CBSE Class 10 Social Science Development Assignment Set A

INTRODUCTION
All of us have aspirations or desires for development , but the perspective of development varies from person to person , region to region , state to state and country to country. The way we live now, is a byproduct of development done in past and simultaneously , our future depends on our present planning and action.

DEVELOPMENT–DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT GOALS
Different persons have different notions because each of them seeks different things. They seek things that are most important for them, i.e., which can fulfill their aspirations or desires. Different people have different goals because they are different and they are leading their life in different situation but their general goal is progress. There are two things (a) Different persons can have different development goals. (b) What may be development for one may not be development for other. It may even be destruction for other.

(a) Traditional Notion of Development :
(i) With the independence of the third world countries there arose a need for economic development. Till 1960s, the term economic development was generally used as a synonym of economic growth. But now it is no longer considered identical with economic growth.
(ii) Definitely notion about the meaning of term development is changing but it is also a hard fact that there is no unanimity among economists with regard to the meaning on definition of economic development.
(iii) However all agree that economic development is more than the economic growth. Hence it is taken to mean growth plus progressive changes in certain variables of material welfare.

(b) Changes in the traditional notion of development :
(i) The increase in income is not sufficient for a nation. Income can be a major base of economic growth of a nation. But experiences had shown that economic growth could not automatically translated into the improvement of levels of living of the poor masses. Therefore, economists redefined the concept of economic development in terms of the reduction of poverty, unemployment and inequality in the context of a growing economy.
(ii) Now-a-days redistribution and growth have become the popular slogan in most of the progressive nations, including India. The concept of economic growth is related to the increase in output of goods and services in an economy. This can be expressed in two ways :
(i) increase in total output or increase in gross domestic product (GDP): and
(ii) rise in per capita income or rise in per capita GDP.
(iii) Economic development is a broader concept than economic growth. Development concerns not only man's material needs but also the improvement of social conditions of life. It is, there fore, not only economic growth but growth plus change in social, cultural and institutional pattern. It includes both growth aspect and distribution aspect. Development must, therefore, be conceived of as a multi-dimensional concept.

INCOME AND OTHER GOALS
Besides seeking more income, one-way or other, people also seek things like equal treatment, freedom, security, and respect of others. They resent discrimination. All these are important goals. In fact, in some cases, these may be more important than more income or more consumption because material goods are not all that you need to live.
Money, or material things that one can buy with it, is one factor on which our life depends. But the quality of our life also depends on non-material things mentioned above. There are many things that are not easily measured but they mean a lot to our lives. These are often ignored. However, it will wrong to conclude that what cannot be measured is not important.
For development, people look at a mix of goals The developmental goals that people have are not only about better income but also about other important things in life.

HOW TO COMPARE DEVELOPMENT IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES OR STATES?
For comparing countries, their income is considered to be one of the most important attributes. Countries with higher income are more developed than others with less income. To find the income of a country we have to find out the National Income of that country and it's per capita income.

(a) National Income :
National Income is defined as the total value of all the goods and services produced within a country plus income coming from abroad.

(b) Per Capita Income :
When the total national income is divided by the total population it gives us the Per Capita Income. In World Development Reports, brought out by the World Bank, this criterion is used in classifying countries. Countries with per capita income of US$ 12236 per annum and above in 2016, are called rich countries and those with per capita income of US$ 1005 or less are called low-income countries. India comes in the category of low middle income countries because its per capita income in 2016 was just US$ 1840 per annum. The rich countries, excluding countries of Middle East and certain other small countries, are generally called developed countries.

(c) "While averages are useful for comparison, they also hide disparities.:
Let us consider two countries, A and B. For the sake of simplicity, we have assumed that they have only five citizens each.Will you be equally happy to live in both these countries? Are both equally developed? Perhaps some of us may like to live in country B if we are assured of being its fifth citizen but if it is a lottery that decides our citizenship number then perhaps most of us will prefer to live in country A. Even though both the countries have identical average income, country A is preferred because it has more equitable distribution. In this country people are neither very rich nor extremely poor. On the other hand most citizens in country B are poor and one person is extremely rich. Hence, while average income is useful for comparison it does not tell us how this income is distributed among people.

INCOME AND OTHER CRITERIA
When we looked at individual aspirations and goals, we found that people not only think of better income but also have goals such as security, respect for others, equal treatment, freedom, etc. in mind. Similarly, when we think of a nation or a region, we may, besides average income, think of other equally important attributes.

What could these attributes be ? Let us examine this through an example. According to the table gives the per capita income of Maharashtra , Kerala and Bihar. Actually, these figures are of Per Capita Net State Domestic Product at Current Prices for 2012–13. Let us ignore what this complicated term exactly means. Roughly we can take it to be per capita income of the state. We find that of the three, Maharashtra has the highest per capita income and Bihar is at the bottom. This means that, on an average, a person in Maharashtra earned Rs 1,04,000 in one year whereas, on an average, a person in Bihar would earn only around Rs 27,200. So, if per capita income were to be used as the measure of development, Maharashtra will be considered the most developed and
Bihar the least developed state of the three.

PUBLIC FACILITIES
How is it that the average person in Maharashtra has more income than the average person in Kerala but lags behind cucial things The reason is money in your pocket cannot by all the goods and services that you may need to live will.
For example – normally, your money cannot buy you a pollution-free environment or ensure that you get unadulterated medicines, unless you can afford to shift to a community that already has all these things.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Today human development is the core of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which presents it into a new perspective of political and economic freedom and deepening of democracy at global level, which is economically productive and socially and environmentally sound. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in its first Human Development Report, 1990 introduce the concept of Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is the cumulative measurement of the (A) Longevity, (B) Knowledge, and (C) Decent standard of living.
Longevity is a choice to live a long and healthy life. It is measured in terms of life expectancy (years).
Knowledge is a choice to acquire literacy/ information. It is measured by educational attainment percentage, which is a combined gross enrolment ratio in primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
Decent Standard of living is a choice to enjoy a quality and standard life. It is measured by national income or income per capita in Purchasing Power Parity in US dollar (PPP, US $).
The rank of a country is determined by the overall achievements in these three basic dimensions of human development. HDI ranks countries in relation to each other to tell them how far a country has traveled, in terms of path of its development. In this way, HDI is indicative to the levels of human development and not the complete measurement of development. On the basis of HDI, 188 (2016) countries of the world have been classified into high, medium and low human development categories. India is placed into the group of medium human development countries with 131st rank.

Life Expectancy in years = 68.35 years (2015)
GDP per capita US $ = 1,709.39 (2016)

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
(i) Economic development is a broader concept. It is economic growth plus something more than economic growth. The basic ideas in economic development are rise in productivity, decline in unemployment, poverty and inequality from high levels. Economic development alone cannot promote human development. Human development is the process of both quantitative change and qualitative growth.
(ii) The concept of human development was taken into a broader sense. It touches social, economic, political and cultural aspects of human life with special emphasis on reduction in poverty and minimizing gap between rich and poor. There should not be unemployment problem in the economy. The concept of human development touches all aspects of human life.

SUSTAINABILITY OF DEVELOPMENT
Sustainability is a matter of sharing development opportunity not the poverty and human deprivation. If the present is miserable and unacceptable to the majority of the world's people it must be changed before it is sustained. In other words, what must be sustained are worthwhile life opportunities, not human deprivation.
Sustainable development is the real economic development accompanied by an increase in economic welfare which can be potentially shared by future generations also.
Example : (i) Ground water in India (ii) Exhaustion of Nation Resources.

(a) Features of Sustainable Development :
(i) Productivity is increased.
(ii) Increase in output in real terms.
(iii) Standard of living of people is improved and there is addition to their welfare.
(iv) Objectives of removal of poverty, inequality and illiteracy are achieved and more employment opportunities are generated.
(v) It emphasizes that costs of development particularly costs of environmental loss should be taken care of.
(vi) Standard of life improves.
(vii) Stock of natural capital, i.e., stock of renewable and non-renewable resources is maintained or increased along with preservation of human capital and physical capital.

(b) Need for Sustainable Development :
(i) Rapid economic growth and industrialization have led to reckless exploitation of naturalresources.
(ii) The stock of natural resources like fossil fuels, which meet most of the energy needs of the world are limited, the growth of all countries in the future is, therefore, likely to be endangered if the limited resources are completely exhausted.
(iii) Although fossil fuels and minerals are essential for economic development, their use damages the environment and ecology. They cause pollution and disturb the balance in nature. The global concern today is, therefore, to adopt a strategy of economic growth that is environmentfriendly.

(c) Steps that can be taken for Sustainable Development :
Some of the important measures being considered for this purpose are increased use of renewable and clean sources of energy, less use of fossil fuels, organic farming, measures to reduce global warming and global limits on carbon emission, etc.

(d) "Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one person."
Sustainability is the capacity to use the resources judiciously and maintain their balance. Every generation wants to get the greatest benefits from the available resources but such a thing would be quite disastrous because the available resources shall be exhausted at a rapid speed and within a short time most of the resources shall be exhausted and we and especially our coming generations will be deprived of such resources. So we should use our resources most judiciously so that a certain part of them is left for our coming generations to use it in future. We should protect our animal wealth, both animals and birds from human exploitation otherwise some species will be lost forever. In such a case our coming generations would be deprived of much charm and beauty which we enjoy today by seeing varieties of animals and birds. Certain resources like water, wind energy and solar energy etc. are inexhaustible but we must see that they are not put to wrong use. There is no harm in using the land for cultivation but we should see that its fertility is maintained otherwise sooner or later it will turn into a wasteland. Most of the mineral wealth and iron, copper, gold, silver etc. is exhaustible and as such must be used very carefully. However, we must devise methods of recycling these resources and reusing them again.
No doubt, we should utilize our resources for our benefit but we should sustain them and maintain them for our future as well as for the welfare of our coming generations. That is why, it has been said, "Earth has enough resources to meet the demands of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one person."

Objective Questions