All exercise questions from the NCERT textbook India: People and Economy, Chapter 6, “Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context”, exactly as the English edition prints them, with a full model answer for each. Try your own answer first, then check it against this one.
1 Choose the right answer of the following from the given options
Q. Regional planning relates to:
(a) Development of various sectors of economy. (b) Area specific approach of development. (c) Area differences in transportation network. (d) Development of rural areas.
Answer: (b) Area specific approach of development. Regional planning adopts a spatial perspective and draws up plans to reduce imbalance in development across areas, since development is uneven over space. This is different from sectoral planning, which targets the development of specific sectors of the economy, and from a focus only on transportation networks or rural areas alone.
Q. ITDP refers to which one of the following?
(a) Integrated Tourism Development Programme (b) Integrated Travel Development Programme (c) Integrated Tribal Development Programme (d) Integrated Transport Development Programme
Answer: (c) Integrated Tribal Development Programme. The chapter’s case study describes Bharmaur as one of the five Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDP) set up in Himachal Pradesh under the tribal sub-plan introduced in 1974.
Q. Which one of the following is the most crucial factor for sustainable development in Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area?
(a) Agricultural development (b) Eco-development (c) Transport development (d) Colonisation of land
Answer: (b) Eco-development. The chapter states that attaining sustainable development in the command area requires a major thrust on measures to achieve ecological sustainability, since five of the seven measures proposed for the command area are meant specifically to restore ecological balance.
2 Answer the following questions in about 30 words
Q. What are the social benefits of ITDP in the Bharmaur tribal region?
Answer: The social benefits derived from ITDP include a tremendous increase in the literacy rate (female literacy rose 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.
Q. Define the concept of sustainable development.
Answer: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Report, 1987). It takes care of the ecological, social and economic aspects of development and pleads for conservation of resources so that future generations can also use them.
Q. What are the positive impacts of irrigation on Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area?
Answer: The availability of soil moisture for a longer period, along with afforestation and pasture development programmes under CAD, has resulted in greening the land, and has also helped reduce wind erosion and the siltation of canal systems. Canal irrigation has also increased the cultivated area and the intensity of cropping, replaced traditional crops (gram, bajra, jowar) with wheat, cotton, groundnut and rice, and initially brought a tremendous increase in agricultural and livestock productivity.
3 Answer the following questions in about 150 words
Q. Write short notes on drought-prone area programme. How does this programme help in the development of dryland agriculture in India?
Answer: The Drought Prone Area 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 emphasised the construction of labour-intensive civil works, but later shifted emphasis to irrigation projects, land development programmes, afforestation, grassland development, and the creation of basic rural infrastructure such as electricity, roads, markets, credit and services. The Planning Commission (1967) identified 67 districts, wholly or partly, prone to drought, and the Irrigation Commission (1972) used a 30 per cent irrigated-area criterion to demarcate these areas, which spread over Rajasthan, Gujarat, western Madhya Pradesh, Marathwada, and the Rayalseema, Telangana and Karnataka plateaus; Punjab, Haryana and north-Rajasthan are largely protected due to the spread of irrigation. For dryland agriculture, the programme’s strategy of adopting integrated watershed development at the micro-level, and restoring ecological balance between water, soil, plants, and the human and animal population, helps sustain agriculture without over-exploiting fragile drought-prone land, since population pressure had been pushing farming onto marginal lands and causing ecological degradation.
Q. Suggest the measures of promotion of sustainability in Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area.
Answer: The chapter suggests seven measures, five of which are aimed at restoring ecological balance: (i) strict implementation of water management policy, with protective irrigation in Stage-I and extensive irrigation 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. The remaining two measures are: (vi) social sustainability, achieved by providing land allottees with a poor economic background adequate financial and institutional support for cultivation; and (vii) economic sustainability, which cannot be attained through agriculture and animal husbandry alone and requires diversification of the economic base along with functional linkages between basic villages, agro-service centres and market centres.
4 Project / Activity
Q. Find out the area development programmes being implemented in your region. Assess the impact of such programmes on the society and economy in your locality.
Answer: This is a project/activity question meant for the student to research locally (visiting the local block/district development office, or reading local government reports). Based on the chapter’s own account, area development programmes in India commonly include the Command Area Development Programme, the Drought Prone Area Programme, the Desert Development Programme and the Hill Area Development Programme, along with target-group schemes such as the Small Farmers Development Agency; a student should identify which, if any, of these (or similar state-level schemes) operate in their own region and assess their impact on local infrastructure, employment, agriculture and the environment, following the pattern used in the chapter’s own case studies of Bharmaur and the Indira Gandhi Canal.
Q. Select your own area or identify an area facing severe environmental and socio-economic problems. Make an assessment of its resources and prepare their inventory. Suggest the measures for its sustainable development as it has been done in the case of Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area.
Answer: This is a project/activity question meant for the student to carry out for a chosen local area. Following the chapter’s own method for the Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area, the student should first describe the area’s location, resources and the environmental or socio-economic problems it faces, then suggest measures grouped under ecological sustainability (water management, avoiding unsuitable land use, afforestation), social sustainability (support for economically weaker residents) and economic sustainability (diversifying livelihoods rather than relying on a single activity), mirroring the seven measures the chapter proposes for the Indira Gandhi Canal command area.