SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 24 of 98

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

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Which statement best reflects the failure of structural transformation in Indian agriculture between 1950–1990?

(a)Agricultural GDP doubled
(b)Agricultural workforce declined rapidly
(c)Industrial sector absorbed excess labour
(d)65% of population remained in agriculture

Answer

Why

Correct — D. NCERT's Class XI Indian Economic Development (Chapter 2) names the failure: between 1950 and 1990, agriculture's share of GDP fell significantly, but the share of people depending on it did not.

That share moved only from 67.5% in 1950 to 64.9% by 1990. The chapter puts it as some 65 per cent still employed in agriculture as late as 1990.

Output shifted, people did not → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Agricultural GDP doubled — Output growth is not the failure. Structural transformation is about where people work. Farm output did rise after the Green Revolution, while the workforce stayed on the land.
(b)
Agricultural workforce declined rapidly — The opposite happened. The share of people depending on agriculture barely moved, 67.5% in 1950 to 64.9% by 1990, a slow drift rather than a rapid decline.
(c)
Industrial sector absorbed excess labour — The opposite happened. NCERT's answer to why so many stayed on farms is that industry and services did not absorb the people working in agriculture.

Concept

Structural transformation is the shift of output and workers out of agriculture as a country grows richer. NCERT: as a nation prospers, agriculture's share of GDP and its share of the workforce both decline considerably.

India's 1950-1990 pattern broke that rule halfway. Agriculture's share of GDP fell, but industry and services did not absorb its workers. Many economists call this an important failure of the policies of the period.

NCERT also calls India's structural change 'peculiar': by 1990 services contributed 40.59% of GDP, more than agriculture or industry, as in developed nations, while most people still worked on farms.

Key facts

Share of the population depending on agriculture: 67.5% in 1950, 64.9% by 1990 (NCERT).
By the late 1960s, higher farm productivity made India self-sufficient in food grains (NCERT).
By 1990, services contributed 40.59% of GDP, more than agriculture or industry.

Study next

Green Revolution: HYV seeds, gains and regional disparityDisguised unemployment in Indian agricultureSectoral shares of GDP and employment after 1991

Common traps

Reading 'failure' as low output: the failure is that people stayed in agriculture while its GDP share fell.
Picking 'industry absorbed excess labour' because the plans stressed industry: the emphasis was there, the absorption was not.

21 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.23 asks why the Green Revolution left regional disparity, keyed HYV seed access restricted to well-irrigated regions. 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.1 asks how food-grain growth spread after it, keyed Disproportionate.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Economic Scene — all 144 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.