Demography
and Census
Demography: Demography is the
statistical study of human population. It encompasses the study
of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations.
Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
CBR measures the number of live births per 1000
population in a given year.
Age-Specific Fertility
Rate (ASFR): ASFR measures the annual number of births to women
of a specified age or age group per 1,000 women in that age group.
General Fertility Rate
(GFR): GFR is
the number of live births per 1000 women ages 15-49 in a given year.
Total Fertility Rate
(TFR): TFR is the sum of the Age-Specific Fertility Rates
(5-year age groups between 15 and 49) for female residents during a year
multiplied by 5, whole divided by 1000.
Crude Death Rate (CDR):
CDR is
the total number of deaths to residents in a given year divided by the total
population of that year per thousand.
Infant Mortality Rate
(IMR): IMR is the number of newborns dying under one year
of age divided by the number of live births per thousand.
Neonatal mortality rate (NMR): NMR the ratio of the number of deaths of
children less than 29 days of age in one year to the number of live births in that
year per thousand.
Post neonatal mortality rate (PNMR): PNMR the ratio of the number of deaths in one
year of children more than 29 days upto one year of age to the number of live
births in that year per thousand.
Demographic Dividend: An increase in the working age ratio can raise the rate of economic
growth. This is known as “demographic dividend.”
Five Year Plans
Economic
planning:
Economic
planning is a sort of conceiving, initiating, regulating and controlling
economic activity by the State according to set priorities with a view to
achieving well defined objectives within a given time span.
Differentiate between plan and
non-plan expenditure
The expenditure in developing
‘planned’ projects is plan expenditure while that on maintenance and running of
the existing projects is known as non-plan expenditure.
Democratic planning:
Planning is ‘democratic’ if
people are associated at both formulation and implementation stages and it is
finalized through debate among people’s representatives.
Regional planning:
Regional planning is a sort of
spatial planning at various territorial levels (such as block/district/state)
for achieving sustainable development for the region.
Indicative planning: Indicative planning is peculiar to the mixed economy. In a mixed economy, the public and private sectors work together. In indicative planning the private sector is neither rigidly controlled nor directed to fulfill the targets and priorities of the plan. The state provides all types of facilities to the private sector but does not direct it, rather indicates the areas in which it can help in implementing the plan.
Imperative
planning:
Under imperative planning all economic activities
and resources of the economy operate under the direction of the state. There is
complete control over the factors of production by the state. There is no
consumers sovereignty in such planning.
Comprehensive plan: An economic plan that sets
targets to cover all the major sectors of the national economy.
Poverty
Poverty: According to the World Bank (2000), “poverty is pronounced
deprivation in wellbeing.”
Headcount Index
By far, the most widely used measure is the headcount index,
which simply measures the proportion of the population that is counted as poor,
often denoted by P0.
Poverty Gap Index
A moderately popular measure of poverty is the poverty gap
index (PGI), which adds up the extent to which individuals on average fall
below the poverty line, and expresses it as a percentage of the poverty line.
Definition of Poverty Line
Defining
a poverty line is the first step in estimating poverty. A poverty line which distinguishes
the poor from the non-poor is derived by estimating the value of the minimum
required consumption levels of food, clothing, shelter, fuel and health care,
etc.
Absolute poverty: The people are said to be in absolute poverty if the minimum amounts of food, clothing
and shelter necessary for survival absorb all of their income.
Poverty trap A bad equilibrium for a family,
community, or nation, involving a vicious cycle in which poverty and
underdevelopment breed more poverty and underdevelopment, often from one
generation to the next.
Basic needs A term used by the
International Labor Organization to describe the basic goods and services
(food, shelter, clothing, sanitation, education, etc.) necessary for a minimum
standard of living.
Poverty line: A
poverty line which distinguishes the poor from the non-poor is derived by
estimating the value of the minimum required consumption levels of food,
clothing, shelter, fuel and health care, etc.
Unemployment
Frictional Unemployment: A temporary
phenomenon which arises when workers are temporarily out of work while changing
jobs or are suspended due to strikes or lockouts.
Casual Unemployment: In industries /services such as construction, catering etc., also
in agriculture, where workers are employment on a day to day basis, there are
chances of casual unemployment occurring due to short-term contracts which are
terminable anytime.
Seasonal Unemployment: Industries or occupations such as agriculture, catering, holiday
resorts, where production activities are seasonal in nature offer employment
only for a certain period of time in a year. People engaged in such type of
work may remain unemployed during the off-season, which is known as seasonal
unemployment.
Structural
Unemployment: Unemployment which arises due to change in the pattern of
demand leading to changes in the structure of production in the economy is
termed as the structural unemployment.
Technological
Unemployment: Due to introduction of new machinery, improvements in
methods of production, labour-saving devices etc. some workers tend to be
replaced by machines. This unemployment is known as technological unemployment.
For example, use of synthetic rubber is bound to reduce demand for natural
rubber leading to unemployment in rubber plantation.
Cyclical Unemployment: Associated with cyclical fluctuations of economic activity due to
trade cycle; Mostly found in the capitalist countries like USA etc.
Chronic Unemployment: When unemployment tends to a long time feature of a country, it is
called chronic unemployment. Underdeveloped countries suffer from chronic
unemployment on account of the vicious cycle of poverty, resource scarcity,
high population growth, low capital formation etc.
•
Disguised Unemployment
Refers to a situation where people may be working and apparently
employed, yet their contribution to output may be zero or negative. Found
mainly in agriculture, public sector enterprises etc.
Labour force participation rate (LFPR): LFPR is
defined as the number of persons/ person-days in the labour force per 1000
persons /person-days.
Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR defined as the number of
persons/person days employed per 1000 persons/person-days.
Proportion Unemployed (PU): It is defined as the number of
persons/person-days unemployed per 1000 persons/person-days.
Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the number of
persons/person-days unemployed per 1000 persons/person-days in the labour force
(which includes both the employed and unemployed).
Development Economics
Agrarian
System:
The pattern of land distribution, ownership and management, also the
institutional and social structure of the agro-based economy.
Agricultural
extension services: Services
offered to the farmers, usually by the government or non-governmental
organizations, in the form of transmitting information, new ideas, methods, and
advice relating to use of fertilizers, pest control, soil testing and
conservation methods etc. with a view to encouraging and assisting them to
achieve larger agricultural output.
Approprtate
technology: Technology of production that is appropriate a
country given its factor endowments.
Capability: Amartya Sen
introduced the concept of ‘capability’ in development economics. Sen defined capabilities of an individual as
"the freedom that a person has in terms of the choice of functionings,
given his personal features and his command over commodities.”
Capital
accumulation: Increase
in a country's stock of real capital like plants, machineries and productive
equipments. Economic development of a country largely depends on the rate of
capital accumulation.
Foreign direct
investment (FDI):
Overseas investments by private multinational corporations. Broadly, foreign direct investment includes
"mergers and acquisitions, building new facilities, reinvesting profits
earned from overseas operations and intra-company loans.
Amortlzation: Gradual
payoff of a loan principal.
Approprtate
technology:
Technology that is appropriate for an economy given its existing factor
endowments. For example, a technology employing a higher proportion of labor
relative to other factors in a labor-abundant economy is usually more
appropriate than one that uses smaller labor proportions relative to other
factors.
Basic needs: The basic
goods and services (food, shelter, clothing, sanitation, education, etc.)
necessary for a minimum standard of living.
Big push: A concerted effort,
led often by the Government policy, to initiate or accelerate economic development
across a broad spectrum of sectors and industries in the economy.
Blodlverslty: The variety
of life forms within an ecosystem.
Biomass fuels: Any
combustible organic matter that may be used as fuel, such as firewood, dung, or
agricultural residues.
Brain drain: The
emigration of highly educated and skilled professional and technical manpower from
the developing to the developed countries.
Buffer stocks:
Stocks
of commodities such as food items held by some authority to be used during
scarcity or to moderate price fluctuations.
Capability: The freedom
that a person has in terms of the choice of functionings, given his personal
features and his command over commodities.
Capltal intenslve
technlque:
A technique of production that uses a higher proportion of capital relative to other
factors of production such as labor or land per unit output.
Capltal-labor
ratio:
The number of units of' capital per unit of labour,
Capital-output
ratio:
The units of capital required to produce a unit of output over a given period
of time.
Capital stock: The total
amount of physical goods existing at a particular time that have been produced for
use in the production of other goods (including services).
Casual
employment: Employment on an ad hoc basis without regular hours or a wage
contract most often found in the informal sector.
Common
market: A form of. economic integration in which there is free internal
trade, a common tariff, and the free movement of labor and capital among
partner states. The European Union is an example.
Common
property resource: A resource that is publicly owned and allocated under a
system of unrestricted access.
Customs union: A form of
economic integration in which two or more nations agree to free all internal
trade among nations while levying a
common tariff for trade with other nations..
Deforestation:
The
clearing/destruction of forested land.
Dependency
burden:
The proportion of the people aged 0 to 15 and above 65 to total population. The
people in this age group is considered economically unproductive and therefore not
counted in the labor force.
Dualism: Two situations
or systems, (one desirable and the other not) coexisting side by side in one
place. For example, modern and traditional sectors, urban and rural, extreme
poverty and affluence, etc.
Economic union: Complete
integration of two or more economics into a single economic entity.
Export
promotion
Government policy to increase the volume of a country's exports through export incentives
and other means with a view to generating more foreign exchange.
Incremental
capital-output ratio (ICOR): The amount of additional capital
needed to increase output by one unit.
Infant
industry:
A newly set-up domestic industry which requires the protection of a tariff barrier
to grow.
Informal
sector:
In many countries, a large part of the urban economy is characterized by small
competitive individual or family firms, petty retail trade and services,
labor-intensive methods, free entry and non-observance of labour laws etc.
Innovation: The
application of scientific inventions in production processes and methods to
produce new products with a view to making profit.
Financial
intermediary
Any financial institution, public or private, that serves to channel loanable
funds
from savers to borrowers. Examples include commercial banks, cooperative banks,
non-banking finance companies and development banks.
Fixed exchange
rate
When exchange value of a national currency remain fixed in relation to another
(usually the U.S. dollar) and is not allowed to fluctuate on the international
money market.
Flexible
exchange rate
The exchange value of a national currency that is free to fluctuate in response
to shifts in demand and supply of foreign exchange.
Foreign direct
investment (FDI):
Overseas investments by private multinational corporations.
Formal
educational system
The organized and accredited educational system, with qualified teachers,
standard curricula, regular academic years, and recognized certification.
Free-rider
problem:
Situation in which people enjoys benefits without paying for it.
Free-trade
area:
A form of economic integration in which there exists free internal trade among
member countries but each member is free to levy different external tariffs
against non-member nations.
Globalization: The
increasing integration of national economies with the international markets.
Government
failure
Situation in which government intervention in an economy worsens outcomes.
Human capital: Productive
investments embodied in human beings. These include skills, abilities, and
health resulting from expenditures on education, training and medical care.
Inward-looking
development policies: Policies
that stress economic self-reliance of a nation, by promoting development of
indigenous appropriate technology, the imposition of substantial
protective
tariff and non-tariff trade barriers to promote import substitution, and the
general discouragement of private foreign investment.
Market economy: A free
private-enterprise economy governed by consumer sovereignty, a price system,
and the forces of supply and demand.
Mixed economic
systems:
Economic systems that are a mixture of both capitalist and socialist economies.
Public and private sectors co-exist in such economic system.
Multi-fiber
arrngement (MFA):
A set of nontariff bilateral quotas established by developed countries on
imports of cotton, wool, and synthetic textiles and clothing from individual developing
countries.
Non formal education: Any
non-school-based program that provides basic skills and training to
individuals.
Examples include adult education, on-the-job training programs, and
agricultural
and
other extension services.
Outward-looking
development policies:
Policies that encourage free trade; the free movement of capital, workers,
enterprises; a welcome to multinational corporations etc.
Privatization: Selling
public assets (corporations) to individuals or private business interests.
Property
rights:
Legal titles given to natural resources such as land to people enabling them
freely to buy and sell their assets, and other rights to use, gain income from,
or sell property.
Purchasing
power parity (PPP):
The purchasing power of a country's currency: the number of units
of
that currency required to purchase the same basket of goods and services that a
U.S. dollar
buys
in the United States.
Rent seeking: Efforts by
individuals and businesses in an economy to capture the economic rent arising
from price distortions and physical controls caused by excessive government
intervention,
such
as licenses, quotas, interest rate ceilings, and exchange control.
Social safety
net:
A set of government programs such as public distribution system, welfare
payments, free health clinics, and unemployment insurance designed to ensure a
minimum level of living for the poor.
Urban bias: When the
urban sector is favoured in the development policies, thereby creating a
widening gap between the urban and rural economies.
Trickle-down theory of development: The notion
that an overall growth of gross national product and income per capita would
automatically benefit (trickle down) the poor.
(For detail study you may refer to my book: General Studies Paper-I by Access Publishing available at Flipkart:
http://www.flipkart.com/general-studies-civil-services-preliminary-examination-paper-1-2014-1st/p/itmdpf9fynss9rgc?pid=9788192679600&otracker=from-search&srno=t_3&query=general+studies+2014&ref=d9ca9dc0-2caa-4889-ab3c-51979772b1c2)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.