Poverty, Employment & Population Quiz: Indian Economy Practice

Spoilers! These are the Starter quiz’s answers. Easy, Medium, Hard and Mixed rounds show their own answers when you finish.

1. Which expert group moved India's official poverty line away from calorie norms and used a common consumption basket for rural and urban areas?

   • Lakdawala Committee
   • Alagh Task Force
   • Tendulkar Committee
   • Rangarajan Committee

   Answer: Tendulkar Committee. The Tendulkar Committee (2009) dropped the calorie anchor (2,400 rural / 2,100 urban, from the Alagh Task Force of 1979) and priced a single basket including health and education spending.

2. Disguised unemployment refers to a situation where:

   • more people work on a task than needed, so removing some would not reduce output
   • people are idle in the off-season of agriculture
   • workers lose jobs because skills no longer match new technology
   • people are temporarily between two jobs

   Answer: more people work on a task than needed, so removing some would not reduce output. In disguised unemployment the marginal productivity of extra workers is zero, as on many small family farms. The other options describe seasonal, structural and frictional unemployment.

3. India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is conducted by:

   • Labour Bureau
   • NITI Aayog
   • Ministry of Labour and Employment
   • National Statistics Office, MoSPI

   Answer: National Statistics Office, MoSPI. The NSO under MoSPI runs the PLFS, launched in 2017-18. It reports the labour force participation rate, worker population ratio and unemployment rate.

4. The unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of:

   • the total population
   • the labour force
   • the working-age population
   • the number of employed persons

   Answer: the labour force. Labour force = employed + those seeking or available for work. Unemployment rate = unemployed / labour force x 100. Dividing the employed by total population gives the worker population ratio instead.

5. The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, which replaced MGNREGA from 1 July 2026, guarantees how many days of wage employment per rural household in a financial year?

   • 100
   • 150
   • 120
   • 125

   Answer: 125. The Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act raised the statutory guarantee from MGNREGA's 100 days to 125 days for every rural household whose adults volunteer for unskilled manual work.

6. According to Census 2011, India's overall sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) was:

   • 943
   • 933
   • 940
   • 927

   Answer: 943. Census 2011 recorded 943, up from 933 in 2001 and 927 in 1991. Kerala had the highest state sex ratio (1,084) and Haryana the lowest (879).

7. Which Census year is called the 'Year of the Great Divide' in India's population history?

   • 1901
   • 1951
   • 1921
   • 1961

   Answer: 1921. Before 1921 India's population grew slowly and even fell (1911-21) due to famines and epidemics. After 1921 it rose steadily every decade, so 1921 marks the divide.

8. The 'replacement level' total fertility rate, at which a population exactly replaces itself over generations, is about:

   • 1.5
   • 2.1
   • 3.0
   • 2.5

   Answer: 2.1. About 2.1 children per woman replace both parents, with the extra 0.1 allowing for child deaths. NFHS-5 (2019-21) put India's TFR at 2.0, just below replacement.

9. NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index adds which two indicators to the ten used in the global MPI?

   • Electricity and housing
   • Nutrition and school attendance
   • Maternal health and bank accounts
   • Drinking water and sanitation

   Answer: Maternal health and bank accounts. The global MPI (UNDP and OPHI) uses 10 indicators across health, education and living standards. India's national MPI uses 12, adding maternal health and bank accounts.

10. Consider the following statements: 1. In 2025 the World Bank revised its international extreme poverty line to USD 3.00 a day (2021 PPP). 2. The Rangarajan Committee estimated poverty for 2011-12 lower than the Tendulkar method. Which is/are correct?

    • 1 only
    • 2 only
    • Both 1 and 2
    • Neither 1 nor 2

    Answer: 1 only. The World Bank moved from USD 2.15 (2017 PPP) to USD 3.00 (2021 PPP) in June 2025. Rangarajan's higher line gave 29.5% poor in 2011-12, compared with 21.9% under Tendulkar.