Cooking at home is not treated as an economic activity, even though the food items are transformed. This is because:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → home-cooked food is not sold to the market
An activity is economic when its product is sold in the market. Home-cooked food is not sold, so cooking at home is not counted. The same cooking in a restaurant would be.
Option (1) food items are capital goods used in cooking — Incorrect. Food items are used up in cooking; they are not capital goods.
Option (2) food items are not final goods in any case — Incorrect. Food items bought by a household are final goods.
Option (3) home-cooked food is not sold to the market — Correct. Home-cooked food is not sold to the market.
Option (4) cooking at home does not use any inputs — Incorrect. Cooking does use inputs, such as tea leaves and vegetables; that is not the reason.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.1 Some Basic Concepts of Macroeconomics … But cooking at home is not an economic activity, even though the product involved undergoes transformation. Home cooked food is not sold to the market. However, if the same cooking or tea brewing was done in a restaurant where the cooked product would be sold to customers, then the same items, such as tea leaves, would cease to be final goods and would be counted as inputs to which economic value addition can take place. …” |