Development

Why this chapter matters for UPSC: "Development" was Chapter 10 of NCERT's Political Theory. It was dropped in the rationalisation of 2023-24, and the current book (Reprint 2026-27) ends with Chapter 8. Its questions remain central to GS1 (displacement, tribal livelihoods), GS2 (human development, welfare) and GS3 (inclusive and sustainable growth): what counts as development, who bears its costs, and who should decide. This page follows the 2021-22 text, and for the data NCERT asks students to look up it gives the current figures: UNDP's Human Development Report 2025, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, and India's displacement and hunger records. It also corrects NCERT's description of the HDI's indicators.

🧠 First Principles — Read This First

Development means a better life, but it is often reduced to targets. In its broadest sense development conveys "improvement, progress, well-being and an aspiration for a better life", a society's vision of itself. Often it is narrowed to economic growth, modernisation, or completing dams, factories and hospitals, while some people lose homes, lands or ways of life without compensating gains.

Who decides, and who pays? NCERT's class-magazine analogy asks whether a plan imposed from above or one debated and agreed among those affected produces a better result. Development raises questions of rights (was anyone's displaced?), justice (were benefits and burdens fairly shared?) and democracy (who chose the priorities?).

Broader measures and alternative models. The HDI and the basic-needs approach measure development by people's lives, not output alone. Alternative conceptions stress rights claims, democratic participation, decentralisation, and less wasteful ways of living, so that the needs of future generations count too.

PART 1 — Quick Reference

The Chapter at a Glance (2021-22 text)

Two Ways of Thinking About Development

Human Development Index: NCERT's Description and the Real Indicators

NCERT says the HDI ranks countries on "literacy and education levels, life expectancy and maternal mortality rates". That is not the HDI. UNDP's HDI, as its 2025 technical notes set out, combines three dimensions: a long and healthy life (life expectancy at birth), knowledge (mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling) and a decent standard of living (gross national income per capita). Maternal mortality appears in a different index, the Gender Inequality Index.

PART 2 — Concepts & Narrative

What Development Means

NCERT begins with two classes making a school magazine. In one, the teacher copies last year's plan and assigns topics, so the cricket enthusiast writes on something else and three friends who wanted to draw cartoons are split up. In the other, students debate the content and agree on a plan. Which magazine will be engrossing and unique, and which class will enjoy the work? A society deciding on development is in the same position: it can follow a model mechanically, or plan for the good of the whole with the rights of those directly affected in mind; leaders can push plans through regardless of protest or carry people with them democratically.

In its broad sense development means improvement, progress, well-being and the aspiration for a better life. In a narrow sense it means economic growth, modernisation or completing projects. When development is identified with pre-set targets, some sections benefit while others lose homes, lands or ways of life. Questions of rights, just distribution and democratic decision-making have therefore made development controversial, and the broad meaning can serve as a standard for judging a country's experience.

The Challenge of Development

The concept gained importance in the second half of the twentieth century as countries in Asia and Africa won independence. Most were poor, with low living standards and poor education and health, described as "underdeveloped" or "developing" in comparison with Western Europe and the USA. In the 1950s and 1960s their urgent tasks were poverty, malnourishment, unemployment, illiteracy and the lack of basic amenities. They argued that colonial rule had used their resources for the colonisers; independence let them reorganise resources for national interests.

The early focus was catching up with the West in growth and modernisation: faster growth through industrialisation, modernised agriculture, expanded education, with the state seen as the only agency able to drive change, often with loans and aid from rich countries. In India a series of Five Year Plans from the 1950s included mega projects such as the Bhakra Nangal Dam, steel plants, mining, fertiliser production and better farming techniques. Prosperity was expected to "trickle down" to the poorest. Faith was placed in science and technology: new institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and collaboration with advanced countries. NCERT's R.K. Laxman cartoon shows villagers saying "If this project comes up we will be finished!"

Criticisms of Development Models

Financial costs. The models proved very costly: many countries fell into long-term debt; Africa still suffers from debts run up with richer countries, with growth that did not match and poverty and disease that persist.

Social costs. Big dams, industry and mining displaced large numbers of people. Displacement destroys livelihoods and deepens poverty; displaced farming communities end up on the margins, swelling the urban and rural poor; traditional skills and whole ways of community life are lost. The displaced have resisted. The Narmada Bachao Andolan has long opposed the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Supporters say it generates electricity, irrigates large areas and brings drinking water to Kutch and Saurashtra. Opponents dispute this and, in NCERT's words, "claim that almost one million people have been displaced", most of them tribal and dalit, and that it submerges large tracts of forest.

Environmental costs. Degradation now affects everyone. When the 2004 tsunami hit the coasts of South and South-East Asia, the destruction of mangroves and commercial building along the shore were seen to have worsened the damage. (USGS records 227,898 people killed or missing in 14 countries; in India 10,273 dead and 5,823 missing, as the Home Minister told Parliament on 10 March 2005.) Global warming is melting polar ice, threatening floods in low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and the Maldives. In the long run the ecological crisis harms all, and air pollution does not discriminate; in the short run the poor suffer first: loss of forests takes away firewood, medicinal herbs and food; drying rivers, ponds and groundwater mean women walk farther for water. Development depends on energy mostly from non-renewable coal and petroleum, and the Amazon is deforested to meet consumer demand. Are there enough non-renewable resources for everyone to live affluently, and what will future generations inherit?

Assessing development. Development has not been only negative: some countries raised growth and reduced poverty. But inequality has not been seriously reduced and the gap between rich and poor has widened; growth without redistribution lets the privileged corner the benefits. A broader notion is therefore needed: development as "a process which should improve the quality of life of all the people". Growth alone is an inadequate and sometimes misleading indicator.

The Human Development Report and basic needs. UNDP's annual Human Development Report is one alternative measure (see Part 1 for what the HDI actually measures and India's current figures). Its idea is that development should let more people make meaningful choices, and the precondition is meeting basic needs: food, education, health and shelter. Slogans such as "roti, kapda aur makaan", "garibi hatao" and "bijli, sadak, pani" express the view that without basic needs no one can live a dignified life. If people die of starvation or cold, or children work instead of going to school, that is under-development.

Alternative Conceptions of Development

Development's human and environmental costs have been unequally shared, and its strategies have been top-down: priorities, strategies and implementation decided by the political leadership and bureaucracy, with little consultation of those most affected and little use of their accumulated knowledge, in democracies as in dictatorships. The ruling sections designed development and often benefited most. Hence the search for equitable and sustainable alternatives, in which rights, equality, freedom, justice and democracy take on new meanings.

Rights claims. Do people have a right to be consulted on decisions that directly affect their lives? A right to livelihood they can claim when a government-sanctioned activity threatens it? Can communities, especially tribal and aboriginal ones with a distinctive relationship to the environment, claim traditional rights to natural resources? To whom do resources belong: the local community, the state, or all humanity, including future generations? Negotiating these competing claims, and balancing present and future, is the task of democracies.

Democratic participation. In a democracy conflicts over resources and visions of the good life are settled through debate and respect for everyone's rights, not imposed from above. If everyone has a stake in a better life, everyone should help make and implement the plans, because others, however well-meaning, know less about your needs, and taking part is empowering. One proposal is to give local decision-making bodies power over local projects: where a road goes, the route of the metro or buses, where a park or school is placed, whether a village needs a check dam or an internet café. A decentralised approach also allows creative use of traditional and modern technologies. NCERT's Let's Debate: "The rivers belong to the people and not to the government; therefore, any decision about river water should not be taken without people's approval." Its pictures show the Domkhedi satyagraha in the Narmada valley, where protesters stood in the rising waters until arrested.

Development and lifestyle. Development should be measured not by the number of mobile phones, sophisticated weapons or the size of cars but by quality of life: happiness, harmony and essential needs. That means conserving resources and using renewable energy where possible (rainwater harvesting, solar and biogas plants, micro-hydel projects, compost pits), all requiring local involvement. Big projects are not the only route: opponents of big dams propose a series of small dams and bunds with less investment and displacement. It also means scaling down our use of non-renewable resources by changing lifestyles. That may look like accepting a lower standard of living or curtailing choice, but debating alternative lifestyles can open new visions of the good life; it needs cooperation between governments and peoples and democratic decision-making.

NCERT's conclusion: the desire for a better life is a powerful driver of human action, but accepted versions of improvement have come under scrutiny, and the search is for a more equitable, sustainable and democratic model, in which concepts such as equality, democracy and rights are reinterpreted. Our choices affect other people and other species and our own future, so we must choose "keeping in mind not just our present needs but also our long-term interests."

PART 3 — UPSC Integration

Applying the Chapter

Exam Strategy

For Prelims: know the broad and narrow meanings of development; India's early model (Five Year Plans, Bhakra Nangal, steel plants, IITs, trickle down); the social and environmental costs; MOSOP (1990) and Ken Saro-Wiwa (executed 10 November 1995); the HDI's real indicators (life expectancy, mean and expected years of schooling, GNI per capita); HDR 1990's definition; Brundtland's definition (1987); SDGs (25 September 2015, 17 goals, 169 targets); India in HDR 2025 (0.685, 130th).

For Mains: NCERT's five exercises ask what development means and whether all sections would benefit, its social and ecological costs, the new rights claims it has generated, the advantages of democracy in deciding development, and how far popular struggles have made the state responsive. Use the magazine analogy, Narmada, the tsunami, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Chipko and the Domkhedi satyagraha.

Avoid: saying the HDI uses literacy and maternal mortality (NCERT's description is inaccurate); quoting RFK's line with "GDP"; presenting the "one million displaced" figure as official; calling MGNREGA the current scheme.

Practice Questions

Practice (UPSC-pattern, not past papers). Mains items 1 to 4 are NCERT's own exercises.

Prelims:

1. The Human Development Index currently combines which of the following?
   

   1. Life expectancy at birth
      
   2. Mean and expected years of schooling
      
   3. Maternal mortality rate
      
   4. Gross national income per capita
      (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 1, 2 and 4 only (c) 2, 3 and 4 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

2. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, led by Ken Saro-Wiwa, was launched in:
   (a) Ghana, 1985 (b) Nigeria, 1990 (c) Kenya, 1993 (d) South Africa, 1994

3. "Human development is a process of enlarging people's choices" is the definition given in:
   (a) the Brundtland Report, 1987 (b) UNDP's Human Development Report 1990
   (c) the Millennium Declaration, 2000 (d) the 2030 Agenda, 2015

4. The 2030 Agenda adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2015 announced:
   (a) 8 goals and 18 targets (b) 17 goals and 169 targets (c) 17 goals and 232 targets (d) 12 goals and 100 targets

5. In NCERT's account, a "top-down" strategy of development is one in which:
   (a) local bodies choose and implement projects
   (b) the political leadership and bureaucracy choose priorities and implement projects with little consultation
   (c) international agencies fund projects
   (d) markets allocate resources

Answers: 1 (b); 2 (b); 3 (b); 4 (b); 5 (b).

Mains:

1. What do you understand by development? Would all sections of society benefit from such a definition? (NCERT)
2. Discuss some of the social and ecological costs of the kind of development pursued in most countries. (NCERT)
3. What are some of the new claims for rights that the process of development has generated? (NCERT)
4. How successful have popular struggles been in making the state responsive to the social and environmental costs of development? Discuss with examples. (NCERT)
5. "Growth without redistribution lets the privileged corner the benefits." Examine with reference to India's human development record. (250 words)
6. Should people have the right to reject development projects that affect them? Discuss with reference to the Narmada experience. (150 words)

📦 Revision Capsule

Sources

• NCERT, Political Theory (Class XI), ch. 10 "Development", 2021-22 edition (dropped from the 2023-24 rationalised book): book archive, Wayback copy of October 2021.
• UNDP, Human Development Report 2025 and statistical annex: report page; HDR data centre. Human Development Report 1990: report page.
• Ministry of Water Resources, rehabilitation of persons affected by Sardar Sarovar, 28 April 2003: PIB archive; Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India, 18 October 2000: Indian Kanoon.
• Right Livelihood Foundation, Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP: rightlivelihood.org.
• Robert F. Kennedy, remarks at the University of Kansas, 18 March 1968: JFK Library (Wayback copy).
• Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, A/42/427 (4 August 1987): UN PDF; Transforming our world, A/RES/70/1 (25 September 2015): UN PDF.
• Global Hunger Index 2025, India: globalhungerindex.org.