Development - Revision Notes

 CBSE Class 11 Political Science

Chapter-20 
Development

Revision Notes

  1. The idea of development became a main concern after the industrial revolution. 
  2. Development refers to the achievement of social and economic progress by transforming conditions of underdevelopment as low productivity, stagnation and poverty. 
  3. In the broadest sense of the term, development conveys the ideas of improvement, progress, well-being and an aspiration for a better life
  4. Development cannot be understood as only in economic terms but it can place also in social and political terms. 
  5. Development bears the different approaches also like psychological, human needs development, dependency, Gandhian and market-friendly approaches, etc.
  6. In India a series of Five Year Plans for development were made starting from the 1950s, and these included a number of mega projects such as the Bhakra Nangal Dam, setting up steel plants in different parts of the country, mining, fertilizer production and improving agricultural techniques.
  7. Sustainable development makes the efforts to meet the well being needs of present and future generations. 
  8. Gandhiji viewed development to be different from Western model of development and made a distinction between economic and real development. 
  9. This concept gained importance after the second half of 20th century when many countries from Asia and Africa attained political independence. 
  10.  criticism has taken place that development projects to be proven very costly for developing countries. 
  11. The development pays a high social cost also because displacement has led to many struggles in the countries. 
  12. Development should not be measured only in the terms of materials only but it can also be measured in terms of happiness, harmony and satisfaction of essential needs.
  13. Today, the environmental movement has become a world-wide phenomenon with thousands of non-governmental groups and even some ‘green’ political parties.
  14. the Human Development Report which is annually brought out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This report ranks countries on the basis of their performance in social indicators like literacy and education levels, life expectancy and maternal mortality rates. This measure is called the Human Development Index.
  15. In democratic countries the right of people to participate in decision making is emphasised.
  16. A decentralised approach to development makes it possible to use various kinds of technologies - traditional and modern - in a creative manner.
  17. An alternative model of development would also try to move away from the high cost, ecologically wasteful, technology driven notion of development.