India – Population, Transport, Communication & Trade Online Test 10th Social Science Lesson 6 Questions

India is the second most populous country in the world next only to china. India covers only 2.4 percent of the land area of the world, but is the home of about 17.5 percent of the world’s population.

The total number of people residing in a country at a specified period of time is called the 'Population'.

Population census happens in an interval of ten years. The data collected through the census are used for administration, planning, policy making as well as management and evaluation of various programmes by the government.

The term 'Population Distribution' refers to the way the people are spaced over the earth’s surface. The distribution of population in India is quite uneven because of the vast variation in the availability of resources.

In India the first census was carried out in the year 1872. But the first complete and synchronous census was conducted in 1881.

The last census was taken in 2011 And the 2011 census represents the fifteenth census of India.

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country with a population of 199.5 million followed by Maharashtra (112.3 million), Bihar (103.8 million) West Bengal (91.3 million) and the combined Andhra Pradesh (84.6 million).

Sikkim is the least populous state of India (0.61 million).

Delhi with 16.75 million population tops among the Union territories.

Population is mostly concentrated in the regions of industrial centres and the good agricultural lands. . On the other hand, the areas such as high mountains, arid lands, thickly forested areas and some remote corners are very thinly populated and some areas are even uninhabited.

The most densely populated state of India is Bihar.

The state with least population density is Arunachal Pradesh.

Among the union territories, Delhi is the densely populated one with 11,297 per sq.km, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the lowest density of population.

The high-density populated (500 to 1000 persons per sq. km.) state in India are Punjab (550), Tamil Nadu (555), Haryana (573), Uttar Pradesh (828) and Kerala (859) The union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli (698).

Very high density (greater than 1000 persons per sq km) populated area in India are West Bengal (1029), Bihar (1102), Lakshadweep (2013), Daman and Diu (2169), Puducherry (2598), Chandigarh (9252) and Delhi (11,297).

Population growth refers to the change in the number of inhabitants of a country/territory during a specified period of time. The growth of population is expressed in percentage and is described as the growth rate of population.

The Period of Stagnant Population (1901-1921): During the first phase of 20 years (1901-1921), the population of India grew by 15 million.

During the third phase (1951 – 1981), the population of India grew from 361 million in 1951 to 683 million in 1981. Growth rate in this period is almost doubled when compared to the previous phase of growth rate. This period is often referred to as the period of population explosion.

The year 1921 registered a negative growth rate of -0.31% which happened only once throughout the demographic history of India and is called the year of Great Demographic Divide.

Population change refers to an increase or decrease of population of an area from one period to another period. Population growth is influenced by the birth rate, death rate and migration. These three make the changes in population.

Migrants constitute about 37% of population. Migrants are 48% from female and 52% from male. 45 out of 121 crores of people in India are reported to be migrants as per 2011 census.

Birth rate refers to the number of live births per thousand people in a year and the Death rate refers to the number of deaths per thousand people in a year. In India, the mass migration is from rural to urban. Unemployment and under employment in the rural areas are the push factors.

Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per 1000 male population. This is an important social indicator to measure the extent of equality between males and females in a society at a given time.

Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per 1000 male population. This is an important social indicator to measure the extent of equality between males and females in a society at a given time.

According to 2011 census, the sex ratio of the country is 940 females per 1000 males. This suggests that the size of female population is lower than males.

Only in the state of Kerala and the union territory of Puducherry the sex ratio is greater than 1000. It is 1084 in Kerala and 1038 in Puducherry.

The lowest sex ratio is recorded in the union territory of Daman and Diu (618).

The percentage of literate people to the total population is termed as literacy rate. There has been a steady improvement in the literacy levels in India. India’s literacy rate as per 2011 census is 74.04%.

As per 2011 census, the literacy rate of male is 82.14% and the female is 65.46%. It shows that still there is a vast gap (16.68%) between the male and female literacy rates.

Kerala ranks first in the country with a literacy rate of 93.91% followed by union territory Lakshadweep with 92.28%.

The lowest literacy rate is found in Bihar (63.82 %).

The ratio between the economically active and economically inactive of population is termed as Dependency Ratio.

The economically active part of a country’s population is enumerated during the census operations and stated as workers. Workers are placed under three-fold categories in census record. They are main workers, marginal workers and nonworkers.

Work participation rate denotes the percentage of total workers i.e., total main and marginal workers to the total population in an area. The work participation rate in India is 39.79% in 2011, out of which the work participation rate of male is 53.25% and the female is 25.51%.

Human population dynamics is a field that tracks factors related to changes in the size of population and its characteristics. The size of Population and characteristics undergoes changes constantly. These changes are reflected clearly in every other aspect of our country.

The Population problems vary in space and time and differ from region to region. Some of the major issues created by the overpopulation in our country are overcrowding, unemployment and under employment, low standard of living, malnutrition, mismanagement of natural and agricultural resources, unhealthy environment etc.

The level of urbanization is measured in terms of percentage of urban population. The level of urbanization in the country has increased more than three times from 1901 to 2011. The percentage of urban population of India was 27.82% in 2001 and it rose to 31.16% in 2011 shows an increase of 3 % in a decade.

The level of urbanization varies widely among the states. Goa is the most urbanized state with 62.17% of urban population.

Himachal Pradesh is the least urbanized state with 10.04% of urban population.

Among the Union territories, Delhi is the most (97.50 %) urbanized region followed by Chandigarh (97.25%).

Among the major states, Tamil Nadu continues to be the most urbanized state with 48.4% percent of urban population followed by Kerala (47.7%) and Maharashtra (45.2%).

As per 2011 Census, there are 7,935 towns (statutory and census) in the country. The number of towns has increased to 2,774, from 2001 census.

Among the Million Cities, there are three major Urban Agglomerations with more than 10 million population each and are known as “Mega Cities”. They are Greater Mumbai UA (18.4 million), Delhi UA (16.3 million) and Kolkata UA (14.1million).

The following are the major problems of urbanization in India. • It creates urban sprawl. • It leads to shortage of houses in urban areas. • It leads to the formation of slums. •It creates water scarcity in cities. • It creates drainage problem. • It poses the problem of solid waste management. • It increases the rate of crime.

A rapid rate of urbanization in a society is taken as an indicator of its economic development. Urbanization is increasing rapidly in the developing countries including India. Rural to urban migration leads to population explosion in urban areas.

Dr. Mahabub-ul-haq defined as Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choice, increasing their opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment.

Population trends, health outcomes, education achievements, national income and composition of resources, work and employment, human security, human and capital mobility, supplementary indicators: perceptions of well-being and status of fundamental rights treaties are the human development indicators.

Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index focusing on three basic dimensions of human development: i) Health - Life expectancy at birth ii) Education - Expected years of schooling for school age children and average years of schooling for the adult population. iii) Income - Measured by gross national income and per-capita income.

HDI classifications are based on HDI fixed cut off points, which are derived from the quartiles of distributions of the component indicators. The HDI of less than 0.550 is used for low human development, 0.550 - 0.699 stands for medium human development, 0.700 - 0.799 for high human development and 0.8 or greater for very high human development.

Transport is a system in which passengers and goods are carried from one place to another. Transport system is considered as the lifeline of a country.

The land mean of transport are Roadway, Railway and pipeline.

Roads are the most universal mode of transport. Indian roads are cost efficient. It is used by all sections of people in the society. India has the second longest road network in the world with a total length of 56,03,293 km as of 2016. About 85% of passengers and 70 % of freight traffi c are carried by roads every year.

Sher Shah Suri built the Shahi (Royal) road to strengthen and consolidate his empire from the Indus valley to the Sonar valley in Bengal.

Shahi road from Kolkata to Peshawar was renamed as Grand Trunk (GT) road during the British period. At present, it extends from Amritsar to Kolkata. It is bifurcated into 2 segments: (a) (NH)-1 from Delhi to Amritsar, and (b) NH-2 from Delhi to Kolkata.

For the purpose of construction and maintenance, roads are classified into six types: National Highways (NH), State Highways (SH), District Roads, Rural Roads (Village roads), Border Roads, Expressways and International Highways.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India, is responsible for the development and maintenance of National Highways in India. The total length of the National Highways (NHs) in India is 1,01,011 km which accounts for 1.8 % of the total road network length in 2016.

The longest National highway is NH-7 which runs from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu covering a distance of 2369 km.

The shortest national highway is NH-47A, which runs from Ernakulum to Kochi port (Willington Island) covering a distance of 6 km.

The state highways are usually roads that link important cities, towns and district headquarters within the state and connect them with national highways or highways of neighbouring states. These roads are administered and financed by state governments. State Highway runs to the length of 1, 76,166 km as of 2016.

District Roads are constructed and maintained by the Public Works Department of the states. The total length of the road of this category is 5,61,940 km (16.81%) in 2016.

Rural roads connectivity is a key component of rural development. They are maintained by Village Panchayats. Rural roads consist of Panchayat roads, (Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, Gram Panchayat); roads of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and those constructed by the State PWDs.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was established in 1995. It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Surface Transport.

Border Roads are constructed and maintained by Border Roads Organization. It was established in 1960 for the development of the roads of strategic importance in the northern and north-eastern border areas.

Border Roads Organization has constructed world’s highest road joining Chandigarh and Leh in Ladakh. This road runs at an average altitude of 4,270 meters.

Golden Quadrilateral: 5,846 km long road of 4/6 lanes connecting, India’s four metropolitan cities: Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi.

The East-West corridor has been planned to connect Silchar in Assam with the port town of Porbandar in Gujarat with 3,640km of road length. North-South corridor aims at connecting Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir with Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu (including Kochi-Salem Spur) with 4,076km long road.

The two corridors (North–South and East-West Corridors) intersects at Jhansi.

Golden Quadrilateral project was launched in 1999.

These are multi-lane good quality highways for high speed traffic. Some of the important expressways are; (i)Mumbai-Pune Road, (ii) Kolkata-Dumdum Airport road (iii) Durgapur-Kolkata road and (iv) Yamuna expressway between Delhi and Agra.

International Highways are the roads that link India with neighbouring countries for promoting harmonious relationship with them. These highways have been constructed with an aid from world bank under an agreement with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (ESCAP).

In India the densest road network is found in the northern plains where it is relatively easy to construct roads. In mountainous area, it is quite difficult to construct roads. Road density is the highest in Kerala and lowest in Jammu &Kashmir.

Indian railway system is the main artery of the country’s inland transport. It promotes national integration by bringing people together. Indian railways network is the largest in Asia and second largest in the world. The length of Indian railways Network as of 2017 is 67,368 km with 7,349 railway stations.

The first train steamed off from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, covering a distance of 34 km.

The headquarter of Indian Railways is at New Delhi.

In 1951, the systems were nationalized as one unit “The Indian Railways”.

For operations and management, the Indian Railways is organized into 16 zones.

The Northern Railway accounts for the longest route length, followed by the Western Railway.

On the basis of width of the track, the Indian railways fall under four categories. Broad gauge with a width of 1.676 meter, Meter gauge with a width of 1 meter and Narrow gauge with a width of 0.762 meter and Light gauge with 0.610 meter.

The first sub-urban railway was started in 1925 in Mumbai.

The arrival of Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC), Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), Metro and Sub-Urban railways provide easy and efficient means of transport. Chennai becomes the sixth Indian city with metro railway.

Gatiman Express is the fastest operational train in India. This train connects New Delhi and Agra and touches 160 km/h. This train takes a travel time of 105minutes to cover 200km journey.

One of the important achievements of Indian Railways has been the construction of Konkan Railway in 1998.

Konkan Railway connects Roha in Maharashtra to Mangalore in Karnataka and the track measures 760 km. It is considered as an engineering marvel.

On its routes, the Konkan railway crosses 146 rivers and streams, nearly 2000 bridges and 73 tunnels. Asia’s longest tunnel nearly 6.44 km long is in this route. The states of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka are partners in this undertaking.

The rail link between Banihal in Jammu region and Qazigund in Kashmir valley was opened in 2013. This rail line passes under the Pir Panjal Range through a 11.2 km long tunnel.

There are 8 cities with metro rail connectivity in India. They are Kolkata (West Bengal), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Delhi, Bengaluru (Karnataka), Gurgaon (Haryana), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Kochi (Kerala).

The metro in Kolkata is the first one in India. It is also called as Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS). As of September 2018, India has 507 km of operational metro lines and 381 stations.

The state of Meghalaya has no railway network.

Oil field in upper Assam to Kanpur, from Salaya in Gujarat to Jalandhar in Punjab and gas pipeline from the Hazira in Gujarat to Jagadispur in Uttar Pradesh are the three important network large network of pipeline in the country.

In the past, pipelines were used to transport water to cities and industries. Now solids can also be transported through a pipeline when converted into slurry. The initial cost of laying pipeline is high but subsequent running cost is minimum. It can be laid through difficult terrain as well as under water.

The total navigable length of our country is 14,500 km, out of which about 5,200 km length of rivers and 4,000 km length of canals can be used by mechanized crafts.

The total cargo carried by inland waterways is just about 0.1% of the total inland traffic of India.

For the development, maintenance and regulation of national waterways in the country, the Inland water ways Authority was setup in 1986.

National Waterway 3: This waterway extends between Kollam and Kottapuram in the state of Kerala. It is the first national waterway in the country with 24 hours navigation facilities along its entire stretch of 205 km.

National Waterway 2: This waterway includes the stretch of the Brahmaputra river between Dhubri and Sadiya a distance of 891 km.

Oceanic routes play an important role in the transport sector of India’s economy. About 95% of India’s foreign trade by volume and 70 percent by value moves through ocean routes. Shipping is not only the most economical mode of transport, it is also an environment friendly mode

The major ports on the east coast are Kolkata (including Haldia Dock), Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin. The major ports on the west coast are Kandla, Mumbai, Nhava Seva (Jawaharlal Nehru Port), New Mangalore, Marmagao and Kochi.

India has four major shipyards. Hindustan shipyard in Vishakhapatnam, Garden Reach workshop in Kolkata, Mazagaon Dock in Mumbai, Kochi Shipyard in Kochi.

India is the second largest ship owning country in Asia and ranks 16th in the World.

Air transport in India made a beginning on 18th February, 1918 when Henry Piquet carried a mail from Allahabad to Naini.

Airways connect major cities of the world. The Indian Airlines and Air India are the two airline services run by the government of India. Indian Airlines provides the domestic air services and Air India provides international air services.

Presently, there are 19 designated international airports available in the country. These airports are managed by Airports Authority of India.

Pavan-Hans Helicopter Ltd has been providing Helicopter support services to the petroleum sector, including ONGC and oil India Ltd. It is a public sector company based in New Delhi. Its operations are based at the Juhu Aerodrome in Vile Parle (West) Mumbai.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) was constituted in 1995. It provides security to Indian Airports. AAI under the ministry of Civil Aviation is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure in India.

Communication is a process that involves exchange of information, thoughts and ideas. Technology does wonders in communication fields. Communication is categorized in to personal and mass communications.

The Indian postal network is the largest in the world with 1,55,000 post offices. Of these more than 1,39,000 post offices are located in rural areas.

The postal service was opened to the public in the country in 1837.

The first Indian postal stamp was issued in 1852 in Karachi. Collecting and delivering mail is the primary function of the department of posts.

The Quick Mail Service functions on the basis of the system of PIN (Postal Index Number) code which was introduced in 1972. The premium products include the Money order, e-money order, Speed Post, Express Parcel Post, Business Post, Media Post etc.,

Cards and envelopes are considered first-class mail and are airlifted between stations covering both land and air. The second-class mail includes book packets, registered newspapers and periodicals.

To facilitate quick delivery of mails in large towns and cities, six mail channels have been introduced recently. They are called Rajdhani Channel, Metro Channel, Green Channel, Business Channel, Bulk Mail Channel and Periodical Channel.

Apart from the urban areas more than two-thirds of the villages in India have already been covered with Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD). There is a uniform rate of STD facilities all over India. Telephone is a form of oral communication

Indian postal network introduced the Quick Mail Service in 1975 and today it covers the entire country.

Radio broadcasting in India was started in 1923 by the Radio club of Bombay. Since then it gained immense popularity and changed the social and cultural life of people.

The Mass Communication Systems can provide the information to people in two methods. They are Print Media and Electronic Media.

There are 13 major and 200 minor or intermediate ports in India. The major ports are administered by the Central Government and minor ports are managed and administered by various state governments.

Radio club of Bombay was named as All India Radio (AIR) in 1936.

All India Radio was again renamed as Akashwani in 1957. It broadcasts a variety of programs related to information, education and entertainment. Special news bulletins are also broadcasted on special occasions like session of parliament and state legislatures.

Television network in India is known as Doordarshan (DD) which started Common National Program (CNP) services and it is extended to the backward and remote rural areas.

With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market, ranked only behind China. By 2021, there will be about 635.8 million internet users in India.

Internet (contraction of interconnected network) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite to link devices worldwide. Furthermore, men dominated internet usage in India with 71 percent to women’s 29 percent.

The communication through satellites emerged as a new era in communication in our country after the establishment of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1969.

Satellite system in India can be grouped into two-the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System (IRS).

The INSAT, established in 1983, is a multipurpose system for telecommunication, meteorological observation and for various other programs.

The INSAT series, GSAT series, KALPANA-1, HAMSAT, EDUSAT are the major communication satellite used for communication purpose. GSAT–7A is the recent launch (December 19, 2018) for communication programs.

INSAT-1B launched on 30th August 1983 is the first communication satellite in INSAT series.

In 2007, the Government of India merged the Air India and Indian Airlines under National Aviation Corporation of India Limited (NACIL). In which NACIL (A) provides international services, NACIL (I) provides domestic services and services to neighbouring countries.

Trade is an important phenomenon that decides the economic growth of a country. Trade is an act (or) process of buying, selling or exchanging of goods and services. The primitive method of trade was known as the Barter system where goods were exchanged for goods.

Money was introduced as a medium of exchange in buying and selling of goods. The difference in value between the imports and exports is called balance of trade.

The mechanism or process by which payments between any two places operating under different national currency systems are affected without passing of actual money or gold, etc is known as Foreign Exchange.

Trade in general, is of two types. They are Internal and International. The trade carried on within the domestic territory of a country is termed as Internal trade. Trade carried on between two or more countries is called International trade.

The situation in which the value of exports exceeds the value of imports is termed as favourable balance of trade and the reverse position is termed as unfavourable balance of trade.

The trade between any two countries is called Bilateral trade. The trade between more than two countries is called Multilateral Trade.