Chapter 1 · Question 1

What is a resource? Explain the main ways in which resources are classified.

Back to Chapter
Q1

What is a resource? Explain the main ways in which resources are classified.

Answer Revealed
Direct Answer:
A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs when it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable. Resources are classified by origin into biotic and abiotic, by exhaustibility into renewable and non-renewable, by ownership into individual, community, national, and international, and by status of development into potential, developed, stock, and reserves.

Simple Explanation

A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs when it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable. Resources are classified by origin into biotic and abiotic, by exhaustibility into renewable and non-renewable, by ownership into individual, community, national, and international, and by status of development into potential, developed, stock, and reserves.

Exam-Ready Structure

A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs when it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable. Resources are classified by origin into biotic and abiotic, by exhaustibility into renewable and non-renewable, by ownership into individual, community, national, and international, and by status of development into potential, developed, stock, and reserves.

Key Points

  • A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs when it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable.
  • Resources are classified by origin into biotic and abiotic, by exhaustibility into renewable and non-renewable, by ownership into individual, community, national, and international, and by status of development into potential, developed, stock, and reserves.

Relevant Maps and Figures

Classification of Resources Diagram
diagram

Use this chart to remember the exact branches used when classifying resources in the textbook.

It is most useful for the origin and exhaustibility parts of the answer.

This classification chart is the cleanest visual summary of how the chapter groups resources by natural and human categories, then by renewable and non-renewable branches.

Answer Sources

  • Classification of resources figure
    figure | Contemporary India-II | Resources and Development | Classification of resources | Pages 1