Indian Economy

What the official syllabus says

HCS Preliminary Examination, Paper I: General Studies:

Indian Culture, Indian Polity and Indian Economy.

Questions on Indian Polity and Economy will test knowledge on the country's political system and Constitution of India. Panchayati Raj, social systems and economic developments in India.

Topics in detail

"Economic developments in India" calls for both the basic concepts and how the economy has changed since Independence. Learn each concept with a current Indian example.

Basic concepts

• National income: GDP, GNP, NDP, NNP, GVA; at market prices and factor cost; real and nominal; per capita income
• Sectors of the economy: primary, secondary, tertiary; organised and unorganised
• Inflation: types and causes; Wholesale Price Index and Consumer Price Index; deflation and stagflation
• Measures of development: Human Development Index, poverty lines and poverty estimation, unemployment and its types

Planning and economic policy

• Five-Year Plans: objectives and achievements in outline; Planning Commission and NITI Aayog (2015)
• Economic reforms of 1991: liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation
• Industrial policy, public sector undertakings, disinvestment, MSMEs

Money, banking and finance

• Money and its functions; money supply measures
• Reserve Bank of India: functions and instruments of monetary policy (repo rate, reverse repo, CRR, SLR, open market operations); the Monetary Policy Committee
• Commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks, NABARD, small finance and payments banks; bank nationalisation (1969, 1980)
• Financial inclusion; non-performing assets; digital payments
• Capital market: shares, bonds, mutual funds; SEBI; insurance and IRDAI

Public finance

• The Union Budget: revenue and capital accounts; fiscal, revenue and primary deficits
• Taxes: direct and indirect; Goods and Services Tax (the 101st Amendment, 2016) and the GST Council
• Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003; public debt
• Finance Commission and the sharing of resources with states

Agriculture and rural economy

• Role of agriculture; land reforms; the Green Revolution
• Minimum support price, procurement, the public distribution system and food security
• Agricultural credit, crop insurance and agricultural marketing
• Rural development and employment programmes

External sector and infrastructure

• Balance of payments: current and capital accounts; foreign exchange reserves; exchange rate
• Foreign trade: composition and direction; FDI and FPI
• International bodies: IMF, World Bank, WTO
• Infrastructure: energy, transport, communication; public-private partnership

Economic institutions and data

• Regulators and institutions: RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, NABARD, SIDBI, EXIM Bank
• Statistical system: the National Statistical Office, periodic labour force surveys, index of industrial production
• Annual documents: the Economic Survey and the Union Budget; reports of the Finance Commission

Social sector

• Population and demographic dividend; health and education indicators
• Social security and welfare schemes by type: food, housing, health insurance, pensions, skill development
• Inclusive growth and sustainable development

Overlaps

• The economy, planning, budgeting, agriculture and infrastructure are taken further in Mains General Studies III.
• The state economy is on Haryana: Economy.