Indian Economy

What the official syllabus says

RAS Main Examination, Paper I: General Studies I, Unit II (Economics), Part A: Indian Economy.

• Growth and development - concept and measurement. Income approach, HDI and other related indices. Climate change and Environmental degradation.
• Agriculture: Productivity and Progress. Land reforms. Agriculture Finance. Agriculture marketing. Food Security. Food Processing. Major Policy initiatives.
• Industry: Policy and Reforms. Globalization, liberalization and privatization. Industrial Finance. Micro, small and medium enterprises: Importance and Policy initiatives.
• Service sector and infrastructure: Energy, Transportation and Communication.
• International trade and Balance of payments. Foreign aid and investment.
• Public Finance - Union Budget: Sources of Revenue and expenditure. Budget deficit and public debt. Fiscal Policy and reforms in India. Centre-state financial relations and Finance Commission.
• Reserve Bank of India and Monetary Management. Banking and financial reforms.
• Social sector: Health and Education, Poverty and Unemployment. Schemes for augmenting employability of labour in India. Welfare Schemes for weaker and marginalized sections of the society.

Topics in detail

Growth and development

• Growth versus development; GDP, GNP, NDP and NNP; nominal and real values; base year
• Methods of measuring national income: production (value added), income and expenditure approaches
• Human Development Index (UNDP): health, education and income dimensions; related indices such as the Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index and the Multidimensional Poverty Index
• Climate change and environmental degradation as costs of growth; National Action Plan on Climate Change; the Paris Agreement and India's nationally determined contributions; green GDP

Agriculture

• Productivity: Green Revolution, cropping pattern, causes of low yields
• Land reforms: abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reform, ceilings, consolidation of holdings, Bhoodan
• Agricultural finance: cooperatives, regional rural banks, NABARD, Kisan Credit Card, priority sector lending
• Agricultural marketing: regulated markets (APMC), minimum support price and the CACP, e-NAM
• Food security: Public Distribution System, Food Corporation of India, buffer stocks, National Food Security Act (2013)
• Food processing: importance, mega food parks, value chains; major policy initiatives such as income support, crop insurance and soil health cards

Industry

• Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 and 1956; the New Industrial Policy of 1991
• Liberalisation, privatisation (disinvestment) and globalisation: meaning, measures and effects
• Industrial finance: development finance institutions (IFCI, IDBI, SIDBI), capital markets and SEBI
• MSMEs: definition and classification, contribution to output, exports and jobs, the MSMED Act (2006), credit and cluster schemes

Service sector and infrastructure

• Share of services in output and employment; IT and IT-enabled services
• Energy: coal, oil, power, renewable energy targets
• Transport: railways, roads, ports, civil aviation; communication: telecom and digital infrastructure

International trade and balance of payments

• Composition and direction of India's trade; trade policy
• Balance of payments: current and capital accounts; the 1991 crisis; exchange rate and convertibility
• Foreign aid and investment: FDI and FPI, FEMA (1999), external debt

Public finance

• Union Budget: the Annual Financial Statement (Article 112); revenue and capital receipts; tax and non-tax revenue; revenue and capital expenditure
• Deficits: revenue, fiscal and primary deficit; public debt and its sustainability
• Fiscal policy and reforms: FRBM Act (2003), tax reforms, Goods and Services Tax
• Centre-state financial relations: distribution of taxes, grants-in-aid, the Finance Commission (Article 280)

Reserve Bank of India and monetary management

• RBI's functions; instruments of monetary policy (repo and reverse repo rates, CRR, SLR, open market operations)
• Monetary Policy Committee and inflation targeting; measures of money supply and inflation
• Banking and financial reforms: bank nationalisation, Narasimham Committees, non-performing assets, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (2016), payments banks, digital payments

Social sector

• Health and education: indicators, public spending, national health and education programmes
• Poverty: measurement and poverty lines; unemployment: types and measurement
• Employability schemes: skill development, MGNREGA, livelihood missions
• Welfare schemes for weaker and marginalised sections: SCs, STs, minorities, women, persons with disabilities

Overlaps

The Rajasthan side of each heading (state budget, agriculture, industry, schemes) is on Economy of Rajasthan; global institutions are on World Economy.