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Economics · Unit 2

Indian Economy

Unit 2 of Economics (syllabus: Module II — salient features and structural change; agricultural productivity; poverty; population and the demographic dividend; NITI Aayog; food security; New Industrial Policy 1991; MSMEs). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.

What this unit covers

  • What is the structural mismatch in the Indian economy, and why does it organise the whole module?
  • Why is Indian agricultural productivity low, and what has the State done about it?
  • Why do two expert groups give different poverty ratios for the same year?
  • What is the demographic dividend, and on what conditions does India realise it?
  • What kind of body is NITI Aayog, and what can it not do?
  • What makes the National Food Security Act 2013 a right rather than a scheme?
  • How is an enterprise classified as an MSME, and what does the Act give a small supplier that contract cannot?

Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.

Provisions

  • Economic Survey 2025-26 (Ministry of Finance), s. Table I.2b, sectoral shares of nominal GDP
  • Economic Survey (Ministry of Finance), agriculture chapter, s. Challenges to agricultural productivity, and Government measures
  • NITI Aayog press note (Tendulkar estimates) and PIB release on the Rangarajan Expert Group report, s. Methodology for estimation of poverty
  • Economic Survey (Ministry of Finance), read with the Technical Group on Population Projections report, s. Demographic dividend and longevity dividend
  • Resolution of the Union Cabinet dated 1 January 2015 constituting NITI Aayog, s. Objectives, composition and full-time organisational framework
  • National Food Security Act, 2013, s. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13
  • Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, s. 7, 15, 16, 17, 27(2) and 28

Leading cases

  • Economic Survey 2025-26
  • Economic Survey on agriculture and allied activities
  • NITI Aayog press note on poverty estimates for 2011-12; Press Information Bureau release on the Rangarajan report
  • Economic Survey on the demographic and longevity dividends; Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011-2036 (July 2020)
  • Cabinet resolution constituting NITI Aayog
  • National Food Security Act
  • Micro

Exam questions on this unit

In this paper