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Class 10 Economics: Sectors of the Indian Economy, 8 practice questions with answers

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Here are 8 practice questions on Chapter 2 of the NCERT Class 10 Economics textbook, Understanding Economic Development: Sectors of the Indian Economy. Every question has a worked answer and the textbook page behind it. Most of them are short sums built on the chapter's own figures: who works in which sector, how output grew against jobs, which goods count towards GDP, how many days of work a second crop brings, and how long two workers' days are. The last one sorts workers in all three of the chapter's ways at once.

These questions are our own, drafted with AI help. Every number was re-computed by a script and every answer was checked against the chapter, but no practising teacher has reviewed them yet. None of them is a textbook exercise or a sample-paper question reworded. If you find a mistake, please tell us.

What the chapter says you need

Facts from Chapter 2 of the NCERT textbook (Understanding Economic Development, Reprint 2026-27, printed pages 19 to 37):

Who works where

Question 1. (1 mark) According to the chapter's Graph 3, which sector had the smallest share of India's employment in 2017-18? (A) primary (B) secondary (C) tertiary (D) all three were equal

Answer: (B) secondary. Graph 3 gives 2017-18 shares of 44% primary, 25% secondary and 31% tertiary (page 25). In 1977-78 the smallest share had also been secondary, 11%, against 18% tertiary and 71% primary.

Question 2. Use the shares in Graph 3 (1977-78: primary 71%, secondary 11%, tertiary 18%; 2017-18: primary 44%, secondary 25%, tertiary 31%). (a) By how many percentage points did each sector's share change? (b) Which sector gained more points? (c) Check that the changes add up to zero, and say why they must. (d) Is the primary sector still the largest employer?

Answer: (a) primary −27, secondary +14, tertiary +13; (b) secondary, by one point; (c) −27 + 14 + 13 = 0; (d) yes. (a) 44 − 71 = −27; 25 − 11 = +14; 31 − 18 = +13 (page 25). (b) 14 is one more than 13. (c) Each year's three shares add up to 100% (71 + 11 + 18 = 100 and 44 + 25 + 31 = 100), so whatever one sector loses the others must gain. (d) Yes: 44% is still more than either 31% or 25%, as the chapter says (page 25).

Question 3. Over the forty years to 2017-18, the chapter says industrial output went up more than nine times while jobs in industry went up about three times, and service-sector output rose 14 times while its jobs rose about five times. (a) Taking the round figures 9 and 3, and 14 and 5, by roughly how many times did output per worker grow in each sector? (b) What does the chapter give as the reason the shift in jobs was smaller than the shift in production? (c) What share of GVA does it say the primary sector produces, while employing more than half the workers?

Answer: (a) about 3 times in industry, about 2.8 times in services; (b) too few jobs were created in industry and services; (c) only about one sixth. (a) 9 ÷ 3 = 3 and 14 ÷ 5 = 2.8 (page 26). Output grew much faster than jobs in both. (b) Industry and services did not create enough new jobs, so people stayed in farming (pages 25-26). (c) More than half of all workers, mostly in agriculture, produce only about one sixth of the GVA (page 26).

Counting production

Question 4. A made-up dairy sells 100 litres of milk a day at Rs 50 a litre: 40 litres to families who drink it at home, and 60 litres to a sweet shop that turns it into sweets. (a) Which of this milk is a final good and which is an intermediate good? Give the reason. (b) What is the value of the milk counted in GDP as a final good, and the value of the milk that is not counted on its own? (c) India now reports each sector's share of Gross Value Added (GVA) instead of GDP. What does the chapter say GVA adjusts for, and why did the government make the change?

Answer: (a) the families' 40 litres are final, the sweet shop's 60 litres are intermediate; (b) Rs 2,000 counted, Rs 3,000 not counted on its own; (c) GVA is measured after adjusting for taxes and subsidies, and the change puts India at par with global practice. (a) The same milk can be either: what decides it is who buys it and what they do with it. Milk the families drink reaches the consumer, so it is a final good; milk the sweet shop uses up to make sweets is an intermediate good (page 22). (b) 40 × 50 = Rs 2,000 is counted. 60 × 50 = Rs 3,000 is not counted separately, because its value is already inside the price of the sweets, and counting both would count the same milk twice (page 22). Check: 2,000 + 3,000 = 5,000 = 100 × 50, the dairy's whole day of sales. (c) GVA measures what the three sectors contribute after adjusting for taxes and subsidies, and India began to report it in place of GDP to be at par with global practices (page 23).

Creating more work

Question 5. The chapter supposes that one hectare of wheat gives work to two people for 50 days. Laxmi owns about two hectares of land that has no irrigation. (a) How many person-days of work does one hectare of wheat give? (b) If a new well let Laxmi grow wheat on both hectares in the rabi season, how many person-days would that be? (c) Name two other things the chapter says Laxmi would need for farming to pay, apart from water.

Answer: (a) 100; (b) 200; (c) any two of cheap credit, seeds, fertilisers, farm equipment, pumpsets, roads, transport and storage. (a) 2 people × 50 days = 100 person-days (page 27). (b) 2 hectares × 100 = 200 person-days, enough for four people for 50 days each. (c) She needs seeds, fertilisers, equipment and pumpsets, and bank credit at a reasonable interest rate so she does not borrow from moneylenders; better roads, transport and storage would let her sell what she grows (page 28).

Question 6. The chapter says about 60 per cent of India's people are aged 5-29, and only about 51 per cent of that age group attend an educational institution. (a) In a made-up town of 1,00,000 people, how many would be aged 5-29, and how many of those would be in school or college? (b) How many in that age group would not be? (c) How many jobs does the Planning Commission study say the education sector alone could create, and how many extra people a year tourism could employ if improved?

Answer: (a) 60,000 aged 5-29, of whom 30,600 study; (b) 29,400; (c) nearly 20 lakh in education, and more than 35 lakh a year in tourism. (a) 1,00,000 × 60 ÷ 100 = 60,000, and 60,000 × 51 ÷ 100 = 30,600 (page 28). (b) 60,000 − 30,600 = 29,400. (c) More schools need more buildings, teachers and staff, and the study, by the body now called NITI Aayog, estimates nearly 20 lakh education jobs; it says an improved tourism sector could add work for more than 35 lakh people every year (page 29).

Conditions of work and ownership

Question 7. Kanta works in an office from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Kamal, her neighbour, works in a grocery shop from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (a) How many hours is each of their working days, and what is the difference? (b) Over a made-up week of six working days each, how many hours does each work? (c) Which sector does each of them work in? If Kanta's office kept her 4½ hours late one day, what does the chapter say her employer would have to do, and what would Kamal get for his extra 4½ hours each day?

Answer: (a) Kanta 8 hours, Kamal 12½ hours, a difference of 4½ hours; (b) 48 hours and 75 hours; (c) Kanta is in the organised sector and Kamal in the unorganised sector; Kanta's employer would have to pay her overtime, while Kamal gets nothing extra. (a) 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. is 8 hours; 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. is 12 hours 30 minutes; 12.5 − 8 = 4.5 (page 30). (b) 6 × 8 = 48 and 6 × 12.5 = 75, so Kamal works 27 hours more in the week. (c) The chapter places Kanta in the organised sector and Kamal in the unorganised sector (pages 30-31). An organised-sector job has set hours, and any time worked beyond them must be paid as overtime by the employer (page 30). In the unorganised sector there is no provision for overtime (page 31), so Kamal's 4½ extra hours a day, 27 a week, earn him nothing beyond his daily wage.

Question 8. Sort each worker in three ways: primary, secondary or tertiary; organised or unorganised; public or private. (a) A nurse with a regular, registered job in a government hospital. (b) A woman who makes papads at home and sells them to nearby shops, with no registration. (c) A worker with an appointment letter and provident fund at a privately owned steel company. (d) A fisherman who sells his own catch.

Answer: (a) Tertiary (a service, like the doctors and teachers the chapter lists), organised, public (page 20; pages 30 and 33). (b) Secondary, because making a product counts as manufacturing even at home; unorganised, because the work is small and unregistered; private (pages 20 and 31). (c) Secondary, organised, private: like TISCO, the company is privately owned, and the regular terms and benefits put the job in the organised sector (pages 30-31 and 33). (d) Primary (fishing is one of the activities that use natural resources directly), unorganised (he works on his own, like the farmers the chapter describes), private (pages 20 and 31).

Map work for this chapter

There is none. The 2026-27 curriculum's map list covers only History and Geography chapters, so Economics is assessed through written questions alone (CBSE Social Science curriculum 2026-27, PDF pages 7-8). Economics carries 20 of the paper's 80 marks, across four chapters (PDF page 9).

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Sources

All opened and read on 3 November 2026. Page numbers are the printed page numbers of the textbook; printed page = PDF page + 17.

The facts and figures are from the textbook pages above; Graph 3's shares were read from the rendered chart page. The questions, the made-up figures and the worked answers are our own, and every number was re-computed by script. This guide is general information; follow your teacher and the textbook.

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