CLASS – X (SOCIAL SCIENCE)

SUBJECT – ECONOMICS
TOPIC – DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT-
Development means progress, improvement and economic betterment in comparison to the previous state of
situations and conditions. Development also means fulfillment of one’s desires and aspirations.
Examples: A landless farmer would consider it a development if he gets to have his own land

CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPMENT

Different people can have different developmental goals-

 Development does not have same meaning to all because of their different situations, desires and
aspirations.
 A farmer, dependent on rain, would aspire for better irrigation facilities.
 An unemployed youth would have goals of getting employment of his choice.
 A girl would desire for more freedom and gender equality.

People can have conflicting goals … (Development of one may not be the development for the other)-
 It may also that the people can have conflicting goals and development of one may be destructive and
detrimental for other.
 An industrialist would prefer building of dams for regular supply of electricity for industries this goal
would conflict with the goals of the people who will be displaced (such as tribals) due to building of the
dam. It will affect and disrupt their lives.
 A girl would want or desire for same freedom as her brother. She would also like to see him work in
kitchen also. This goal of gender equality may not be liked by her brother.
 A labourer would desire for more wages and less working hours but his employer would have different
goal of paying less and taking more hours of work from his labourers.

People look at mix of goals… (Income and other goals)

 Quality of life depend upon two factors:-
1. Material things (Money)
2. Non-material things (Other than Income & money)
 Better wages and more income are common goals but money and material goods (that money can buy)
are not all that we need to live well or lead a quality life. Besides income, people seek or want other non-
material things that they need to live well.
 Non-material things that a person seeks to get-
1. Freedom, 2. Equal treatment, 3. Safety, 4. Respect of others,
5. Better working conditions, & non-discriminatory atmosphere are also important goals of life other than
the goal of more income.
 Our parents, friends, relatives, co-staff, national development and the likes may be goals that means a lot
to us and we would consider them important than the desire for more income.

People can have different as well as conflicting notions of national development-

 Since people have different individual goals and so they can have different ideas, opinions and notions of
development.
 It is difficult to decide which opinions are right need to be followed. In this situation, it is a better way to
adopt that path which would benefit the maximum people and harming the least
.
COMPARISON OF COUNTRIES
Countries can be compared on the basis of their total income but total income can be misleading criterion
because countries differ by size and population. So, Average Income can be a criterion to classify countries
as developed or less developed.

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World Bank Report
 World Bank takes into account the P.C.I (per capita income) to prepare its annual report to classify
economies of countries.
 Per capita Income is got by dividing the total income of the country by its total population.
Per Capita Income (PCI) = Total Income of the nation / Total Population of the nation
 In year 2017, Countries with per capita income of US$ 12,056 per annum and above are called rich and
those with per capita income of US$ 955 or less are called low-income countries. India comes in the
middle-income country with just US$ 1820 per annum in 2017.
 But the income or wealth is an inadequate measure of development. There are other factors like
education and health that affect human development.

Human Development Report (HDR)

 This report is produced annually by United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP).
 The criteria of HDR are – Per capita Income (Avg. Income)- It shows the economic wealth and well to
do condition of the people in materialistic terms.
 Life Expectancy (Health) – It shows the availability of medical & health facilities like doctors,
hospitals, medicines etc. Japan and Hong Kong lead the Life expectancy index. It is rightly said, “A
sound mind resides in a healthy body”.
 Literacy Rate (Education) – It shows the availability of schools, teachers and other higher educational
institutions that are easily available to citizens. It is said that “Knowledge is power” and this power is
needed for intellectual wealth of a country.
 HDR removes the shortcomings of the World Bank Report by including other criteria linked to human
development like – education and health status of the people of the country.
1. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) – It indicates the number of children that die before the age of
one year as a proportion of 1000 live children born in that particular year.
2. Literacy rate – It measures the proportion of literate population in the 7 and above age group.
3. Net Attending Ratio- It is the total number of children of age group 14 and 15 years
attending school as a percentage of total number of children in the same age group.

HDI (Human Development Index- established by UNO in 1990)-

HDI is part of HDR (prepared by UNDP) and it ranks the countries on the basis of their achievements in
socio-economic fields liked to human development. It is prepared by using certain development criteria –
Health (Life expectancy at birth) , Education (expected years of schooling and Net Enrolment Ratio in
schools) and Per capita income (Standard of living).

Body Mass Index (BMI)-

It shows the nourishment level of adults. It is calculated by dividing weight (in Kg) by the square of the
height.
Different BMI categories:
Below 18.5 - Undernourished 25 to 30 – Over Weight

18.5 to 25 - Normal weight Above 30 - Obese

INCOME AND OTHER CRITERIA

 Individual aspirations and goals are a mix of better income and other goals like security, respect for
others, equal treatment, freedom etc.
 When we think of a nation or a region, we must consider equally important attributes like income, health
and education standard of people to assess development in human terms.
 A region with better income may lack in health and education of its people and a region with low income
can excel in health and education standard of its people like Kerala in India.

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PUBLIC FACILITIES
The concept of public facilities refers to providing goods and services collectively with a view to make them
available such facilities to more and more people. Examples- Health, education, sanitation, pure water
supply, electricity etc.

Why we need public facilities?

Because - “Money in your pocket cannot buy all the goods and services that you need to live well.”

 Examples: Money cannot buy us a pollution-free environment or unadulterated medicines, unless you
can afford to shift to a community already having all these things.
 Only money alone cannot protect us from infectious diseases unless the people living in our community
take preventive steps.
 Collective security, PDS, public schools, Hospitals etc. are meant for public as a whole.

SUSTAINABILITY OF DEVELOPMENT

Whatever resources we use today should be used in a way that they are available to the future generations
also-the forest, land the natural resources, all should be used in a preserving and not damaging manner so
that they are able to sustain the future generations also.
So, sustainable development means development without damaging the environment and also taking care
of the need of future generation.
“We have not inherited the world from our forefathers; we have borrowed it from our children”
-Mr. Lester Brown

Consequences of environmental degradation do not respect national or state boundaries

The environmental degradation or damage- Global warming, dry seasons, excessive snow fall, melting of
ice caps etc affects are not region or nation specific. They create the impact across the world. The polluted
environment of India will have effects also, on its neighbouring countries.

Sustainability is a new knowledge area which was the main part of Agenda 21.
 Scientists, economists, philosophers and other social activists are questioning the current development
model of countries.
 The anxiety today is – where we are heading, where we are leading the world today…what about the
future condition of the environment and natural resources.
 We can easily conclude that, sustainability is the need of the hour to sustain our future generations.

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