In the Indian economy on the eve of Independence, agriculture was our principal source and sector of occupation with almost 72.7% of the working population engaged in this sector of the economy. On the other hand, only 10.2% of the working population were engaged in the manufacturing or industrial sector.

Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the land, raising crops for food. It includes tilling of land, raising of crops, and cattle rearing. 
Favourable conditions for Agriculture: All lands are not suitable for cultivation.
Physical conditions: For crop raising land must be level, covered with fertile soils and have adequate rainfall and a favourable temperature.
Human conditions: How man uses land also depends on the technology, tenure and size of the holdings, government policies and several other infrastructural factors.

Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation

The basic economic activities of life are production, distribution and disposition of goods and services. A society will be facing scarcity of resources during the time of fulfillment of these activities. As such scarcity is evident, due to the availability of limited resources, and human needs having no limit.

The sources of data can be classified into two types: statistical and non-statistical. Non-statistical sources refer to the collection of data for other administrative purposes or for the private sector.

There are following limitations of statistics :
Sometimes, when data are not properly collected 1 then there is likelihood to draw wrong conclusions.
Therefore, it is necessary to know the limitations of statistics.
(i) Statistics does not study about individuals : Statistics are expressed in facts. It does not study individuals. For example, there are five students in a class. Statistics only tells the average marks obtained in class not how many marks are obtained by every student in the class.
(ii) It does not study the qualitative aspect of problem : The most important condition of statistical study is that subject of investigation and inquiry should be capable of being qualitatively measured. For example, honesty, poverty, etc.
(iii) Statistics can be misused: The result obtained can be manipulated accordingly to one’s own interest and such manipulated results can mislead the community.
(iv) Statistical results lack mathematical accuracy: The results drawn from statistical analysis are normally in approximates. As the satistical analysis is based on observation of mass data, number of inaccuracies may be present and it is difficult to rectify them.
(v) Uniformity and homogeneity of data : It is essential that data must have the quality of uniformity and homogeneity. Heterogeneous data are not comparable. For example, it would be meaningless to compare the heights of men with heights of trees because these figures are of heterogeneous character.

1. It consists of aggregates of facts:

In the plural sense, statistics refers to data, but data to be called statistics must consist of aggregate of certain facts.

A single and isolated fact or figure like, 60 Kgs. weight of a student or the death of a particular person on a day does not amount to statistics.

For a data may amount to statistics it must be in the form of a set or aggregate of certain facts, viz. 50, 65, 70 Kgs. Weight of students in a class or profits of a firm over different times etc. is liable to be effected by multiplicity of causes.

2. It is effected by many causes:

It is not easy to study the effects of one factor only by ignoring the effects of other factors. Here we have to go for the effects of all the factors on the phenomenon separately as well as collectively, because effects of the factors can change with change of place, time or situation.

Here, the overall effect is taken and not of one factor only as in other natural sciences. For example, we can say that result of class XII in board examination does not depend on any single factor but collectively on standard of teachers, teaching methods, teaching aids, practical’s performance of students, standard of question papers and as well as of evaluation.

3. It should be numerically expressed:

A data to be called statistics should be numerically expressed so that counting or measurement of data can be made possible. It means that the data or the fact to constitute statistics must be capable of being expressed in some quantitative form as weights of 60, 70, 100 and 90 Kg. or profits of Rs. 10,000, Rs. 20,000 etc. Thus these data must contain numerical figures so that those may be called as numerical statement of facts.

4. It must be enumerated or estimated accurately:

As stated above that the statements should be precise and meaningful. For getting reasonable standard of accuracy the field of enquiry should not be very large. If it is infinite or very large, even enumeration of data is impossible and reasonable standard of accuracy may not be achieved. To achieve it we have to make on estimate according to reasonable standard of accuracy depending upon the nature and purpose of collection of data. e.g. we may measure the height of buildings in metres but we cannot measure the length of small things like bricks in the same unit of metre.

5. It should be collected in a systematic manner:

Another characteristic of statistics is that the data should be collected in a systematic manner. The data collected in a haphazard manner will lead to difficulties in the process of analysis, and wrong conclusions. A proper plan should be made and trained investigators should be used to collect data so that they may collect statistics. If it is not done, in such cases reliability of data gets decreased. So to get correct results the data must be collected in a precise manner.

6. It should be collected for a predetermined purpose:

Before we start the collection of data, we must be clear with the purpose for which we are collecting the data. If we have no information about its purpose, we may not be collecting data according to the needs. We may need some more relevant data to achieve the required purpose, which we would miss in the event of its ignorance.

Suppose we want to get data on imports and exports, we have to know about various segments such as electronics, consumer articles, grains and such other segregations also. If some person on govt. duty is counting the vehicles passing through a road in a unit time is statistics, but same work done by any other person not related to this field, is not statistics because the former is doing it for the Government which wants to make it four lane road-if needed.

7. It should be capable of being placed in relation to each other:

It is last but not less important of the characteristics of the statistics. The collection of data is generally done with the motive to compare. If the figures collected are not comparable, in that case, they lose a large part of their significance.

It means, the figures collected should be homogeneous for comparison and not heterogeneous. For example, Heterogeneous data like sale of Rs. 20,000 result of 80% cases and mileage of 80 kms can never be placed in relation to each other and compared for analysis and interpretation which is the ulterior motive of the science of statistics. It can be concluded that all statistics are numerical data but all numerical data are not statistics unless they satisfy all the essential characteristics of statistics, depicted as above.

Statistics is the study and manipulation of data, including ways to gather, review, analyze, and draw conclusions from data. The two major areas of statistics are descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistics can be used to make better-informed business and investing decisions.

The "mode" is the value that occurs most often. If no number in the list is repeated, then there is no mode for the list.

Adam Smith was an 18th-century Scottish economist, philosopher, and author, and is considered the father of modern economics. The way scarce resources get distributed within an economy determines the type of economic system. There are four different types of Economic Systems; a traditional economy, a market economy, a command economy, and a mixed economy. Each type of economy has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Correlation is a statistical tool which studies the relationship between two variables e.g. change in price leads to change in quantity demanded.
Correlation studies and measures the direction and intensity of relationship among variables. It measures co-variation not causation. It does not imply cause and effect relation.

Type of Correlation
Correlation is classified into positive and negative correlation. The correlation is said to be positive when the variables move together in the same direction. e.g. sale of lce cream and temperature move in same direction.
The correlation is said to be negative when the variables move in opposite direction. e.g. When you spend more time in studying chances of your failure decline.

Features of Foreign Trade

• Negative Trade
• Changing Imports
• Diversity in Exports
• Trading through Selected Ports
• Trade during Maritime
• Worldwide Trade
• Place of India in Overseas Trade