India: People and Economy
This domain examines India's population patterns, resource use and economic activities, and asks you to link census data to regional inequality.
Core rules and concepts
The 2011 Census recorded about 1.21 billion people, density 382 persons/km², sex ratio 943 females per 1,000 males and literacy 74.04 per cent, with 31.16 per cent urban. Distribution is uneven: the Ganga plains, coastal plains and better-watered plateaus are dense; the Thar desert, Himalayan margins and forested hill districts are sparse.
- Migration: push factors (low wages, land pressure) and pull factors (jobs, education); rural-to-rural is the largest stream, rural-to-urban the most visible.
- Human development: Kerala and Goa lead on composite indicators; Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh trail. Disparity is regional and social, not only income-based.
- Land and water: net sown area is roughly 140 million hectares; forest cover about 21–22 per cent; groundwater depletion is acute in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
- Minerals and industry: iron ore in Odisha–Jharkhand–Chhattisgarh; coal in the Damodar and Mahanadi valleys; cotton textiles near ports and markets; iron and steel near ore, coal and water.
- Planning and transport: the Five Year Plans targeted balanced regional growth; NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission in 2015. The Golden Quadrilateral and major ports structure freight movement.
Worked example
Population rose from 1,028.7 million (2001) to 1,210.9 million (2011). Decadal growth = (1,210.9 − 1,028.7) ÷ 1,028.7 × 100 ≈ 17.7 per cent. Dividing by 10 gives an average annual rate of about 1.6 per cent - a different figure, not the one asked for.
Traps that cost marks
Quoting 2001 data for a 2011 question; confusing sex ratio with child sex ratio; treating literacy as a share of the whole population including infants; naming a resource region without the industry it supports.