Question 3: Answer the following questions in about 120 words.
(i) Why are the means of transportation and communication called the lifelines of a nation and its economy?
(ii) Write a note on the changing nature of the international trade in the last fifteen years.
Answer:
(i) Today we are living in the age of communication using telephone, television, films and internet. Even books , magazines and newspaper are important means of communication. Various means of transport and communication have reduced distances, bringing the world closer. Modern life is so complex that one has to depend on others. The same is true of the countries as well. No country today can prosper without the cooperation and assistance of others. This requires movement of goods and materials between countries. Trade provides us with our necessities and also adds to the amenities and comfort of our life. We may also notice that they are rightly called the lifelines of our national economy.
(ii) India has trade relations with all the major trading blocks and all geographical regions of the world. Among the commodities of export whose share has been increasing over the last few years till 2004-05 over are agriculture and allied products (2.53 per cent), ores and minerals (9.12 per cent), gems and Jewellery (26.75 percent), chemical and allied products (24.45 per cent), engineering goods (35.63 per cent) and petroleum products (86.12 per cent) the commodities imported to india include petroleum , petroleum products (41.87 per cent), pearls, precious stone (29.26 per cent), inorganic chemicals (29.39 per cent), coal, coke , briquettes (94.17 per cent), machinery (12.56 per cent). Bulk imports as a group, registered a growth accounting for 39.09 per cent of total imports. This group includes fertilizers (67.01 per cent), cereals (25.23 per cent). Edible oils (7.94 per cent) and newsprint (5.51 per cent). International trade has undergone a sea changes in the last fifteen years. Exchange of commodities and goods have been superseded by the exchange of information and knowledge. India has emerged as a software giant at the international level. It is earning large foreign exchange through the export of information technology.
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