Insights Static Quiz -79, 2018 –Economics

Answer – d

• By the late nineteenth century, the economic thinking of the nationalists (such as M.G. Ranade and Dadabhai Naroji) was in favour of a dominant role of state in the economy and doubted the prudence of the ‘market mechanism’.
• In 1934, a serious need of national planning was recommended by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the leading organisation of Indian capitalists. Its President N.R. Sarkar proclaimed that the days of undiluted laissez-faire were gone forever and for a backward country like India, a comprehensive plan for economic development covering the whole gamut of economic activities was a necessity
• Early in June 1941, the Government of India formed (on popular demand) a Post-War Reconstruction Committee which was to consider various plans for the reconstruction of the economy

GS1 – Freedom struggle –  Orientation given by socialist forces to the movement and response of different classes

GS2 – Development process – Evolution of development theory in modern India. Planning obviously forms the centre of that process, shaped by our colonial experience and global developments.

Answer – d

• Though the planning at the central and the state levels are still extra-constitutional activities, it has become constitutional at the local bodies level through 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional amendment.
• It was by the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the states demanded the right to plan at the state level. By the mid 1960s, the states were given the power to plan by the Centre advising them that they should promote planning at the lower levels of the administrative set strata, too i.e. the district level
  planning–via the Municipalities and Corporations in the urban areas and via Block level through Panchayats and the Tribal Boards. By the early 1980s, India was a country of the multi-level planning (MLP) with the structure and strata of planning.

GS 2 – Federalism and issues – Planning at local levels – a unique feature developed in India – how it helped Panchayats and also failures

Answer – c

• Phillips Curve is a graphic curve which advocates a relationship between inflation and unemployment in an economy. As per the curve there is a ‘trade off’ between inflation and unemployment i.e. an inverse relationship between them. The curve suggests that lower the inflation, higher the unemployment and higher the inflation, lower the unemployment
• Williamson’s trade off model is for evaluating the possible benefits and detriments of a proposed merger that could be used in the application of a discretionary competition policy.

GS 3 – Indian economy – Phillips curve can be used as an additive in answers

GS3 – Mobilisation of resources – Williamson model can be invoked in, say proposed merger of banks

Answer – a

• The first definition of ‘worker’ by Census was given in 1872. Over time the term ‘work’ and ‘worker’ as defined by Census of India have undergone several amendments to suit the changing dimensions of work. ‘Work’ is defined as participation in any economically productive activity with or without compensation, wages or profit.
• Census classifies ‘Workers’ into two groups namely, Main Workers (those workers who had worked for the major part of the reference period, i.e., 6 months or more) and Marginal Workers (those workers who had not worked for the major part of the reference period i.e. less than 6 months)

GS 3 Employment

Note

• To integrate one’s preparation of prelims and mains better, we will also be providing hints henceforth on how the static portion can be used in specific topics of General Studies papers.