Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to
- A.Monetary Economics
- B.Welfare Economics
- C.Environmental Economics
- D.Development Economics
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Welfare Economics. Amartya Sen received the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his contributions to welfare economics".
Sen worked on social choice theory, on how to measure poverty and inequality, and on the causes of famine. His study of the 1943 Bengal famine showed that people starved not because food ran short but because they lost the means to buy it, his "entitlement" approach. His capability approach, which judges well-being by what people are able to do and be, shaped the Human Development Index launched by the UNDP in 1990. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1999 and wrote "Development as Freedom" and "The Argumentative Indian".
A is wrong: monetary economics deals with money and central banking, not his field. C is wrong: he did not win for environmental economics. D is wrong: his work touches development, but the Nobel citation names welfare economics.
Exam tip: Amartya Sen = Nobel 1998 (welfare economics), Bharat Ratna 1999, capability approach behind the HDI.
Practice Questions
View allUBI, as an alternative for subsidies in poverty alleviation, stands for
- A.Union Basic Income
- B.Undefined Basic Income
- C.Unconditional Basic Income
- D.Universal Basic Income
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UBI is the idea of paying every citizen a fixed sum of money regularly, without conditions, in place of a large number of separate subsidies and welfare schemes.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following is the Chairman of the Fourteenth Finance Commission?
- A.C. Rangarajan
- B.Vijay Kelkar
- C.Y. V. Reddy
- D.Rakesh Mohan
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The Fourteenth Finance Commission, set up in 2013 for the award period 2015-2020, was chaired by Y. V. Reddy, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
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- A.States were not willing to agree with the Union for introduction of GST without amendment in the Constitution.
- B.GST was to be implemented on concurrent base and Article 246 was inadequate for such a case.
- C.The Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers had recommended for constitutional amendment.
- D.The GST Council had recommended for constitutional amendment so that its power enhances.
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GST is levied by the Union and the States together on the same supply, and Article 246, which splits taxing powers between them through separate lists, did not allow such a concurrent tax.
Read the full explanation →In India, the term 'hot money' is used to refer to
- A.Currency + Reserves with the RBI
- B.Net GDR
- C.Net Foreign Direct Investment
- D.Foreign Portfolio Investment
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Hot money is foreign capital that flows in quickly to earn short-term returns and can leave just as quickly, and in India this describes portfolio investment in shares and bonds.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements is correct with respect to the composition of national income in India?
- A.The share of manufacturing sector has declined.
- B.The share of services sector has increased sharply.
- C.The share of agriculture has remained static.
- D.The share of services sector has declined.
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Since independence, and especially since the reforms of 1991, the services sector has grown faster than the rest of the economy and now produces more than half of India's gross value added.
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