Indian Economy: Planning, Resources, Growth, Development, Employment and Inclusive Growth · HCS (Haryana)

What the official syllabus says

General Studies III (Main Written Examination, Paper V):
Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

These two lines are the base of the economy section of the paper. They ask for concepts (how growth, development and unemployment are measured), for the story of Indian planning, and for a view on whether growth has been shared widely.

Topics in detail

Basic concepts and measurement

Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Product, Net Domestic Product and Gross Value Added; factor cost and market prices
Nominal and real GDP; base year revision; the GDP deflator
Per capita income; purchasing power parity comparisons
Growth and development: the difference; Human Development Index (UNDP) and its components
Multidimensional poverty: health, education and standard of living indicators
Sectors of the economy (primary, secondary, tertiary) and structural change in output and employment
Inflation: demand-pull and cost-push; Consumer Price Index, Wholesale Price Index; core and headline inflation
Monetary policy: the Reserve Bank of India, the Monetary Policy Committee and the flexible inflation-targeting framework (4% with a band of 2% either side); repo rate, reverse repo, cash reserve ratio, statutory liquidity ratio, open market operations
Fiscal policy and its interaction with monetary policy

Planning in India

The Planning Commission (1950) and the twelve Five-Year Plans (1951 to 2017); plan holidays (1966 to 1969)
The Mahalanobis model of the Second Plan and the emphasis on heavy industry
Objectives across plans: growth, self-reliance, removal of poverty, employment, inclusive and sustainable growth
NITI Aayog (2015): cooperative and competitive federalism, indices for States, Aspirational Districts Programme
Decentralised planning: District Planning Committees (Article 243ZD), State planning boards, gram panchayat development plans
Indicative planning in a market economy; long-term vision documents

Mobilisation of resources

Domestic savings and investment: household, corporate and public savings; the savings-investment gap
Tax and non-tax revenue; widening the tax base
Banking: public and private sector banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks, small finance and payments banks; priority sector lending
Non-performing assets, bank recapitalisation and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016
Capital markets and their regulator, SEBI; mutual funds, bonds and the role of pension and insurance funds
Financial inclusion: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (2014), the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, mobile), microfinance and self-help groups
Foreign capital: FDI and foreign portfolio investment, external commercial borrowings, remittances
Disinvestment and asset monetisation as sources of public resources

Growth and development

Phases of growth after Independence; the 1991 crisis and reforms; recent growth trends and their drivers
Demographic dividend: working-age population, health, education and skills
Regional disparities between and within States
Sustainable Development Goals and India's progress on them

Employment

Types of unemployment: structural, frictional, cyclical, seasonal, disguised and educated unemployment
Measurement: the Periodic Labour Force Survey; usual status and current weekly status; labour force participation rate, worker population ratio and unemployment rate
Informal and organised sectors; self-employment, casual and regular wage work
Female labour force participation and its causes
The four Labour Codes (on Wages; Industrial Relations; Social Security; Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions)
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005
Skill development: Skill India, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, apprenticeships
Jobless growth debate; gig and platform workers; employment in MSMEs

Inclusive growth and issues arising from it

Meaning of inclusive growth; the Eleventh Plan's theme of faster and more inclusive growth
Poverty estimation: the Lakdawala, Tendulkar and Rangarajan methods
Inequality: Gini coefficient and the Lorenz curve; income and wealth inequality
Exclusion of women, Scheduled Castes and Tribes, minorities, persons with disabilities and remote regions
Direct Benefit Transfer and social security for unorganised workers
Issues: rural-urban gap, agrarian distress, informality, quality of public education and health, financial exclusion

Overlaps

Prelims General Studies: Indian Economy at the objective level.
General Studies II: welfare schemes, health, education and poverty issues.
Haryana: Economy, Industry and Infrastructure: the State's growth, employment and schemes.