Prasanna

Students can Download Chapter 11 Introduction Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 11 Introduction

Statistics
Statistics deals with the collection, classification analysis, and interpretation of numerical data. In our daily language, the word ‘Statistics’ is used in two distinct senses: singular and plural. In the plural sense, ‘statistics’ means ‘numerical facts systematically collected’ as described by the Oxford Dictionary. Thus, the simple meaning of statistics in the plural sense is data.

Functions of Statistics

• It simplifies the complexity of data: Complex numerical data are simplified through statistical methods.
• It reduces the bulk data: Huge data can be reduced to a few figures and thus, easily understandable.
• It adds precision in thinking: It actually sharpens one’s thinking faculty.
• It helps comparison of different sets of figures: e.g. import and export of two countries can be compared.
• It indicates trends and tendencies: Helps in making future plans.
• It helps in studying relationships between different factors: With the help of statistical methods, one can study the relation between two or more variables.
• It guides in the formulation of policies and helps in planning: Planning and policies of the government are based on statistical data.

Limitations of Statistics
The limitations of statistics are given below.

• Statistical laws are true only on average.
• Statistics can be misused.
• Statistics deals only with quantitative data.
• Statistical results lack mathematical accuracy.
• Statistical facts are collected for a pre-determined purpose.

Students can Download Chapter 10 Comparative Development Experience of India with its Neighbours Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 10 Comparative Development Experience of India with its Neighbours

Development Path – A Snapshot View
India, Pakistan, and China have many similarities in their developmental strategies. India, China, and Pakistan became independent and started initiating their developmental strategies at almost the same time. India and Pakistan became independent in 1947 and China in 1949. All three countries adopted the planning strategy for economic growth and development. India’s five-year plan started in 1951, Pakistan’s in 1956 (called medium-term plan), and China’s in 1953. Government and the public sector played a major role in these economies. However, with the introduction of economic reforms in tune with globalisation the role of market was redefined. Till the 1980s, all the three economies had almost similar growth rate and other economic indicators.

China
After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China under one-party rule, all the critical sectors of the economy, enterprises, and lands owned and operated by individuals were brought under government control. The Great Leap Forward (GLF) campaign initiated in 1958 aimed at industrializing the country on a massive scale. People were encouraged to set up industries in their backyards. In rural areas, communes were started. Under the Commune system, people collectively cultivated lands.

In 1958, there were 26,000 communes covering almost all the farm population. GLF campaign met with many problems. A severe drought caused havoc in China killing about 30 million people. When Russia had conflicts with China, it withdrew its professionals who had earlier been sent to China to help in the industrialization process.

In 1965, Mao introduced the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76) under which students and professionals were sent to work and learn from the countryside. The present-day fast industrial growth in China can be traced back to the reforms introduced in 1978.

Pakistan
Pakistan followed the mixed economy model with, co-existence of the public sector and private sector. Pakistan also followed a protectionist policy in international trade. The introduction of the Green Revolution resulted in a rise in the production of food grains. In the 1970s, the nationalization of the capital goods industry took place. In the late 1970s and 1980stherewasashift in the economic policy in favor of de-nationalization and encouragement to the private sector.

Pakistan got substantial financial support from western nations. There was an increase in the number of emigrants and their remittance to their home country. The remittance and Western nation’s support helped the country in stimulating economic growth. In 1988 more reforms were introduced. FDI was encouraged, direct taxes were reduced and many areas of the economy were opened to private and foreign investment.

Demographic Indicators
Demographic indicators of India, China, and Pakistan can be summarised as follows:

The table shows the population growth as being highest in Pakistan, followed by India and China. Scholars point out the one-child norm introduced in China in the late 1970s as the major reason for low population growth. They also state that this measure led to a decline in the sex ratio, the proportion of females per 1000 males. However, from the table, you will notice that the sex ratio is low and biased against females in all three countries. Scholars cite son preference prevailing in all these countries as the reason. In recent times, all three countries are adopting various measures to improve the situation.

The One-child norm and the resultant arrest in the growth of the population also have other implications. For instance, after a few decades, in China, there will be more elderly people in proportion to young people. This will force China to take steps to provide social security measures with fewer workers. The fertility rate is also low in China and very high in Pakistan. Urbanization is high in both Pakistan and China with India having 28 percent of its people living in urban areas.

Indicators of Human Development
The HDI (Human Development Index) developed by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) is an index which has universal acceptance as a good measure of the quality of human life. Since 1990 the UNDP has been publishing information related to HDI. This report ranks countries on the basis of their HDI. The following table presents some of the selected indicators of development.

Source: Human Development Report, 2014

Students can Download Chapter 9 Environment Sustainable Development Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 9 Environment Sustainable Development

Environment
The environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources. It includes all the biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other. While all living elements – the birds, animals and plants, forests, fisheries, etc. are biotic elements and abiotic elements include air, water, land, etc. Rocks and sunlight are all examples of abiotic elements of the environment. A study of the environment then calls for a study of the interrelationship between these biotic and abiotic components of the environment.

Functions of the Environment
The environment performs four vital functions

• It supplies resources: resources here include both renewable and non-renewable resources.
  Renewable resources are those which can be used without the possibility of the resource becoming depleted or exhausted. That is, a continuous supply of the resource remains available.
• It assimilates waste
• It sustains life by providing genetic and bio-diversity
• It also provides aesthetic services like scenery, etc.

Global Warming and Ozone Depletion
Two important issues faced by our environment is global warming and ozone depletion.

Global warming: Global warming is a gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth’s lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. Much of the recent observed and projected global warming is human-induced. It is caused by man-made increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Ozone Depletion: Ozone depletion refers to the phenomenon of reductions in the amount of ozone in the stratosphere The problem of ozone depletion is caused by high levels of chlorine and bromine compounds in the stratosphere The origins of these compounds are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), used as cooling substances in airconditioners and refrigerators, or as aerosol propellants, and bromo fluorocarbons (halons), used in fire extinguishers. As a result of depletion of the ozone layer, more ultraviolet (UV) radiation comes to Earth and causes damage to living organisms. UV radiation seems responsible for skin cancer in humans; it also lowers production of phytoplankton and thus affects other aquatic organisms. It can also influence the growth of terrestrial plants.

State of India’s Environment
India has abundant natural resources in terms of rich quality of soil, hundreds of rivers and tributaries, lush green forests, plenty of mineral deposits beneath the land surface, vast stretch of the Indian Ocean, ranges of mountains, etc. The black soil of the Deccan Plateau is particularly suitable for the cultivation of cotton, leading to a concentration of textile industries in this region. The Indo-Gangetic plains – spread from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal – are one of the most fertile, intensively cultivated and densely populated regions in the world.

India’s forests, though unevenly distributed, provide green cover for a majority of its population and natural cover for its wildlife. Large deposits of iron ore, coal and natural gas are found in the country. India alone accounts for nearly 20% of the world’s total iron-ore reserves. Bauxite, copper, chromate, diamonds, gold, lead, lignite, manganese, zinc, uranium, etc. are also available in different parts of the country. However, the developmental activities in India have resulted in pressure on its finite natural resources, besides creating impacts on human health and well-being.

The threat to India’s environment poses a dichotomy -threat of poverty-induced environmental degradation and, at the same time, threat of pollution from affluence and a rapidly growing industrial sector. Air pollution, water contamination, soil erosion, deforestation and wildlife extinction are some of the most pressing environmental concerns of India.
The priority issues identified are :

• land degradation
• biodiversity loss
• air pollution with special reference to vehicular pollution in urban cities
• management of fresh water and
• Solid waste management. Land in India suffers from varying degrees and types of degradation stemming mainly from unstable use and inappropriate management practices.

Sustainable Development
The concept of sustainable development was emphasized by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which defined it as: ‘Development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs’.

Strategies for sustainable development
Strategies for sustainable development include the following.

• Use of Non-conventional Sources of Energy: LPG, Gobar Gas in Rural Areas:
• CNG in Urban Areas
• Wind Power
• Solar Power through Photovoltaic Cells
• Mini-hydel Plants
• Traditional Knowledge and Practices
• Bio-composting
• Bio-pest Control

Students can Download Chapter 8 Infrastructure Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 8 Infrastructure

Infrastructure
Infrastructure means some kinds of permanent installation, which are used over a long period of time for the supply of basic inputs like railway lines, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, etc. Infrastructural facilities are often referred to as economic and social overheads.

1. The economic infrastructure consists of energy, transport, communication
2. The social infrastructure consists of education, health, and housing.

Relevance of Infrastructure
Infrastructure plays important role in economic growth and development. Developed nations have good record of social and economic infrastructure. The contributions of infrastructure are:
• It invites investment which leads to growth.
• It enhances productivity.
• It improves the quality of life of people.

State of Infrastructure in India
Two important infrastructures in India are energy and health. We shall examine their details below:

Energy: Energy is very vital for rapid economic growth. There is a big gap between consumer demand and the supply of electricity in India. Energy is a critical aspect of the development process of a nation. It is, of course, essential for industries. Now it is used on a large scale in agriculture and related areas like the production and transportation of fertilizers, pesticides, and farm equipment. It is required in houses for cooking, household lighting, and heating.

Sources of Energy: There are commercial and non-commercial sources of energy. Commercial sources are coal, petroleum, and electricity as they are bought and sold. Non-commercial sources of energy are firewood, agricultural waste, and dried dung. These are non-commercial as they are found in nature/ forests. While commercial sources of energy are generally exhaustible, non-commercial sources are generally renewable.

Non-conventional Sources of Energy: Both commercial and non-commercial sources of energy are known as conventional sources of energy. There are three other sources of energy which are commonly termed as non-conventional sources – solar energy, wind energy and tidal power.

Power/Electricity: The most visible form of energy, which is often identified with progress in modern civilization, is power, commonly called electricity; it is one of the most critical components of infrastructure that determines the economic development of a country.

Health: Health is an essential element of human resource development. Health is a holistic process related to the overall growth and development of the nation. WHO defines health as Economists judge the health conditions of the people of a country by looking at the following indicators.

• Infant mortality
• Maternal mortality
• Life expectancy
• Nutritional levels
• Incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases
• Health infrastructures

Health System in India: India’s health infrastructure consists of a three-tier system such as primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary health care includes health education, health problems, prevention and control of diseases, promotion of nutrition, issues relating to potable water and sanitation, maternal and child health care, immunization against major infectious diseases like Polio, T.B, diphtheria, promotion of mental health and provision of essential drugs, etc.

Primary health care is provided through, sub-centers catering to a population of about 5000, Primary health care centres (PHCs) at block level and community health centres (CHCs) at the district level. The primary health care centres have only limited facilities. When the patient need advanced health care they are referred to secondary or tertiary hospitals.

Secondary care institutions are those which have facilities for clinical investigations like X-ray, clinical laboratory, scanning, etc., specialist doctors like a surgeon, gynecologists, pediatricians, etc. It is mostly available in district headquarters and big towns and cities.

Tertiary health care institutions these are health care institutions at the top of the three-tier system, devoted in health care, health education and research: Medical colleges, super-specialty hospitals and multi-specialty hospitals. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) Bangalore, Sree Chithra Institute of Medical Science (SCIM) Trivandrum, etc., are tertiary health care institutions.

Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM): Natural systems of medicine have to be explored and used to support public health. There is a great scope of advancement of medical tourism in India. It includes six systems: Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Naturopathy and Homeopathy (AYUSH). At present, there are 3,004 ISM hospitals, 23,028 dispensaries and as many as 6,11,431 registered practitioners in India. But little has been done to set up a framework to standardize education orto promote research. ISM has huge potential and can solve a large part of our health care problems because they are effective, safe and inexpensive.

Students can Download Chapter 7 Employment-Growth, Informalisation and Related Issues Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 7 Employment-Growth, Informalisation and Related Issues

Workers and Employment
Those activities that contribute to Gross National Product (GNP) or national income are known as economic activities. When farmers work in a field or a labour work in a factory, or doctor works in a hospital they produce goods or services. All those who are engaged in economic activities including self-employed are called workers. The employment situation is diverse and complex in India. It is due to the developing nature of the economy and the socio-economic and demographic factors that influence it.

Participation of People in Employment
The worker-population ratio is an important indicator of the employment situation in an economy.
Worker population-ratio refers to the ratio of workers to the population. It is computed by dividing the number of workers(W) by the total population (P) and express it in terms of percentage (W/P)*100. This ratio is useful in knowing the proportion of the population actively contributing to the production of goods and services in a country. The worker-population ratio in India for 2011 was 39.3%.

Employment in Firms, Factories, and Offices
In the course of the economic development of a country, labour flows from agriculture and other related activities to industry and services. Generally, we divide all economic activities into eight different industrial divisions. They are:

1. Agriculture
2. Mining and quarrying
3. Manufacturing
4. Electricity, gas and water supply
5. Construction
6. Trade
7. Transport and storage
8. Services.

For simplicity, all the working persons engaged in these divisions can be clubbed into three major sectors, viz.

• Primary sector includes (1) and (2)
• Secondary sector which includes (3), (4), and (5)
• Service sector which includes divisions (6), (7), and (8).

Unemployment and Types of Unemployment
The unemployment situation in India is highly complex. There are different types of unemployment in our country like open unemployment, disguised unemployment, seasonal unemployment, etc. Unemployment is a situation in which people are willing to work at the prevailing wage rate, but do not get any work.

Open Unemployment: Open unemployment is the situation in which people above a certain age who are able to work and willing to work at the prevailing wage remain unemployed. Open unemployment is involuntary in nature. They are willing to work, but employment opportunities are not available to them. People standing in some selected areas waiting to be recruited as the hired worker is a case of open unemployment.

Disguised Unemployment: When more persons are working in a job than actually required, the situation is termed as disguised unemployment or hidden unemployment. If some workers are withdrawn from work, either total production or productivity falls. This type of unemployment is prominent in Indian agriculture.

Seasonal Unemployment: The type of unemployment caused by a change in seasons is termed as seasonal unemployment. This is normally found in the agricultural sector of India. Agriculture normally provides only seasonal employment and people are employed during the busy sowing and harvesting seasons. Seasonal unemployment could also be found in agro-based industries such as sugar mills, rice mills, cotton-spinning mills, etc.

Students can Download Chapter 6 Rural Development Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 6 Rural Development

Rural Development
Rural development is quite a comprehensive term but it essentially means a plan of action for the development of areas which are lagging behind in socio-economic development. It essentially focuses on the action for the development of areas that are lagging behind in the overall development of the village economy. Some of the areas which are challenging and need fresh initiatives for development in India include:

• Development of human resources including- literacy, more specifically, female literacy, education, and skill development-health, addressing both sanitation and public health
• Land reforms
• Development of the productive resources of each locality
• Infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, transport facilities including construction of village roads and feeder roads to nearby highways, facilities for agriculture research and extension, and information dissemination
• Special measures for alleviation of poverty and bringing about significant improvement in the living conditions of the weaker sections of the population emphasizing access to productive employment opportunities.

Credit and Marketing in Rural Areas
Credit: Growth of rural economy depends primarily on the infusion of capital, from time to time, to realize higher productivity in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors. As the time gestation between crop sowing and realization of income after production is quite long, farmers borrow from various sources to meet their initial investment on seeds, fertilizers, implements and other family expenses of marriage, death, religious ceremonies.

A major change occurred after 1969 when India adopted social banking and a multi-agency approach to adequately meet the needs of rural credit. Later, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was set up in1982 as an apex body to coordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.

The institutional structure of rural banking today consists of a set of multi-agency institutions, namely, commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), co-operatives and land development banks. Recently, Self-Help Groups (henceforth SHGs) have emerged to fill the gap in the formal credit system because the formal credit delivery mechanism has not only proven inadequate but has also not been fully integrated into the overall rural social and community development. By March end 2003, more than seven lakh SHGs had reportedly been credit linked. Such credit provisions are generally referred to as micro-credit programmes.

Agricultural Market System
Agricultural marketing is a process that involves the assembling, storage, processing, transportation, packaging, grading and distribution of different agricultural commodities across the country. Let us discuss four such measures that were initiated to improve the marketing aspect.

1. The first step was regulation of markets to create orderly and transparent marketing conditions.

2. Second component is provision of physical infrastructure facilities like roads, railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storages and processing units.

3. Co-operative marketing, in realizing fair prices for farmers’ products, is the third aspect of a government initiative.

4. The fourth element is the policy instruments like

• assurance of minimum support prices (MSP) for 24 agricultural products
• maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by Food Corporation of India and
• distribution of food grains and sugar through PDS.

These instruments are aimed at protecting the income of the farmers and providing food grains at subsidized rate to the poor.

Diversification into Productive Activities
Diversification of farm products has two aspects: The first one relates to the diversification of crop production. The second one relates to the shift of the workforce from agriculture to other allied activities such as livestock, poultry, fishers, etc., and to non-farm sectors like food processing. Diversification of agriculture helps to provide alternative employment opportunities in the non-farm sector and will minimize the risk of depending exclusively on agriculture. These activities related to diversification are given below:

• Animal husbandry
• Fisheries
• Horticulture

Sustainable Development and Organic Farming
In recent years, awareness of the harmful effect of chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides on our health is on a rise. Conventional agriculture relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides, etc., which enter the food supply, penetrate the water sources, harm the livestock, deplete the soil and devastate natural eco-systems. Efforts in evolving technologies which are eco-friendly are essential for sustainable development and one such technology which is eco-friendly is organic farming.

Benefits of Organic Farming:
1. Organic agriculture offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural inputs (such as HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) with locally produced organic inputs that are cheaper and thereby generate good returns on investment.

2. Organic agriculture also generates income through international exports as the demand for organically grown crops is on a rise.

3. Studies across countries have shown that organically grown food has more nutritional value than chemical farming thus providing us with healthy foods.

4. Since organic farming requires more labour input than conventional farming, India will find organic farming an attractive proposition.

5. Finally, the produce is pesticide-free and produced in an environmentally sustainable way.

Students can Download Chapter 11 Plant Growth and Development Notes, Plus One Botany Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Botany Notes Chapter 11 Plant Growth and Development

Growth
Growth is defined as an irreversible permanent increase in the size of an organ or its parts of an individual cell.
It is accompanied by metabolic processes (both anabolic and catabolic), that occur at the expense of energy.
Eg: expansion of a leaf.

Plant Growth Generally is Indeterminate
Plant growth is unlimited growth due to the presence of meristems.
Root apical meristem and the shoot apical meristem are responsible for the primary growth of the plants and contribute to the elongation of the plants along their axis.

Role of lateral meristem in plants
In dicotyledonous plants and gymnosperms, the lateral meristems, (vascular cambium and cork-cambium) cause an increase in the girth of the organs. This is known as secondary growth.

Growth is Measurable

• Growth is measured in terms of increase in fresh weight, dry weight, length, area, volume, and cell number.
• One single maize root apical meristem can give rise to more than 17,500 new cells per hour, cells in a watermelon increase in size by up to 3,50,000 times.
• In the former, growth is expressed as an increase in cell number.
  latter expresses growth as an increase in the size of the cell.
• While the growth of a pollen tube is measured in terms of its length, an increase in surface area denotes the growth in a dorsiventral leaf.

Phases of Growth
The period of growth is generally divided into three phases.

1. Meristematic: The constantly dividing cells, both at the root apex and the shoot apex, represent the meristematic phase of growth.
2. Elongation: The cells proximal to the meristematic zone represent the phase of elongation.
3. Maturation: Proximal to the phase of elongation represents the phase of maturation.

Growth Rates
The increased growth per unit time is termed as growth rate. The growth rate may be

1. Arithmetic
2. Geometrical

On plotting the length of the organ against time, a linear curve is obtained, it is expressed as

L_t = L₀ + rt
L_t = length at time ‘t’
L₀ = length at time ‘zero’.
r = growth rate/elongation per unit time.

Different phases of the Sigmoid curve

1. lag phase
2. log or exponential phase
3. stationary phase

In most systems, the initial growth is slow (lag phase), and it increases rapidly at an exponential rate (log or exponential phase)
In the end, due to the limited nutrient supply, the growth slows down leading to a stationary phase. It is the typical sigmoid or S-curve.

The exponential growth can be expressed as
W₁ = W₀ e rt
W₁ = final size (weight, height, number etc.)
W₀ = initial size at the beginning of the period
r = growth rate
t = time of growth
e = base of natural logarithms

Quantitative comparisons between the growth of a living system can also be made in two ways:

• Measurement and the comparison of total growth per unit time is called the absolute growth rate.
• The growth of the given system per unit time expressed on a common basis.

In Figure two leaves, A and B, are drawn that are of different sizes but show an absolute increase in area in the given time to give leaves, A1 and B1.

Conditions for Growth
Water, oxygen, and nutrients as very essential elements for growth.
The plant cells grow in size by cell enlargement it requires water.
Turgidity of cells helps in extension growth. Water also provides the medium for enzymatic activities
Oxygen helps in releasing metabolic energy essential for growth activities.
Nutrients (macro and micro essential elements) are required by plants for the synthesis of protoplasm and act as a source of energy.
An optimum temperature range is best suited for plant growth.
Environmental signals such as light and gravity also affect certain phases/stages of growth.

Differentiation, Dedifferentiation, and Redifferentiation
1. The cells derived from root apical and shoot-apical meristems and cambium differentiate and mature to perform specific functions. This is termed as differentiation.
For example, during differentiation, tracheary elements lose their protoplasm and develop a very strong, elastic, lignocellulosic secondary cell wall, to carry water too long distances.

2. The living differentiated cells, that have lost the capacity to divide can regain the capacity of division This phenomenon is termed dedifferentiation.
For example, interfascicular cambium and cork cambium is formed from fully differentiated parenchyma cells.

3. Meristems are able to divide and produce cells that once again lose the capacity to divide but mature to perform specific functions. This is called a redifferentiation.
For example, secondary tissues develop from vascular cambium and cork cambium

Development
It is the stage of the life cycle in which germination of the seed to senescence.

The plant shows a response to the environment to form different kinds of structures. This ability is called plasticity
Heterophylly is an example of plasticity

Types of Heterophylly
1. The leaves of the juvenile plant are different in shape from those in mature plants.
e.g cotton, coriander, and larkspur.
2. Shapes of submerged leaves are different from those produced in the air.
Eg buttercup.

Development is considered as the sum of growth and differentiation.
Development in plants is under the control of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

A) Intrinsic factors

1. Intracellular (genetic)
2. Intercellular factors (chemicals such as plant growth regulators)

B) Extrinsic factors
Light, temperature, water, oxygen, nutrition, etc.

Plant Growth Regulators

Characteristics
The plant growth regulators (plant hormones or phytohormones) include

1. Indole compounds (indole-3-acetic acid, IAA);
2. Adenine derivatives (N6-furfurylamino purine, kinetin),
3. Derivatives of carotenoids (abscisic acid, ABA);
4. Terpenes (gibberellic acid, GA3) or
5. Gases (ethylene, C2H4).

The PGRs are divided into two groups based on their functions in a living plant body.
One group of PGRs are involved in growth-promoting activities, e.g., auxins, gibberellins, and cytokinins.
The other group mainly involved in growth-inhibiting activities such as dormancy and abscission. Eg-abscisic acid and ethylene.

The Discovery of Plant Growth Regulators
1. Auxin
At first, Charles Darwin and his son Francis Darwin observed that the coleoptiles of canary grass responded to unilateral illumination by growing towards the light source.
After a series of experiments, it was concluded that the tip of the coleoptile was the site of transmittable influence that caused the bending of the entire coleoptile.
Auxin was isolated by F. W. Went from tips of coleoptiles of oat seedlings.

2. Gibberellin
The ‘balance’ (foolish seedling) disease of rice seedlings, was caused by a fungal pathogen Gibberalla fujikuroi.
In this experiment, the uninfected rice seedlings were treated with sterile filtrates of the fungus. It led to the development of the disease. The active substance was gibberellic acid.
It was demonstrated by E. Kurosawa.

3. Cytokinin
The internodal segments of tobacco stems- the callus proliferated in the presence of auxins along with the extracts of vascular tissues, yeast extract, coconut milk or DNA.
Skoog and Miller later identified and crystallized the cytokinesis promoting active substances that they termed kinetin.

4. Abscisic acid(ABA)
During the mid-1960s inhibitory hormones were identified: inhibitor-B, abscission II and dormin.
Later all the three were named abscisic acid (ABA).

5. Ethylene
Ripened oranges that hastened the ripening of stored unripened bananas. Later this volatile substance was identified as ethylene, a gaseous PGR.

Physiological Effects of Plant Growth Regulators
Auxins
Auxins were first isolated from human urine.
They are generally produced by the growing apices of the stems and roots, from where they migrate to the regions of their action.

Two types of auxins

1. Natural (IAA and indole butyric acid (IBA)
2. Synthetic. NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) and 2, 4-D (2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic)

1. They help to initiate rooting in stem cuttings
2. Auxins promote flowering e.g. in pineapples.
3. They help to prevent fruit and leaf drop at early stages but promote the abscission of older mature leaves and fruits.
4. In most higher plants, the growing apical bud inhibits the growth of the lateral (axillary) buds, a phenomenon called apical dominance.
5. Removal of shoot tips (decapitation) usually results in the growth of lateral buds Hence it is widely applied in tea plantations, hedge-making, etc.
6. Auxins also induce parthenocarpy.
7. They are widely used as herbicides. 2, 4-D is used to kill dicotyledonous weeds, So it is used to prepare weed-free lawns by gardeners.
8. Auxin controls xylem differentiation and helps in cell division.

Gibberellins
Gibberellic acid (GA3) was one of the first gibberellins to be discovered and remains the most intensively studied form.
GA3 is acidic.

1. GA3 causes an increase in the length of grapes stalks. .
2. Gibberellins, cause fruits like apple to elongate and improve its shape
3. They delay senescence. Hence the fruits are keeping as fresh.
4. GA3 is used to speed up the malting process in the brewing industry.
5. Spraying sugarcane crop with gibberellins increases the length of the stem, thus increasing the yield by as much as 20 tonnes per acre.
6. Spraying juvenile conifers with GAs hastens the maturity period, thus leading to early seed production.
7. Gibberellins also promote bolting(internode elongation just prior to flowering) in beet, cabbages and many plants with rosette habit.

Cytokinins
Cytokinins were discovered as kinetin (a modified form of adenine, a purine) from the autoclaved herring sperm DNA.
Naturally occurring cytokinin-zeatin was isolated from corn-kernels and coconut milk.
Natural cytokinins are synthesised in regions where rapid cell division occurs, for example, root apices, developing shoot buds, young fruits, etc.

1. It helps to produce new leaves, chloroplasts in leaves, lateral shoot growth and adventitious shoot formation.
2. Cytokinins help to overcome apical dominance.
3. They promote nutrient mo8/+9bilisation which helps in the delay of leaf senescence.

Ethylene
The most widely used compound as a source of ethylene is ethephon.
It is readily absorbed and transported within the plant and releases ethylene slowly.
Ethephon hastens fruit ripening in tomatoes and apples and accelerates abscission in flowers and fruits

1. Ethylene is a gaseous hormone that promotes senescence and ripening fruits.
2. It promotes horizontal growth of seedlings, swelling of the axis, and apical hook formation in dicot seedlings.
3. Ethylene promotes senescence and abscission of plant organs, especially of leaves and flowers.
4. Ethylene is highly effective in fruit ripening. It enhances the respiration rate during the ripening of the fruits (respiratory climactic).
5. Ethylene breaks seed and bud dormancy and initiates germination in peanut seeds, sprouting of potato tubers.
6. Ethylene promotes rapid internode/petiole elongation in deepwater rice plants.
7. Ethylene also promotes root growth and root hair formation, thus helping the plants to increase their absorption surface.
8. Ethylene is used to initiate flowering and fruit-set in pineapples.
9. It also induces flowering in mango.
10. It promotes female flowers in cucumbers

Abscisic acid

1. It promotes abscission and dormancy.
2. It acts as an inhibitor of plant metabolism.
3. ABA inhibits seed germination.
4. ABA stimulates the closure of stomata and increases the tolerance of plants to various kinds of stresses. Hence it is called the stress hormone.
5. ABA plays an important role in seed development, maturation, and dormancy.
6. ABA helps the seeds to withstand desiccation
7. ABA acts as an antagonist to GA3.

Photoperiodism
It is the phenomenon of relative day and night length for the initiation of flowering.

Based on the exposure to photoperiod there are three types of plants

1. Long day plants: They require exposure to light for a period greater than critical duration (12 hr).
2. Short-day plants: They require less than critical duration before flowering.
3. Day-neutral plants: In this type, there is no such correlation between exposure to light duration and induction of flowering response.

Which is the organ of a plant perceives light for photoperiodism?
The site of perception of light/dark duration is the leaves. After receiving the required photoperiod, the hormonal substance migrates from leaves to shoot apices for inducing flowering. The shoot apices become changed into flowering apices prior to flowering.

Vernalisation
It is the phenomenon of exposure of low temperature for the initiation of flowering
Some important food plants, wheat, barley, rye have two kinds of varieties: winter and spring varieties.

Nature of spring and winter varieties
The ‘spring’variety are normally planted in the spring and come to flower and produce grain before the end of the growing season.
Winter varieties, planted in spring fail to flower or produce mature grain within a span of a flowering season.
If they are planted in autumn .they germinate and overwinter come out as small seedlings, resume growth in the spring, and are harvested usually around mid-summer.

Biennials and low-temperature treatment
Biennials are monocarpic plants that normally flower and die in the second season. Biennial plants are subjected to a cold treatment, it stimulates photoperiodic flowering response. Sugarbeet, cabbages, carrots are some of the common biennials.

NCERT Supplementary Syllabus

Seed Germination
The seeds germinate under favourable conditions after the period of dormancy.
After dormancy embryo becomes metabolically active and starts growing. This process is known as seed germination.
The conditions necessary for seed germination are the availability of water and oxygen.

A physiological phenomenon in seed germination
The physical phenomenon associated with seed germination is imbibition. It causes the swelling of seed then rupturing of the seed coat, through which radical emerges out.
It develops into a root system but the shoot system arises from the plumule of another end of the embryonal axis.
The metabolic activities require oxygen for breaking down the food reserves such as polysaccharides, proteins and lipid.
It is converted into soluble materials with the help of enzymes and mobilized to the embryonal axis.
The growth of radical and plumule is due to cell extension, cell division, and several biochemical processes.
The seed also needs a suitable temperature (optimum between 25 to35). The rate of respiration increases rapidly during seed germination.

What is the Viviparous type of germination?
Vivipary is the germination of a seed while it is still attached to the parent plant and is nourished by it. The plants grow in marshy land such as Rhizophora and Sonneratia (halophytes)show this type of germination.
During germination, radical elongates, and the weight of the germinating seed increases. As a result, the seedling separates and fail down vertically into the mud and grow into a new plant.

Seed Dormancy
It is the period of rest or a period of suspended growth due to this

1. water content, the metabolic activities become extremely low.
2. the seed coat becomes impermeable to oxygen and moisture and hardens.

The suspension of growth is due to exogenous (environmental conditions) or endogenous control during which metabolic activity of the seed is greatly reduced.

Causes of Dormancy

1. Impermeable or mechanically resistant seed coats.
2. Rudimentary or physiologically immature embryos or
3. Due to the presence of germination inhibitors such as abscisic acid, phenolic acid, short-chain fatty acids, and coumarin.

How can overcome seed dormancy?

1. Mechanical or chemical scarification of the seed coat (scratching of seed coat or seeds soaked in chemicals to break the dormancy)
2. Stratification of seeds or changing environmental conditions such as temperature, light, and pressure. Stratification of seeds is subjecting the moist seeds to oxygen for variable periods of low or high temperatures.

Students can Download Chapter 5 Human Capital Formation in India Notes, Plus One Economics Notes helps you to revise the complete Kerala State Syllabus and score more marks in your examinations.

Kerala Plus One Economics Notes Chapter 5 Human Capital Formation in India

Human Capital
Human capital is defined as a human resource where people as a capital asset which yields a stream of economic benefit over their working span of life. Converting human beings through education and training into human resources like teachers, doctors, scientists, etc. can be termed as human capital formation.

Sources of Human Capital
Sources of human capital can be classified into five. They are given below:

1. Investment in Education: Investment in education is considered one of the main sources of human capital. Education increases the efficiency and productivity of the population which will enhance the welfare of people and facilitate growth and economic development.

2. Investment in Health: Good health of a person helps him to produce goods and services to his optimum level. Therefore, spending on health to improve the health status of the population is other way of spending on human capital.

3. Investment in Job Training: On-the-job training under the supervision of skilled professionals increases productivity. Expenditure regarding on the job-training is a source of human capital formation as the return of it is in the form of enhanced labour productivity.

4. Migration: Migration means the movement of people from one place to another. Migration happens due to marriage, education and employment. People migrate in search of jobs that fetch them higher salaries than what may get in their native places. In India, rural-urban migration is very rampant in which rural people migrate to cities in search of better jobs.

5. Investment in Information Acquisition: People spend to obtain information regarding labour market and other markets like education and health. This information is necessary to make decisions regarding investments in human capital for efficient utilization of the acquired human capital stock. So, expenditure incurred for acquiring information relating to labour market is also a source of human capital information.

Human Capital and Economic Growth
Human capital is essential for economic growth. We know that the labour skill of an educated person is more than that of an uneducated person and that the former generates more income than the latter. Economic growth means thd increase in real national income of a country; naturally, the contribution of the educated person to economic growth is more than that of an illiterate person. If a healthy person could provide an uninterrupted labour supply for a longer period of time, then health is also an important factor for economic growth. Thus, both education and health, along with many other factors like on-the-job training, job market information and migration, increase an individual’s income-generating capacity.

Human Capital and Human Development
Human capital considers education and health as a means to increase labour productivity. Human development is based on the idea that education and health are integral to human well-being. When people attain certain ability to read and write and acquire ability to lead a long and healthy life, their productivity will go up. Human welfare should be increased through investments in education and health. Education and health improve human welfare. In a welfare state, every individual has the right to get basic right to be literate and lead a healthy life.

Human Capital Formation in India
We have seen that human capital formation is essential for economic growth and development. Various institutions are operating in India for human capital formation. They are

• NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) regulates school level education.
• UGC (University Grants Commission) regulates higher education (colleges, universities and research institutes.
• AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) regulates technical education.
• ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) regulates medical education.

Educational Achievements in India
India made significant improvements in the education sector since independence. Our literary rate was 18.3% in 1951. It increased to 74% in 2011. Similarly, the number of students seeking higher education increased in the country. The government also enacted the Right to Education Act in 2010 to ensure free and compulsory education for children.