Development

Income and Other Goals

Most people have higher income as a developmental goal.

Non-measurable developmental goals like respect, security and equality are more
important than income when it comes to working women and encouraging more
women to work.

People always want development.

Development is about:

 Setting a goal for development

 Finding ways to achieve the goal for development

Development is possible only through democratic political processes.

Different people have different developmental goals depending on their social,

educational and financial states.

What may be development for some may not be development for others.

National Development Comparison

It is easier to compare things when we compare them using a particular criterion or

characteristic.

Countries with more income are considered more developed than other countries
that have less income.
The total income of a country is the sum of the incomes of its entire population.

Since different countries have different populations, total income is not a reliable
criterion to compare national development.

A more reliable criterion for comparing national development is the average

income or per capita income.

Average income of a country = Total income of the country/Population of the

country.

Based on its per capita income, India falls into the category of low-income
countries.

Per capita income hides individual income disparities.

Countries with equitable distribution of income have no rich and no poor.

Countries without an equitable distribution of income have rich and poor people.

Other Criteria of Economic Development

Higher income alone cannot bring about development.

Several criteria other than per-capita income are used to evaluate economic
development in different states and countries.

Some criteria other than income used to compare development are:

 Life expectancy
 Infant mortality
 Literacy rate
 Net attendance ratio
 Gross enrolment ratio
A community also needs public facilities for education and training, affordable
healthcare, and provisions for adequate food and nutrition for development.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is an indicator of a person’s health.

Countries with lower per-capita income than India have comparable or higher
developmental performance on other criteria.

Sustainability of Development

As more and more development happens, more and more resources get used up.

The resources used for development may be renewable resources or non-renewable

resources.

We have limited stocks of non-renewable resources that are lost forever once used.

Renewable resources get restored by nature over a period of time.

The use of renewable resources faster than what nature can restore can lead to
scarcity.

If development continues at its present pace, there may be a time in future when
we may run out of resources and no further development will be possible.

Sustainability of development involves finding ways for continuous development

without the risk of running out of resources or causing irreparable damage to the
environment.

Sustainability of development involves:

 More efficient use of existing resources.

 Finding fresh reserves of resources.
 Innovative ideas and technology to use new resources in place of
conventional ones.