CLASS-11 Indian Economic Development NCERT TEXTBOOK 2025-26
CLASS-11 Indian Economic Development NCERT TEXTBOOK 2025-26
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11100 – INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ISBN 81-7450-551-2
Textbook for Class XI
Publication Team
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FOREWORD
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The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
appreciates the hard work done by the textbook development committee
responsible for this book. We wish to thank the Chairperson of the
advisory group in Social Sciences, Professor Hari Vasudevan and the
Chief Advisor for this book, Professor Tapas Majumdar for guiding the
work of this committee. Several teachers contributed to the development
of this textbook; we are grateful to their principals for making this
possible. We are indebted to the institutions and organisations which
have generously permitted us to draw upon their resources, material
and personnel. We are especially grateful to the members of the National
Monitoring Committee, appointed by the Department of Secondary and
Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development under the
Chairpersonship of Professor Mrinal Miri and Professor G.P. Deshpande,
for their valuable time and contribution. As an organisation committed
to systemic reform and continuous improvement in the quality of its
products, NCERT welcomes comments and suggestions which will enable
us to undertake further revision and refinement.
Director
New Delhi National Council of Educational
20 December 2005 Research and Training
iv
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RATIONALISATION OF CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOKS
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to reduce content load
on students. The National Education Policy 2020, also emphasises reducing
the content load and providing opportunities for experiential learning with
creative mindset. In this background, the NCERT has undertaken the
exercise to rationalise the textbooks across all classes. Learning Outcomes
already developed by the NCERT across classes have been taken into
consideration in this exercise.
Contents of the textbooks have been rationalised in view of the
following:
• Overlapping with similar content included in other subject areas in the
same class
• Similar content included in the lower or higher class in the same subject
• Difficulty level
• Content, which is easily accessible to students without much
interventions from teachers and can be learned by children through
self-learning or peer-learning
• Content, which is irrelevant in the present context
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TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many friends and colleagues have helped in preparing this textbook. The
National Council of Educational Research and Training acknowledges
M. Karpagam, Lecturer, Department of Economics, Meenakshi College,
Chennai; J. John, Director, Centre for Education and Communication, New
Delhi; Pratyusa K. Mandal, Reader, DESS, NCER T, New Delhi; Nandana
Reddy, Director (Development), Concern for Working Children, Bangalore;
V. Selvam, Research Scholar, Centre for Study of Regional Development
and Satish Jain, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Pooja Kapoor, Modern School,
Barakhamba Road, New Delhi; Priya Vaidya, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodhi
Estate, New Delhi; and Nalini Padmanabhan, DTEA Senior Secondary
School, Janakpuri, New Delhi for providing their feedback and inputs.
The Council expresses its gratitude to Jan Breman and Parthiv Shah
for using photographs from their book, Working in the mill no more,
published by Oxford University Press, Delhi. Some stories were taken from
the book, Everybody Loves a Good Drought, authored by P. Sainath and
published by Penguin Books, New Delhi. A photo relating to farmers
committing suicides has been used from The Hindu. A few photographs
and text materials on environmental issues have been used from the State
of India’s Environment 1 and 2 published by the Centre for Science and
Environment, New Delhi. The Council thanks the authors, copyright holders
and publishers of these reference materials. The Council also acknowledges
the Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,
New Delhi; National Rail Museum, New Delhi for allowing to use photographs
available in their photo library. Some photographs were given by S. Thirumal
Murugan, Principal, Adhiyaman Matriculation School, Uthangarai, Tamil
Nadu; John Suresh Kumar, Synodical Board of Social Service; Sindhu
Menon of Labour File, New Delhi; R. C. Das of CIET, New Delhi; Renuka of
National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi. The Council
acknowledges their contribution as well. Special thanks are due to Savita
Sinha, Professor and Head, Department of Education in Social Sciences
and Humanities for her support. The Council gratefully acknowledges the
contributions of Mamta and Arvind Sharma, DTP Operators; Neena
Chandra, Copy Editor; Dillip Kumar Agasti, Proof Reader; and Dinesh Kumar,
Incharge Computer Station in shaping this book. The efforts of the
Publication Department, NCERT are also duly acknowledged.
The Council also acknowledges the efforts of Neerja Rashmi, Professor,
DESS, NCERT; M.V. Srinivasan, DESS, NCERT; Jaya Singh, DESS, NCERT;
Pratima Kumari, Associate Professor, DESS, NCERT; Ashita Raveendran,
Associate Professor, PMD, NCERT; Sabita Patnaik, PGT Economics, DMS,
RIE, Bhubaneshwar; Anita Raveendra PGT Economics, DMS, RIE, Mysore,
towards the rationalisation of content of the textbook.
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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
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development, environment, various infrastructure— health, education
and energy; and economic events in China and Pakistan. You may
maintain these clippings, and when the teacher starts teaching a
particular topic, you can cull out those news items, which you have
collected from the beginning of the course, and display/use them in
the classroom. It is necessary for you to build this collection right from
the beginning of the course so that the relevent information is at hand as
and when needed; this habit will also come in handy during later stages
of education.
The schools will have to buy a hard copy of the Economic Survey
for the latest year. You will notice that information relating to the Indian
Economy is updated in the Economic Survey. It is necessary for you to
familiarise yourselves with such reports and work on relevant activities.
The statistical tables available as Appendix in the Economic Survey
would be immensely helpful in understanding various issues.
While discussing a particular issue, discussion of the numerical
information about the issue is inevitable. For instance, when we talk of
growth rates — overall growth rates and growth of different sectors —
though it may be necessary for you to have a rough idea about the
trends in growth rates, the process involved in reaching the level of
growth and factors contributing to the trend rather than mere
reproduction of tabular data of growth rate.
You will notice numbered boxes in all chapters. These boxes
supplement the information given in the text. Through these boxes, an
attempt has been made to lend a humane touch and, thus, bring the
issue under discussion closer to real life. However, these boxes, as also
‘Work These Out’ activities, are not meant for examination/evaluation
purposes.
Besides the relatively conventional ‘Exercises’, each
chapter has ‘Suggested Additional Activities’ at
the end and ‘Work This/These Out’ as part of
the text; the more elaborate activities of these
can be treated as projects. You may explore beyond the text
while attempting these activities.
Understandably, Information Technology facilities may not
be available in all the schools, however, it is important to take
note that various information relating to the Indian economy are available
on the internet. You need to learn to use the internet and access the
websites of various government departments to get the required
information. For instance, the details relating to poverty are published
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by the NITI Aayog. You need to know that the NITI Aayog of the
Government of India has a website in which various reports relating to
different aspects of India, including poverty, are available in the form of
reports. Since it may not be always possible to procure
such reports in hard copy, students and teachers may
attempt to download such reports from websites and use
them in the classroom.
The reports such as Economic Surveys of the last 10 years are
available on the website: http://www.indiabudget.gov.in. Many
organisations change their website addresses. In case a website given
in this book is not accessible, kindly search those websites through
search engines such as Google (www.google.co.in).
For the first time, each chapter has been briefly summed up in the
‘Recap’ to facilitate learning. Also, please take note that sources for all
tables have not been given with the table as these tables were sourced
from various research material which have been covered under
‘References’ for each chapter.
We wish to reiterate the fact that the prime objective of this course
on Indian economy is to introduce the basic macro issues of the Indian
economy to the student community and to initiate a well-informed
debate on our economy. We also stress that collaborative learning is an
important aspect of this course, hence the involvement of students, as
well as, teachers in collecting information on the Indian economy from
other sources is necessary and such collected information should be
used as important inputs for both teaching, as well as, learning about
the Indian economy.
You can send your queries and feedback relating to any part of this book
to the following address.
Programme Coordinator (Economics)
Department of Education in Social Sciences
National Council of Educational Research and Training
Sri Aurobindo Marg
New Delhi 110 016.
Email: [email protected]
xi
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THE CONSTITUTION OF
INDIA
PREAMBLE
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having
solemnly resolved to constitute India into a
1
[SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] and to secure
to all its citizens :
JUSTICE, social, economic and
political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief,
faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity
and to promote among them all;
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of
the individual and the 2[unity and
integrity of the Nation];
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949 do
HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO
OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
1. Subs. by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, Sec.2,
for "Sovereign Democratic Republic" (w.e.f. 3.1.1977)
2. Subs. by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, Sec.2,
for "Unity of the Nation" (w.e.f. 3.1.1977)
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD iii
RATIONALISATION OF CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOKS v
UNIT I: DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND EXPERIENCE (1947–90) 1–35
CHAPTER 1: INDIAN ECONOMY ON THE EVE OF INDEPENDENCE 3
– LOW LEVEL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE COLONIAL RULE 4
– AGRICULTURAL SECTOR 5
– INDUSTRIAL SECTOR 7
– FOREIGN TRADE 8
– DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITION 9
– OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE 10
– INFRASTRUCTURE 11
CHAPTER 2: INDIAN ECONOMY 1950-1990 16
– THE GOALS OF FIVE YEAR PLANS 19
– AGRICULTURE 22
– INDUSTRY AND TRADE 27
– TRADE POLICY: IMPORT SUBSTITUTION 30
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– HUMAN CAPITAL AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 66
– STATE OF HUMAN CAPITAL FORMATION IN INDIA 67
– EDUCATION SECTOR IN INDIA 68
– FUTURE PROSPECTS 70
xiv
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– GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT AND SECTORS 139
– INDICATORS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 142
– DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES — AN APPRAISAL 143
GLOSSARY 151–159
xv
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Constitution of India
Part IV A (Article 51 A)
Fundamental Duties
It shall be the duty of every citizen of India —
(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the
National Flag and the National Anthem;
(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle
for freedom;
(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to
do so;
(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all
the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or
sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of
women;
(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes,
rivers, wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures;
(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and
reform;
(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective
activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour
and achievement;
*(k) who is a parent or guardian, to provide opportunities for education to
his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and
fourteen years.
Note: The Article 51A containing Fundamental Duties was inserted by the Constitution
(42nd Amendment) Act, 1976 (with effect from 3 January 1977).
*(k) was inserted by the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002 (with effect from
1 April 2010).
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