Question.2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.

(i) Explain retail trading service.
Answer. Retail Trading Service is the business activity concerned with the sale of goods directly to the consumers, taking place in fixed establishments or stores solely devoted to selling. Street peddling, handcarts, trucks, door-to-door, mail-order, telephone, automatic vending machines and internet are notable examples.

(ii) Describe quaternary services.
Answer. Quaternary services involve the collection, production and dissemination of information, centering around research and development, and are advanced form of services involving specialised knowledge and technical skills. Personnel working in offices, elementary schools, universities, hospitals, doctors’ offices, theatres, accounting and brokerage firms, mutual fund managers, tax consultants, software developers and statisticians all belong to this category of services.

(iii) Name the fast emerging countries of medical tourism in the world.
Answer. The fast emerging countries of medical tourism in the world are India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

(iv) What is digital divide ?
Answer. Opportunities emerging from the Information and Communication Technology based development is unevenly distributed across the globe with wide economic, political and social differences among countries. While the developed countries have surged forward, the developing countries have lagged behind which is known as the ‘Digital Divide’. For example – In large countries like India and Russia, it is inevitable that certain areas like metropolitan centres possess better connectivity and access to the digital world versus peripheral rural areas.

Question.3. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words.

(i) Discuss the significance and growth of the service sector in modern economic development.
Answer. The service sector plays a significant role in the modern economic development.

1. Service Sector is the activity relatively detached from material production and not directly involved in the processing of physical materials.
2. It is an important constituent of modern economic development including retailing, sale of goods, education, health and welfare, leisure and business activities.
3. There is a transition from dominance of primary sector to the later stages of the quaternary sectors where the role of manufacturing, employment and a proportion of GNP declines gradually balanced by the rise of the service sector.
4. The growing importance of the service sector has made it an independently productive sector in the economy. It is an exporter and not an accessory to manufacturing or to the people at large.

(ii) Explain in detail the significance of transport and communication services.
Answer. There is a great importance of transport and communication services and are rightly known as the ‘lifelines of any country’.

1. Transport services allow persons, and goods to be carried from one place to another as an organised industry created to satisfy the basic need of mobility since people require speedy and efficient transport system in production, distribution and consumption of goods.
2. Modern society requires speedy and efficient transport system to assist in the production, distribution and consumption of goods. At every stage, the value of the material is significantly enhanced by transportation.
3. Communication services involve the transmission of words, messages and facts carried by letters, e-mail, messages, e-governing. Certain means of communication include – radio, T.V., telephone, mobile, fax etc.
4. Transport and communication services help to promote the use of natural resources, mobility of skilled labour force and increase in agricultural and industrial production. These services are, indeed, the requirement of the modern society.