NABARD Assistant Manager Grade A (RDBS) · India · National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
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)
How our questions for NABARD Assistant Manager Grade A spread across the units of Rural Society, Polity & Institutions. Difficulty: 9 easy, 27 medium, 3 hard.
| Local self-government institutions in rural areas | 8 | |
| Gender and social groups | 6 | |
| Social organisation | 5 | |
| Social, political and economic structure of rural societies | 4 | |
| Social stratification: class, caste, ethnicity and status | 4 | |
| Social change | 3 | |
| Rural leadership | 3 | |
| Rural and urban communities compared | 2 | |
| Social groups | 2 | |
| Value systems and customs | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Countries define 'rural' in different ways. Which method classes 1 km grid cells by population density and contiguity, so that urban and rural shares can be compared across all countries?
D. The Degree of Urbanisation, endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in 2020 for international comparison
The Degree of Urbanisation classifies grid cells into cities, towns and semi-dense areas, and rural areas, using density and contiguity, and was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in 2020. The census-town test is one national rule (India's), administrative status is another national choice, and no single population cut-off is applied worldwide.
A national census classes a settlement without a municipal body as urban only if it has at least 5,000 people, at least 400 persons per sq km and at least 75% of male main workers outside agriculture. A settlement has 6,200 residents on 12 sq km; of its 2,000 male main workers, 1,400 work outside agriculture. How is it classed?
B. Rural, because only 70% of male main workers are non-agricultural, below the 75% test
Density = 6,200 / 12 = 516.7 per sq km, which passes the 400 test, and population passes 5,000. But the male main worker share is 1,400 / 2,000 = 70%, below 75%, and all three tests must be met, so it stays rural. Statutory urban status needs a municipal body, which it lacks.
In a village survey, 120 of 200 operational holdings are marginal, 50 are small, 20 semi-medium and 10 medium. What share of holdings are small and marginal together?
C. 85%
Small and marginal = (120 + 50) / 200 = 170 / 200 = 85%. 60% counts marginal holdings only; 25% is the small class alone as a share of 200; 95% wrongly adds the semi-medium class.
Which combination of attributes defines a 'dominant caste' in M. N. Srinivas's sense?
B. Numerical strength, ownership of much local land, economic and political power, and not too low a ritual rank
Srinivas, from his Rampura study, defined dominance by numbers, land, economic and political power, with ritual rank that is not too low; Western education and administrative jobs add to it. Highest ritual rank alone does not make a caste dominant if it lacks land and numbers.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (General Recommendation 29, 2002) treats discrimination based on descent, including caste and analogous systems of inherited status, as covered by which treaty?
B. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
General Recommendation 29 reads 'descent' in Article 1 of ICERD to include caste and similar inherited status, as in South Asia, among Buraku communities in Japan and in hereditary occupational groups in parts of West Africa. ILO 169 and the UN Declaration concern indigenous peoples, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerns children.
A household earns 120,000 currency units a year, of which 42,000 comes from remittances sent by a son working in a city. What share of household income is from remittances?
B. 35%
42,000 / 120,000 = 0.35 = 35%. 42% treats the rupee figure as a percentage; 54% divides remittances by income excluding them (42,000 / 78,000); 26% double-counts by dividing by income plus remittances (42,000 / 162,000). The correct base is total household income, which already includes remittances.
Judging the customs of another group by the standards of one's own, usually as inferior, is called:
D. Ethnocentrism
Sumner coined ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism is understanding practices in their own context; acculturation is cultural change through contact; assimilation is absorption into the dominant culture.
A national law requires seats on rural councils to be reserved for a disadvantaged group in proportion to its population share, and not less than one-third of all directly elected seats for women. A village council has 18 directly elected seats, and the group is one-sixth of the population. How many seats must be reserved for the group, and what is the minimum number of seats reserved for women in total?
C. 3 SC seats; at least 6 seats for women
Group seats are in proportion to population: 18 x 1/6 = 3. Women must have not less than one-third of all directly elected seats: 18 / 3 = 6. 'At least 1' counts only women within the group's seats; 9 is a 50% rule that some jurisdictions adopt but this law does not require.
The approach that focuses on changing the social relations and power between women and men, rather than only adding women to existing projects, is called:
C. Gender and Development (GAD)
WID (1970s) sought to integrate women into development, often through separate projects; WAD stressed women's unequal integration; GAD (1980s onward) targets gender relations and power.
A landless Dalit widow is excluded from both the upper-caste women's SHG and the Dalit men's labour group in her village. Which concept best describes the disadvantage she faces?
D. Intersectionality
Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) describes how overlapping identities, here caste, gender, class and widowhood, produce disadvantages not explained by any one alone. Bonding social capital is what excludes her, not the name of her disadvantage.
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