UPHESC Assistant Professor Economics 2025 PYQs

Concept: Tamil Nadu gets most of its rain in Oct–Dec (retreating/north-east monsoon) from depressions and cyclones formed over the Bay of Bengal.

1. The NE winds pick up moisture over the Bay; tropical depressions and cyclones crossing the Coromandel coast give heavy rain → cyclonic rainfall.
2. Anticyclones bring dry, stable weather, not rain; convectional rain is typical of hot summer afternoons/equatorial areas.

Short trick: Coromandel coast winter rain = Bay of Bengal cyclones.

Concept: Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha in Calcutta in 1815 (forerunner of the Brahmo Sabha, 1828).

1. Vivekananda – Ramakrishna Mission (1897); Dayananda – Arya Samaj (1875).
2. Radha Kant Dev – orthodox leader of the Dharma Sabha (1830), which opposed Roy.

Short trick: Roy: Atmiya Sabha 1815 → Brahmo Sabha 1828.

Concept: Bose was elected Congress President at Haripura (1938), re-elected at Tripuri (1939) defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, and resigned in April 1939 after differences with Gandhi; Dr. Rajendra Prasad was then elected President.

1. Bose did not resign in 1938, so the event the question asks about (an election after a 1938 resignation) never happened.
2. Dr. Rajendra Prasad (option D) fits only if the printed year is changed to 1939; Patel, Nehru and Annie Besant do not fit at all.
3. As printed, therefore, no option is correct and the question is treated as a bonus. The fact to remember: Bose resigned in April 1939 → Rajendra Prasad became President.

Short trick: Haripura 1938 (Bose elected) → Tripuri 1939 (re-elected, then resigned) → Rajendra Prasad.

Concept: Match each leader with the movement he led.

1. Tilak – a leader of the Swadeshi movement (1905–07) → III.
2. Shaukat Ali – with Mohammad Ali, led the Khilafat movement → I.
3. Gandhi – Non-Cooperation movement (1920–22) → IV; Bahadur Shah Zafar – nominal leader of the 1857 revolt → II.

Short trick: Tilak-Swadeshi, Ali-Khilafat, Gandhi-NCM, Zafar-1857 → III-I-IV-II.

Concept: The Election Commission of India (Art. 324) is a permanent, independent constitutional body set up on 25 January 1950.

1. (B) Wrong – CEC and ECs are appointed by the President (on the recommendation of a selection committee under the 2023 Act).
2. (C) Wrong as a general power – disqualification of members is decided by the President/Governor on the EC’s opinion; the EC only advises (Art. 103/192).
3. (D) Wrong – it functions all the time (rolls, party recognition, symbols, etc.).

Short trick: ECI = permanent constitutional body (Art. 324), not a seasonal one.

Concept: The core feature of the parliamentary system is the collective responsibility of the executive to the legislature.

1. In India, the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Art. 75(3)) and stays in office only while it enjoys its confidence.
2. The judiciary is independent and not responsible to either organ.

Short trick: Parliamentary = executive answerable to Parliament; Presidential = fixed-term executive.

Concept: The Estimates Committee has 30 members, all from the Lok Sabha, elected by proportional representation.

1. Rajya Sabha has no representation on it (unlike the PAC: 15 LS + 7 RS, and the CoPU: 15 LS + 7 RS).
2. A minister cannot be a member; it is called the ‘continuous economy committee’.

Short trick: Estimates = 30, all Lok Sabha.

Concept: Classic economics books and their authors.

1. Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations (1776) → I.
2. Thomas Malthus – An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) → IV.
3. W. Arthur Lewis – The Theory of Economic Growth (1955) → II; Samir Amin – Imperialism and Unequal Development (1977) → III.

Short trick: Smith-Wealth, Malthus-Population, Lewis-Growth, Amin-Imperialism → I-IV-II-III.

Concept: Budget 2025-26 (1 Feb 2025) announced a Makhana Board in Bihar to improve production, processing, value addition and marketing of makhana (fox nut).

1. Bihar (Mithilanchal – Darbhanga, Madhubani, Purnia) produces about 85–90% of India’s makhana.
2. Mithila Makhana has a GI tag (2022).

Short trick: Makhana = Mithila = Bihar.

Concept: ‘Rupee comes from’ (BE 2025-26): borrowings & other liabilities 24 paise, income tax 22, GST 18, corporation tax 17, non-tax revenue 9, union excise 5, customs 4, non-debt capital receipts 1.

1. Among the given options income tax (22 paise) is the largest.
2. GST is 18 paise; excise (5) and customs (4) are much smaller.

Short trick: 2025-26 order: Borrowing 24 > Income tax 22 > GST 18 > Corporate 17.

Concept: Amartya Sen received the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his contributions to welfare economics".

1. His prize-winning work covers social choice theory, poverty measurement (Sen index), famines and entitlement, and inequality.
2. Development economics is closely linked to his later capability approach, but the citation itself says welfare economics.
3. Econometrics (Frisch–Tinbergen 1969) and monetary economics (Friedman 1976) are other laureates' fields.

Short trick: Sen 1998 = Social choice + Sen index = Welfare economics.

Concept: Under perfect competition in both product and factor markets, a firm hires labour until W = VMP_L = P × MPP_L (= MRP, since P = MR).

1. The firm compares the extra cost of a worker (wage) with the extra revenue he brings (P × MPP).
2. Hiring stops where the two are equal; in equilibrium W = VMP = MRP = ARP (long run).
3. Subsistence wage is the classical/iron-law idea, not the marginal productivity result.

Short trick: Perfect competition: W = VMP; monopoly in product market: W = MRP < VMP.

Concept: Break-even point: output at which TR = TC, so profit = 0 (no profit, no loss).

1. Below it TC > TR (loss); above it TR > TC (profit).
2. Break-even output = Fixed cost ÷ (Price − AVC), i.e. FC ÷ contribution per unit.
3. Split-off point is a joint-cost term; point of inflection is where a curve changes curvature.

Short trick: TR line meets TC line = 'no profit no loss' = break-even.

Concept: The law of demand (inverse price–quantity relation) holds 'other things being equal' (ceteris paribus).

1. Assumptions: consumer's income, prices of related goods, tastes and preferences, credit/expectations and population remain constant.
2. Options (B), (C), (D) speak of a change in these factors – that would shift the demand curve, so they are not assumptions.
3. Only (A) states a ceteris-paribus condition.

Short trick: Law of demand = price changes, everything else unchanged.

Concept: A horizontal demand curve means perfectly elastic demand: e_p = ∞.

1. At the given price any quantity can be sold; a tiny price rise makes demand fall to zero.
2. This is the demand (AR) curve facing a firm under perfect competition.
3. Vertical curve → e = 0; rectangular hyperbola → e = 1.

Short trick: Horizontal = ∞ (perfectly elastic); Vertical = 0 (perfectly inelastic).

Concept: MP = d(TP)/dL, so TP is at its maximum when MP = 0 (end of stage II).

1. MP maximum → point of inflexion of TP.
2. AP maximum, where AP = MP → end of stage I.
3. After MP becomes negative, TP falls (stage III).

Short trick: MP max → TP inflexion; AP = MP → AP max; MP = 0 → TP max.

Concept: Long-run equilibrium of a perfectly competitive firm: P = AR = MR = LMC = minimum LAC.

1. MR = MC gives profit maximisation (true in short run too).
2. Free entry/exit wipes out super-normal profit, so P = AC (normal profit only).
3. Since P = MR under perfect competition, all five are equal, at the minimum point of LAC.

Short trick: Long run perfect competition: 'everything equal' – P = AR = MR = MC = AC (min).

Concept: Keynes's General Theory deals with involuntary unemployment in developed capitalist economies caused by deficient effective demand.

1. Keynes explicitly discussed voluntary and frictional unemployment (the classical categories) and involuntary unemployment.
2. Disguised unemployment (zero marginal productivity labour in agriculture of underdeveloped countries) was outside his framework – it was analysed later by Nurkse, Lewis, Rosenstein-Rodan.
3. So Keynesian theory is said to be inapplicable to underdeveloped economies where disguised unemployment dominates.

Short trick: Keynes = rich-country involuntary unemployment; disguised = poor-country farm labour (Nurkse/Lewis).

Concept: Y = C + I, with C = a + bY where a > 0 is autonomous consumption.

1. If I = 0, equilibrium Y = a/(1 − b) > 0.
2. People must consume even at zero income (by dissaving), so consumption keeps income above zero.
3. Multiplier needs some autonomous spending to act on; liquidity trap and interest rate do not keep Y positive.

Short trick: C-curve starts above the origin (a > 0) – so income never hits zero.

Concept: APC = C/Y. With C = a + bY and a > 0, consumption is always positive.

1. At low incomes C > Y (dissaving) → APC > 1; at high incomes APC < 1.
2. Since C > 0 and Y > 0, APC is always positive.
3. APC = 0 would need zero consumption, which is impossible (a minimum consumption is necessary for survival).

Short trick: APC can exceed 1 (dissaving), unlike MPC – but it can never be zero.