There are two statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Mark your answer as per the options given below.

Assertion: What makes countries rich or poor is one of the central questions of economics.
Reasoning: The countries which are endowed with a bounty of natural wealth are naturally the richest countries.

Assertion (A) is true but Reasoning (R) is not correct.

The correct answer is Option 3: Assertion (A) is true but Reasoning (R) is not correct.

Assertion: What makes countries rich or poor is one of the central questions of economics. This is correct. Understanding the factors that contribute to a country's economic prosperity or lack thereof is indeed a central focus of economics. Economists study various factors such as resources, technology, institutions, policies, and human capital to explain differences in economic performance among countries.

Reasoning: The countries which are endowed with a bounty of natural wealth are naturally the richest countries. This in incorrect. It is not that countries which are endowed with a bounty of natural wealth – minerals or forests or the most fertile lands – are naturally the richest countries. In fact the resource rich Africa and Latin America have some of the poorest countries in the world, whereas many prosperous countries have scarcely any natural wealth. The economic wealth, or well-being, of a country thus does not necessarily depend on the mere possession of resources; the point is how these resources are used in generating a flow of production and how, as a consequence, income and wealth are generated from that process.

"One of the pioneers of the subject Adam Smith named his most influential work–An Enquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations. What generates the economic wealth of a nation? What makes countries rich or poor? These are some of the central questions of economics."