ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD admission and fellowship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersHow rural society is structured and governed: groups, stratification, leadership, customs and local self-government.
In the exams: agricultural master's entrance examinations, agricultural economics and extension (heavy); agricultural master's entrance examinations, agribusiness (present); agricultural development bank officer recruitment, social structure and social justice (heavy)
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF and ASRB NET (Agricultural Extension: fundamentals and gender)
Gender analysis frameworks (Harvard, Moser, WEAI), WID-GAD shift, leadership and participation typologies, PRA principles and tools, theories of social change and peasant values.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Rural Society, Polity & Institutions. Difficulty: 2 easy, 13 medium, 15 hard.
| Gender and social groups | 6 | |
| Social organisation | 4 | |
| Value systems and customs | 4 | |
| Social stratification: class, caste, ethnicity and status | 3 | |
| Social change | 3 | |
| Local self-government institutions in rural areas | 3 | |
| Social, political and economic structure of rural societies | 2 | |
| Rural and urban communities compared | 2 | |
| Rural leadership | 2 | |
| Social groups | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Who defined a livelihood as comprising 'the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living'?
C. Robert Chambers and Gordon Conway (1992)
Chambers and Conway's IDS discussion paper (1992) gave the definition, adding that a livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks. Ellis and Scoones developed livelihoods work later but did not co-author this definition.
Theodore Schultz's thesis in Transforming Traditional Agriculture (1964) is that traditional farmers are:
D. Poor but efficient in allocating the resources and technology available to them
Schultz argued that within the constraints of traditional technology, farmers allocate resources efficiently, so growth requires new, profitable inputs and human capital rather than better allocation of old ones.
In Weapons of the Weak (1985), James Scott describes how poor villagers in a Malaysian village resist the powerful mainly through:
B. Everyday forms of resistance such as foot-dragging, gossip, pilfering and feigned ignorance
Scott documented 'everyday resistance' by people who cannot afford open confrontation. It complements his moral economy argument: peasant politics often takes quiet forms that outsiders misread as passivity.
In Dennis Rondinelli's classification, transferring authority, functions and revenues to elected local governments accountable to local citizens is called:
B. Devolution
Devolution transfers authority to elected local bodies. Deconcentration only moves central staff to field offices; delegation hands defined tasks to semi-autonomous agencies; privatisation shifts functions to private firms.
Which of these is a strategic gender need in Moser's framework?
A. Joint or independent land titles for women
Strategic gender needs, if met, change women's subordinate position: land rights, freedom from violence, political voice. Water points, crèches and maternal health meet practical needs arising from existing roles and do not challenge the division of labour.
Which of the following was one of Elinor Ostrom's empirical cases of long-enduring commons in Governing the Commons (1990)?
B. The alpine meadows of Törbel, Switzerland
Ostrom's long-enduring cases include Törbel's alpine meadows, Japanese village commons, Spanish huertas and Philippine zanjeras. Ejidos, kibbutzim and haciendas are different tenure systems not studied as cases in the book.
Ten here, 30 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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