What are the main problems of human capital formation in India?
India is faced with many problems of human capital formation. These are as follows:
i. Rising Population: The rising population exerts pressure on the available limited resources. In other words, it reduces the per head availability of facilities like housing, sanitation, education, power supply, etc. So, the pressure on these facilities retards the quality of life and lowers the capacity to acquire specialised skills and knowledge.
ii. Brain Drain: People migrate from one place to another in search of better job opportunities and handsome salaries. This puts a serious threat to the process of human capital formation. It leads to the loss of quality people like doctors, engineers, etc. who have high caliber and are rare in a developing country. The cost of such loss of quality human capital is very high.
iii. Improper Man Power Planning: India lacks in proper man power planning. No major efforts have been taken to maintain the demand-supply balance of the rising labour force. So, it leads to the wastage and misallocation of human skills.
iv. Low Academic Standards: In order to spread education, various educational institutions are opening up regardless of deficiency in their standards. These institutions impart inferior quality of education and skills and that in turn causes deficiency in the productivity and efficiency. This is one of the important hindrances for the development of quality human capital formation.
Trace the relationship between human capital and economic growth.
Discuss the need for promoting women’s education in India.
Discuss the following as a source of human capital formation
(i) Health infrastructure
(ii) Expenditure on migration.
‘There is a downward trend in inequality world-wide with a rise in the average education levels’. Comment.
Education is considered to be an important input for the development of a nation. How?
How is human development a broader term as compared to human capital?
What are the indicators of educational achievement in a country?
What factors contribute to human capital formation?
Argue in favour of the need for different forms of government intervention in education and health sectors.
How does investment in human capital contribute to growth?
What was the focus of the economic policies pursued by the colonial government in India? What were the impacts of these policies?
What do you mean by rural development? Bring out the key issues in rural development.
Define a plan?
Who is a worker?
Explain the term ‘infrastructure’.
What is meant by environment?
Why are regional and economic groupings formed?
Why were reforms introduced in India?
Why calorie-based norm is not adequate to identify the poor?
Name some notable economists who estimated India’s per capita income during the colonial period?
Meena is a housewife. Besides taking care of household chores, she works in the cloth shop which is owned and operated by her husband. Can she be considered as a worker? Why?
What was the focus of the economic policies pursued by the colonial government in India? What were the impacts of these policies?
Do you think that in the last 50 years, employment generated in the country is commensurate with the growth of GDP in India? How?
What programmes has the government adopted to help the elderly people and poor and destitute women?
How can creation of income earning assets address the problem of poverty?
Is there any relationship between unemployment and poverty? Explain.
What are the main characteristics of health of the people of our country?
Were there any positive contributions made by the British in India? Discuss.
Victor is able to get work only for two hours in a day. Rest of the day, he is looking for work. Is he unemployed? Why? What kind of jobs could persons like Victor be doing?
How has the consumption pattern of energy changed over the years?