In India, the official estimates of national income are prepared by which organisation?
- A.The Reserve Bank of India
- B.The National Statistical Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
- C.The Finance Commission
- D.The Securities and Exchange Board of India
Correct answer
B. The National Statistical Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
Explanation
The correct answer is B. The National Statistical Office, formed by merging the Central Statistical Office with the National Sample Survey Office, prepares the national accounts under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It fixes the base year of the series, releases the estimates of GDP and gross value added, and follows the Indian financial year from 1 April to 31 March.
Option A, the Reserve Bank of India, is the central bank; it publishes economic data and manages monetary policy but does not compile the national accounts. Option C, the Finance Commission, is a constitutional body that recommends how taxes are shared between the Union and the states. Option D, SEBI, regulates the securities market. Questions in this area often pair an organisation with a function, so learn the pairs together.
Read the full article: GDP and National Income: Concepts, Methods and Formulas
Practice Questions
View allGross Domestic Product (GDP) is the value of all final goods and services produced
- A.by the residents of a country, wherever they may be
- B.within the domestic territory of a country in a year
- C.by the government sector alone in a year
- D.including intermediate goods used in production
Show answer
Correct answer: B. within the domestic territory of a country in a year
Explanation
The correct answer is B. GDP measures production inside the borders of a country in one accounting year, whoever the producer may be. A foreign firm making cars in India adds to India's GDP, because the test is the place of production and not the nationality of the producer.
Option A describes Gross National Product, which counts what the residents of a country produce anywhere in the world; the two differ by net factor income from abroad. Option C is wrong because GDP covers the whole economy, private and public, organised and, as far as it can be estimated, unorganised. Option D contradicts the definition: only final goods are counted, since including intermediate goods would count the same value more than once, as with wheat, flour and bread. This idea of value added at each stage is the basis of the product method of measurement.
Gross National Product (GNP) is equal to which of the following?
- A.GDP + net factor income from abroad
- B.GDP - depreciation
- C.GDP + indirect taxes
- D.GDP - subsidies
Show answer
Correct answer: A. GDP + net factor income from abroad
Explanation
The correct answer is A. Net factor income from abroad is the income residents earn outside the country minus the income foreigners earn inside it. Adding it to GDP converts a domestic concept into a national one, which is exactly what GNP is.
Option B gives Net Domestic Product, because subtracting depreciation turns a gross figure into a net one; the word depreciation always signals the shift from gross to net, never from domestic to national. Options C and D confuse the two aggregates with the difference between market price and factor cost, where factor cost equals market price minus indirect taxes plus subsidies. Keep the two axes separate in your mind: gross against net is decided by depreciation, and domestic against national by net factor income from abroad.
Net National Product (NNP) is obtained by subtracting which item from Gross National Product?
- A.Indirect taxes
- B.Depreciation
- C.Subsidies
- D.Net factor income from abroad
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Depreciation
Explanation
The correct answer is B, depreciation. Machines, buildings and vehicles wear out as they are used, and the value of that wear and tear must be set aside if the country is to keep its capital intact. Deducting it from GNP gives NNP, and NNP measured at factor cost is what economists call national income.
Option A, indirect taxes, and Option C, subsidies, connect market price with factor cost, not gross with net. Option D, net factor income from abroad, is the item that connects the domestic aggregates with the national ones, so subtracting it from GNP would take you back to GDP rather than to NNP. Note the parallel: GDP minus depreciation gives NDP in just the same way that GNP minus depreciation gives NNP.
Who made the first estimate of the national income of India?
- A.V. K. R. V. Rao
- B.P. C. Mahalanobis
- C.Dadabhai Naoroji
- D.D. R. Gadgil
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Dadabhai Naoroji
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Dadabhai Naoroji. He made the earliest estimate of India's national income in the nineteenth century and used it to argue that British rule was draining wealth out of the country, putting the average income at about twenty rupees a person a year. His work is the starting point of every account of national income estimation in India.
Option A, V. K. R. V. Rao, made the first scientific estimate, for the year 1931-32, using methods close to those in use today. Option B, P. C. Mahalanobis, chaired the National Income Committee appointed in 1949, which gave the country its first official series and submitted its report in 1954. Option D, D. R. Gadgil, was a member of that committee along with Rao. Learn the four names as a sequence rather than separately.
The National Income Committee, set up by the Government of India in 1949, was chaired by
- A.P. C. Mahalanobis
- B.Dadabhai Naoroji
- C.V. K. R. V. Rao
- D.C. Rangarajan
Show answer
Correct answer: A. P. C. Mahalanobis
Explanation
The correct answer is A, P. C. Mahalanobis. The committee was appointed in 1949 to prepare official estimates of national income after independence, and it submitted its final report in 1954. Its other members were D. R. Gadgil and V. K. R. V. Rao. Mahalanobis is also remembered as the architect of the Second Five Year Plan and as the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute.
Option B, Dadabhai Naoroji, belongs to the nineteenth century and made the first estimate of all. Option C, V. K. R. V. Rao, was a member of the committee and had earlier made the first scientific estimate for 1931-32, but he did not chair it. Option D, C. Rangarajan, is associated with later committees on statistics and on the measurement of poverty, not with the committee of 1949.