Chapter – 1

Development

In this post we have given the detailed notes of class 10 Social Science (Economics) chapter 1 Development in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 10 board exams.

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Chapter 1: Development

What Development Promises — Different People, Different Goals

Development: A process that leads to improvement in the standard of living and quality of life of the people. Different persons could have different, and even conflicting, notions of what is development for them, because their life situations and needs are different.

For example, consider two different people:

• A landless rural labourer wants more days of work and better wages, low prices for the things they buy, a local school where their children can get a good education, no social discrimination, and freedom from fear of the landlord. For such a person, development mainly means work security, fair wages, and dignity.
• A farmer who uses tubewells to irrigate land wants a regular and reliable supply of electricity so that the tubewell can run without interruption, good prices for the crop, easy availability of cheap raw materials, and no restriction on buying and selling of produce. For this person, development is linked with a steady power supply, good farm prices, and freedom to sell the produce as they wish.

These two people share the same village or region, yet what they consider “development” is not the same. This shows that the notion of development varies from person to person, depending on the aspects of life that matter most to them. What may be development for one may not be development for another; it can even be destructive for someone else. For instance, industrialists may want more roads and dams for power and transport, but for the adivasis living in a forest that would be submerged, the same project could mean displacement and loss of livelihood.

Income and Other Goals

Different persons can have different developmental goals. What is development for one may not be development for the other. It may even be development for one at the cost of the other.

Even so, some things are common — most people, whether rich or poor, want more income. Money, or the material things 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 such as:

• Equal treatment — being treated equally in society without discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, gender or region.
• Freedom — the ability to make one’s own choices and live with dignity.
• Security — a sense of safety at home, at work, and in the community.
• Respect from others — recognition and honour in the eyes of family and society.

People want more income, but they also seek things like equality, freedom, security and respect, which money alone cannot buy. Along with more income, people also seek other things such as equal treatment, freedom, security and respect of others.

National Development

Just as individuals have different notions of development, different sections of society and different countries have different, sometimes conflicting, ideas of what constitutes national development.

• For farmers, development may mean assured irrigation throughout the year and fair prices for their crops.
• For industrial workers, it may mean secure jobs and better wages.
• For businessmen, it may mean the availability of raw material and a free market with no restrictions on buying and selling.
• What may be development for a rich farmer, using more groundwater for irrigation, may not be development for a poor farmer who uses less groundwater — excessive extraction of groundwater by rich farmers can lower the water table, harming poorer farmers who cannot afford deep tube wells.

Therefore, national development cannot be defined in one single way — since different sections of people have different (and often conflicting) notions of development, mixed goals have to be kept in view while thinking about national development, keeping in mind what is more beneficial for a larger number of people, and what is achieved with minimum cost while conserving resources for the future.

When a country’s development is discussed, we compare that country with other countries, or we compare different states or regions within the country. To make such comparisons, we require some criteria or attributes to look at — the most common of these is income.

How to Compare Different Countries or States?

Average/Per Capita Income

Different countries can be compared on the basis of their income. Countries with higher income are considered more developed than countries with less income. For comparison, total income of the country is not the right criterion, since countries have different populations. Instead, average income (also called per capita income) — the total income of the country divided by its total population — is used for comparison.

Per Capita Income: The average income earned by a person in a particular country during a year. It is obtained by dividing the total income of the country by its total population.

Per capita income is used by the World Bank in its annual “World Development Report” to classify countries as rich and poor, using per capita income as the criterion for classification.

World Bank’s Classification of Countries

As per the World Bank’s criteria, countries with a per capita income higher than a certain level are called rich countries, and countries with a per capita income lower than a certain level are called low-income (poor) countries. Countries with high per capita income are considered “developed” while low-income countries are considered “developing”.

India is classified as a low-middle income country because its average (per capita) income is lower than that of rich countries but higher than that of the poorest countries of the world. Rich countries, except those in the Middle East and certain small nations, are generally referred to as developed countries.

Countries such as the USA, Japan, and several European nations fall in the high-income group, while several countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa fall in the low-income group.

Income and Other Criteria — Looking Beyond Averages

Although average/per capita income is a useful and important attribute for comparison, it has an important limitation: it is an average figure and does not tell us how income is actually distributed among the population.

It is possible that the total or average income of a country/state is high, but this does not mean that all the people are equally well off. Two countries or states can have the same per capita income, but the distribution of that income among the people can be very different — one may have low disparity (more equal distribution) while the other may have high disparity (income concentrated among a few).

Public facilities such as health, education, safe drinking water, sanitation, and infrastructure matter a great deal for the quality of life, but averages of income don’t reflect whether these facilities are available or not. So, income by itself is not a completely adequate criterion, since it does not tell us anything about non-income aspects of people’s lives such as literacy levels, health status, or dignity of work.

Therefore, along with average income, we also need to look at other criteria/attributes like: literacy rate, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, availability and access to public health services, gender ratio, and net attendance ratio in schools.

Human Development Index (HDI)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compares countries on the basis of the educational levels of the people, their health status, and per capita income. This comparison is published every year in the Human Development Report using a composite measure called the Human Development Index (HDI).

Human Development Index (HDI): A composite index published by UNDP that ranks countries on the basis of three main indicators — a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy at birth), knowledge/education (measured by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling), and a decent standard of living (measured by per capita income/GNI per capita, adjusted for purchasing power).

In HDI comparisons, a country is considered to have a higher level of development if the people living there have a longer life expectancy, higher levels of education, and a better standard of living. Countries are ranked on the basis of their HDI value — the country with the highest HDI value is given rank 1.

Note that the World Development Reports (published by the World Bank) focus mainly on income as a criterion of development, whereas the Human Development Reports (published by UNDP) use income as one of the several criteria, considering it as only a means to development and not an end in itself.

Why Are Averages Useful Yet Limited?

Both average income and HDI are useful because they allow us to compare very different countries and states using a single number, making comparison simple. But they are limited because an average conceals disparities and hides the wide differences among people within the same country — a high average value does not necessarily mean that everyone in that country/state is doing equally well.

Public Facilities

Even when two countries or states have the same per capita income, they can differ widely in other aspects of development, because per capita income is only an average and does not tell us how income is distributed, and it also does not tell us whether the amenities/facilities required for a decent standard of living, like health and education infrastructure, are available to the people.

Comparison of Kerala and Punjab:

• Kerala has a low per capita income compared to Punjab, yet it has a low Infant Mortality Rate, high life expectancy, and near-total literacy. This is because of the widespread network of public health centres, hospitals, and schools built up by successive governments in Kerala over decades — that is, public facilities available to the people of Kerala are far more than in most other Indian states.
• Punjab, on the other hand, has a much higher per capita income than Kerala (largely from agriculture), but its indicators of life expectancy and infant mortality rate are not as good, comparatively, because people in Punjab depend more on private hospitals and private schools, which are costly, rather than well-developed public facilities.

This comparison shows that per capita income does not tell us how this income is distributed and what public facilities are available to the citizens. We may, therefore, conclude that per capita income is useful but is not a completely adequate criterion for development, because it hides disparities and does not reflect the quality of public facilities like health and education infrastructure.

Sustainability of Development

When we think of development, we need to think not only of the present generation, but also whether it will be possible to sustain this development for the future generations as well. Development for us should not lead to the exploitation of resources in a manner that leaves nothing for our children and grandchildren.

Sustainable Development: Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Groundwater Depletion — An Example

Punjab is one of the most agriculturally prosperous states in India, mainly because of intensive use of groundwater through tubewells for irrigation. However, this has led to a rapid decline in the groundwater table. If groundwater continues to be used at the current rate, very soon there will be a scarcity of it for the future generations of Punjab, and the very source that supported development today will threaten development tomorrow. This is a clear example of unsustainable use of a resource.

Non-Renewable Resources — Crude Oil

Our planet has a limited/fixed stock of natural resources. Some of these resources, like crude oil, coal, and natural gas, are non-renewable — once fully used, they cannot be replenished for millions of years.

Non-Renewable Resource: A resource such as crude oil, coal or natural gas that gets depleted with extraction and use, and cannot be renewed or replaced within a human lifetime once exhausted.

Crude oil is used to make petrol and diesel, which run vehicles, machines and generators across the world. At the present rate of extraction and consumption, experts have repeatedly warned that the world’s known reserves of crude oil could run out within a matter of decades. If this happens, it will severely affect transport, industry, and daily life everywhere, particularly hitting countries that depend heavily on imported oil, like India.

Why Sustainability Matters for Continued Development

If resources like groundwater and crude oil continue to be used carelessly, development in the present will come at the cost of development in the future — future generations may not have enough resources left for their own economic activities and standard of living. This is why sustainability of resources is an important issue in the context of development — every generation should conserve nature’s bounty for the next generation, rather than exhausting it.

Conserving Resources

To ensure that development is sustainable, we need to take steps such as:

• Using renewable resources (like solar and wind energy) more, and non-renewable resources more carefully and efficiently.
• Recharging groundwater through rainwater harvesting and controlling excessive extraction.
• Adopting technologies and lifestyles that reduce wastage of resources.
• Spreading public awareness about the need to conserve resources for future generations.

Sustainability of development is thus a crucial concept — it links today’s development choices with tomorrow’s possibilities, reminding us that resources must be used responsibly so they remain available for generations to come.

Key Points to Remember

• Different people have different, and sometimes conflicting, notions of development, depending on the things that matter most to their lives — for example, a landless labourer values work security and fair wages, while a farmer using tubewells values a regular electricity supply.
• Along with income, people also seek non-material things such as equal treatment, freedom, security, and respect from others.
• What is development for one may not be development for another, and can even be harmful to someone else — national development involves mixed and often conflicting goals.
• Average/per capita income (total income divided by total population) is commonly used to compare countries, but it is not sufficient on its own.
• The World Bank classifies countries as rich or poor on the basis of per capita income (World Development Report); India is classified as a low-middle income country.
• Per capita income is only an average and hides disparity/distribution of income within a country, and it does not reflect the availability of public facilities like health and education.
• The Human Development Index (HDI), published by UNDP, compares countries using life expectancy, education, and per capita income together.
• Kerala has a low per capita income but high literacy and life expectancy due to strong public health and education facilities; Punjab has a high per capita income but comparatively weaker public facility outcomes.
• Development must be sustainable — resources like groundwater (Punjab example) and non-renewable resources like crude oil must be conserved for future generations.

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