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Economic & Social Issues for RBI Grade B

Phase 2 Paper I covers growth and development, economic reforms, globalisation and the external sector, and India’s social structure. It has 50 objective marks and 50 descriptive marks: you answer four of six questions, typed, in about 600 and 400 words.

9 guides·Conducted by Reserve Bank of IndiaOfficial website

Study in this order

  1. 1An ESI plan for RBI Grade BEconomic & Social Issues is a 100-mark paper, half objective and half typed descriptive answers. It rewards understanding of concepts, awareness of current policy and clear writing. How the paper works, a ten-week topic order, a one-page note format with a worked example, practice targets and the sources worth your time. 7 min read
  2. 2Growth and development: concepts and measuresGrowth is about more output; development is about better lives. The national income aggregates and how they connect, real versus nominal growth, why GDP is not welfare, the HDI and multidimensional poverty, the growth arithmetic behind savings and investment, and the growth-versus-development debate, with a model answer and practice questions. 8 min read
  3. 3The structure of the Indian economyWhich sectors produce India's output, and which employ its people? The three-sector structure and the productivity gap it hides, informal sector versus informal employment, the planning era and NITI Aayog, the 1991 reforms in detail, and the services-versus-manufacturing debate, with a model answer and practice questions. 7 min read
  4. 4Inflation: measures, causes and controlInflation sits at the centre of ESI, F&M and the RBI's own mandate. How India measures it (CPI, WPI, CPI-IW, the GDP deflator), base effects, the causes from demand-pull to expectations, why food inflation is so persistent, who gains and loses, and how monetary, fiscal and supply-side policy control it, with a model answer and practice questions. 9 min read
  5. 5India's monetary policy frameworkSince 2016 India has had a statutory flexible inflation-targeting framework run by a six-member Monetary Policy Committee. How the framework came about, its legal basis, the target and accountability rules, the MPC, the LAF corridor and liquidity tools, transmission to loan rates, and the live debates, with a model answer and practice questions. 9 min read
  6. 6Fiscal policy and public finance: deficits, FRBM and debtFiscal policy is the government's use of taxes, spending and borrowing. The budget's structure, the four deficits with a worked example, the FRBM Act and its escape clause, debt dynamics, the quality of spending and the link with monetary policy, with a model answer and practice questions. 8 min read
  7. 7Fiscal federalism: Finance Commission and GST CouncilHow taxes and spending are shared between the Centre and the states. The constitutional scheme, vertical and horizontal imbalances, the Finance Commission and its criteria, the divisible pool and cesses, the GST Council, state borrowing and the live debates, with a model answer and practice questions. 8 min read
  8. 8Poverty and inequality in India: measures and policyHow India has measured poverty, from calorie norms to the Tendulkar and Rangarajan lines and the multidimensional index, the headcount, poverty gap and MPI worked out, how inequality is measured, and the policy debate, with a model answer and practice questions. 8 min read
  9. 9Employment and unemployment in IndiaIndia's job problem is less about open unemployment than about the quality of work. How the PLFS measures jobs, LFPR, WPR and the unemployment rate worked out, types of unemployment, informality, women's participation, labour codes and policy options, with a model answer and practice questions. 7 min read

New Economic & Social Issues guides are added regularly. Back to all RBI Grade B guides