India’s structural change up to 1990 is called peculiar. Which of the following describes it?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The share of the service sector in GDP became more than that of agriculture or industry.
Usually, with development, industry becomes the largest sector first, and services only later. India skipped this: by 1990 the service sector had the largest share of GDP, 40.59 per cent, as in developed nations.
Option (1) The share of the service sector in GDP became more than that of agriculture or industry. — Correct. This is what makes India’s change peculiar.
Option (2) The share of industry in GDP became more than that of agriculture or services. — Incorrect. This is the usual path, which India did not follow.
Option (3) The share of agriculture in GDP remained more than 50 per cent. — Incorrect. Agriculture had more than 50 per cent at the start, but the share fell by 1990.
Option (4) The shares of the three sectors in GDP stayed the same as in 1950. — Incorrect. The shares changed: that is what structural change means.
NCERT (2026-27): “Box 2.4: The Service Sector As a country develops, it undergoes ‘structural change’. In the case of India, the structural change is peculiar. Usually, with development, the share of agriculture declines and the share of industry becomes dominant. At higher levels of development, the service sector contributes more to the GDP than the other two sectors. In India, the share of agriculture in the GDP was more than 50 per cent—as we would expect for a poor country. But by 1990 the share of the service sector was 40.59 per cent, more than that of agriculture or industry, like what we find in developed nations. …” |