Indian Economy

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Preliminary Examination, General Studies, under the heading Economy of India and Gujarat:

• Basic concepts and notions of Economics.
• Indian Economy on the eve of Independence, Planning exercise in India; models and shift in focus over a period of time etc. New Economic Reforms, NITI Aayog, etc.
• Agriculture sector: Major Crops, Cropping Patterns and Irrigation etc., Institutional Structure - Land Reforms in India; Technological change in agriculture, Pricing of agricultural inputs and outputs; Terms of trade between agriculture and industry; Agricultural Finance Policy; Marketing and Warehousing; Issues in Food Security and Public Distribution System, Green Revolution, Policies for Sustainable agriculture and Organic farming, etc.
• Industrial policy; Public sector enterprises; Privatization and disinvestments; Growth and pattern of industrialization; Small-scale sector; Productivity in industrial sector; Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and industrialization, Foreign investment and competition policy, etc.
• Infrastructure in Indian Economy: Infrastructure facilities; Water supply and Sanitation, Energy and Power, Science and Technology, Rural and Urban infrastructure facilities, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, Telecommunication, Social Impact Assessment, etc.
• Trends and patterns in structure of population over a period of time - Growth rate, Gender, Rural-Urban migration, Literacy, Regional; Structure and trends of Poverty and Inequality; Unemployment - trends, structure and National Rural Employment Policies. Various indicators of development, etc.
• Indian Public finance system: Indian tax system, Public expenditure, Public debt, Deficit and subsidies in the Indian economy, Centre-State financial relation, Recent fiscal and monetary policy issues and their impact, Goods and Service Tax (GST), etc.
• Trend, composition, structure and direction of India's foreign trade. India's Balance of payments Situation in post reforms period, etc.

Topics in detail

Learn the concepts first, then the institutions and policies. Gujarat's economy, which the syllabus names in its own line, has its own page: Gujarat: Economy.

Basic concepts

• Micro and macro economics; demand, supply, elasticity, market forms
• National income: GDP, GNP, NDP, NNP, GVA; at factor cost and market prices; real and nominal; base year
• Money: functions, money supply measures (M1, M3), inflation (CPI, WPI), deflation, stagflation
• Banking: RBI functions, repo and reverse repo, CRR, SLR, open market operations; commercial, cooperative and regional rural banks
• Business cycles, fiscal and monetary policy tools

Indian economy on the eve of Independence and planning

• Colonial economy: deindustrialisation, stagnant agriculture, drain of wealth
• Planning Commission (1950), Five-Year Plans one to twelve: aims and models (Harrod-Domar, Mahalanobis), shift from heavy industry to poverty removal and inclusive growth
• Plan holidays (1966-69) and rolling plan; new economic reforms of 1991: liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation
• NITI Aayog (2015): structure, functions, cooperative federalism, indices it publishes

Agriculture

• Major crops (kharif, rabi, zaid), cropping patterns, irrigation sources and projects
• Land reforms: abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reform, land ceilings, consolidation of holdings
• Technological change: Green Revolution (HYV seeds, fertilisers, irrigation) and its effects; mechanisation
• Pricing: minimum support price, CACP, input subsidies; terms of trade between agriculture and industry
• Agricultural finance: NABARD, Kisan Credit Card, priority sector lending, crop insurance
• Marketing and warehousing: APMCs, e-NAM, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority, cold chains
• Food security: National Food Security Act 2013, PDS and Targeted PDS, buffer stocks, FCI
• Sustainable agriculture, organic and natural farming, micro-irrigation

Industry

• Industrial policies: 1948, 1956, 1991; licensing and its abolition
• Public sector enterprises: Maharatna, Navratna, Miniratna; privatisation and disinvestment
• Growth and pattern of industrialisation; small-scale sector and MSMEs (definition, problems)
• Industrial productivity; Index of Industrial Production
• Special Economic Zones (SEZ Act, 2005); industrial corridors
• Foreign investment: FDI and FPI, automatic and government routes; Competition Act 2002 and the Competition Commission of India

Infrastructure

• Water supply and sanitation; energy and power (thermal, hydro, nuclear, renewable)
• Transport: roads (Bharatmala, rural roads), railways, ports (Sagarmala), airports and civil aviation (UDAN)
• Telecommunication and digital infrastructure
• Rural and urban infrastructure; public-private partnership models
• Social Impact Assessment in land acquisition (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013)

Population, poverty, inequality and unemployment

• Demographic trends: growth rate, sex ratio, rural-urban migration, literacy, regional differences; demographic dividend
• Poverty: measurement (Lakdawala, Tendulkar, Rangarajan), multidimensional poverty; trends
• Inequality: Gini coefficient, regional and income inequality
• Unemployment: types, measurement (Periodic Labour Force Survey), trends; rural employment policies (MGNREGA and earlier programmes)
• Indicators of development: HDI, per capita income, SDG indices

Public finance

• Indian tax system: direct and indirect taxes; Goods and Services Tax (101st Amendment, GST Council, rates, compensation)
• Public expenditure and the budget: revenue and capital accounts
• Deficits: revenue, fiscal, primary; FRBM Act; public debt
• Subsidies: food, fertiliser, fuel; direct benefit transfer
• Centre-State financial relations: Finance Commissions, tax devolution, grants
• Recent fiscal and monetary policy issues: inflation targeting, Monetary Policy Committee

Foreign trade and balance of payments

• Trend, composition and direction of India's exports and imports; main trading partners
• Balance of payments: current and capital account; the 1991 crisis
• Exchange rate, foreign exchange reserves, convertibility
• Trade policy: Foreign Trade Policy, export promotion, trade agreements, WTO issues

Overlaps

Mains General Studies-III (D) Economy of India and Gujarat asks for planning, public finance, inclusive growth, infrastructure and agriculture in descriptive form.