UPHESC Assistant Professor Agricultural Economics 2025 PYQs

Concept: Recall the launch years.

1. Rashtriya Gokul Mission — December 2014.
2. PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana — July 2015 (‘Har Khet Ko Pani’).
3. PM Fasal Bima Yojana — approved January 2016, from Kharif 2016.
4. PM-KISAN — February 2019 (₹6,000 a year). Order: II, IV, III, I.

Short trick: Gokul 2014 → Sinchayee 2015 → Fasal Bima 2016 → Kisan 2019.

Concept: Several types of dualism are linked with different economists.

1. Social dualism — J. H. Boeke.
2. Technological dualism — Benjamin Higgins.
3. Financial dualism (organised vs. unorganised money markets with very different interest rates) — Hla Myint.
4. Harrod is known for the growth model, not dualism.

Short trick: Boeke–social, Higgins–technological, Myint–financial.

Concept: Disguised unemployment: more people are engaged in a work than needed, so withdrawing some does not reduce output.

1. If output does not fall when a worker is removed, that worker's marginal product is zero.
2. Typical of family farms in agriculture (Nurkse, Lewis).
3. Low productivity alone (D) or lack of alternatives (B) do not define it.

Short trick: Disguised unemployment ⇔ MP of labour = 0.

Concept: R. R. Nelson (1956): at low per-capita income, any rise in income raises population growth faster, pulling income back to subsistence.

1. Assertion is correct — the economy is trapped in a stable low-income equilibrium.
2. In the trap, population growth exceeds income growth (beyond the subsistence point), not lower.
3. So R is false; a ‘critical minimum effort’ (Leibenstein) is needed to escape.

Short trick: Trap = population races ahead of income.

Concept: PQLI was developed by Morris David Morris (1979) for the Overseas Development Council.

1. It averages three indicators: infant mortality, life expectancy at age one, and basic literacy (each scaled 0–100).
2. Meghnad Desai worked with UNDP on HDI; Nurkse – vicious circle; Hirschman – unbalanced growth.

Short trick: PQLI = Morris; 3 indicators: IMR, life expectancy, literacy.

Concept: W. W. Rostow (1960) gave five stages of economic growth.

1. 1 Traditional society → 2 Pre-conditions for take-off → 3 Take-off → 4 Drive to maturity → 5 Age of high mass consumption.
2. So the third stage is the take-off (investment rising to over 10% of national income).

Short trick: T-P-T-D-H: Traditional, Pre-conditions, Take-off, Drive, High consumption.

Concept: NSSO consumer expenditure surveys measure Monthly Per Capita (consumption) Expenditure.

1. Poverty lines (Lakdawala, Tendulkar, Rangarajan) are expressed as MPCE in rupees.
2. E.g., Tendulkar 2011-12: ₹816 rural and ₹1,000 urban MPCE.
3. Households below the MPCE cut-off are counted as poor.

Short trick: MPCE = Monthly Per Capita Expenditure.

Concept: Planning Commission classification by culturable command area (CCA).

1. Minor: CCA up to 2,000 ha → 1,800 ha (2).
2. Medium: 2,000–10,000 ha → 9,000 ha (3).
3. Major: above 10,000 ha → 12,000 ha (1). Code 2, 3, 1 = (C).

Short trick: 2,000 and 10,000 ha are the two cut-offs.

Concept: Competitive advantage is whatever distinguishes a firm from rivals and lets it earn superior returns (Porter: cost leadership or differentiation).

1. Efficiency, strengths or intangible resources may be sources of advantage, but only if they set the firm apart.
2. A strength shared by all rivals gives no advantage.
3. Hence ‘what sets an organisation apart’ is the best description.

Short trick: Advantage = difference from rivals that customers value.

Concept: EKC (Grossman–Krueger, 1991) plots environmental degradation against per-capita income.

1. At low incomes, growth raises pollution; after a turning point, richer societies demand and afford cleaner technology, so pollution falls.
2. Rise then fall ⇒ inverted-U.
3. It borrows the shape of Kuznets' original income-inequality curve.

Short trick: Kuznets curves (inequality or pollution) are inverted-U.

Concept: Foster–Greer–Thorbecke family $P_{\alpha }$: α = 0 headcount (incidence), α = 1 poverty gap (depth), α = 2 squared poverty gap (severity).

1. Squaring the gap gives more weight to the poorest, so it captures severity and inequality among the poor.
2. HCR shows only how many are poor.
3. Gini and Kuznets ratio measure inequality of the whole distribution, not poverty.

Short trick: FGT: 0 = how many, 1 = how deep, 2 = how severe.

Concept: Harrod classifies technical change by what happens to K/O at a constant rate of interest.

1. Neutral: K/O unchanged.
2. Capital-using: K/O rises.
3. Capital-saving: K/O falls — less capital per unit of output.
4. Hicks's classification uses the marginal rate of substitution at a constant K/L, a different criterion.

Short trick: Capital-saving ⇒ less capital per unit output ⇒ K/O ↓.

Concept: Economic Survey 2021-22 (based on the First Advance Estimates of national income) put growth of agriculture & allied sectors in 2021-22 at 3.9%.

1. This followed 3.6% in 2020-21 — agriculture was the only sector to grow during the COVID year.
2. Later revisions of the national accounts changed the figure slightly, but 3.9% is the figure reported for 2021-22 in the Survey.

Short trick: 2020-21: 3.6%, 2021-22: 3.9% (Economic Survey 2021-22).

Concept: Structural unemployment arises when the skills (or location) of workers do not match the jobs available, often after changes in technology or the structure of the economy.

1. Frictional — short gap while moving between jobs (information/search).
2. Seasonal — off-season in agriculture, tourism, etc.
3. Cyclical — fall in aggregate demand during recession.

Short trick: Mismatch of skills = structural.

Concept: The Planning Commission (1988–89, Seventh Plan mid-term) divided India into 15 agro-climatic regions.

1. Based on soil, climate, rainfall, temperature and water resources.
2. Examples: Western Himalayan, Eastern Himalayan, Lower/Middle/Upper/Trans Gangetic Plains, … Islands region.
3. NARP (ICAR) further delineated 127 agro-climatic zones; NBSS&LUP gave 20 agro-ecological regions.

Short trick: Planning Commission 15, NBSS&LUP 20, NARP 127.

Concept: Total Economic Value = use value (direct, indirect, option) + non-use value (existence, bequest).

1. Non-use value is the value people place on a resource even though they never intend to use it, e.g. knowing that tigers or a coral reef exist.
2. Value for one's own future use (D) is option value — a part of use value.
3. Market value (B) captures only direct use.

Short trick: Non-use = existence + bequest; future own use = option value.

Concept: NAPCC (30 June 2008) has eight national missions.

1. Solar; Enhanced Energy Efficiency; Sustainable Habitat; Water; Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem; Green India; Sustainable Agriculture; Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.
2. There is no ‘Air Pollution Mitigation’ mission (air quality is addressed separately, e.g. National Clean Air Programme, 2019).

Short trick: 8 missions: Solar, Energy-efficiency, Habitat, Water, Himalaya, Green India, Agriculture, Knowledge.

Concept: Indirect market valuation infers the value of a non-marketed service from a related market (surrogate or cost-based).

1. Travel cost — value of a recreation site from the costs visitors incur.
2. Hedonic pricing — environmental quality reflected in property prices/wages.
3. Replacement cost — cost of replacing the service with man-made means.
4. Factor income (production function) values a service by its contribution to the income from a marketed product, so it is treated as a direct market (production-based) method here.

Short trick: Travel cost, hedonic, replacement = surrogate/cost-based indirect methods; factor income = income from the marketed output.

Concept: Soil conservation covers checking erosion and restoring degraded land.

1. Contour bunding — mechanical measure that cuts slope length and runoff.
2. Catchment afforestation — biological measure against erosion and siltation.
3. Reclamation of alkaline/usar soils (gypsum, drainage) — restores productivity of degraded land.
4. All three are standard soil conservation programmes in India.

Short trick: Mechanical + biological + reclamation = all of the above.

Concept: Land price reflects both its income-earning capacity and market demand–supply conditions.

1. Productivity (fertility, irrigation) determines the rent/income — capitalised value.
2. Location (nearness to roads, markets, towns) adds value.
3. Demand — number of buyers in the area — raises the price for a fixed supply of land.

Short trick: Land price = capitalised rent + location + demand pressure.