Page 10 - Understanding Economics for Class 10

Gross National Life Mean years of HDI
Income (GNI) Expectancy at Schooling of Rank in
Country
per Capita(2011 birth People aged 25 the world
PPP $) and above (2018)
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
Sri Lanka 12,707 77 10.6 73
India 6,681 69.7 6.5 130
Myanmar 4,961 67.1 5.0 148

Pakistan 5,005 67.3 5.2 154
Nepal 3,457 70.8 5.0 143
Bangladesh 4,976 72.6 6.2 134

Source: Human Development Report, 2020, United Nations Development Programme, New York.
As per the report, we can clearly observe the following points:
 GNI of Sri Lanka is highest and of Nepal is lowest.
 Life expectancy of Sri Lanka is highest and of Myanmar is lowest.
 Mean years of schooling of Sri Lanka is highest and Myanmar and Nepal is lowest.
 HDI is ranking of Sri Lanka (among these 6 nations) is the best and Pakistan is lowest.
To conclude, we can say that Sri Lanka is ahead of India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal and
Bangladesh in all aspects.

sustainability of Development
 Since the second half of the twentieth century, many caution notices have been issued by
scientists that are threat to ecosystem in multiple aspects.
 Resources are replenished by nature like crops, plants, groundwater.
 If we extract more than what is being replenished by rain in case of groundwater then
we would be overusing it.
 Non–renewable resources take millions of years to renew.
 So, before discovering alternate ways these resources should be used in a sustained manner.
Example 1: Groundwater in India
Recent evidence suggests that the groundwater is under serious threat of overuse in many parts
of the country. About 300 districts have reported a water level decline of over 4 metres during
the past 20 years. Nearly one-third of the country is overusing their groundwater reserves. In
another 25 years, 60 per cent of the country would be doing the same if the present way of
using this resource continues. Groundwater overuse is particularly found in the agriculturally
prosperous regions of Punjab and Western U.P., hard rock plateau areas of central and south
India, some coastal areas and the rapidly growing urban settlements.”
(a) Why groundwater is overused?
Ans. Now-a-days groundwater is highly overused because of many reasons, some of which are
as follows:
(i) Groundwater is a fresh water source and can be used for drinking purpose. It is
actually over exploited in urban areas for domestic use and drinking purpose.
(ii) Groundwater is extensively used for irrigation purpose, especially in North India.
Here, most farmers have their own wells and tubewells in their farms for irrigation
to increase their production.
(iii) Post-independent India witnessed intensive industrialization and urbanization. Both these
factors have made the matter worse by exerting pressure on existing freshwater resources.

E-8 Economics Class X