DEVELOPMENT – REVISION NOTES

Important Definitions
1. Per Capita Income: The per capita income is the total income of the country divided
by its total population. It is also called the average income.
2. Infant Mortality rate: Infant Mortality rate indicates the number of children that die
before the age of one year as a proportion of 1000 live children born in that
particular year.
3. Literacy Rate: It measures the proportion of the literate population in the 7 and
above age group. It signifies how much the population can read and write.
4. Net Attendance Ratio: It is the total number of children of age group up 14- and 15-
years attending school as a percentage of total number of children in the same age
group.
5. Life Expectancy: Life expectancy at birth denotes, as the name suggests average
expected length of life of a person at the time of the birth.
6. World Development Report: Report by World Bank, in this report countries are
compared to the basis of Per Capita income of its citizens. According to this report
countries are classified as developing or developed.
7. Human Development Report: The report published under UNDP where countries are
compared on the basis of per capita income, education, and health status of the
population. According to these principles, countries are ranked over Human
Development Index.
8. BMI(Body Mass Index): International standard used to determine whether an adult
person is undernourished or not. If we divide the weight of a person by the square of
his/her height, we get a ratio which is called BMI.
Important Questions-
1. Differentiate between Human Development and Ecomonic Development
2. Differentiate between Human Development Report and World Development Report.
3. What is sustainable development? Suggest the ways to use it judiciously-Importance
of Sustainability
4. ‘Consequences of environmental degradation do not respect national or state
boundaries’ Justify the statement.
5. Why do we use averages? Are there any limitations to it.
6. Give examples to prove that there are other important developmental goals than
income.
7. Main criteria used by World Bank and UNDP to classify different countries. What are
its limitations
8. Different persons can have different as well as conflicting developmental goals.
Explain with example.
9. Why does Kerela have a better human development ranking than Punjab in spite of
lower per capita income.