The Soviet Union lagged behind the West in technology, infrastructure (transport, power etc.) as it could not cope with the political and economic aspirations of people and resulted in:

1. Though wages continued to grow but productivity and technology fell considerably behind that of the West.
2. This led to shortage of consumer goods and increased food import every year.
3. The growth rate of Western countries was growing better than the Soviet Union.
4. USSR was also lacking the modern facilities which could classify its economy as a better one.

The above-mentioned reasons made the Soviet economy stagnant. 

1. The first world people had to deal with threats of uncertain war and the weapons used in those war were so much devastating that it’s affect could be sensed even till now. Example the nuclear weapon used upon Heroshima and Nagasaki paralysed the people of Japan. Whereas the present third world people have lesser threat of war and with the norms like arms control prevent usage of nuclear weapon.

2. The first world people faced epidemics that killed lakhs of people whereas this kind of epidemics are preventable in the third world with so many preventable cure available in medical science

3. The major threat the people of third world faces is the environmental threat, the rise in global warming has increased the sea level that some islands faces the threat of being washed off. Whereas the first world people did not face such threat.

When the final results were declared, the extent of the victory of the Congress did surprise many. The party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other challenger. The Communist Party of India that came next in terms of seats won only 16 seats. The state elections were held with the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress scored big victory in those elections as well. It won a majority of seats in all the states except Travancore-Cochin (part of today’s Kerala), Madras and Orissa. Finally even in these states the Congress formed the government. So the party ruled all over the country at the national and the state level. As expected, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister after the first general election.

It was not just the size of the country and the electorate that made this election unusual. The first general election was also the first big test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy had existed only in the prosperous countries, mainly in Europe and North America, where nearly everyone was literate. By that time many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women. In this context India’s experiment with universal adult franchise appeared very bold and risky. An Indian editor called it “the biggest gamble in history”. Organiser, a magazine, wrote that Jawaharlal Nehru “would live to confess the failure of universal adult franchise in India”. A British member of the Indian Civil Service claimed that “a future and more enlightened age will view with astonishment the absurd farce of recording the votes of millions of illiterate people”.

Inspite of the Soviet economy growing at a rapid pace after the Second World War, people were growing wary of the Soviet system and began opposing it in later years. This was because of the following reasons:

• Since the state controlled all factors of production, the Soviet system became very bureaucratic and authoritarian making life difficult for the citizens
• Democracy and freedom of speech was denied to the people
• The Communist Party of Soviet Union controlled all institutions and it was not accountable to the people

Mikhail Gorbachev  was the General Secreatary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985. He believed that reforms were necessary to keep USSR at par with the West. He initiated policies to democratise and reform the Soviet Union.  The efforts of Gorbachev to give some degree of autonomy to people in the Soviet Union made people to demand more rights and freedom. They started protesting against their own governments and the communist regimes began to fall one after the other. Boris Yeltsin was a member of the Communist party who gradually began to believe in free market economy and democracy. After the introduction of reforms in Soviet Russia by Gorbachev, a coup took place in Russia encouraged by the Communist Party. Yeltsin vehemently opposed this coup and people too did not want to now live under the communist regime. The coup failed and Yeltsin emerged as a national hero. He won elections in Russia and in December 1991, under his leadership- Russia, Ukraine and Belarus- three major republics of the USSR disbanded the Soviet Union. THis finally led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

CBSE reference books are best by the publisher named GOLDEN

 Non-traditional concept of security includes human and global security covering a wide range of threats affecting human existence:
1. It does not cover the states only but also the individual and communities.
2. It emphasises on security on nature of threat and right approach to deal with the threat.

 Non-traditional concept of security includes human and global security covering a wide range of threats affecting human existence:
1. It does not cover only the states but
also the individuals and communities also.
2. It emphasises on security on nature of threat and right approach to deal with the threat.
Its sources can be identified as follows:
1. Terrorism refers to political violence to target civilians deliberately and discriminately to use it as a weapon against national government.
2. Human Rights refer to basic conditions which an individual is supposed to enjoy as a human being as political rights, freedom of speech and expression, economic rights, social and civil rights to lead an honourable and dignified life.
3. Global poverty refers to low economic growth, low national income and low standard of living of developing or least developed countries.
4. Health epidemics is a very serious threat to country’s security because severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (ARS), HIV-AIDS, bird flue diseases spread across countries through migration, business, tourism and military operations.

ASEAN way is a form of interaction that is informal, non-confrontationist and cooperative.
 The objectives:
 (i) To accelerate economic growth and through that ‘social progress and cultural development.’
 (ii) To promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principles of UN charter.

The impact of national Emergency was deeply felt in political circles and the organization of Indian parties.

a) There were major changes in Congress’ structure and outlook. It rapidly shed away its UMBRELLA image and instead opted to project itself as PRO-POOR and PRO-BACKWARD CLASSES. This shift and the failure of the Janta Government helped Indira Gandhi regain power in 1981.

b) Other parties decided to unite the non-Congress vote by pushing for NON-CONGRESSISM.

c) Also, there was massive discussion around the CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS that enabled the excesses of the Emergency and several debates regarding the division between politics and judiciary, the role of mass movements in politics and necessities of national emergency, was initiated.