also chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce best results. Higher yields were possible only from a combination of HYV seeds, irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, etc.

Economic activities have two parts — market activities and non-market activities. Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs i.e., activity performed for pay or profit. These include production of goods or services, including government service.

Non-market activities are the production for self consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary product and own account production of fixed assets.

The various activities have been classified into three main sectors i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying.

Manufacturing is included in the secondary sector. Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance, etc. are included in the tertiary sector. The activities in this sector result in the production of goods and services.

These activities add value to the national income. These activities are called economic activities.

According to this concept, poverty must be seen in terms of the poor having to live only in a poor surrounding with other poor people, excluded from enjoying social equality of better-off people in better surroundings. Social exclusion can be both a cause as well as a consequence of poverty in the usual sense.

Broadly, it is a process through which individuals or groups are excluded from facilities, benefits and opportunities that others (their “betters”) enjoy. A typical example is the working of the caste system in India in which people belonging to certain castes are excluded from equal opportunities. Social exclusion thus may lead to, but can cause more damage than, having a very low income.

Vulnerability: Vulnerability to poverty is a measure, which describes the greater probability of certain communities (say, members of a backward caste) or individuals (such as a widow or a physically handicapped person) of becoming, or remaining, poor in the coming years.

Vulnerability is determined by the options available to different communities for finding an alternative living in terms of assets, education, health and job opportunities.

Further, it is analysed on the basis of the greater risks these groups face at the time of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunami), terrorism etc.

Additional analysis is made of their social and economic ability to handle these risks. In fact, vulnerability describes the greater probability of being more adversely affected than other people when bad time comes for everybody, whether a flood or an earthquake or simply a fall in the availability of jobs.

While determining the poverty line in India, a minimum level of food requirement, clothing, footwear, fuel and light, educational and medical requirement, etc., are determined for subsistence.

These physical quantities are multiplied by their prices in rupees. The present formula for food requirement while estimating the poverty line is based on the desired calorie requirement. Food items, such as cereals, pulses, vegetables, milk, oil, sugar, etc., together provide these needed calories.

The calorie needs vary depending on age, sex and the type of work that a person does. The accepted average calorie requirement in India is 2400 calories per person per day in rural areas and 2100 calories per person per day in urban areas.

Since people living in rural areas engage themselves in more physical work, calorie requirements in rural areas are considered to be higher than in urban areas. The monetary expenditure per capita needed for buying these calorie requirements in terms of food grains, etc., is revised periodically taking into consideration the rise in prices.

The proportion of people in different countries living in extreme economic poverty- defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day—has fallen from 36 per cent in 1990 to 10 per cent in 2015.

Although there has been a substantial reduction in global poverty, it is marked with great regional differences. Poverty declined substantially in China and Southeast Asian countries as a result of rapid economic growth and massive investments in human resource development.

Number of poors in China has come down from 88.3 per cent in 1981 to 14.7 per cent in 2008 to 0.7 per cent in 2015. In the countries of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan) the decline has also been rapid 34 per cent in 2005 to 16.2 per cent in 2013.

With decline in the percentage of the poor, the number of poor has also declined significantly from 510.4 million in 2005 to 274.5 million in 2013. Because of different poverty line definitions, poverty in India is also shown higher than the national estimates. The new sustainable development goals of the United Nations (UN) proposes ending poverty of all types by 2030.