Indian Economy Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Only Pakistan had a lower per capita income than India in 2023, so the answer is Only (iii) is correct.

World Bank figures for 2023 put India's GDP per capita at roughly 2,500 US dollars and Pakistan's at roughly 1,400 dollars, well below it.

Sri Lanka and Bhutan were both well above India, at more than 3,500 dollars. Bangladesh is the trap: its per capita income has been slightly above India's in recent years, so it does not belong on the list either. That rules out every option that includes (ii), (i) or (iv).

Answer: B

The apex consumer co-operative institution in Rajasthan is CONFED.

CONFED is the Rajasthan Rajya Sahakari Upbhokta Sangh, the state-level federation at the top of the consumer co-operative structure. It runs co-operative stores and supplies goods, including medicines, through the wholesale consumer stores below it.

RAJFED is the apex of a different structure, the co-operative marketing federation, which deals in agricultural produce and farm inputs. S.T.C. is the State Trading Corporation, a government company, not a co-operative. SENFED is not the consumer apex body.

Answer: C

The Mewar Sugar Mills was set up at Bhupalsagar.

Established in 1932 at Bhupalsagar in present-day Chittorgarh district, the Mewar Sugar Mills was the first sugar mill in Rajasthan, set up in the private sector in the princely state of Mewar.

Bhilwara is known for its textile industry, Beawar for its old cotton and wool trade, and Kishangarh for marble and its miniature painting school. None of them was the site of the Mewar Sugar Mills.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is Rajasthan, 88%.

Guar (cluster bean) is a hardy, drought-tolerant crop of the arid west, and Rajasthan is by far its leading producer, growing the large majority of India's crop in districts such as Barmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Churu. Guar gum from its seeds is an important export.

Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are not leading guar producers, so those options fail on the state. Between the two Rajasthan options, 40% is far too low for the state's dominant share; 88% is the figure the paper attributes to the Economic Survey 2023-24.

Answer: A

The answer is that both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

The Minimum Needs Programme was introduced in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79) to raise the living standard of the poor and underserved, especially in rural areas. It did so by providing basic amenities: elementary education, rural health care, nutrition, rural drinking water, rural roads, rural electrification and housing for the landless.

The reason states how the programme achieves the aim in the assertion, so it explains it rather than merely being true alongside it. That rules out option B, and both statements being true rules out C and D.

Answer: A

Both statements (i) and (ii) are correct.

Statement (i) is correct: during the colonial period, Dadabhai Naoroji, William Digby, Findlay Shirras, V.K.R.V. Rao and R.C. Desai each estimated India's national and per capita income. Statement (ii) is also correct: of these, V.K.R.V. Rao's estimates are regarded as the most significant, being the most careful and systematic of the colonial-era attempts.

This is the standard account in the school economics texts on India's economy under colonial rule. Since both statements are true, every option that marks one or both of them incorrect is ruled out.

Answer: C

RMSA stands for Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.

Launched in 2009, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan aimed to make good quality secondary education available, accessible and affordable to all young people aged 14-18. In 2018 it was merged into the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

'Madhyamik Shiksha' means secondary education; the other options replace these words with 'Medical School' or 'Medical Stipend', or 'Rashtriya' (national) with 'Rational'.

Answer: A

Octroi is a tax.

It was a levy by a local body on goods entering its area for use or sale, collected at checkposts on the town's boundary. Maharashtra was the last state to abolish it, in 2017, when GST subsumed such levies.

Answer: B

The RBI became state-owned in 1949.

It had been set up in 1935 as a shareholders' bank on the Hilton Young Commission's recommendation. The Reserve Bank (Transfer to Public Ownership) Act brought it fully into government hands from 1 January 1949.

Answer: C

Total deposits would neither increase nor decrease.

The deposits of the banking system as a whole depend on the cash base and the reserve ratio, not on how many banks share the business. Merging them changes only the internal transfers between banks; the aggregate credit creation is unchanged.