Development of a country can generally be determined by
its per capita income
Answer: The correct answer is Option (a) – Per capita Income
One of the most important attributes for comparing different countries is their income.
Countries with less income are considered to be less developed than nations with higher incomes.
Human beings can have more of all the things that they need, if they have more income. This is the underlying reason for comparing incomes of countries to measure development.
With greater income, people will have more purchasing power and can have whatever people should have and whatever people want to have.
Hence one of the most important goals is higher income.
The income of all the residents of the country is the total income of the country.
Total income is not a useful measure for comparison between countries.
Comparing total income will not help in estimating what an average person is likely to earn, since countries have different populations.
Average income is the total income of the country divided by its total population. Hence, the right measure used in comparing different nations is comparison of average incomes of nations.
Per capita income is nothing but the average income.
The criterion used in classifying countries is the per capita income of a nation. This criterion is used by the World Bank in its World Development Reports.
Countries with per capita income of US$ 1035 or less are called low-income countries.
As per 2012, rich countries are the countries with per capita income of US$ 12616 per annum and above.
In 2012 per capita income of India was just US$ 1530 per annum, hence it was classified in the category of low middle income countries.
Generally developed countries are the rich countries, excluding some small countries and countries of the Middle East.