UPSC Prelims 2018 GS Paper I · Q48 of 100 Economy easy

Increase in absolute and per capita real GNP do not connote a higher level of economic development, if

  1. (a) industrial output fails to keep pace with agricultural output.
  2. (b) agricultural output fails to keep pace with industrial output.
  3. (c) poverty and unemployment increase. ✓ UPSC's answer
  4. (d) imports grow faster than exports.

Why the answer is (c)

• Economic development means growth plus improvement in people's welfare — reduction in poverty, unemployment and inequality (Dudley Seers' criteria).

• If real GNP and per-capita GNP rise but poverty and unemployment increase, the gains are not reaching the masses, so it is growth without development — option (c).

• Sectoral imbalances (a, b) and trade balances (d) are structural features, not the test of development.

• Hence option (c).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) industrial output fails to keep pace with agricultural output.
Sectoral pace is not the criterion of development.
(b) agricultural output fails to keep pace with industrial output.
Sectoral pace is not the criterion of development.
(d) imports grow faster than exports.
Trade balance does not define development.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2018, held on 3 June 2018. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

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