A good share of the one-mark questions in Class 12 Economics are pure recall: an economist and their idea, an institution and its headquarters, or a year. These facts are scattered across all twelve chapters, which makes them easy to forget. Gathered into tables, they take one evening to learn and a few minutes a week to keep.
Economists and their contributions
| Economist | Remember them for | Chapter |
|---|
| Adam Smith | Father of capitalism; four canons of taxation (equality, certainty, convenience, economy) | 1, 9 |
| Karl Marx | Father of socialism | 1 |
| J M Keynes | Father of modern macro economics; the General Theory (1936); effective demand; introduced MEC | 1, 3, 4 |
| Ragnar Frisch | Coined the words "macro" and "econometrics" | 1, 12 |
| J B Say | Classical economist; Say's law of markets (supply creates its own demand) | 3 |
| J R Hicks | First used the term super multiplier | 4 |
| Irving Fisher | Quantity theory of money, popularised in 1911 (MV = PT) | 5 |
| Geoffrey Crowther | Money as anything generally acceptable as a means of exchange, measure and store of value | 5 |
| Jacob Viner | Single factoral terms of trade | 7 |
| Kneese and Ayres | Material balance model | 10 |
| Friedrich Hayek | The Road to Serfdom | 11 |
| Francis Galton | First used the term regression | 12 |
| Boddington | Statistics as the science of estimates and probabilities | 12 |
Plans before independence and after
| Plan | Associated with |
|---|
| Visvesvaraya Plan | M Visvesvaraya, the earliest of the plans |
| National Planning Committee | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Bombay Plan | Industrialists |
| Gandhian Plan | S N Agarwal, focused on agriculture and the rural economy |
| People's Plan | M N Roy |
| Sarvodaya Plan | J P Narayan |
The chronological order the book back question asks for is Visvesvaraya Plan, then Jawaharlal Nehru's plan, then the Bombay Plan, then the People's Plan.
Indian institutions
| Institution | Key fact |
|---|
| Reserve Bank of India | Headquarters in Mumbai; banker to the government; lender of last resort |
| ARDC | Started functioning on July 1, 1963 |
| EXIM Bank | Established in March 1982 |
| NABARD | Set up in July 1982 |
| State Financial Corporations Act | Passed by the Government of India |
| Planning Commission | Set up in 1950 |
| NITI Aayog | National Institution for Transforming India; formed by a cabinet resolution; chaired by the Prime Minister |
| Finance Commission | Appointed by the President every five years; decides resource transfers to the states |
International organisations
| Organisation | Key fact |
|---|
| IMF | Outcome of the Bretton Woods conference; headquarters in Washington D.C.; SDRs are called paper gold |
| World Bank (IBRD) | Gives long-term loans; IDA is its affiliate |
| WTO | First ministerial meeting in Singapore; TRIPS covers patents, copyrights and trade secrets |
| ASEAN | Created in 1967; headquarters in Jakarta; meets every 3 years; North Korea is not one of its six dialogue partners |
| SAARC | Meets every 2 years; Japan and China are not members; SAARC Agricultural Information Centre founded in 1988 |
| BRICS | Term BRIC coined in 2001; tenth summit in Johannesburg in 2018; runs the New Development Bank |
| BENELUX | A customs union |
Abbreviations
| Short form | Full form |
|---|
| GDP / GNP / NNP | Gross Domestic Product / Gross National Product / Net National Product |
| PQLI | Physical Quality of Life Index |
| APC / MPC / MPS | Average Propensity to Consume / Marginal Propensity to Consume / Marginal Propensity to Save |
| MEC | Marginal Efficiency of Capital |
| NBFI | Non-Banking Financial Institution |
| ATM | Automated Teller Machine |
| BOP / BOT | Balance of Payments / Balance of Trade |
| FDI | Foreign Direct Investment |
| SDR | Special Drawing Rights |
| IBRD / IDA | International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / International Development Association |
| TRIPS | Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights |
| GST | Goods and Services Tax |
| SDGs | Sustainable Development Goals, to be achieved by 2030 |
Other years worth knowing
- 1911: Irving Fisher's quantity theory of money popularised
- 1936: Keynes publishes the General Theory
- 2016: demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1000 notes
- 2030: target year for the Sustainable Development Goals
How to learn these
Cover the right-hand column and recall it, one table per day, then repeat the whole page once a week. Check yourself with the book back questions for Introduction to Macro Economics, Banking, International Economic Organisations and Economics of Development and Planning, where most of these facts are tested.
