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Class 10 Economics: Globalisation and the Indian Economy, 8 practice questions with answers

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These are 8 practice questions on Chapter 4, Globalisation and the Indian Economy, of the NCERT Class 10 Economics textbook, Understanding Economic Development. Each has a worked answer and the textbook page it comes from. The first five stay inside the two parts of the chapter that the 2026-27 board paper examines: what globalisation is, and the factors that enabled it. They ask you to sort links between countries, cost a shipment in containers, time a design job before and after the Internet, work through an import tax, and judge three assertion-and-reason pairs. The last three cover the rest of the chapter, which CBSE assesses through a school project: an MNC's costs, a toy shop's margins, and the numbers behind two of the chapter's stories. Try each one on paper before you open the answer.

These questions are our own, drafted with AI help. Every fact was checked against the textbook page it cites, but no practising teacher has reviewed them yet. If you find a mistake, please tell us.

How this chapter is examined

In CBSE's Social Science paper for 2026-27, Economics carries 20 of the 80 marks, shared by four chapters (curriculum, page 2). For this chapter the board examination covers only two subtopics, "What is Globalisation?" and "Factors that have enabled Globalisation". The other parts, production across countries, Chinese toys in India, the World Trade Organisation and the struggle for a fair globalisation, belong to an interdisciplinary project that the school assesses for 5 marks (page 2). The learning outcomes ask you to explain the idea of globalisation and to weigh the main forces that drive it (page 7). The paper has 1-mark multiple-choice questions (including assertion and reason), 2, 3 and 5-mark answers, and 4-mark case studies (page 10).

What the chapter says you need

Facts from the NCERT textbook (Understanding Economic Development, Class X, Chapter 4, printed pages 55 to 73):

Six ways countries are linked

Question 1. Here are six made-up news items. (i) Engineers in Pune fix a German client's software over the Internet. (ii) A Korean electronics company buys land and machines near Noida for a new factory. (iii) A Kochi exporter ships cardamom to Dubai. (iv) A Japanese firm gives an Indian partner its battery design and trains its engineers to make it. (v) A nurse from Kerala moves to Canada for a better-paid job. (vi) A Mumbai bank's customers in Singapore are served by its staff in India on the phone. (a) For each item, say what is crossing the border: goods, services, investment, technology or people. (b) Which two of the items are examples of what the chapter says globalisation results from?

Answer: (a) (i) services; (ii) investment; (iii) goods; (iv) technology; (v) people; (vi) services; (b) item (ii), foreign investment, and item (iii), foreign trade. (a) Item (ii) is foreign investment: money spent on assets such as land and machines by a company from another country (page 57). (b) The chapter says that more foreign investment and more foreign trade have together integrated production and markets across countries, and it calls that process globalisation (page 62). (The six items are our own.)

Containers and the cost of shipping

Question 2. A made-up exporter sends 2,400 cartons of shoes. Handled loose, each carton costs Rs 25 to load and unload at each of 4 handling points (factory, railway, port and ship), and the journey to the ship takes 18 days. Packed in containers of 800 cartons each, every container costs Rs 4,000 to handle at each point, and the journey takes 7 days. (a) Find the total handling cost each way, and the cost per carton. (b) What does the exporter save, in rupees and as a percentage? (c) How many days sooner do the shoes reach the ship, as a share of the old time?

Answer: (a) Rs 2,40,000 loose (Rs 100 a carton) and Rs 48,000 in containers (Rs 20 a carton); (b) Rs 1,92,000, or 80 per cent; (c) 11 days sooner, about 61 per cent less time. (a) Loose: 2,400 × 25 × 4 = 2,40,000, and 2,40,000 ÷ 2,400 = 100. Containers: 2,400 ÷ 800 = 3 containers, 3 × 4,000 × 4 = 48,000, and 48,000 ÷ 2,400 = 20. (b) 2,40,000 − 48,000 = 1,92,000, and 1,92,000 ÷ 2,40,000 = 80 per cent. (c) 18 − 7 = 11, and 11 ÷ 18 ≈ 61 per cent. Containers are on page 62. (The exporter, the costs and the days are our own.)

Design work before and after the Internet

Question 3. A made-up studio in Chennai designs packaging for a client in Nairobi. Each round of changes used to mean printing the design and sending it by courier and back, at Rs 3,500 and 8 days a round. Now the studio sends the files by e-mail, gets the client's comments the same day, and is paid by e-banking. (a) A job needs 5 rounds. What did the courier cost, and how many days did the rounds take? (b) If a round now takes 1 day, how many days does the job save? (c) One of the chapter's cartoons shows a young man at his computer asking "But where is the electricity?" What limit does it point to?

Answer: (a) Rs 17,500 and 40 days; (b) 35 days; (c) the gains of IT reach only those with electricity and equipment; places without them are left out. (a) 5 × 3,500 = 17,500 and 5 × 8 = 40. (b) 40 − 5 × 1 = 35. (c) The cartoon is on page 63. The chapter later finds that people with education, skill and wealth made the best use of the new opportunities (page 70). (The studio and its figures are our own.)

A tax on imported lamps

Question 4. In a made-up market, an imported table lamp costs Rs 400 before any import tax, and a similar Indian-made lamp sells for Rs 520. (a) The government puts a 40 per cent tax on imported lamps. What does an imported lamp now cost, and which lamp is cheaper, by how much? (b) What is the lowest tax rate at which the imported lamp is no cheaper than the Indian one? (c) The tax is cut to 10 per cent. What does the imported lamp cost now, and how much dearer is the Indian lamp, in rupees and as a share of the imported price? (d) At the 10 per cent tax, by how much must the Indian maker cut its price to match the imported lamp, in rupees and as a share of its old price?

Answer: (a) Rs 560; the Indian lamp is cheaper by Rs 40; (b) 30 per cent; (c) Rs 440; the Indian lamp is Rs 80 dearer, about 18 per cent; (d) Rs 80, about 15 per cent of Rs 520. (a) 400 × 1.40 = 560, and 560 − 520 = 40. (b) The imported lamp needs a tax of 520 − 400 = 120, and 120 ÷ 400 = 30 per cent. (c) 400 × 1.10 = 440; 520 − 440 = 80, and 80 ÷ 440 ≈ 18 per cent. (d) 520 − 440 = 80, and 80 ÷ 520 ≈ 15 per cent. The same Rs 80 is 18 per cent of the imported price but only 15 per cent of the Indian price, because the base is different. Import taxes are on page 64. (The lamps and prices are our own.)

Assertion and reason

Question 5. For each pair, choose: (A) both true, and R explains A; (B) both true, but R does not explain A; (C) A true, R false; (D) A false, R true.

  1. A: Airlines now carry far more goods than they once did. R: Moving goods by air has become cheaper.
  2. A: A government can use trade barriers only to cut foreign trade, never to increase it. R: Trade barriers let a government choose which goods enter the country, and in what quantities.
  3. A: The developed countries gave protection to their own producers in the early stages of their development. R: India's liberalisation was supported by powerful international organisations.

Answer: 1 (A); 2 (D); 3 (B). (1) Both are true, and R is the reason: the fall in the cost of air transport is what has let airlines carry much greater volumes of goods (page 62). (2) A is false: the chapter says trade barriers can be used to increase or decrease foreign trade. R is true (page 64). (3) Both are true (page 64), but the support of international organisations for India's 1991 changes has nothing to do with how developed countries once protected their producers.

An MNC spreads its costs (project part)

This part of the chapter is assessed through the school project, not the board paper.

Question 6. A made-up MNC makes a water pump. Made entirely in its home country, each pump costs Rs 120 in all: design Rs 20, components Rs 50, assembly Rs 30, customer care Rs 20. It keeps design at home, has components made in another country for Rs 25, assembles near its main market for Rs 12, and runs customer care from a call centre in India for Rs 3. (a) What does each pump cost now? (b) What percentage of the cost does the MNC save? Is that within the range the chapter suggests for spreading production across borders? (c) Which single step saves the most? (d) Name four things the chapter says MNCs look for when they choose where to produce.

Answer: (a) Rs 60; (b) 50 per cent, at the low end of the chapter's 50 to 60 per cent; (c) components, a saving of Rs 25 a pump; (d) closeness to markets; skilled and unskilled labour at low cost; assured supply of other factors of production; and government policies that look after their interests. (a) 20 + 25 + 12 + 3 = 60. (b) (120 − 60) ÷ 120 = 50 per cent. The chapter says spreading production may save an MNC around 50-60 per cent of its costs (page 57). (c) Components save 50 − 25 = 25, assembly 30 − 12 = 18, customer care 20 − 3 = 17. (d) Page 57. India's part in the chapter's own example is customer care, because it has educated English-speaking youth (page 57). (The MNC and its costs are our own.)

Chinese toys in a toy shop (project part)

Question 7. A made-up toy shop can buy an Indian-made toy car for Rs 220 and sell it for Rs 300, or buy a similar Chinese-made car for Rs 150 and sell it for Rs 240. (a) What does the shop make on each car of each kind, in rupees and as a percentage of what it paid? (b) Last month it sold 100 Indian cars. How many Chinese cars must it sell to make at least as much? (c) The chapter's story of Chinese toys says that in a year, between 70 and 80 per cent of toy shops swapped Indian toys for Chinese ones. In a market of 40 toy shops, how many is that, and how many still sell Indian toys?

Answer: (a) Indian car Rs 80, about 36 per cent; Chinese car Rs 90, 60 per cent; (b) 89 cars; (c) 28 to 32 shops, leaving 8 to 12 with Indian toys. (a) 300 − 220 = 80, and 80 ÷ 220 ≈ 36 per cent; 240 − 150 = 90, and 90 ÷ 150 = 60 per cent. (b) 100 × 80 = 8,000, and 8,000 ÷ 90 ≈ 88.9, so 89 cars (88 bring in only Rs 7,920). The buyer also pays Rs 60 less for the Chinese car. (c) 40 × 0.70 = 28 and 40 × 0.80 = 32; 40 − 32 = 8 and 40 − 28 = 12 (story, page 60, which puts the switch down to cheaper prices and new designs). (The shop, the prices and the market of 40 shops are our own.)

Ravi and Sushila in numbers (project part)

Question 8. Two of the chapter's case stories give figures. Ravi set up a capacitor unit in Hosur in 1992 and within three years had 20 workers; after imports were opened up he had only 7. His clients could import capacitors at half the price he charged. Sushila, a temporary worker in a Delhi garment factory, is out of the house from 7:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week. (a) How many workers did Ravi lose, and by what percentage did his workforce fall? (b) If Ravi charged Rs 8 a capacitor, how much would a television company save by importing 50,000 capacitors instead? (c) How many hours is Sushila away from home each day, and each week? (d) Say whether each person gained or lost from globalisation, according to the chapter: a well-off city buyer of a new mobile phone; a small tyre maker; an Indian IT company doing accounting for a firm abroad; a garment worker hired for the peak season only.

Answer: (a) 13 workers, a 65 per cent fall; (b) Rs 2,00,000; (c) 14.5 hours a day, 101.5 hours a week; (d) the buyer gained; the tyre maker lost; the IT company gained; the seasonal worker lost. (a) 20 − 7 = 13, and 13 ÷ 20 = 65 per cent (page 68). (b) The imported capacitor costs 8 ÷ 2 = Rs 4, so 50,000 × 4 = 2,00,000 saved. (c) 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. is 14.5 hours; 14.5 × 7 = 101.5, and a day off means no wage (page 69). (d) Well-off urban consumers gained choice, quality and lower prices (page 66); tyres are among the industries where small makers were hit hard (page 68); IT services such as accounting are now done cheaply in India and exported (page 67); employers now hire garment workers on a temporary basis to cut labour costs (page 69). (The capacitor price, the order and the four people are our own; the workers, the half price and Sushila's hours are from the chapter.)

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Sources

All opened and read on 3 November 2026. Page numbers are the printed page numbers of the textbook.

The facts and figures are from the textbook pages above. The questions, worked answers, the sums and the examples marked as ours are our own. This guide is general information; follow your teacher and the official CBSE notices.

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