Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions
Economy and change in India
Since the 1990s, private companies, especially foreign firms, have been encouraged to invest in sectors previously reserved for the government, including telecom, civil aviation, power, etc. Licenses have been no longer required to open industries. Foreign products have been now easily available in Indian shops. As a result, small and large, have been bought over by multinationals. Simultaneously, some Indian companies have been becoming multinational companies. More and more companies have been reducing the number of permanent employees and outsourcing their work to smaller companies or even to homes. For multinational companies, this outsourcing is done across the globe. The government is also trying to sell its share in several public sector companies, a process known as disinvestment. Many government workers have been scared that after disinvestment, they will lose their jobs. In ‘Modern Foods’, which was set up by the government to make healthy bread available at cheap prices, and which was the first company to be privatised, 60% of the workers were forced to retire in the first five years. In India, in 2018–19, nearly 43% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining), 17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction, and utilities), and 32% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services, etc.). India is still largely an agricultural country. The service sector – shops, banks, the IT industry, hotels, and other services have been employing more people, and the urban middle class is growing.
Which sector provides the largest employment rate in India?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Agriculture
Note: The passage of Q41-Q45 is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Change and Development in Industrial Society’, from its pages on industrialisation in India and on liberalisation, with small changes of wording. Two pages of one chapter carried five questions here, so give every page of the chapter a careful read.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Specificity of Indian Industrialisation … Let us start with one point of difference, relating to what kind of work people are doing. In developed countries, the majority of people are in the services sector, followed by industry and less than 10% are in agriculture (ILO figures). In India, in 2018–19, nearly 43% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining), 17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction and utilities), and 32% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services, etc.)…” |