Learn
Class 9 Economics: Building Blocks in Economics and the Problem of Choice, 8 practice questions with answers
These are 8 practice questions on Chapter 8 of the new NCERT Class 9 Social Science textbook, Understanding Society: India and Beyond (Part 1, first published June 2026), the one on building blocks in economics and the problem of choice. It is the first Economics chapter of the book, so many students search for it as "Class 9 Economics chapter 1". Each question has a worked answer and the textbook page it rests on. They follow the chapter: needs and wants, opportunity cost, a production possibility curve with numbers to work out, the three key questions, labour-intensive and capital-intensive production, the three economic systems, the government's part in a mixed economy, and how India's system changed.
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 question reworded. If you find a mistake, please tell us.
How this chapter is examined
This is a new book for 2026-27. CBSE's Class IX Social Science curriculum gives this chapter 7 teaching hours. It lists scarcity, opportunity cost and choice, what economists do, the three questions of what, how and for whom to produce, the differences between market, centrally planned and mixed systems, and the welfare economy (curriculum, PDF pages 10-11). The chapter itself covers the welfare side only through the welfare programmes and public goods of a mixed economy, so ask your teacher how much more is expected there. CBSE says the marks for each unit "will be provided shortly" (PDF page 14), so check with your school how the annual exam is split.
What the chapter says you need
Facts from the NCERT textbook (Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Class 9 Part 1, Chapter 8, printed pages 183 to 194), in our words:
- Needs and wants (page 183): needs are essentials such as food, water and shelter; wants are things like gadgets, holidays and luxury items. Wants have no limit and keep changing.
- Scarcity and choice (page 184): land, labour, capital and technology are the factors of production. Resources, natural or made by people, are limited, and each can be put to several uses, so every household and economy must choose.
- Opportunity cost (page 184): when you pick one option, you give up the others; whatever you let go of, valued, is the opportunity cost.
- Production possibility curve (PPC) (page 185): a curve that shows the combinations of two goods that can be made when all resources are used. It slopes downwards, because making more of one good means giving up some of the other. Points on the curve are the most that can be made when nothing is wasted.
- What economics is (pages 186-187): the word comes from the Greek oikonomia, from oikos (household) and nemein (management). Economics studies how choices are made when limited resources must meet needs and wants. Economists work in policy-making, finance, research and education, and business consulting, and they use data such as the Economic Survey, which the Ministry of Finance prepares and presents in Parliament before the Union Budget.
- The three key questions (pages 188-190): what goods to make, by which method, and for which buyers. "How" is a choice between labour-intensive methods (more workers, fewer machines) and capital-intensive ones (more machines and technology, fewer workers). It depends on the cost of machines and labour, the technology available, the kind of product, and the country's laws.
- Economic systems (pages 190-193): - Planned economy: a central planning authority decides what, how much, how and for whom; the state owns most resources; firms follow targets and need licences; there is little competition and little reason to innovate. Examples in the book: the former Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba. - Market economy: demand and supply answer the questions; the government acts like a referee, keeping people safe and upholding law and order while leaving prices alone; resources are mostly privately owned; competition brings better quality, lower prices and innovation. Examples: the USA, Japan, Hong Kong. - Mixed economy: private firms and the government both make choices, and large public sector companies sit next to private ones. Most real economies are mixed. Examples: India after 1991, China after 1978, Germany, Sweden.
- India's path (pages 192-193): after Independence India followed a state-led approach close to planning, with licences, permits and a large public sector. Facing serious difficulties by 1991, it brought in reforms that cut regulation, encouraged private firms and opened up trade and investment, moving towards the market while keeping an important role for the government.
Needs, wants and opportunity cost
Question 1. Sort this family's list into needs and wants, using the chapter's meaning of each: (a) rice and dal for the month; (b) a smartwatch; (c) the rent for their home; (d) a weekend trip to a hill station; (e) drinking water; (f) a second television. Then name one item on the list that the chapter's example of "wanting more" suggests might keep being replaced by something bigger.
Answer: needs: (a), (c) and (e); wants: (b), (d) and (f). The smartwatch, for example, may give way to a costlier model later. The chapter calls food, water and shelter needs, and gadgets, holidays and luxuries wants (page 183). Rent pays for shelter, so it is a need. Wants have no limit and keep changing, as in the book's example of moving from a bicycle to a motorbike to a car (page 183), so a gadget like a smartwatch is the kind of want that tends to be upgraded.
Question 2. A village panchayat has ₹10 lakh left in its budget for the year. It can either repair the leaking roof of the primary school or build a water tank for the market area; each costs the full ₹10 lakh. (a) Why must the panchayat choose? (b) If it repairs the roof, what is the opportunity cost? (c) If, instead, it could build the tank for ₹6 lakh and patch the roof for ₹4 lakh, would there still be an opportunity cost?
Answer: (a) its money is limited and both uses need it; (b) the water tank it gives up; (c) yes: it gives up a full repair of the roof, and whatever else ₹10 lakh could have bought. (a) Resources are limited and can be put to different uses, so economies and their governments must decide how to use them best (page 184). (b) When one option is chosen, the rest are lost, and the worth of the option you let go is its opportunity cost (page 184). (c) Every choice of how to spend a limited sum leaves something out; splitting the money just changes what is given up.
The production possibility curve
Question 3. A small workshop, using all its workers and machines, can make bicycles and sewing machines in these combinations each month (made-up figures):
| Combination | Bicycles | Sewing machines |
|---|---|---|
| P | 0 | 40 |
| Q | 10 | 36 |
| R | 20 | 28 |
| S | 30 | 16 |
| T | 40 | 0 |
(a) How many sewing machines are given up for each extra 10 bicycles, from P to Q, Q to R, R to S and S to T? What happens to this sacrifice as the workshop makes more bicycles? (b) One month the workshop makes 20 bicycles and 20 sewing machines. Is it using its resources fully? (c) Could it make 30 bicycles and 30 sewing machines with the same resources? (d) Why does the curve slope downwards?
Answer: (a) 4, 8, 12 and 16; the sacrifice grows; (b) no, it could make more; (c) no; (d) because more of one good means less of the other. (a) 40 − 36 = 4, 36 − 28 = 8, 28 − 16 = 12 and 16 − 0 = 16 sewing machines. Each extra batch of 10 bicycles costs more sewing machines than the last, so the opportunity cost of bicycles rises. (b) At 20 bicycles the curve allows 28 sewing machines, so 20 is 8 short: some resources are idle or wasted. The chapter says the points on the curve are the maximum output from efficient use of resources (page 185), so a point inside it means less than the maximum. (c) At 30 bicycles the curve allows only 16 sewing machines, so 30 and 30 lies beyond what the workshop can make now. (d) With resources fixed, making more of one good means sacrificing some of the other, which is the trade-off the PPC shows (page 185).
What, how and for whom
Question 4. Which of the three key questions (what, how, or for whom to produce) is each decision mainly answering? (a) A farmers' cooperative decides whether to grow cotton or soybean next season. (b) A bakery decides whether to buy a dough-mixing machine or hire two more helpers. (c) A mobile phone company decides to bring out a low-priced model for first-time buyers in small towns. (d) A city council decides whether its new building money goes to a hospital wing or a flyover.
Answer: (a) what; (b) how; (c) for whom; (d) what. Choosing which goods and services to make, and how much, is the "what" question (page 188); choosing the method and the mix of labour, machines and technology is "how" (page 189); choosing which group of buyers to serve, by their needs and what they can pay, is "for whom" (pages 188-189). The council's choice in (d) is about which service to produce with limited funds, so it is "what".
Question 5. Decide whether each producer is likely to choose a labour-intensive or a capital-intensive method, and give the chapter's reason: (a) a furniture maker who carves wooden doors to each customer's design; (b) a company that makes thousands of identical plastic chairs a day; (c) a factory in a place where workers are many and wages are low, but machines must be imported at high cost; (d) a factory where wages are high and skilled workers are hard to find, but machines have become cheap.
Answer: (a) labour-intensive; (b) capital-intensive; (c) labour-intensive; (d) capital-intensive. The chapter says the choice depends on the cost of capital and labour, the technology available and the nature of the product (page 190). Work made to order needs skilled hands, while large runs of the same item suit machines; cheap, plentiful labour favours more workers, and costly or scarce labour makes machines the better choice (page 190). Labour laws and incentives for machinery can also tip the decision (page 190).
Economic systems
Question 6. Name the economic system of each made-up country, and give one result the chapter links with that system. (a) In Velora, a central authority sets what each factory must make and at what price, and most land, factories and banks belong to the state. (b) In Brisa, prices are set by demand and supply, the government keeps law and order but does not fix prices or output, and most shops and factories are privately owned. (c) In Tamaran, private firms and large public sector companies operate side by side, and the government sets rules for fair competition and runs welfare programmes.
Answer: (a) planned economy: little competition, so firms have little reason to improve quality or innovate; (b) market economy: many producers compete, which brings better quality, lower prices and innovation; (c) mixed economy, the kind most real economies are. A planned economy's central authority makes the major decisions, owns most resources and licenses firms, which limits competition (page 191). In a market economy demand and supply decide, the government acts like a referee, and ownership is mostly private (page 191). A mixed economy combines both, with large public sector companies in the market, and the book says most economies are mixed (page 192).
Question 7. In a mixed economy, sort these into what the chapter shows as the government's part and the market's part: consumer protection, innovation, public goods, profit-making businesses, transparency, competition, welfare programmes, fair competition rules. Then say which two of these are public goods by the chapter's meaning: a seat on a private bus, a city park, a restaurant meal, street lights.
Answer: government: consumer protection, public goods, transparency, welfare programmes, fair competition rules; market: innovation, profit-making businesses, competition. Public goods: the city park and the street lights. The split follows the chapter's diagram of a mixed economy, Fig. 8.8 (page 192). Public goods are available to everyone without anyone being kept out, and one person's use does not stop others using them; the chapter's examples include parks and street lights (page 192). A bus seat or a restaurant meal can be kept from someone who does not pay, so they are not public goods.
Question 8. 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.
- Pair 1. Assertion: In the decades after Independence, Indian firms often needed licences and permits to produce. Reason: In those years India's economy was run in a state-led way that resembled planning.
- Pair 2. Assertion: After the 1991 reforms India became a pure market economy with no role for the government. Reason: The 1991 reforms reduced excessive regulation and encouraged private enterprise.
- Pair 3. Assertion: The Economic Survey is presented in Parliament before the Union Budget. Reason: The Economic Survey is prepared by the Ministry of Finance.
Answer: Pair 1 (A); Pair 2 (D); Pair 3 (B). Pair 1: the chapter says that after Independence the government controlled industries and regulated production through licences and permits, as part of a state-led approach close to planning (page 192), so R explains A. Pair 2: the reforms did cut regulation and encourage private firms, but the chapter says India moved towards the market while keeping an important role for the government, and lists India after 1991 as a mixed economy (pages 192-193), so A is false. Pair 3: both are true (page 187), but who prepares the Survey does not explain when it is presented; the book ties its timing to its job as a blueprint for the coming Budget.
Practise more, and check your marks
- The other new Class 9 chapter on this site: Class 9 Social Science: Democracy, practice questions.
- Where these ideas lead in Class 10 Economics: Class 10 Economics: Development and Sectors of the Indian Economy.
- For a 3-mark answer in a school test, make one point per mark and tie each to the chapter, such as a definition, a named example or a figure from a table, as the answers above do.
- Using an AI to check your answers: how to use ChatGPT for homework without cheating yourself. This is a new book, and an AI may answer from the old Class 9 Economics book, so check its answer against your textbook page.
Where CMDLearn fits
CMDLearn is building an AI tutor for Classes 1 to 10 that explains a step and checks the child's working, but leaves the writing to the child. It is still in development, and no child uses it yet. If you would like to hear when there is something to try, you can join the waitlist.
Sources
All opened and read on 3 November 2026. Page numbers are the printed page numbers of the textbook; printed page = PDF page + 182.
- NCERT, Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Class 9 Part 1 (first edition, June 2026), Chapter 8 "Building Blocks in Economics: The Problem of Choice", printed pages 183-194 (needs and wants, page 183; scarcity and opportunity cost, page 184; the PPC, page 185; what economics deals with, pages 186-187; the three key questions, pages 188-190; economic systems, pages 190-193; questions and activities, pages 193-194): ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/iest108.pdf
- NCERT, the same book's opening pages (first edition June 2026; contents, Chapter 8 at page 183): ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/iest1ps.pdf
- CBSE, Social Science curriculum, Class IX, 2026-27 (Chapter 8 hours, contents and learning outcomes, PDF pages 10-11; the note on the course structure, PDF page 14): cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/CurriculumMain27/SecPart1/SocialScience_SecP1IX_2026-27.pdf
The facts are from the textbook pages above. The questions, the made-up workshop figures, the made-up countries 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 official CBSE notices.
Practise this class: Class 9 worksheets, chapter by chapter · free practice, marked instantly · timed revision papers