Indian Economic Development timeline and facts for CUET Economics
Every date, number and definition in CUET Indian Economic Development on one page: the colonial economy, planning and its goals, land reforms and the green revolution, IPR 1956 and import substitution, the 1991 reforms, human capital, rural development, employment, the environment, and India compared with China and Pakistan. Read it the night before; the chapter lessons have the worked examples.
This is the short version of the ten Indian Economic Development lessons. If a line here is not clear, the chapter it comes from is named in its heading.
The timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1793 | Permanent Settlement (zamindari) in Bengal |
| 1869 | Suez Canal opens |
| 1881 | First census of British India |
| 1907 | TISCO incorporated |
| 1921 | Year of the great divide (population) |
| 1931 | Indian Statistical Institute founded by Mahalanobis |
| 1947 | Independence of India and Pakistan |
| 1948 | Industrial Policy Resolution; GATT set up |
| 1949 | People's Republic of China |
| 1950 | Planning Commission (March) |
| 1951–56 | First Five Year Plan |
| 1953 | China's First Five Year Plan |
| 1955 | Karve Committee on small-scale industry |
| 1956 | Industrial Policy Resolution; Second Plan (Mahalanobis); Pakistan's first plan |
| 1958 | China's Great Leap Forward |
| 1964–66 | Kothari Commission: 6% of GDP on education |
| Mid-1960s–mid-1970s | First phase of the green revolution |
| 1966–76 | China's Cultural Revolution |
| 1969 | Fourteen banks nationalised |
| 1970 | Operation Flood |
| 1974 | Central Pollution Control Board |
| 1975 | Regional Rural Banks |
| 1978 | China's reforms; one-child norm in the late 1970s |
| 1982 | NABARD |
| 1985 | SAARC |
| 1987 | Brundtland Report; Montreal Protocol |
| 1988 | Pakistan's reforms |
| 1991 | Balance of payments crisis; New Economic Policy |
| 1995 | WTO |
| 1996 | Nine Navratnas |
| 1997 | Kyoto Protocol |
| 1998 | Kisan Credit Card |
| 2001 (April) | Quantitative restrictions on imports fully removed |
| 2005 | MGNREGA |
| 2009 | Right to Education Act (ages 6–14) |
| 2015 | NITI Aayog (1 January); Paris Agreement |
| 2017 | GST (1 July); Twelfth Plan ends |
The economy at independence
| Idea | Fact |
|---|---|
| Colonial aim | Raw materials for Britain; a market for its goods |
| Growth, first half of the 20th century | Total output below 2% a year; per capita about 0.5% |
| Agriculture | 85% lived in villages; zamindari, low yields, commercialisation |
| Industry | Deindustrialisation; cotton (west, Indian), jute (Bengal, foreign); few capital goods |
| Trade | Over half with Britain; export surplus drained to Britain |
| Demography | Literacy below 16% (women about 7%); IMR about 218; life expectancy about 32 |
| Workforce | Agriculture 70–75%, manufacturing 10%, services 15–20% |
Planning, 1950–90
| Idea | Fact |
|---|---|
| Systems | Capitalist: purchasing power. Socialist: need. India: mixed |
| Goals | Growth, modernisation, self-reliance, equity |
| Land reforms | Abolition of intermediaries (about 200 lakh tenants), ceilings; best in Kerala and West Bengal |
| Green revolution | HYV + fertiliser + pesticides + water; wheat first |
| Marketed surplus | Output sold = output − own use |
| IPR 1956 | Three categories; Schedule A (17) state only; licensing |
| Small-scale industry | ₹5 lakh limit in 1950; labour-intensive; reserved goods |
| Trade | Import substitution; tariff = tax on imports; quota = quantity limit |
| Record | Industry's share of GDP about 12% → 25%; about 6% growth a year |
The 1991 reforms
| Idea | Fact |
|---|---|
| Crisis | Reserves under two weeks of imports; $7 billion from IBRD and IMF |
| Stabilisation / structural | Short-term BoP and inflation / long-term efficiency |
| Liberalisation | Licences, finance (RBI regulator → facilitator; banks FDI about 74%), tax, forex (devaluation), trade |
| Privatisation | Disinvestment; Maharatna, Navratna, Miniratna |
| Globalisation | Outsourcing; WTO (successor to GATT) |
| Weak spots | Agriculture, jobs, revenue |
Current challenges
| Idea | Fact |
|---|---|
| Human capital sources | Education, health, on-the-job training, migration, information |
| Human capital vs development | Means vs ends |
| Rural credit | Moneylenders → banks, RRBs, cooperatives, NABARD; SHGs = microcredit |
| Marketing | Regulated markets, MSP, buffer stock (FCI), PDS; Apni Mandi, Hadaspar, Rythu Bazar, Uzhavar Sandies |
| Revolutions | Green grains, white milk, blue fish, golden horticulture |
| WPR | Workers ÷ population × 100 |
| Unemployment rate | Unemployed ÷ labour force × 100 |
| Formal sector | Public sector + private units with 10 or more hired workers |
| Unemployment | Disguised, seasonal, open, educated |
| Carrying capacity | Extraction ≤ regeneration; waste ≤ absorptive capacity |
| Sustainable development | Meets present needs without compromising the future's (Brundtland) |
| Daly | Population, efficient technology, renewables, non-renewables, pollution |
India and its neighbours
| Idea | Fact |
|---|---|
| Reforms | China 1978, Pakistan 1988, India 1991 |
| Density | India highest, China lowest |
| Population growth and fertility | Pakistan highest, China lowest |
| Growth led by | China: manufacturing. India: services |
| HDI | China, then India, then Pakistan |
Which graphs must you be able to read?
- India's population at each census, 1901–1951 (the 1921 dip).
- Wheat and rice output, 1950-51 to 1990-91 (wheat doubles in the 1960s).
- Male and female literacy, 1951–2011 (the gap widest in 1981).
- Milk output before and after Operation Flood.
- GDP and employment indices (jobless growth).
- Felling against regrowth (carrying capacity) and CO₂ in the air.