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Class 11 Economics Chapter 8 Infrastructure Notes

Please carefully read the Infrastructure Notes for Class 11 Economics provided below. Use them prior to your exams as this will help you to revise the entire chapter easily. We have also provided MCQ Questions for Class 11 Economics which will be asked in the upcoming exams.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basically classified into 2 categories

1. Economic infrastructure

It includes such elements of infrastructure which are essential for the development of the economy.
It includes transportation, communication, electricity, science and technology and financial distribution.
It promotes the economics activities of the country.

2. Socialist infrastructure

It includes such services and provisions which improves the quality of resources and the standard of living. It accelerates the process of human development.
It includes education, health, housing etc.

A good social infrastructure increases the productive capacity of an individual.

Importance of Infrastructure

♦ Increases productivity

The productivity of an economy directly depends upon the infrastructure.

A well developed infrastructure always accelerates the production capacity of the economy.
Example:- Proper irrigation facilities improves the crop production.

♦ Provides employment opportunities

Development of infrastructure facilities increases the employment opportunities in an economy.
Example:- construction of road requires manpower and hence it creates employment opportunities etc.

♦ It facilitates the functioning of an economy

In order to operate and work with full efficiency, the economy needs well developed infrastructural facilities, such as proper communication facilities, transportation facilities, electricity, banking etc.

♦ Promotes economic growth

The growth of an economy depends upon many factors such as production capacity, human capital formation, quality of life etc and in order to promote and enhance the above factors, a well developed infrastructure facilities are mandatory.

♦ Improves quality of life

Proper education, health care facilities and standard of living comprises the quality of life, and the socialist infrastructure mainly focuses on these sectors only.
Increase in quality of life improves the ability of an individual to work.

♦ Facilitates outsourcing

A country with well developed infrastructure facilities always becomes a center of outsourcing work. From past few years, India is emerging as a global destination of Business process outsourcing, call centers etc, due to a good infrastructure.

State of infrastructure in our country

♦ The state of infrastructure of the economy was very poor.

♦ We spend only 5% of our GDP on infrastructure whereas China spend 20%, Indonesia 14% and Korea 7% of their GDP.

♦ Most of the household in rural areas (around 82%) uses bio fuel for cooking.

♦ In 2010, only 62% of rural household have electrification.

♦ The sanitation facility was only 6% in rural areas.

Energy

One of the most important and key component of economic infrastructure is energy.
It can be treated as a lifeline of production activity across all the sectors of the economy.

Sources of energy

1. Commercial and non commercial sources of energy

I. Conventional sources

♦ It is a type of source of energy which are formed in termed of price.

♦ These goods are largely used for commercial purposes in the factories.

♦ They have a market of sale and purchase.

♦ It is non renewable in nature.

♦ Example:- coal, petroleum, electricity, natural gas etc.

II. Non-conventional sources

♦ They are the sources of energy which are found as a gift from nature.

♦ They are renewable sources of energy.

♦ These are used for domestic and consumption purposes.

♦ Example:- cow dung, firewood, animal waste etc.

2. Conventional and non-conventional sources of energy

I. Conventional sources

♦ The energy which have a long history of their knowledge and use. In other words, it refers to the sources of energy which we are using since long period of time.
♦ It is limited in nature.

♦ They are non-renewable.

♦ These sources of energy generally pollutes the environment.

♦ These sources of energy are more expensive in nature.

♦ Example:- coal, petroleum, natural gas etc.

II. Non-conventional sources

♦ The sources of energy which comes into existence in the recent past.

In other words, it refers to the sources of energy which has been discovered just because of modern technology (used just from past few years)
♦ They are unlimited in nature.

♦ They are renewable in nature.

♦ It generally does not pollutes the environment.

♦ They are less expensive in nature.

♦ Example:- solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, bio mass etc.

Power/electricity

One of the most critical and most important components of infrastructure which directly signifies the modern civilization is electricity.
With increase the prospectus of development of the economy the demand of electricity is also increasing day by day.
The rate of demand of power is far ahead than the growth rate of GDP.

Sources of power generation

There are basically 3 sources of generation of electricity.

1. Thermal power

The power is generated through coal, oil and natural gas.

Around 70% of total electricity is generated through thermal power.

2. Hydro and wind power

The power is generated through wind mill or from the waters of dams and fast flowing rivers.
Around 28% of total electricity is generated through thermal power.

3. Nuclear power

The power is generated through radio-active elements (such as uranium) Around 2% of total electricity is generated through thermal power.

Challenges in power sector

♦ Transmission and distribution loss

The first and formost problem that is faced by the electricity department is the transmission and distribution loss.

The loss in electricity while flowing from one place to another can be due to backward technology or due to loss by theft.

♦ Insufficient installed capacity

Although there exist massive production of electricity in the economy but the production is yet not sufficient to meet the demand.
This deficit supply may results in power cuts, low voltage, excessive load on distribution and many other problems.

♦ Under utilization of capacity

One of the major drawbacks of power sector is the lack of proper utilization of thermal power stations. Due to the lack of proper technology the power plants are underutilized.

In 2016-17, India was just able to utilize 60% of the total capacity.

♦ Shortage of raw materials

Thermal power plant, which is the main source of Indian power sector, is facing shortage of coal supplies and other raw materials due to which the power sector is inefficient.

♦ Poor performance of State electricity boards

The state electricity board which provides electricity supply in the economy are running in huge losses, these boards lacks funds to make payment for the electricity purchased by them.
This shortage of fund may be due to distribution loss, theft of power, free power in agriculture etc.

♦ Lack of public cooperation/public unrest

Due to heavy taxes and massive power cuts across the different parts of the

country, power sector always lack the cooperation of general public.

Measures to overcome challenges of power sector

♦ Reduce transmission and distribution loss

In order to meet the demand of power, the first and most important task is to reduce the wastage of power.
The power which is waste during transmission and distribution should be minimized; it can be done by improvement in technology, stop theft of power and so on.

♦ Improve plant load factor

As stated earlier, the main deficit of power sector is the under utilization of plants.
So the main task of the power sector is to make proper utilization of existing capacity of the power stations. It will help to increase the power generation without increasing the number of plants.

Plant load factor (PLF) indicated the capacity utilization of a plant
PLF=Electricity Generated/Production Capacity 

♦ Increase production capacity

The installed capacity of the existing plants needs to be increased, so that the supply of electricity across all the sectors of the economy can match the desired amount of demand.

♦ Increase the supply of inputs

Thermal power plants in India (which generally faces shortage of inputs ) must receive regular supply of inputs (coal and other raw materials). This would insure fully utilization of existing plant capacity.

♦ Promote the use of CFL and LEDs

Use of such appliances which consume lesser amount of electricity must be promoted.
CFL (Compact Fluorescent light) and LEDs (Light emitting diodes) provides electrification in the economy with low amount of consumption of energy and power.

♦ Encourage FDI and privatization of power generation

Private sector must play a significant role in the generation of power in India. The government must encourage the participation of private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) in power generation.

Health

Health refers to the state of complete physical and mental well-being of an individual.

Good health does not only mean absence of disease but it implies the increase in overall efficiency of an individual.
Increment in health results in better productivity of labour which ultimately increases the productivity of the economy as a whole.

State of health infrastructure

♦ There has been a great expansion in Indian health sector after independence but yet it is quite below the satisfactory measure.

♦ Being the second most populated country in the world, the health sector of our country lacks the connectivity across different areas of the economy.

♦ There is a massive gap between rural and urban areas in context of utilizing the health care facilities.

♦ However from past few decades, the increase in development of health care sector has pick up the pace.

♦ India has build up variety of health care facilities across different areas of the country, At village level, Primary health centers have been set.

♦ The role of private sector in health infrastructure has also increased upto 70%.

Although the role of private sector has increased upto greater extent, but still the role of government health care centers is very important. As poor sections of the society can depends upon the government hospitals due to low cost treatment.

3 tier healthcare system

India adopted 3 tier healthcare system in the economy. This system includes 3 types of health care centers

1. Primary health care

♦ These centers provides basic health care facilities such as maternal and child health care, immunization, educating the people (about

identifying, preventing and controlling diseases) etc.

♦ These centers are generally managed by a single doctor, a nurse and few.

♦ These centers are generally set-up in villages and small towns.

♦ If a patient is not been able to managed by these centers then they are referred to the secondary or tertiary hospitals.

2. Secondary health care

♦ Hospitals having better facilities for surgery, x-ray, ECG are called secondary health care instituitions.

♦ Generally located in districts and big towns.

♦ Provides primary as wel as secondary health care facilities.

♦ If a patient is not been able to managed by these centers then they are referred to the tertiary hospitals.

3. Tertiary health care

Hospitals which have advanced level equipments and medicines and can undertake all the complicated health problems which could not be managed by primary or secondary hospitals comes under tertiary health care instituitions.
Example:- AIIMS (All India Institute of medical science) in Delhi

Development of health services in India

After independence the health services in India has increased in a remarkable way, the increment can be easily seen by the following indicators of good health.

♦ Decline in Death rate

Death rate refers to the number of people dying per thousand persons in a year.
Death rate has decline from 27 per thousand in 1951 to 6.4 per thousand in

2016.

♦ Rise in life expectancy

The expectancy of life has increased from 32 in 1951 to 68.3 in 2016.

♦ Decrease in infant mortality rate

Infant mortality rate refers to the number of infants dying before the age of 1 year per thousand live births annually.
Infant mortality rate has decrease from 146 in 1951 to 34 in 2016.

♦ Control over deadly diseases

Diseases like material, small pox and cholera has comes under control.

Health as an emerging challenge

As we had studied earlier tha the health sector of our economy is developing with great pace. Yet, the health care in India is still a challenge for the government of the country due to following reasons.

♦ Unequal distribution health care services

The services of health care are not distributed equally across the rural and urban areas of the economy. Most of the services are only found in urban areas lacking behind the rural section of the society behind.

♦ Increasing privatization of health services

Although increment in the role of private sector in health sector speed up the pace of treatment but also increases the cost of handling the patient. Being a developing country majority of public prefers low cost treatment which can only be provided by the government sector.

♦ Poor sanitation level

Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and adequate treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage.
The level of sanitation is very low in both rural and urban sectors of the economy.
However, in past few years the concept of swachh bharat abhiyaan helps in increasing its level.

♦ Poor management of government health centers

The increase in role of private sector in health sector is due to the quality difference between private and government hospitals.
The maintenance and upkeep of the government hospitals is very poor due to which the public is compelled to depend upon the private hospitals.

Summary

♦ Concept of infrastructure

♦ Kinds of infrastructure

♦ Economic infrastructure

♦ Socialist infrastructure

♦ Importance of infrastructure

♦ Increases productivity

♦ Provides employment opportunities

♦ It facilitates the functioning of an economy

♦ Promotes economic growth

♦ Improves quality of life

♦ Facilitates outsourcing

♦ State of infrastructure in our country (till 2010)

♦ Commercial sources of energy

♦ Non commercial sources of energy

♦ Conventional sources of energy

♦ Non-conventional sources of energy

♦ Power/electricity

♦ Sources of power generation

♦ Thermal power

♦ Hydro and wind power

♦ Nuclear power

♦ Challenges in power sector

♦ Transmission and distribution loss

♦ Insufficient installed capacity

♦ Under utilization of capacity

♦ Shortage of raw materials

♦ Poor performance of State electricity boards

♦ Lack of public cooperation/public unrest

♦ Measures to overcome challenges of power sector

♦ Reduce transmission and distribution loss

♦ Improve plant load factor

♦ Increase the supply of inputs

♦ Promote the use of CFL and LEDs.

♦ Encourage FDI and privatization of power generation

♦ State of health infrastructure

♦ Development of health services in India

♦ Health as an emerging challenge