Impact on Foreign Trade,Demographic Conditions,Occupational Structure and Infrastructure under Colon Video Lecture | SSC CGL Tier 2 - Study Material, Online Tests, Previous Year

hello viewers welcome to the video
lectures for class 11th economics we
were discussing the first chapter of
economics which is Indian economy on the
eve of Independence till now we have
discussed about how the British colonial
rule reduced India into a feeder economy
for Great Britain's rapidly expanding
modern industrial base remember India
was being called as a feeder economy
because of two reasons first that India
became a net supplier of raw materials
for the British industries and secondly
India became a market for the finished
goods from British industries now we
would discuss about the state of foreign
trade infrastructure occupational
structure demographic condition of the
Indian economy on the eve of
Independence the restrictive policies of
trade and tariffs pursued by the
colonial government and Worsley affected
the structure and composition of India's
foreign trade the opening of the Suez
Canal in 1869 reduced the cost of
transportation and made access to the
Indian markets easier under foreign
trade will be discussing about three
main things the composition of foreign
trade the direction of foreign trade of
India and the generation of export
surplus composition of foreign trade
means what are the things that were
being exported by India and what were
the goods that were being imported into
our country now with the adoption of the
discriminatory policies by the British
India became an exporter of primary
products such as raw silk cotton wool
sugar indigo jute etc and an importer of
finished consumer goods like cotton and
silk clothes woolen clothes and capital
goods like light machinery produced in
Britain I hope you remember that India
was falling short of the capital goods
industries and
this was the reason why capital words
like light machinery that were being
produced in Britain are were now being
imported into India let us talk about
the direction of foreign train direction
of foreign trade means which are the
countries with which India was trading
at that point of time Britain maintained
monopoly control over India's exports
and import as a result more than half of
India's foreign trade was restricted to
Britain and the rest was allowed only
with a few countries like Sri Lanka
which was then called as salon China and
Iran which was then called as Persia
third generation of exports surplus now
this is very important from exam point
of view export surplus means the surplus
that was generated out of the exports
that India did towards Britain and other
countries throughout the colonial period
India's foreign trade generated a large
export surplus but it was never used for
the country's development rather it
adversely affected our country's economy
because of two major facts firstly
because of more exports of several
commodities there was scarcity in the
domestic market and secondly this export
surplus was used to make payments for
the expenses incurred by the British on
import of invisible items like services
expenses on war etc thus in this way
this export surplus led to economic
drain of Indian wealth now economic
drain of Indian wealth drain of Indian
wealth means that the Indian wealth was
being drained out towards Britain and it
was being used not for the development
of Indian economy rather it was being
drained towards Britain it was being
used by Britain on its own imports and
to meet its expenses on war etc now
let's talk about the state of the
development indicators like
Choa occupational structure and the
demographic conditions state of
infrastructure infrastructural
facilities were very poor in India
during the British rule however some
efforts had been made to develop the
basic infrastructure to serve the
colonial interests but it was not meant
for the common man basic infrastructure
was developed like roadways railways sea
routes and most importantly the
introduction of post and telegraph
services roadways now the condition of
roads in India was unsatisfactory but
the Britishers tried to develop some
roads of course we know that the prime
objective was the mobilisation of Army
within the country and to transport raw
material from countryside to the nearest
railway station or port now we all know
that this raw material was going to the
British industries sea routes the
colonial government also took measures
for developing inland trade and sea
routes
however inland waterways proved to be an
economical in our country introduction
of postal services the introduction of
expensive system of electric telegraph
served the purpose of maintaining law
and order
however the postal services remained an
advocate to serve the public purpose
railways the colonial government
introduced railways in India which began
their operation in the year 1850 the
railways affected the structure of the
Indian economy in various ways firstly
it provided cheap and rapid
transportation especially for distant
travel also it promoted national unity
and understanding by breaking
geographical and cultural barriers this
was beneficial for the Indians third it
encouraged commercialization of
agriculture which destroyed the
self-sufficiency of the Indian village
economies also it promoted foreign trade
but its benefit
actually accrued to the Indians
occupational structure now occupational
structure means the distribution of
working persons across different sectors
that is the three sectors primary
secondary and tertiary sectors now this
means the percentage of population
engaged in each of these three sectors
that means how much of each vector is
providing employment to the working
population of the country now we all
know primary sector includes agriculture
and allied activities secondary sector
includes the industrial sector and the
tertiary sector is the service sector
now during the colonial period the
agricultural sector accounted for the
largest share of workforce which
remained at a high of 70 to 75 percent
while the manufacturing and services
sectors accounted for only 10 percent
and 15 to 20 percent respectively
another striking aspect was the growing
regional variation parts of the den
Madras Presidency Bombay and Bengal
witnessed a decline in the dependence of
workforce on the agricultural sector
with a commensurate increase in the
manufacturing and service sectors now
this means that in these presidencies
the contribution of the agricultural
sector was on a decline whereas the
number of persons engaged in the
secondary and tertiary sectors increased
however there had been an increase in
the share of the workforce in
agriculture during the same time in
states such as Orissa Rajasthan and
Punjab let us talk about the demographic
condition of the Indian economy now
demographic condition means the quality
of population quality of population can
be seen with the help of various
qualitative indicators like literacy
rate etc now the first official census
in India was conducted in the year 1881
census figure
collected since 1881 showed unevenness
in India's population growth India was
in the first stage of demographic
transition till 1921 which implies high
birth rate and high death rate therefore
the rate of population growth remain
very slow
after 1921 India entered the second
stage of demographic transition the year
of 1921 is also thus known as the year
of great divide in the history of Indian
economy as after 1921 the growth rate of
population started picking up now let's
talk about the various social
development indicators of the Indian
economy the various social development
indicators of the Indian economy were
also not very encouraging the average
literacy rate was less than 16% and
among women it was only 7% public health
care facilities were highly inadequate
to curb the communicable diseases which
led to high mortality rate also the
infant mortality rate was quite alarming
estimated to be around 218 per thousand
life expectancy was also very low
estimated to be around only 32 years the
country experienced mass poverty and
per-capita income was around rupees 255
per annum in the year 1947 so till now
we have discussed about the state of
foreign trade we have also talked about
the state of other indicators like
infrastructure occupational structure
and demographic condition of the Indian
economy on the eve of Independence let
us have a quick recap of what we have
done till now we have talked about that
there has been lack of adequate public
health facilities and occurrence of
frequent natural calamities and for
mines that resulted in high mortality
rates also
some efforts were made by the colonial
government to improve infrastructure
facilities but these efforts was pies
with selfish motives
however independent Indian government
had to build on this base through
economic planning
I hope now you would be able to answer
the following questions question 1 what
do you understand by the drain of Indian
wealth during the colonial period
question to indicate the volume and
direction of train at the time of
Independence question number 3 give a
quantitative appraisal of India's
demographic profile during the colonial
period now in this question we expect
you to give a quantitative appraisal
which means the data related to the
demographics of the Indian economy or
the demographic condition the quality of
population and the data related to that
right question 4 underscore some of
India's most crucial economic challenges
at the time of Independence now in this
question you can talk about all the
problems that had been phased by the
Indian economy on the eve of
Independence you can discuss about the
low level of Economic Development the
state of agricultural sector how the
agricultural sector faced problems
thirdly you can talk about the Indian
industries how they had been
de-industrialized what was the twofold
motive of the British behind the
deindustrialization of the Indian
economy then you can talk about the
inadequate infrastructure facilities and
the problems faced by the Indian people
during the colonial regime thank you
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