Exam-useful questions from this chapter, grouped by marks, each with a full model answer. Try writing the answer yourself first, then check it against this one.
1 1-Mark Questions
Q. What is meant by ‘sectoral planning’?
Answer: Sectoral planning means the formulation and implementation of schemes or programmes aimed at the development of a specific sector of the economy, such as agriculture, irrigation or manufacturing.
Q. Name the two approaches to planning mentioned in the chapter.
Answer: Sectoral planning and regional planning.
Q. When was the NITI Aayog formed, and what did it replace?
Answer: The NITI Aayog was formed on 1 January 2015, replacing the Planning Commission.
Q. Name any two target-area development programmes named in the chapter.
Answer: Any two of: Command Area Development Programme, Drought Prone Area Programme, Desert Development Programme, Hill Area Development Programme.
Q. During which Five Year Plan was the Hill Area Development Programme initiated?
Answer: The Fifth Five Year Plan.
Q. In which district of Himachal Pradesh does the Bharmaur tribal area lie?
Answer: Chamba district (comprising the Bharmaur and Holi tehsils).
Q. Name the tribal community inhabiting the Bharmaur region.
Answer: The Gaddis, who practised transhumance and conversed through the Gaddiali dialect.
Q. Who conceived the Indira Gandhi Canal project, and in which year?
Answer: Kanwar Sain conceived the project in 1948.
Q. What was the Indira Gandhi Canal earlier known as?
Answer: The Rajasthan Canal.
Q. Define sustainable development in one line, as given in the Brundtland Report.
Answer: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
2 2-Mark Questions
Q. Distinguish between sectoral planning and regional planning.
Answer: Sectoral planning is the formulation and implementation of schemes aimed at developing specific sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, irrigation and manufacturing. Regional planning adopts a spatial perspective and draws up plans to reduce regional imbalance in development, since development is uneven across space.
Q. What is target area planning? Name two target-area programmes.
Answer: Target area planning directs development programmes at specific backward areas identified by the Planning Commission, to arrest the accentuation of regional disparities. Examples include the Command Area Development Programme and the Drought Prone Area Programme (also Desert Development Programme and Hill Area Development Programme).
Q. What is target group planning? Name two target-group programmes.
Answer: Target group planning directs development programmes at specific disadvantaged social/economic groups rather than areas, to arrest the accentuation of social disparities. Examples given in the chapter are the Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) and the Marginal Farmers Development Agency (MFDA).
Q. What were the objectives of the Drought Prone Area Programme when it was initiated?
Answer: The programme was initiated during the Fourth Five Year Plan with the objectives of providing employment to people in drought-prone areas and creating productive assets; it initially laid emphasis on labour-intensive civil works.
Q. What criterion did the Irrigation Commission (1972) use to demarcate India’s drought-prone areas, and which drought-prone areas does the chapter say are largely protected, and why?
Answer: The Irrigation Commission (1972) used a 30 per cent irrigated-area criterion to demarcate the drought-prone areas. The drought-prone areas of Punjab, Haryana and north-Rajasthan are largely protected due to the spread of irrigation in these regions.
Q. Describe briefly the location and physical setting of the Bharmaur tribal region.
Answer: Bharmaur lies between 32°11′ N and 32°41′ N latitudes and 76°22′ E and 76°53′ E longitudes, spread over about 1,818 sq km, mostly between 1,500 m and 3,700 m above mean sea level. It is bounded by the Pir Panjal range in the north and the Dhaula Dhar range in the south, which converge near the Rohtang Pass in the east.
Q. What are the two main tributaries draining the Bharmaur region, and into how many physiographic divisions do they divide it?
Answer: The river Ravi and its tributaries, the Budhil and the Tundahen, drain the Bharmaur region and carve out deep gorges, dividing it into four physiographic divisions: Holi, Khani, Kugti and Tundah.
Q. How did the concept of development widen beyond mere economic growth by the 1970s-80s?
Answer: In the 1970s, the phrases ‘redistribution with growth’ and ‘growth and equity’ were added to the definition of development, since high-growth countries also saw rising poverty from unequal distribution. The concept then widened to include well-being, living standards, health, education, equality of opportunity, and political and civil rights, and by the 1980s meant wide-spread social and material well-being for all in a society.
Q. Who headed the World Commission on Environment and Development, and what is its report popularly called?
Answer: The Commission was headed by the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, and its report, entitled ‘Our Common Future’ (1987), is popularly known as the Brundtland Report.
Q. Describe the two stages of construction of the Indira Gandhi Canal system in terms of area covered.
Answer: Stage-I lies in Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and northern Bikaner districts, with a gently undulating topography and a culturable command area of 5.53 lakh hectares. Stage-II spreads over Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Churu districts, comprising desert land with shifting sand dunes, and has a culturable command area of 14.10 lakh hectares.
3 4-Mark Questions
Q. Explain the Hill Area Development Programme: when it was initiated, the districts covered and its focus areas.
Answer: The Hill Area Development Programme was initiated during the Fifth Five Year Plan, covering 15 districts: all the hilly districts of Uttar Pradesh (present Uttarakhand), the Mikir Hills and North Cachar Hills of Assam, Darjeeling district of West Bengal, and Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu. In 1981, the National Committee on the Development of Backward Areas recommended that all hill areas above 600 m, not covered under the tribal sub-plan, be treated as backward hill areas. Detailed plans were drawn keeping in view the topographical, ecological, social and economic conditions of the hill areas, aimed at harnessing indigenous resources through the development of horticulture, plantation agriculture, animal husbandry, poultry, forestry and small-scale and village industry.
Q. Discuss the strategy shift recommended for the Drought Prone Area Programme after the National Committee on Development of Backward Areas reviewed it.
Answer: The National Committee found the programme largely confined to the development of agriculture and allied sectors, with a major focus on restoring ecological balance, since growing population pressure was pushing society to cultivate marginal lands, causing ecological degradation. The chapter therefore stresses the need to create alternative employment opportunities in drought-prone areas and to adopt an integrated watershed development approach at the micro-level, and says that restoring ecological balance between water, soil, plants, and the human and animal population should be a basic consideration in the strategy for developing drought-prone areas.
Q. Describe the social and economic benefits of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) in Bharmaur.
Answer: Socially, the ITDP brought a tremendous increase in the literacy rate, with female literacy rising from 1.88 per cent in 1971 to 65 per cent in 2011, an improvement in the sex ratio, and a decline in child marriage; the gender gap in literacy has also narrowed. Economically, the cultivation of pulses and other cash crops increased in the last three decades of the twentieth century, though crop cultivation is still done with traditional technology. Pastoralism has declined in importance, with only about one-tenth of households now practising transhumance, though many Gaddis remain mobile, migrating to Kangra and surrounding areas in winter for wage labour.
Q. Trace the evolution of the concept of ‘development’ from the post-World War II period to the 1980s.
Answer: In the post-World War II era, development was treated as synonymous with economic growth, measured through the temporal increase in gross national product (GNP) and per capita income or consumption. However, even countries with high economic growth saw a speedy rise in poverty because of its unequal distribution, so in the 1970s the phrases ‘redistribution with growth’ and ‘growth and equity’ were incorporated into the definition. The concept then widened beyond the purely economic sphere to include improving the well-being and living standard of people, access to health, education and equality of opportunity, and political and civil rights. By the 1980s, development had emerged as a concept encapsulating wide-spread improvement in the social as well as material well-being of everyone in a society.
Q. Explain the positive environmental impacts of the introduction of canal irrigation in the Indira Gandhi Canal command area.
Answer: The availability of soil moisture for a longer period of time, along with various afforestation and pasture development programmes conducted under the Command Area Development (CAD) scheme, resulted in greening the land in the command area. This has also helped in reducing wind erosion and the siltation of canal systems. Introduction of canal irrigation also brought a perceptible transformation in the agricultural economy: soil moisture, formerly a limiting factor, became widely available, leading to an increase in cultivated area and cropping intensity, and initially a tremendous increase in agricultural and livestock productivity.
Q. Explain the negative environmental impacts of the introduction of canal irrigation in the Indira Gandhi Canal command area.
Answer: The intensive irrigation and excessive use of water in the command area led to the emergence of the twin environmental problems of waterlogging and soil salinity. Although the increased soil moisture initially raised agricultural and livestock productivity greatly, this same intensive irrigation has also caused waterlogging and soil salinity, which, in the long run, hampers the sustainability of agriculture in the region, and this is why scholars have questioned the ecological sustainability of the project.
4 6-Mark Questions
Q. “Attaining sustainable development in the Indira Gandhi Canal command area requires a major thrust on ecological measures.” Explain, with reference to the measures suggested in the chapter, structured under ecological, social and economic sustainability.
Answer: Ecological sustainability (five of the seven measures): (i) strict implementation of water management policy, with protective irrigation in Stage-I and extensive irrigation of crops and pasture development in Stage-II; (ii) avoiding water-intensive crops in the cropping pattern and encouraging plantation crops such as citrus fruits; (iii) effective implementation of CAD programmes, such as lining of water courses, land development and levelling, and the warabandi system of equal water distribution, to reduce the conveyance loss of water; (iv) reclaiming areas affected by waterlogging and soil salinity; and (v) eco-development through afforestation, shelterbelt plantation and pasture development, particularly needed in Stage-II’s fragile environment.
Social sustainability: (vi) providing land allottees with a poor economic background adequate financial and institutional support for the cultivation of land.
Economic sustainability: (vii) since the region cannot rely on agriculture and animal husbandry alone, developing agricultural and allied activities alongside other sectors of the economy, leading to diversification of the economic base and functional linkages between basic villages, agro-service centres and market centres.
Q. Discuss, with the example of the Indira Gandhi Canal, how canal irrigation has transformed the ecology, economy and society of a dryland region. Include both the positive and negative impacts described in the chapter.
Answer: The Indira Gandhi Canal, previously the Rajasthan Canal, was conceived by Kanwar Sain in 1948 and launched on 31 March 1958. It originates at Harike barrage in Punjab and runs, at an average distance of about 40 km, parallel to the Pakistan border through the Thar Desert (Marusthali) of Rajasthan, with a total planned length of 9,060 km serving a culturable command area of 19.63 lakh hectares. Irrigation began in the Stage-I command area (Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and northern Bikaner) in the early 1960s, and in the Stage-II command area (Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Churu, where summer temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius) in the mid-1980s.
Ecologically and economically, the availability of soil moisture for longer periods and afforestation/pasture development programmes under CAD have greened the land and reduced wind erosion and canal siltation; the traditional crops gram, bajra and jowar have been replaced by wheat, cotton, groundnut and rice, and cultivated area and cropping intensity have both increased.
Negatively, intensive irrigation and excessive water use have caused waterlogging and soil salinity, which in the long run threaten the sustainability of agriculture; scholars have questioned the ecological sustainability of the project on this basis. The chapter sums this up by saying that canal irrigation in this dry land “has transformed its ecology, economy and society”.
5 Case Studies
(A) 1 mark In which district of Himachal Pradesh does the Bharmaur tribal area lie?
Answer: Chamba district.
(B) 1 mark Since which date has Bharmaur been a notified tribal area?
Answer: 21 November 1975.
(C) 2 marks What two distinguishing traits of the Gaddi tribe does the passage mention?
Answer: The Gaddis practised transhumance (seasonal pastoral migration) and conversed through the Gaddiali dialect.
(A) 1 mark What was the Indira Gandhi Canal previously known as?
Answer: The Rajasthan Canal.
(B) 1 mark Who conceived the Indira Gandhi Canal project, and in which year?
Answer: Kanwar Sain, in 1948.
(C) 2 marks Where does the canal originate, and at what average distance does it run parallel to the Pakistan border?
Answer: It originates at the Harike barrage in Punjab and runs parallel to the Pakistan border at an average distance of 40 km, through the Thar Desert (Marusthali) of Rajasthan.