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. Define ‘development’ as used in this chapter.
Answer: Development means a qualitative change which is always value positive: it occurs when there is a positive change in quality, and cannot take place unless there is an increment or addition to the existing conditions.
Q. Who introduced the concept of human development, and in which year did he create the Human Development Index?
Answer: Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq introduced the concept of human development; he created the Human Development Index in 1990.
Q. Name the four pillars of human development.
Answer: Equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment.
Q. Name the four approaches to human development given in this chapter.
Answer: The income approach, the welfare approach, the basic needs approach and the capability approach.
Q. What are the three key/basic areas of human development?
Answer: Access to resources, health and education.
Q. Which organisation proposed the Basic Needs Approach, and what does this approach ignore?
Answer: It was proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO); it ignores the question of human choices, and emphasises only the provision of basic needs to defined sections.
Q. According to the 2025 Human Development Report, as recorded in this chapter, what is India’s rank among 193 countries?
Answer: India ranks 130th out of 193 countries, up from 133rd in the 2022 report.
Q. Name the only country that officially proclaims Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a measure of its progress.
Answer: Bhutan.
Q. Name the Government of India programme mentioned in this chapter, and the issue it addresses.
Answer: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao; it was introduced to address the issue of decline in child sex ratio.
2 2-Mark Questions
Q. Distinguish between growth and development, as this chapter uses the two terms.
Answer: Growth is quantitative and value neutral: it can carry a positive or a negative sign. Development is a qualitative change that is always value positive, and cannot take place unless there is an increment or addition to existing conditions; development occurs only when positive growth is accompanied by a positive change in quality.
Q. What are the three indicators used to measure human development under the Human Development Index?
Answer: Health, measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge/education, measured by the adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio; and access to resources, measured by purchasing power in US dollars. Each of the three is given a weightage of 1/3.
Q. Why does this chapter say the Human Development Index is ‘not the most reliable measure’ of human development?
Answer: The HDI measures attainments, that is, what has been achieved in health, education and access to resources, but it does not say anything about the distribution of that achievement within a country, so it can hide large inequalities.
Q. What is the Human Poverty Index, and how does it differ from the Human Development Index?
Answer: The Human Poverty Index is related to the Human Development Index but is a non-income measure of the shortfall in human development, based on the probability of not surviving to age 40, the adult illiteracy rate, lack of access to clean water, and underweight small children. Where the HDI measures attainment, the HPI measures shortfall, and looking at both together gives a more accurate picture.
Q. Give the chapter’s own examples of how a lack of education or resources can limit a person’s choices.
Answer: An uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because her choice has got limited by her lack of education. Similarly, very often poor people cannot choose to take medical treatment for disease because their choice is limited by their lack of resources.
Q. What does this chapter mean by ’empowerment’ as a pillar of human development?
Answer: Empowerment means having the power to make choices. This power comes from increasing freedom and capability, and needs good governance and people-oriented policies; the empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups is of special importance.
Q. According to this chapter, what pattern of government spending distinguishes countries with high human development from those with low human development?
Answer: Countries with high levels of human development invest more in the social sectors and are generally free from political turmoil and instability, with a more equitable distribution of resources. Countries with low levels of human development tend to spend more on defence rather than on social sectors, and are usually located in areas of political instability.
Q. Give the chapter’s own examples of relatively poorer nations ranking higher than richer ones in human development.
Answer: Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago have a higher rank than India in the human development index despite having smaller economies. Within India, Kerala performs much better than Punjab and Gujarat in human development despite having a lower per capita income.
3 4-Mark Questions
Q. Explain the four pillars of human development, with the chapter’s own examples.
Answer: Equity means making equal access to opportunities available to everybody, irrespective of gender, race, income and, in the Indian case, caste, though this is very often not the case in practice, in almost every society.
Sustainability means continuity in the availability of opportunities, so that each generation has the same opportunities; environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping the future in mind. The chapter’s own example: if a community does not send its girl children to school, many opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up, so each generation must ensure the availability of choices to its future generations.
Productivity means human labour productivity, which must be constantly enriched by building people’s capabilities: people are the real wealth of nations, and better knowledge or health ultimately leads to better work efficiency.
Empowerment means having the power to make choices, which comes from increasing freedom and capability, and needs good governance and people-oriented policies, with special importance given to disadvantaged groups.
Q. Describe the four approaches to human development given in Table 3.1 of this chapter.
Answer: The Income Approach is one of the oldest; it links human development to income, on the idea that a higher level of income reflects a higher level of freedom and therefore a higher level of human development.
The Welfare Approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of development activities rather than participants, arguing for higher government expenditure on education, health and welfare, with the government responsible for raising human development through such spending.
The Basic Needs Approach, proposed by the International Labour Organisation, identifies six basic needs (health, education, food, water supply, sanitation and housing) but ignores the question of human choices, emphasising instead the provision of these needs to defined sections.
The Capability Approach, associated with Prof. Amartya Sen, holds that building human capabilities in health, education and access to resources is the key to increasing human development.
Q. Explain how the Human Development Index measures human development, including its dimensions and their weightage.
Answer: The Human Development Index ranks countries on a score between 0 and 1, based on their performance in three key areas. Health is assessed through life expectancy at birth. Knowledge/education is assessed through the adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio. Access to resources is measured in terms of purchasing power, in US dollars. Each of these three dimensions is given a weightage of 1/3, and the index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all three. The closer the score is to one, the greater the level of human development. The chapter gives 0.983 as an example of a very high score and 0.268 as a very low one. The index measures attainments in human development, but is not the most reliable measure because it says nothing about the distribution of that development within a country.
Q. What does this chapter say about international comparisons of human development? Give its own examples.
Answer: International comparisons of human development show that the size of a country’s territory and its per capita income are not directly related to its level of human development. Often, smaller countries have done better than larger ones, and relatively poorer nations have been ranked higher than richer neighbours. For example, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago have a higher rank than India in the human development index despite having smaller economies. Similarly, within India, Kerala performs much better than Punjab and Gujarat in human development despite having a lower per capita income.
Q. Describe the four categories into which countries are classified on the basis of their human development scores (Table 3.2).
Answer: Countries with a score above 0.800 are in the Very High category, 74 countries as per the Human Development Report 2025, many of them former imperial powers and industrialised Western countries, though a striking number of non-European countries also feature in this group. Countries scoring between 0.700 and 0.799 form the High category, 50 countries, where education and healthcare provision is an important government priority. Countries scoring between 0.550 and 0.699 form the Medium category, 53 countries, mostly nations that emerged after the Second World War, with much higher social diversity and a history of political instability. Countries scoring below 0.550 form the Low category, 26 countries, mostly small countries going through political turmoil, civil war, famine, or a high incidence of disease, needing well-thought-out policies to address their human development requirements.
Q. According to this chapter, why are statements that blame low human development on a region’s culture, religion or community described as ‘misleading’? What does the chapter give as the real explanation?
Answer: The chapter explicitly calls statements such as ‘country X has lower human development because its people follow religion Y, or belong to community Z’ misleading. Instead, to understand why a region reports low or high levels of human development, it is important to look at the pattern of government expenditure on the social sector, along with the country’s political environment and the amount of freedom its people have. Countries with high levels of human development invest more in the social sectors, are generally free from political turmoil and instability, and distribute their resources more equitably. Countries with low levels of human development, on the other hand, tend to spend more on defence rather than on social sectors, and tend to be located in areas of political instability that have not been able to initiate accelerated economic development.
Q. Explain, with the chapter’s own example, why ‘positive growth does not always mean development.’
Answer: Development occurs only when there is a positive change in quality, not merely an increase in quantity. The chapter’s own example: if the population of a city grows from one lakh to two lakhs over a period of time, we say the city has grown; but if facilities like housing, provision of basic services and other characteristics remain the same, then this growth has not been accompanied by development. Growth is therefore a necessary but not a sufficient condition for development: development needs positive growth, but positive growth by itself does not guarantee it.
4 6-Mark Questions
Q. What do you understand by the term ‘human development’? Explain fully, referring to the ideas of Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq and Prof. Amartya Sen.
Answer: For many decades, a country’s level of development was measured only in terms of its economic growth: the bigger the economy, the more developed the country was considered, even though this growth did not really mean much change in the lives of most people. The idea that the quality of life people enjoy, the opportunities they have and the freedoms they enjoy are important aspects of development is not new, but it was clearly spelt out for the first time in the late eighties and early nineties, through the work of two South Asian economists, Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq and Prof Amartya Sen.
Dr Haq described human development as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives; people are central to all development under this concept, and these choices keep changing. The basic goal of development is to create conditions in which people can live meaningful lives, not just long ones, but lives with purpose, in which people are healthy, able to develop their talents, participate in society and free to achieve their goals. Dr Haq created the Human Development Index in 1990, and the United Nations Development Programme has used his concept to publish the Human Development Report annually since then.
Prof Amartya Sen, a Nobel Laureate, saw an increase in freedom (or a decrease in unfreedom) as the main objective of development, and explored the role of social and political institutions and processes in increasing freedom. Dr Haq and Prof Sen were close friends who worked together to bring out the initial Human Development Reports, and together their work succeeded in bringing people to the centre of any discussion on development.
Q. What do equity and sustainability refer to, within the concept of human development?
Answer: Just as a building is supported by pillars, the idea of human development is supported by the concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment; equity and sustainability are two of these four pillars.
Equity refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody. The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender, race, income and, in the Indian case, caste. Yet this is very often not the case, and happens in almost every society: a person’s circumstances of birth should not decide how many opportunities they get in life, but in practice they often do.
Sustainability means continuity in the availability of opportunities. For human development to be sustainable, each generation must have the same opportunities: all environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping the future in mind, because misusing any of these resources will lead to fewer opportunities for future generations. The chapter’s own example is the importance of sending girls to school: if a community does not stress this, many opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up, their career choices will be severely curtailed, and other aspects of their lives will suffer as a result. Each generation must therefore ensure that choices and opportunities remain available to the generations that follow it.
Q. Describe the Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index in detail, and explain why looking at both together gives an accurate picture of a country’s human development.
Answer: The Human Development Index (HDI) ranks countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education and access to resources, on a score between 0 and 1. Health is assessed through life expectancy at birth; knowledge is assessed through the adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio; access to resources is measured through purchasing power in US dollars. Each dimension carries a weightage of 1/3, and the closer the score is to one, the greater the level of human development. The chapter gives 0.983 as a very high score and 0.268 as a very low one. The HDI measures attainments in human development: what has actually been achieved. However, it is not the most reliable measure on its own, because it says nothing about the distribution of that achievement within a country.
The Human Poverty Index (HPI) is related to the HDI but measures the shortfall in human development instead of its attainment. It is a non-income measure that takes into account the probability of not surviving to the age of 40, the adult illiteracy rate, the number of people without access to clean water, and the number of underweight small children.
Because the HDI can look healthy for a country while hiding deep inequality or deprivation that the HPI would reveal, the chapter says the human poverty index is often more revealing than the human development index, and that looking at both measures together gives an accurate picture of the human development situation in a country.
Q. Describe the four categories of countries by human development level (Table 3.2), the top-ranked countries in the Very High category (Table 3.3), and what the chapter’s own box says about India’s position in the 2025 Human Development Report.
Answer: Table 3.2 (Human Development Report 2025) classifies countries into four groups: Very High, a score above 0.800 (74 countries); High, 0.700 to 0.799 (50 countries); Medium, 0.550 to 0.699 (53 countries); and Low, below 0.550 (26 countries). Many of the countries with a high human development score have been former imperial powers and belong to the industrialised Western world with comparatively low social diversity, though a striking number of non-European countries also feature; the High group makes education and healthcare provision an important government priority; the Medium group, mostly countries that emerged after the Second World War, has much higher social diversity and a history of political instability; and the Low group is mostly small countries facing political turmoil, civil war, famine or a high incidence of disease.
Table 3.3 lists the top ten Very-High-HDI countries as, in rank order: 1 Iceland, 2 Norway, 3 Switzerland, 4 Denmark, joint 5th Germany and Sweden, 7 Australia, joint 8th Hongkong China (SAR) and Netherlands, and 10 Belgium.
The chapter’s own box, ‘A step up: On India and the 2025 Human Development Report,’ quoting a Hindu editorial, records that India ranks 130 out of 193 countries in the 2025 report (‘A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI’), up from 133 in 2022, with its HDI value rising to 0.685 in 2023 from 0.676 in 2022, a recovery the box credits as strong in the three fields the HDI measures.
5 Case Studies
(A) 1 mark What is India’s rank in the 2025 Human Development Report, and out of how many countries?
Answer: India ranks 130th out of 193 countries.
(B) 2 marks How did India’s rank and HDI value change between the 2022 and 2025 reports?
Answer: India’s rank improved from 133rd (2022) to 130th (2025 report), and its HDI value rose from 0.676 in 2022 to 0.685 in 2023.
(C) 3 marks Using the concepts in this chapter, explain what an improving HDI value alone does NOT tell us about a country, and which other index would help complete the picture.
Answer: The Human Development Index measures attainments, that is, what has been achieved in health, education and access to resources, but it says nothing about how that achievement is distributed among a country’s people, so a rising HDI value can still exist alongside rising inequality (as this passage itself notes). The Human Poverty Index, which measures the shortfall in human development through non-income indicators, would need to be read alongside the HDI to give an accurate picture of the country’s human development situation.
(A) 1 mark How many countries are in the Very High human development group?
Answer: 74 countries.
(B) 2 marks How many countries are in the Medium human development group, and what does the passage say about how most of them came into being?
Answer: The Medium human development group has 53 countries. Most of these countries emerged in the period after the Second World War: some were former colonies, and many others emerged after the break-up of the erstwhile Soviet Union.
(C) 3 marks Based on this chapter, explain why the Low human development group needs ‘well thought out policies’, and how this differs from what sets the Very High group apart.
Answer: The Low human development group is made up mostly of small countries going through political turmoil and social instability in the form of civil war, famine or a high incidence of diseases, so there is an urgent need to address their human development requirements through well thought out policies. This is the opposite of what sets the Very High group apart: those countries generally invest more in the social sectors and are largely free from political turmoil and instability, with a more equitable distribution of resources, which is precisely what the Low group’s countries lack.