NABARD Grade A Economic and Social Issues (ESI) Syllabus

Economic and Social Issues (ESI) syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Economic and Social Issues (ESI) in NABARD Grade A, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Nature and Structure of the Indian Economy

   4 topics

   • Basic Concepts of Economy
     • Microeconomics vs Macroeconomics
     • GDP, GNP, NNP and National Income concepts
     • Factors of production and economic growth vs development
   • Structure of the Indian Economy
     • Primary, secondary and tertiary sectors
     • Shift in sectoral contribution to GDP
     • Organised vs unorganised sectors
   • Economic Planning in India
     • Five-Year Plans and their objectives
     • NITI Aayog and replacement of Planning Commission
     • Rolling plans and indicative planning
   • Economic Reforms since 1991
     • Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG)
     • New Economic Policy reforms
2. 2

   Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment

   4 topics

   • Poverty Estimation and Alleviation
     • Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees
     • Poverty line and multidimensional poverty index
     • Anti-poverty programmes
   • Inequality
     • Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve
     • Income and wealth inequality in India
   • Unemployment
     • Types of unemployment (disguised, structural, frictional, seasonal)
     • NSSO and PLFS employment data
     • Employment generation schemes
   • Human Development
     • Human Development Index and components
     • Sustainable Development Goals
3. 3

   Agriculture and Rural Development

   3 topics

   • Agriculture in the Indian Economy
     • Green, White and Blue revolutions
     • Cropping patterns and food security
     • Agricultural marketing and MSP
   • Rural Development
     • Rural infrastructure and connectivity
     • Panchayati Raj institutions and 73rd Amendment
     • Rural credit and cooperatives
   • Rural Employment and Welfare Schemes
     • MGNREGA
     • PM-KISAN, PMAY-Gramin and DAY-NRLM
4. 4

   Social Structure, Demographics and Welfare

   4 topics

   • Demographics of India
     • Census and demographic dividend
     • Population policy and dynamics
   • Social Sectors
     • Education and literacy
     • Health, nutrition and public health schemes
     • Women and child welfare
   • Social Justice and Empowerment
     • SC, ST, OBC and minority welfare
     • Tribal development and PESA
   • Urbanisation and Migration
     • Smart cities and urban governance
     • Internal and international migration
5. 5

   Globalisation and Sustainable Development

   3 topics

   • Globalisation and the Indian Economy
     • International trade and WTO
     • FDI, FII and balance of payments impacts
   • Sustainable Development and Climate Change
     • Environment-development trade-offs
     • Climate finance and carbon markets
     • India's climate commitments (NDCs, Net Zero)
   • Social Infrastructure and Environment
     • Energy and infrastructure development
     • Environmental degradation and sustainability

Economic and Social Issues (ESI) flashcards for NABARD Grade A

25 of 51 cards from the Economic and Social Issues (ESI) deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics?

   Microeconomics studies individual units (households, firms, single markets) and how they allocate resources and set prices. Macroeconomics studies the economy as a whole, dealing with aggregates like national income, inflation, unemployment, and growth.

2. Define GDP, and distinguish nominal GDP from real GDP.

   GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country's domestic territory in a year. Nominal GDP is measured at current prices; real GDP is measured at constant (base-year) prices, removing the effect of inflation.

3. What is the difference between GDP and GNP?

   GDP measures output produced within a country's domestic boundary. GNP (Gross National Product) = GDP + Net Factor Income from Abroad (income earned by residents abroad minus income earned by foreigners domestically).

4. How are the three sectors of an economy classified?

   Primary sector (agriculture, mining, extraction of natural resources); Secondary sector (manufacturing, construction, industry); Tertiary sector (services). Some add Quaternary (knowledge/IT) and Quinary (high-level decision-making) sectors.

5. What is the approximate sectoral composition of India's GDP by share?

   Services dominate (around 53-55%), followed by Industry (around 25-27%), and Agriculture and allied activities (around 16-18%), though agriculture still employs the largest share of the workforce (~45%).

6. What is the difference between economic growth and economic development?

   Economic growth is a quantitative increase in real national output/GDP. Economic development is broader and qualitative, including growth plus improvements in living standards, health, education, equity, and reduction in poverty.

7. When did India launch its Five-Year Plans, and which model inspired the Second Plan?

   India launched Five-Year Plans in 1951 (First Plan, 1951-56). The Second Plan (1956-61) was based on the Mahalanobis model, emphasizing heavy industry and capital-goods development.

8. What replaced the Planning Commission, and in which year?

   NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015. It is a policy think-tank promoting cooperative federalism rather than allocating funds.

9. What was the focus of India's First Five-Year Plan?

   The First Five-Year Plan (1951-56) was based on the Harrod-Domar model and focused on agriculture, irrigation, and power to address the post-Partition food crisis.

10. What were the three main components of the 1991 economic reforms (LPG)?

    Liberalisation (reducing licenses/controls), Privatisation (greater private-sector role, disinvestment of PSUs), and Globalisation (integration with the world economy through trade and capital flows).

11. What triggered India's 1991 economic reforms?

    A severe balance-of-payments crisis: foreign exchange reserves fell to enough for only about two weeks of imports, forcing India to pledge gold and adopt IMF-backed structural reforms.

12. What was the New Industrial Policy of 1991?

    It abolished industrial licensing for most industries (License Raj), reduced the number of industries reserved for the public sector, removed MRTP-related restrictions on large firms, and liberalised foreign investment.

13. What is the Tendulkar Committee's contribution to poverty estimation in India?

    The Tendulkar Committee (2009) defined poverty using a consumption-expenditure-based poverty line (MPCE) and estimated poverty at about 21.9% (2011-12), basing the line on a basket covering food, education, and health rather than only calorie intake.

14. What is the Rangarajan Committee's poverty estimate compared to Tendulkar's?

    The Rangarajan Committee (2014) raised the poverty line and estimated poverty at about 29.5% for 2011-12, higher than the Tendulkar estimate of 21.9%, using separate rural and urban consumption baskets.

15. What is the difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty?

    Absolute poverty is the inability to meet a fixed minimum standard (e.g., a poverty line). Relative poverty measures deprivation compared to the rest of society (e.g., those below a fraction of median income), and persists even as incomes rise.

16. What is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?

    The MPI, by UNDP/OPHI, measures poverty across three dimensions—health, education, and standard of living—using 10 indicators. A person is multidimensionally poor if deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators.

17. What is the Gini coefficient and its range?

    The Gini coefficient measures income/wealth inequality, derived from the Lorenz curve. It ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality); higher values indicate greater inequality.

18. What is the Lorenz curve?

    A graph plotting the cumulative percentage of total income against the cumulative percentage of the population. The further the curve bows away from the 45-degree line of equality, the greater the inequality.

19. How is the unemployment rate defined?

    Unemployment rate = (Number of unemployed persons / Total labour force) x 100, where the labour force = employed + those seeking and available for work. It is measured in India by the PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey).

20. Distinguish disguised unemployment from structural unemployment.

    Disguised unemployment occurs when more people are employed than needed (common in agriculture) so marginal productivity is near zero. Structural unemployment arises from a mismatch between workers' skills/location and available jobs due to economic change.

21. What is frictional unemployment versus cyclical unemployment?

    Frictional unemployment is short-term joblessness while people transition between jobs or enter the labour force. Cyclical unemployment results from downturns in the business cycle (recessions) when aggregate demand falls.

22. What are LFPR and WPR in the PLFS?

    LFPR (Labour Force Participation Rate) is the percentage of population in the labour force (working or seeking work). WPR (Worker Population Ratio) is the percentage of population that is actually employed.

23. What is the Human Development Index (HDI) and its three dimensions?

    The HDI, published by UNDP, measures average achievement in three dimensions: a long and healthy life (life expectancy), knowledge (mean and expected years of schooling), and a decent standard of living (GNI per capita, PPP). It ranges from 0 to 1.

24. Who developed the concept underlying the Human Development Index?

    The HDI was developed by economists Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen, first introduced in the UNDP's Human Development Report in 1990.

25. What is the Green Revolution in India?

    The Green Revolution (mid-1960s onward, led by M.S. Swaminathan with Norman Borlaug's HYV seeds) dramatically raised foodgrain output—especially wheat and rice—through high-yielding-variety seeds, irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides, making India self-sufficient in foodgrains.

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