Check Your Progress Notes

A. State whether the following statements are True or False

1. Email cannot be sent to more than one person at a time.

2. Email is an electronic message sent over the Internet or
a computer network.
3. Pictures, videos, audio files, and spreadsheet files
cannot be attached with an e-mail.

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• differentiate between postal mail and electronic mail.
• write an e-mail message.
• list the benefits of an e-mail account.

Session 10: Communication and Networking —

Creating an e-Mail Account
Creating an e-mail account
To set up an e-mail account, there are a number of
popular providers to consider
(a) Gmail (run by Google)
(b) Outlook mail (run by Microsoft)
(c) Yahoo mail (run by Yahoo)

Figure 3.48: Email service providers

Here we will learn how to create an e-mail account
using Gmail. All e-mail hosting sites will have similar
procedures.

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 Steps to open an e-mail account on Gmail
1. Go to www.gmail.com and click “Create 2. The sign up form will appear. You will
an account”. need to fill your name, username,
password and other details in a sign-
up form. A password should be at least
8 characters long and contain letters,
numbers and special characters (e.g.,
$%#). This will make it more secure.

3. Fill in other details as your phone 4. Google welcome page will appear. Click
number, country, etc. Review the Terms on the ‘Continue to Gmail’. This will
of Service and Privacy Policy, click the display your Gmail account page.
check box, and then click Next step.

The teacher will facilitate these activities by showing you the

e-learning module for this lesson via http://www.psscive.ac.in/
Employability_Skills.html. The module will include videos and
e-content for the above topics as well as detailed instructions for
some activities below.
Initial thinking activity
After watching the initial video in the e-learning lesson for this
topic why, do you think the person could not send an e-mail?

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 Activity
Notes
Creating an e-mail account
Materials required
Pen/pencil, notebook, computer with Internet connection
Procedure
• Form groups, depending on the number of computers
available.
• Each student takes turns to:
(a) create an e-mail account using gmail.com (or any
other free service). NOTE: make careful note of your
e-mail address and password.
(b) sign out and sign in the e-mail account. Do not
share password with others.

Check Your Progress

1. Multiple choice questions

1. Here are the steps to sign in to your Gmail account.

(i) Type username (ii) Go to www.gmail.com
(iii) Click Sign in (iv) Type password
Choose the option with the correct order.
(a) i > ii > iv > iii
(b) ii > i > iii > iv
(c) ii> i > iv > iii
(d) ii > iii > i > iv
2. Which one of the following statements is false?
(a) You need to create an account before you can send
an e-mail.
(b) You should sign out of your account when you are
not using the computer.
(c) You do not need an Internet connection to use your
Gmail account.
(d) You must not share your password with others.
3. Which of the following is an e-mail service?
(a) WhatsApp
(b) WeChat
(c) Gmail
(d) Facebook

Short answer questions

1. What characters should the password have in e-mail

address, to make it more secure?

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 What have you learnt?
After completing this session, you will be able to
• create an e-mail account.
• sign in and sign out an e-mail account.

Session 11: Communication and Networking —

Writing an e-Mail
Gmail is a free e-mail application. Let us learn how to
use it.
1. To write a new e-mail, connect to the
Internet and open Gmail.
2. Type ‘gmail.com’ in the address bar of
Internet Explorer.
3. To start using Gmail, you need to sign in.
Type your e-mail ID and password in the
given areas and click on the Sign in button
as shown in Figure 3.49
4. Click on the COMPOSE button on the
Gmail home page.
This will open a New Message window. Let us
Figure 3.49: Sign in page understand this with an example. Mohan Padra
wants to send Diwali greetings to his sister, his
wife and daughter. He wants do this by writing an
e-mail using the Gmail account he just created.
In the To: section he types the e-mail ID of his
sister, i.e., [email protected]
• In the Cc: section he types the e-mail
IDs of his wife, [email protected] and
her daughter [email protected]. In this
way he is able to send the same message
Figure 3.50: Compose email to all three at once instead of writing it
three times.

• In the Subject: section, he writes ‘Happy Diwali’

which is the main topic of the e-mail message.
• He starts the main body of the message with
a greeting “Hello everyone”. This can change
depending on whom you are writing the mail to.
Then he writes the complete message. He ends

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 the e-mail message with “best wishes” and his
name (Mohan).
• When he click the Send button, the e-mail will
reach the recipients.
Follow the given steps to write an e-mail
1. In the To section, write the e-mail-id of the
person you are sending the mail to.

2. In the Cc section, write the e-mail-ids of all the

people to whom you want to send copies of the
message.

3. In the Subject, write the topic of the mail. For

example, Happy Diwali.

4. In the main body, type the message you want

to send. This will include the salutation in the
beginning, main message in the middle and
signature at the end.
5. After you type the message, click Send.

The mail will be sent to all the people whose e-mail

addresses you have given in the To and Cc sections.

Figure 3.51: Attach a file

Attaching a file to an e-mail

An attachment is a type of file such as a photo or
document that you can send along with your e-mail.
To add an attachment you need to click on the Attach
button.
• The Attach button often has a paperclip as its
symbol
• When you click on the Attach button it opens up
a new window

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 • The window shows you files and folders on your
computer
• Find and then click on the file you want to attach
and press OK
• The file will now show as an attachment in your
e-mail
• The name of the file will be shown next to a paper
clip symbol

Managing Folders
There are different folders that could help you manage
and organise your e-mails.
• The Inbox holds e-mails that people have sent
to you
• The Sent folder holds e-mails that you have sent
to people
• The Drafts folder holds all the e-mail you have
started writing, but not yet sent
• The Junk/Spam folder holds e-mails that may
not be useful
Figure 3.52: Folders
• The Trash can or folder holds e-mails that you
no longer need and have deleted. To delete an
e-mail, you select an e-mail and then click on the
Delete button for it to be moved from inbox to
trash folder (see Figure 3.52).

The teacher will facilitate these activities by showing you the

e-learning module for this lesson via http://www.psscive.ac.in/
Employability_Skills.html. The module will include videos and
e-content for the above topics as well as detailed instructions for
some activities below.
Initial thinking activity
After watching the initial video in the e-learning lesson for
this topic what do you think is the first thing you will do after
creating your e-mail account.

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 Activity 1
Notes
Writing an e-mail
Materials required
Pen/pencil, notebook, computer with an Internet connection
Procedure
• Form groups, depending on the number of computers
available.
• Each student writes an e-mail to two of the other group
members using their newly created e-mail address wishing
them for a future festival. Other members watch and guide
the student.

Check Your Progress

A. Multiple choice questions

1. What do you type in the “To” field?

(a) The topic of the e-mail
(b) The main message of the e-mail
(c) Email address of the person to whom you want to
send a copy of the e-mail
(d) Email address of the person you are sending the
mail to
2. You want to send an e-mail message to your friend
Sushil. In which order will you perform the given steps
to write and send an e-mail to him?
(i) Type Sushil’s e-mail address, subject and message
(ii) Click on the Compose button (iii) Click Send (iv) Open
your e-mail account.
(a) (iv)>(ii)>(i)>(iii)
(b) (iv)>(i)>(ii)>(iii)
(c) (iv)>(i)>(iii)>(ii)
(d) (iii)>(i)>(ii)>(iv)

B. Fill in the blanks

1. In “To:” section _________________ is typed for sending a

message through e-mail.
2. The Attach button in e-mail often has a ______________
as its symbol.
3. In the ____________________ section of the e-mail, the
topic of the mail is written.
4. After typing the message in the main body of the e-mail,
you need to click on __________ button to send the
e-mail.

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 What have you learnt?
After completing this session, you will be able to
• identify the various elements of the e-mail message.
• compose and send an e-mail message.
• attach files in an e-mail.

Session 12: Communication and Networking —

Receiving and Replying to e-mails
Receiving an e-mail
Imagine your friend sends you an
e-mail. The e-mail will appear in
your Inbox. It shows the name of the
sender, subject and a title of the main
message. It will remain bold till you
open it.
1. Click on the mail to open it.
2. Once you have read the e-mail,
you can reply, forward or delete
the mail.
3. If the invitation was sent to many
people, you get another option,
i.e., Reply to All. When you
click this, the reply will be sent
to all the people who received a
copy of this mail.

Replying to an e-mail
To reply to this e-mail:
1. Click on the Reply option at the
bottom. This will open a space
where you can write your reply.
The e-mail address of the person
to whom this e-mail will be sent
is already present at the top.
2. Type your reply and click Send.
Figure 3.53: Reply to an email

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 Forwarding an e-mail
You can also forward this e-mail to your
parents to inform them about the invitation.
1. When you click on “Forward”, a
space is displayed with the old
message copied to it.
2. You can give the e-mail address of Figure 3.54: Forward an email
the person(s) you want to forward to and write
anything extra you want to add.
3. Then click on the
“Send” button.

Deleting an e-mail
You can delete the mail by
clicking on the delete icon.
This will remove the e-mail
from your inbox and move it Figure 3.55: Delete an email
to the “Trash” folder. It will
remain there for a few days before it is removed from
the system.

The teacher will facilitate these activities by showing you the

e-learning module for this lesson via http://www.psscive.ac.in/
Employability_Skills.html. The module will include videos and
e-content for the above topics as well as detailed instructions for
some activities below.

Activity 1
Receiving and replying to an e-mail
Materials required
Pen/pencil, notebook, computer with an Internet connection
Procedure
• Form groups depending on the number of computers
available.
• The teacher sends an e-mail to a student in each group
informing them about a group dance competition.

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 Notes All details about the date, time, venue, etc., is described
in the mail.
• The leader reads the e-mail and then forwards it to all his
group members to inform them about the details of the
dance competition. The leader discusses with the group
whether they want to take part or not and then sends a
reply to the teacher.

Check Your Progress

A. State whether the following statements are True or False.

1. By choosing the “Reply” option, the e-mail address of the

sender of the original message will appear in the “To” field.
2. Email is an electronic message transmitted over the
Internet or computer network from one user to another.
3. You can forward the e-mail by clicking on the delete
icon.

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• identify a new mail in your inbox.
• reply or forward an e-mail.
• delete an e-mail.

Glossary
Applications/Apps: software programs on a mobile device which
perform specific tasks
Attachment: adding a file to an e-mail
Barcode: a machine-readable code in the form of numbers and a
pattern of parallel lines of varying widths, printed on a commodity
and used especially for stock control
Bytes: a group of binary digits or bits (usually eight) operated on as
a unit, a byte is considered as a unit of memory size
Digital: the information that is stored on a computer is said to be in
a digital form
Drag: pull an icon or something on the screen with a mouse
E-Commerce: it is a process of buying and selling goods online
Email: a way of sending messages over the Internet
Ethernet: a system for connecting a number of computer systems
to form a local area network

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 File: a document on a computer. There are different types of files Notes
Folder: a location on the computer. It may contain many files or
sub-folders
Gestures: the actions you do with your fingers to interact with a
touch screen
ICT: it is an abbreviation of Information and Communication
Technology
Internet Browser: it is a software which helps you search for
information online
Internet: a number of computers connected together to provide
information
Junk: the location for storing unwanted e-mail as determined by a
spam filter
Messaging: sending text, audio and video messages over an
Internet connection
Motherboard: a printed circuit board containing the principal
components of a computer or other device, with connectors for other
boards to be slotted into
Navigation: the action of moving around a website, the Internet, etc.
Operating/operate: control the functioning of (a machine, process,
or system)
Peripheral: a device that you are able to attach to and use with a
computer, though it does not form an integral part of it
Port: a socket in a computer network into which a device can be
plugged
Privacy: the state of being free from public attention
Reply to all: an option present when we want to reply to all the
recepients, if we choose Reply to all, the reply will be sent to all the
people the mail was sent to or received from
Scanner: a device that scans documents and converts them into
digital data
Smartphone: a mobile device that is used to make calls, connect to
the Internet and run applications that do a variety of functions
Tablet: a mobile device like a smartphone but with a bigger size
Web Browser: a software used to browse information on WWW
using Internet
Web Page: it displays information in the form of text, graphics,
audio or video
Wi-Fi: a wireless connection to the Internet
World Wide Web (WWW): it is a collection of information located on
computers around the world

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 Notes Further Readings
Session 1: Introduction to ICT
• https://bit.ly/2pYKPKF
Session 2: ICT Tools – Smartphones and Tables – 1
• https://bit.ly/2zolM6d
Session 3: ICT Tools – Smartphones and Tables – 2
• https://bit.ly/2vvtqdN
Session 4: Parts of a computer and peripherals
• https://bit.ly/2w3GL0J
Session 5: Basic Computer Operations
• https://bit.ly/2EbIl0o
Session 6: Performing basic file operations
• https://bit.ly/2oPHluK
Session 7: Communications and Networking – Basics of Internet
• https://bit.ly/2vkoUS4
Session 8: Communications and Networking – Internet Browsing
• https://bit.ly/2vikTix
Session 9: Communications and Networking – Introduction to Email
• https://bit.ly/2GpsNfm
• https://bit.ly/1C4PJDi
Session 10: Communications and Networking – Creating an
Email Account
• https://bit.ly/2GpsNfm
• https://bit.ly/2vwslCD
• https://bit.ly/1C4PJDi
Session 11: Communications and Networking – Writing an Email
• https://bit.ly/2xGttUQ
Session 12: Communications and Networking–Receiving and
Replying to Email
• https://bit.ly/2wWjrln

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 Unit 4
Entrepreneurship
Skills

Introduction
Business is an economic activity which is related with
continuous and regular production and distribution
of goods and services for satisfying human wants.
Businesses can be for-profit entities or nonprofit
organisations. Businesses cater to the needs of the
society. But sometimes we find that there is a gap
between what is needed and is available. This gap can
be used as an opportunity by some people who are
ready to take risk and fill the gap by providing necessary
products and services. Such people are entrepreneurs.
An entrepreneur is a person who is self-employed,
is willing to take a calculated risk and brings in a new
idea to start a business. It is, however, important to
understand that all self-employed persons are not
entrepreneurs, for example, a shopkeeper cannot be
called an entrepreneur unless he/she introduces a new
method or idea in the business.

Session 1: What is Entrepreneurship?

Does your mother ask you to buy things from the market
near your house? Do you buy things for yourself from

Unit 4.indd 135 23-08-2018 16:59:24

 shops near your house? Maybe you have bought milk,
vegetables, fruits, books and pencil from a shop, ice-
cream, etc., which of those shops you buy these items
from? Visit the market and make a list of things you
buy from the market and categorise them as food items,
vegetables, fruits, stationery, confectionery, etc.

What are the things you What shops do you buy Does the seller work for self
buy? from? or for someone else?
Food items: Dal, rice, spices Kirana shop Yes, for self
Readymade clothes Big store in a mall No — the sales person is an
employee of a chain

Did you notice that while some people are the owners
of businesses, others are employed and get a salary/
wage? The owners are self-employed while the employees
are wage earners (work for others and get a salary).
New ideas with which an entrepreneur adds value to
a business can be of many kinds, including new kinds
of products — like adding varieties, new services like
home delivery or credit services, new marketing ideas,
new cost reduction ideas and many more.

Entrepreneurship
The process of developing a business plan, launching and
running a business using innovation to meet customer
needs and to make a profit is entrepreneurship.

Enterprise
An enterprise is a project or undertaking that is bold
and fulfills a need of the society which no one has ever
addressed.
Let us read the story of Sowmya. Her story will help
us understand a little more about entrepreneurship.

The Story of Sowmya, the Entrepreneur

Sowmya grew up in a village in Karnataka. Her parents
came to Bangalore in search of a better job. While
growing up, Sowmya saw her parents working very
hard. Her father started working in a small shop which

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 sold clothes and her mother started working as a cook
in someone’s house.
Sowmya wanted to support her family. She
was now going to college and wanted to start
making money. When she turned 18, Sowmya
thought “What can I do, which will help me
make more money and where people will keep
buying from me again and again?” (Need)
She noticed that the girls in her college cared
about their health and did not want to eat
chips and other unhealthy food (Recognising
opportunity). She started making healthy
snacks and sold them to her friends in college (Idea
and start of a business).
Her friends loved it, because not only was snack
healthy, it was also very tasty. She then started selling
her tasty-healthy snacks to people in her area.
As the demand for her snacks increased, Sowmya
asked her parents and friends to give her some money
to buy a small machine which would help her in making
more snacks. She started making 5 times the snacks. She
started giving a small commission to her friends to sell these
snacks in their own societies (Growing the business).
After 2 years, Sowmya now sells her snacks in every
small shop.
She continued studying while doing the business and
was able to pay her college fees from her own earning!

How do you think Sowmya identified an

opportunity?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Opportunities are everywhere. You need to look for
them/spot them. Do you have any ideas/have you seen
any opportunity in your surrounding that you too can
use to start a business? Write your idea below.
__________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

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 Notes

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback as needed.

Activity 1
Guess the entrepreneur
Materials required
Notebook, pen
Procedure
Form teams of 5 students each. So, if there are 30 students
in class, there would be 6 teams of 5 students in each team
and select a leader who will be responsible for running it. Each
member in the group will do the following:
• Make a list of all people you see while coming to school
and what they are doing.
• Make 2 lists — one of people working for themselves and
one of people who work for others.
• Make a list of different kinds of businesses around you.
• Now think of all the items that you cannot buy in your
neighbourhood and people have to go far to buy them.
• Do you see this as a possible opportunity for a good
business idea?
• How will you innovatively fill this gap?
• Members of the group discuss their ideas within the group.

Check Your Progress

A. Multiple choice questions
Read the questions carefully and circle the letter (a),
(b), (c) or (d) that best answers the question.
1. Business is a (an) _____________________ activity.
(a) social
(b) economic
(c) hazardous
(d) selling
2. What is the aim of entrepreneurship?
(a) Earn a profit
(b) Solve customers’ need innovatively
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above

B. Short answer question

1. List three businesses seen around you. Share details of
what the business does, and how they run it ?

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 C. Read the following statement and write “Yes” or “No” as Notes
to whether the person is an entrepreneur or not.

Statement Yes/No

1. Ravi made tea for his friends in the office.

Everyone liked the tea very much and told him
that he is very good at making tea.
2. Savita, a house wife, needs extra money for her
kids’ tuition. She notices that in the afternoon,
the children coming out of a nearby college
look tired and hungry. She makes refreshing
Neembu Pani and samosas and sells them to
the students.
3. Rahul loves dogs. He plays with dogs of his
friends’ family. One day when they were going
out-of-station, they asked Rahul to take care of
their dog. Rahul thought that this was a good
idea, “taking care of dogs when the owner is
traveling”. He started his own company which
is like a “hotel for dogs”. When the dog-owners
travel, they leave their dogs at this hotel and
pay the company money for each day they take
care of the dog. Is Rahul an entrepreneur?
4. Monica noticed that her neighbours used to
face a problem. They had to leave their young
baby behind when they went for work. Monica
started going to this house in the evening to
take care of the baby for them. Her neighbours
were very happy and used to give her chocolates
for doing that.

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• demonstrate the knowledge of entrepreneurship.
• identify the characteristics of an entrepreneur.

Session 2: Role of Entrepreneurship

If you were an entrepreneur, how do you think you
will help your country? Countries which encourage
entrepreneurship have grown fast. It is, therefore,
important to broadly define the role and benefits
of entrepreneurship.

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 Economic Development —
Money in Circulation
As entrepreneurs create value by
making available better and cheaper
products and services for customers,
the economy grows. As entrepreneurs
grow their business, investors put
money into their businesses and
expect good returns. As more and
more entrepreneurs create business
opportunities, the economy grows.

Social Development — Creation

of Jobs
A business started by an entrepreneur
is usually a very small business in the
beginning. If it becomes successful
and grows, the entrepreneur expands
the business.
As the business grows, it needs
more work to be done and so creates
more jobs. Good quality jobs lead to
more people earning money and having
a good life.

Improved Standard of Living —

More things available to live a
comfortable life
When entrepreneurs sell products like
a tractor, a mobile phone or a mobile
service, it helps people live a more
comfortable life. For example, a small
village did not have good quality soap
because of which the villagers used
to fall sick. An entrepreneur started
going to the city collected antibacterial
soap from the city and sold it to the villages the people
started using the soap for handwashing, is a result of
which these uses less incidences of people falling sick.

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 Optimal Use of Resources Notes
There are various natural resources present around
us renewable and non-renewable. Entrepreneurs keep
working to find the most optimal ways of using the
resources to reduce costs and increase their profits.

More Benefits at Lower Prices Products and

Services at Competitive Prices
As entrepreneurs compete in the market, prices of
products come down. For example, a phone which
used to cost at least Rs. 20,000 when phones were first
launched can now be bought even for Rs 4,000.

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback as needed.

Activity
A world without Entrepreneurs
Materials required
None
Procedure
• Form groups of 45 students in each group.
• Each group thinks about which entrepreneurs benefit or
help us the most.
• Now imagine that this entrepreneur, and his business
does not exist. How will my life get affected?
• Each group shares with the class, their example of which
entrepreneur helps them the most and what will happen if
she/he was not there.
• One volunteer student writes down the examples given by
each group on the board.
• The class discusses the importance of entrepreneurs.

Check Your Progress

A. Short answer question
Answer the following questions in your own words.
1. Gulab lives in a small village in Rajasthan. She noticed
that all the women in her village were good at making

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 Notes paintings and handicraft product. She collected money
and started a business. Gulab would help the women
to get material from cities and support them in making
latest designs. She would then arrange for these
paintings and handicraft products to be sold in big
cities. How do you think Gulab, is helping her society
as an entrepreneur?
2. Give examples of three entrepreneurs you know who
live around you. Write how they are helping your city?

What Have You Learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• explain the importance of entrepreneur and its role in
country’s and society’s growth.

Glossary
Confidence: quality of believing in oneself and not having fear of
what will happen or what others would say
Experimental: someone who likes to try new things and learn from
it to get better
Grit: a person’s quality of not giving up and keep trying
Hybrid business: hybrid business is a mix of product and service
business
Patience: a person’s quality of not getting angry or emotional during
stressful time and staying calm
Positivity: a person’s quality of seeing the good in every situation
and person
Product business: a business where a seller and buyer exchange
a thing, which can be seen and touched, is called a product based
business
Service business: a business where a seller a helps the buyer
to finish some work, which cannot be seen or stored for example
plumbing, teaching, hair dressing, etc., are is called as service based
businesses

Session 3: Qualities of a Successful

Entrepreneur
In the last chapter, we learnt how entrepreneurship is
different from wage employment. We also learnt different
features of entrepreneurship. In this session, we will
learn about qualities of a successful entrepreneur.

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 Can you think about business persons from whom
you buy things? What are some qualities of these people?
List all the qualities, with examples in your notebook.

Who Quality Example

1. Milk-man Hard-working Wakes up at 3:00 AM and comes to the customer’s house
at 5:00 AM to give fresh milk.
2.
3.
4.
5.

There is a thin line that distinguishes an entrepreneur

from a traditional business person.
Ramu is chai wala selling tea near a busy bus stop.
He earns a lot and makes a good profit. He is a traditional
business man.
Now, Rani also started a tea stall on the road side.
She decided to sell different flavours of tea, just like
expensive tea parlours in the mall, at a reasonable
price. Her clients vary from daily wage earners to actors
and politicians because of her unique idea. She is an
entrepreneur.
Now, let us read a story of another entrepreneur to
understand all the important qualities of a successful
entrepreneur, so that when you think about
becoming an entrepreneur, you can practice these
qualities.

Sushma, the Toy Maker

Sushma is a mother of two young kids. She saw
some parents giving their children mobile phones
to play with while others gave plastic toys. Both of
these are bad for the kids and the environment.
She wanted her children to enjoy playing with
toys which were good for their brain and did not
cause health problems. She came up with the idea of
making wooden toys, which are not only fun to play
with, but also help kids learn as they play with them.
She made a few toys and started sending pictures to
her friends and family. They were excited to buy these
new types of toys from her.

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 Her best friend told her that the toy she had bought
had sharp edges and had hurt her child. Sushma
immediately changed the design to soft edges. Very few
people bought her products. She made huge efforts to
persuade her customers to buy her toys, specifying the
excellent qualities of her products.
She did not give up and tried to understand the buying
pattern of parents as customers. Soon she realised that
people prefer to buy toys for their kids from established
and permanent shops. She made efforts to partner with
different toy shops to sell her products. She also created
a web site to sell her products online. After 2 years,
the demand for her toys increased and soon she was
selling her toys not only in India, but also in other parts
of the world.
An entrepreneur needs to have the following set
of qualities.

Patience
Entrepreneurship is not a one-day job. Success may not
be achieved quickly and therefore, it is important for
an entrepreneur to be patient in running the business.
Sushma kept working for 2 years before success came
her way.

Positivity
When a person starts a business, he/she
may face lots of difficulties and failure. An
entrepreneur has to think positively even
when he/she takes a big risk. There may be
losses at times but even then an entrepreneur
should stay positive and continue to work
hard towards their goal. For example, Sushma
listened to her customers’ complaints. She
did not get upset and improved her product.

Hardworking, Never Giving Up and

Perseverance
Every new business goes through failures and
therefore, an entrepreneur needs to work hard till it
becomes successful. It is necessary for an entrepreneur
to continuously work hard towards his/her own and

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 company’s goals. Sushma kept trying even
when the toys were not selling.

Confidence
An entrepreneur needs to be very confident
and take decisions about their business.
An entrepreneur needs to communicate
confidently with the customers. For example,
Sushma was confident about the quality and
effective use of her toys. This led to her success.

Open to Trial and Error

Entrepreneur needs to be open to new ideas and try
them without fear of failure. She/he will have to use trial
and error and experiment with different ideas till the
business becomes successful. This allows the product
or service to improve for the customer and helps the
business grow. For example, when Sushma could not
sell the product within her friends and family circle, she
partnered with other shops.

Creativity and Innovation

An entrepreneur should be able to see a problem from
different perspectives and come up with original and
creative solutions. They should also be able to recognise
an opportunity in a problem and find an innovative
solution.
One must note here that a self-employed person
may not be an entrepreneur if she/he does not have
these qualities. An entrepreneur should be willing to
take a calculated risk and is always open to new ideas
to make his/her business grow. A person who has does
not take risks, is not open to new ideas and is running
the business only to earn a steady source of income is
not an entrepreneur.

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

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 Notes Activity 1
A successful interview
Procedure
• Form pairs of students. One student imagines him/herself
to be a successful entrepreneur (maybe 10 years from
now).
• The other student will act as an interviewer from a TV
channel who will interview this entrepreneur.
• The interviewer asks questions given in the table below
and note down the answers.
• One volunteer pair will present their questions and
answers to the class.
Questions Your Answer
What business do you do?
Why did you start this business
and not take up a job in a
company?
How did you come up with the
business idea?
Were you successful when you
first started?
What did you find most difficult?
How did you overcome this
difficulty?
Have you faced any failures? If
yes, what?
What advice would you give to
others who are trying to start
their own business?

Activity 2
Entrepreneurs near me
Procedure
Each student should visit businesses in their neighbourhood,
talk to the owner and list their qualities that have helped them
with their business. Fill the table given below.
Owner of the Qualities How did it help Is this person an
business the business? entrepreneur?

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 Check Your Progress Notes
A. Short answer questions

1. Identify qualities of the following entrepreneurs. Also

write why you think this person has this quality or the
qualities.
(a) Anil wanted to do something very different and
something no one has thought of before. He decided
to start a special travel services for old people/
senior citizens.
(b) Rakesh loves playing outdoors. He used to spend his
evenings with his friends, playing games. But, he
had seen that many of his friends didn’t like playing
outdoors because they didn’t feel safe. He decided
to open a playground for children of all ages, with
proper security. He found an unused playground, got
permission to use it and asked his friends to help him
clean it. He hired a security guard for the playground.
He charged a small fee for people who wanted to play.
Both parents and children liked his idea, and started
playing there regularly. His business helped children
who would not play outdoor before.
(c) Radhika was a cook in a small restaurant in her area.
She made enough money to support her husband
and children. She decided to start her own food
stall to sell Punjabi food. She would make special
parathas. A few days after starting her business, the
police came and told her that she was not allowed
to run her stall in the area. Radhika did not give up.
She started a Tiffin service through which she would
deliver fresh food to people.
2. Do you think you have the qualities of an entrepreneur
in you? If yes, give examples when you have shown
these qualities.
3. Read the story of Sushma, the Toy Maker once again
and fill in the boxes mentioning the various qualities
that Sushma might have possessed as an entrepreneur

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 Notes What Have You Learnt?
After completing this session, you will be able to
• identify successful entrepreneurs around yourself.
• identify and describe the qualities of a successful
entrepreneur.

Session 4: Distinguishing Characteristics

of Entrepreneurship and Wage Employment
In the last session, we learnt that entrepreneurship
means organising, developing and managing a business
venture along with any of its risks in order to make profit.
Entrepreneur takes risks to make a profit. Let us now
try to understand the meaning of the word profit and
risk before we understand the various characteristics of
entrepreneurship.
Profit: M/s Ram Prasad owns a sweet shop in a remote
village. He incurs a total cost of Rs 35 per kg of sweets
and sells at a rate of Rs 42 per kg to customers. The
amount of profit earned by Ram Prasad’s sweet house
amounts to Rs 7/kg, i.e., Rs 42–Rs 35 = Rs 7 per kg.
The profit earned is the excess earning after deducting
all expenses.
Risk: A situation where the result is not known and
could lead to a loss. For example, when I am making
10 kg of sweets, I risk spending Rs 300/- on buying milk,
sugar, maida and some other person may also start the
same business in the same area and sell sweets at a
lower price.
Entrepreneurship is not without risks but
entrepreneurs are not afraid of taking calculated risks.
Taking risks can lead to failure but failure is acceptable
and entrepreneurs continue their course of action till
they succeed.

Characteristics of Entrepreneurship
Let us now look at some of the distinguishing
characteristics of entrepreneurship.
1. Ability to take up risks
2. Believe in hard work and discipline

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 3. Adpatable and flexible to achieve the goals of Notes
enhancing quality and customer satisfaction
4. Knowledge of the product and services and their
need or demand in the market
5. Financial literacy and money management skills
6. Effective planning and execution.
Have you ever observed a sudden closure of a shop/
store/business in your neighbourhood? Why did the
business fail?
• Was he/she selling low quality goods/services?
• Was he/she selling products not required in the
neighbourhood?
• Was the right opportunity not spotted?
• What was the risk he/she had taken?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

Wage Employment
In case of wage employment, there are always two
parties. One is known as the employer and the other is
the employee. The wage employment does not involve
too much risk but entrepreneurship involves taking
certain amount of calculated risks. However, the
continuity of the service in case of wage employment
depends on the terms and conditions laid down in
the contract between the two parties and also
sometimes the relationship between the employer and
the employee.
Now, let us understand the difference between
entrepreneurship and wage employment (working for
someone to earn money). Let us compare a cook in a
restaurant and a street food vendor.

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 Questions to think about A Cook in a Street Food Vendor
Restaurant

1. How does the person make money

through the activity?
2. Is this person solving a community
problem?
3. Did this person sell something and
make profit?
4. Do they use the resources/
knowledge that they have to make
most of the money?
5. Do they use innovation and
creativity to attract clients?
6. Does the activity involve taking
risk for earning money?
7. Is this person an entrepreneur?

As you can see above, the cook in a restaurant holds

a job and is an employee of the restaurant, while the
food stall vendor is an entrepreneur as s/he works for
himself and runs a business because of the following
things:

Activities done by the person Entrepreneurship Employment

1. Allows a person to make money Yes Yes
2. Finding solutions for a community Yes No
problem by himself/herself
3. The job done by the person is decided by Yes No
himself/herself
4. Use personal knowledge and interest to Yes No
make money for oneself
5. Use innovation and creativity to attract Yes No
clients
6. Keep most of the money, i.e., profits made Yes No
for a product/ service
7. Takes risk to make profit Yes No

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 Benefits of entrepreneurship Notes
The various benefits include the following:
• Do what you are interested in: Entrepreneurship
allows you to start and do something you like
using your hobbies and skills.
• Work for yourself, and not for others: As an
entrepreneur, you can work for yourself and not
for someone else. You can decide the kind of work
you like to do and how you want to do it.
• Make profits for yourself: As an entrepreneur,
you can decide how much money you want to
earn and how you want to earn it.
• More risk, more profit: Even though there are
risks in entrepreneurship, it allows you to decide
how much risk you want to take. Usually, the
larger the risk, the bigger could be the profit!

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

Activity 1
Characteristics of enterprise
Procedure
• Create groups of 5 students each. So if there are 30
students in class, there would be 6 groups of 5 students
in each group and select a leader who can run the activity.
• Each group should discuss the following information (in
table) and fill it up with either “Yes” or “No”.
• One group can volunteer to explain to the class their
answers. The other groups give feedback if correct or
wrong and also check their answer against the right one to
make sure it is right.
Type of Is it Does Do they Does it
Business making it sell use what take a
money? something they have risk?
for profit? or know
best?
Stationery Shop
Local Milk Dairy
Plumbing Shop

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 Notes Activity 2
Advantages of entrepreneurship over wage employment
Procedure
• Create groups of 5 students each. So if there are 30
students in class, there would be 6 groups of 5 students
in each group and select a leader.
• Each group prepares charts showing advantages of
entrepreneurship over wage employment.
• Two groups volunteer to present their charts to the class.
Other teams give feedback on the charts presented and
can ask questions after the presentation is made.

Check Your Progress

A. Fill in the blanks

1. State whether the person engaged in the activity

mentioned below is an Entrepreneur or an Employee
(a) Rahul starts a shop to sell Chaat and special Paani
Puri. He is an ______________________
(b) Shahid becomes the manager of a dealership selling
food products. He is an ______________________
(c) Ritu leaves the company she worked for and starts
catering food for marriage programmes. She is an
_________________.

B. Short answer questions

1. List any four characteristics of entrepreneurship.

2. List any two characteristics of wage employment.
3. Name any one factor that is common to both
entrepreneurship and wage employment on contract
basis.

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• describe the difference between entrepreneurship
and wage employment.
• identify unique features of entrepreneurship versus
wage employment.

Session 5: Types of Business Activities

So far, we learnt who an entrepreneur is, and the
meaning of entrepreneurship. We also learnt about the

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 unique features of an entrepreneurship. In this session,
we will learn about different types of business activities.
Let us read the story of Rahul to understand different
business activities.

Rahul, the cricketer

Rahul loved cricket! His favorite player was Sachin
Tendulkar and he never missed a match. He went for
daily practice with his friends in the park. He was an
all-rounder, like M.S. Dhoni, but he wanted to be a
great batsman.
He started improving in his game and at the age of
16, he played for the state team. His team lost, but he
was sure that he would play for India one day. He was a
great player and everyone in his village came to him for
advice on cricket.
Rahul kept trying but did not get to join any team.
Perhaps Rahul could have thought of other options to
stay in touch with his passion for cricket.
Here are some of the options he could have explored.
Fill the table with your friends
Start a Cricket Start a Sports Sports Academy
Coaching Centre Shop
Is this
Entrepreneurship?
What do you think he
will be doing (kind of
work) in each of the
options?

Types of business activities

From the story of Rahul, we understood that there can
be three types of business activities:
• Product business
• Service business
• Hybrid business

Product business
A business where a seller and buyer exchange an
item, which can be seen and touched, is called a product-
based business. For example, a Sports Shop.

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 Notes Service business
A business where a seller helps the buyer to finish some
work. For example, a cricket coaching center.

Hybrid business
A hybrid is the one where the business is doing both
selling product and selling services. For example, Rahul
starting a sports academy for coaching and selling
sports equipment. We also see this in restaurants where
the food itself is the product sold and the catering is the
service provided.

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

Activity 1
Product and Services
Procedure
• The class is to be divided into 3 teams — product business
team, service business team and hybrid business team.
• Each team will get about 15 mins to think of as many
examples of product/service/hybrid based businesses.
Students will have to think of different types of businesses,
rather than just different companies with the same type
of business. Fill the following table. The team with most
number of examples wins.
Type of Product Service Hybrid
Business Business Business Business

Large Businesses 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2.

3. 3. 3.

Local Community 1. Tea Stall 1. Hair-cut, 1. Petrol

Businesses Barber Pump
2. Shop
2.
3. 2.
3.
3.

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 Check Your Progress
A. Fill in the blanks
State the type of business — product, service or hybrid
1. Arun bakery, which makes and sells bread to people.
_________________
2. Ram’s repair shop, which repairs motorcycle.
__________________
3. Hari’s hair-salon, where he cuts hair for women and
men. _______________

B. Short answer question

1. What are the 3 types of business activities? Explain

with examples.

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• identify successful entrepreneurs around yourself.
• identify and describe qualities of a successful
entrepreneur.

Session 6: Product, Service and Hybrid

Businesses
In this session, we will understand the difference
between a product-based and service-based business
activity. Let us take Rahul’s example from the previous
session and write yes or no in the following table:

Cricket Coaching Sports Shop

1. Can be seen and touched

2. Can be stored

3. Can be made somewhere and then

transported
4. The customer gets exactly the same thing
most of the time.

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 Therefore, the key differences between product and service
business activities can be summarised as follows.
Product Business Service Business

1. Seen and Product can be seen and touched. Service cannot be seen or
touched Customer pays for physical exchange touched. Customer here pays
of things. for an experience.
2. Stored A product can be made and stored in A service, for example, cutting
a shop or a warehouse (usually). hair, cannot be stored. Service
is provided when a customer
asks for it.
3. Made and A product can be either made at A service cannot be made
transported home or in a factory. It can then be or transported. It is given to
transported to different places where the customer at the time of
shopkeepers sell it. delivery.
4. Same quantity The quality and quantity of the The quality and quantity of
and quality product will be the same every time. a service can be different at
different times.

In the last session, we also learnt about another type

of business hybrid which is a mix of product and service
businesses.
Read the following case-studies and identify what kind
of businesses are these

Sana, the Jewellery Expert

Sana wears beautiful new earrings every day which she
makes by herself. She finds the designs online, buys
cheap materials and makes them at home with the help
of her sister. Her friends at the college were amazed and
placed orders for similar earrings.

Harish, the Dabba-wala

Harish lives alone in Delhi. He left his house in Meerut
to work in a big company. He used to make his own
lunch and take a dabba everyday to office. He had many
bachelor friends who depended on the office canteen
for lunch. They loved to eat the food he brought. This
gave him an idea to make and deliver healthy, home-
made food to different offices. He knew there would be a
demand for his food, as there were many boys and girls
from other cities working in the area who had no time
to cook food on their own.

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 Pragya, the Delivery Girl
Pragya’s parents bought her a bike on her birthday last
year. She used it to go to her college and to meet her
friends. Since her friends usually had to take a bus
for transport, in case of an emergency, they would
sometimes ask her to drop them. This gave her an
idea of starting a quick, goods-delivery service using
her bike! In her free time, she started the delivery
service for people in her area. She became
famous! She later employed five people to work
in her delivery company.
Classify the three entrepreneurs, based on
the kind of business they do and give reasons.
Sana, the Jewellery Expert Pragya, the Delivery Girl Harish, the Dabba-wala

Types of product-based business

In the above examples, we saw that there are three types
of business activities—Product, Service and Hybrid.
Now we will learn about a product business.
Let us go back to Sana’s example, who made her own
jewellery. Now imagine if instead of making her own
earrings, if Sana was buying earrings from a whole-
sale market and selling it to people. Would it still be
a product business?
Yes, it will be! There are two types of product-based
businesses

Manufacturing businesses
These are the businesses that make a product and
sell it. Products are usually made in factories. In case

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 Notes of Sana, she was manufacturing or making her own
products. Factories need funds (money) to be set up.
Sana could make her products on a small budget.
Factories have many people working in them. Sana
made her products with the help of her sister.

Trade businesses
These businesses buy and sell a product. They also
transport the product from the factory to warehouses
and then finally to shops near the customers. Examples
of these business include wholesalers, distributors and
retail shops.

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

Activity 1
Business activities around us
Materials required
Pens, chart paper, colours, etc.
Procedure
• Divide the class into 3 groups of students.
• Each group needs to make a list of business ideas which
are either Product,Service or Hybrid based. Each group
will prepare a poster by either making a drawing or using
newspaper cut-outs for the kinds of business they have
selected.
• Each team will present their posters to others.

Check Your Progress

A. Fill in the blanks

1. Write P- Product, S- Service and H- Hybrid for the

following businesses.
(a) Ice-cream seller: ___________
(b) Restaurant/Cafeteria Owner: __________
(c) Car-driving School owner: ___________

B. Short answer questions

1. What are the key differences between product- and

service-based businesses?
2. If you had a choice to start a business of your own,
which business will you start (include in your reply the

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 product or service that you would like to take up)? Why
do you want to start this type of business?
3. What is the meaning of manufacturing and trading
based business?

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• identify difference between product and service
business activities.
• classify business examples as product, service and
hybrid businesses.
• identify different types of product-based businesses.

Session 7: Entrepreneurship Development

Process
Entrepreneurship development is the process of
improving the skills and knowledge of entrepreneurs.
It can take place through formal and informal learning
system. In the formal learning system, training
programmes are conducted to bring about awareness,
knowledge and skills related to entrepreneurship. In
this session, you will learn about the entrepreneurship
development process through examples of successful
entrepreneurs. It will help you to understand the
qualities of entrepreneurs and then you can also make
an assessment of whether you also possess those
qualities. So let us begin with a story.

Prem Ganapathy, the Dosawala

Prem Ganapathy is also known as the
Dosawala, is the owner of the famous food chain
'Dosa Plaza'. 'Dosa Plaza' currently has 26 shops.
It has 150 employees and makes approximately
Rs 5 crore every year.

Prem’s story of struggle and success

When he came to Mumbai, Prem had no friends
and did not know the language. He struggled in

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 Mumbai for many years. He washed plates and cups,
cleaned tables and served tea at different shops. He
even started a business with someone during this time,
but the partnership failed.
Prem had saved some money and wanted to start a
Dosa shop. He asked his brother and uncle for a small
loan to set up a small Dosa stall near a railway station.
At the railway station there lot of people came but did
not have many options for tasty food.
His customers praised his food and gradually he
had customers from far-off places too. As he spoke to
his customers, he found out that his customers like
different kinds of dosas. He had worked in a Chinese
kitchen earlier and knew how to make
tasty chowmein and other Chinese items.
This gave him an idea to invent new
types of dosas with Chinese flavours like
American Chopsuey, Paneer chilly, Spring
roll dosa, etc. The 108 types of Dosas on
his menu got him a lot of publicity.
Then he took the biggest risk of his
life and opened a new shop near a station
and named it as Dosa Plaza. Dosa Plaza
is one of the most famous Dosa shops in
Mumbai. From this story, what do you
think are the different steps of starting a
business?

Steps of starting a business

Idea The first step is to come up with a business idea. A business idea could
be based on
(a) Something you are interested in doing (For example, making Dosa)
(b) A need you see in the market (For example, Tasty food next to the
station)
Getting money Once you have the idea, you can start on a small scale with some money
and material which will help you in buying basic material.

Understanding Once you start selling, you will find out what your customer likes and
customer wants. You will also find out what your customer does not like during this
needs stage.
Improving You can use this knowledge of what your customer likes and does not like
Product/ to improve your product. (For example, Prem’s customers liked variety)
service

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 Notes

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

Activity
Business on Make-and-Sell
Materials Required
Scrap material like old newspapers, tins, glasses, etc.
Procedure
• Form groups of 4 or 5 people in each group.
• Each group comes up with an idea to make a product
using scrap material. The product will be made for other
students in class as the customer and should be useful
for them. Follow the four steps of starting a business listed
above.
• They make the product using scrap material they get from
home, etc. If time is less, students can make the product
after class and bring to the next session.
• After the teams have made the product, each team will
come and present how they used the 4 steps to come up
with the idea and build the product.
• They will then try and sell this product to everyone in
the class.
• The rest of the teams will give feedback and say what they
like and what they do not like in the product. They will
also say how much money they are willing to pay for the
product (vs. what the selling team is asking)
• At the end of this, each student writes answers to the
following questions in their notebook.
• As a seller, what were you thinking when you decided
about the business idea? Why did you select this idea for
business?
• Did you make any changes to your idea after listening to
your friends? If yes, what changes did you make?
• As a buyer, did you want to buy the product your friends
were selling to you? If yes, which product and why?
• As a seller, did you think your friends would pay you
money for your business idea? Why?
• As a buyer, did you want to pay money for the things made
by your friends? Why?
• What did you learn about business through this activity?

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 Notes Check Your Progress
A. Match the following

Column A Column B

1. Business idea A. Arun goes to the bank to get loan

for the shop
2. Get money B. Arun and Shyam are thinking
about selling tea in front of their
school
3. Customer needs C. Arun and Shyam decide to sell
tea along with free biscuits
4. Attract customers D. Shyam takes his tea samples to
customers to understand their
taste preferences

B. Short answer questions

1. My customers are not buying my food product because

they do not like the flavour of it. What step of the
business should I follow next?
2. Write the four steps of entrepreneurship development.
Give one example.

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to

• identify different steps of starting a business.
• identify the characteristics of business.

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 Unit 5
Green Skills

Introduction
The environment around us affects all aspects of our
life; and all our day-to-day activities also affect the
environment. Those who live in cities get their food
supply from surrounding villages and in turn, are
dependent on forests, grasslands, rivers, seashores,
for resources, such as water, fuel wood, fodder, etc. We
use resources from which food is made and we depend
on the community of living plants and animals, which
form a web of life. Everything around us forms our
environment and our lives depend on the flora and fauna
around us. Similarly, our school environment comprises
the physical and the socio-cultural environment. The
physical environment includes the school building and
the classrooms, library, laboratories corridors, kitchen,
toilets, garden and also the playground. The socio-
cultural environment is manifested by the school, with
climate teaching, by the teachers, student activities,
inclusivity, attitude towards learning, social behaviour,
discipline, respect for each other’s caste, religion and
creed, achievement of students, etc.

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 Over the years, with economic development, there
has been an increase in environmental pollution. For
example, with the advent of high input agriculture, we
could grow more food by using fertilisers and pesticides
and using hybrid crops, but it also resulted in the ill
effects of overuse of chemicals, which led to soil and
environmental degradation. This threatens the stability
of the environment. We need to plan the maintenance
of the areas in a sustainable manner so that we can
enjoy the good environment created by us;it may
be sustainable agriculture, developing eco-fashion
design, manufacturing of solar panels, or designing
environmentally sustainable homes.

Session 1: Society and Environment

The Constitution People live together in villages, cities, states and
of India contains countries,thus forming a ‘Society’. Society interacts
specific provisions
for the protection with the environment, and changes it at the same time.
and improvement of The interaction of the society with the environment
environmental quality. sometimes affects the ecological balance in the
Article 48-A of the environment. With the increase in population and
Constitution says
that “the state shall economic activities, people’s interference with nature
endeavour to protect has started destroying the environment. The industrial
and improve the development and intensive agriculture that provides the
environment and to goods for our increasingly consumer-oriented society
safeguard the forests
and wildlife of the uses up large amounts of natural resources, such as
country.” water, minerals, petroleum products, wood, etc.

Natural resources
A resource can be defined as any natural or artificial
substance, energy or organism, which is used by human
being for its welfare. Ever since the earth was inhabited,
humans and other life forms have depended on things
that exist freely in nature to survive. These things include
water, land, soils, rocks, forests, animals, fossil fuels
and minerals. They are called natural resources as they
are the basis of life on earth. We use these resources to
survive and also to function properly. Natural resources
can be consumed directly or indirectly. For instance,
humans depend directly on forests for food, biomass,
health, recreation and increased living comfort.

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 Indirectly forests helps in regulating climate, preventing Notes
flood, storm protection and nutrient cycling. The
resources, which have been developed by human beings
during the growth of civilisation, are called artificial
resources. For example, biogas, thermal electricity,
plastics, etc.
Natural resources come in many forms. It may be a
solid, liquid or gas. It may also be organic or inorganic.
It may also be metallic or non-metallic.
(i) Land Resources: Human beings thus, use land
as a resource for production as well as residence
and recreation. It is a finite resource which is
subject to agricultural and non-agricultural uses,
such as infrastructure development.
(ii) Forest Resources: A forest is a natural, self-
sustaining community characterised by vertical
structure created by presence of trees. Wood is
used for making furniture, tool-handles, railway
sleepers, matches, ploughs, bridges, boats, etc.
and as a source of energy for cooking purpose
and for keeping warm. Tannins, gums, drugs,
spices, insecticides, waxes, honey, horns, musk,
ivory, hides, etc. are all provided by the flora and
fauna of forests.
(iii) Water Resources: Water covers about three-
quarters of Earth’s surface and is a necessary
element for life. Water resources include rivers,
lakes, oceans, and underground aquifers, etc.
Water is a vital resource in agriculture, industrial,
household and recreational and environmental
activities.
(iv) Mineral Resources: A mineral deposit is a
concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid,
or gaseous material, in or on the Earth’s crust
in such form and amount that its extraction
and its conversion into useful materials or items
are profitable now or may be so in the future.
Mineral resources are non-renewable and include
metals (e.g., iron, copper, and aluminium),
and non-metals (e.g., salt, gypsum, clay, sand,
phosphates). Some minerals consist of a single

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 Notes element, such as gold, silver, diamond (carbon),
and sulphur.
(v) Food Resources: Resources that are used as
food, or provide food for organisms are called
food resources. Plants serve as food resources for
herbivores and omnivores. Animals and birds are
the source of food for many organisms who are
carnivores and omnivores. Agriculture is the main
source of plant food resource for human beings.
(vi) Energy Resources: An energy resource is
something that can produce heat, power life,
move objects, or produce electricity. There are 5
fundamental sources of energy: (i) Nuclear fusion
in the Sun (solar energy), (ii) Gravity generated
by the Earth and Moon, (iii) Nuclear fission
reactions, (iv) Energy in the interior of the Earth,
and (v) Energy stored in chemical bonds. Most of
the energy we use today come from fossil fuels
(stored solar energy). But fossils fuels have a
disadvantage in that they are non-renewable on
a human time scale, and causes other potentially
harmful effects on the environment.
Natural resources fall under the following main
categories:
(a) Inexhaustible Resources: The resources which
cannot be exhausted by human consumption are called
inexhaustible resources. These include energy sources
like solar radiation, wind power, water power and tidal
power, etc.
(b) Exhaustible Resources: There are some resources,
which are available in limited quantities and are going
to be exhausted as a result of continuous use. For
example, the stock of coal in the earth is limited and
one day there will be no more coal available for our use,
if we keep on using it excessively.
(c) Renewable Resources: Renewable resources are
those that are constantly available (like water) or can be
reasonably replaced or recovered, like vegetative lands
(Table 5.1). Even though some renewable resources can

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 be replaced, they may take many years to form and that
does not make them renewable.
Some of the exhaustible resources are naturally
regenerated after consumption and are known as
renewable resources. e.g., Forest trees and plants that
make a forest may be destroyed but new ones grow in
their place. But if forest is totally cut down to get land
for construction of buildings, it is lost forever.
Renewable energy systems use resources that are
constantly replaced and are usually less polluting.
Examples include hydropower, solar, wind, and
geothermal (energy from the heat inside the earth).
(d) Non-renewable Resources: Non-renewable resources
are those that cannot easily be replaced once they are
destroyed (Table 5.1). For example, fossil fuels. Minerals
are also non-renewable because even though they
form naturally in a process called the rock cycle, it can
take thousands of years, making it non-renewable.
Non-renewable resources can be called inorganic
resources if they come from non-living things. For
example, minerals, wind, land, soil and rocks.

Table 5.1: Non-renewable and Renewable Resources

Non-renewable Resources Renewable Resources

Coal Water
Coal is one of the cheapest sources of Only about 2.5 % of water on earth is fresh
fuel.It is used in power houses, factories water. Energy from rivers is used to make
and houses for cooking and heating. electricity. Energy produced by tides in sea and
oceans can also be converted into electricity.

Petroleum Sun
It includes petrol, diesel and mineral Sun’s energy can be used to generate electricity.
oils. It is used to run motor vehicles, These are used in calculators, street lamps,
furnaces and power-houses. and even in room heaters and water heaters.

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 LPG Wind
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is made The energy from the force of the wind is wind
from petroleum gas. LPG is used for energy. This energy can be used for work as
cooking and also for running vehicles. grinding grain, pumping water, etc. This energy
can also be converted to electricity.
Natural Gas Biomass
It is formed by decomposition of dead Energy can be produced by wastes from plants
animals and plants that are buried under and animals. It can be used for any heating
lakes and oceans. It is found above the purpose, such as cooking. It can also be used
oil in the oil wells. Compressed natural to produce electricity and heat.
gas (CNG) is used for running vehicles.
Nuclear Plants Soil
Nuclear energy is made available to us Nutrients in the soil helps plants grow. Soil
with the help of nuclear power plants. is used to provide shelter. Soil quality gets
Nuclear energy is becoming a common damaged due to addition to harmful chemicals,
source of electricity throughout the land pollution, construction activities, and
world. It has the danger of causing great cutting down of trees.
harm in case of an accident.
Minerals Forests
The earth contains minerals like gold, Forests are necessary to preserve ecology. They
bauxite, mica, iron-ore and many others. play an important role in providing clean air
They are reducing as larger and deeper and attracting rain clouds. They also provide
mines are being dug to obtain these the wood, fruits, and plant products which
minerals. Mining these minerals causes have medicinal value.
damage to the earth.

Traditional societies had a small population and

required less resources. They could preserve their
biodiversity as a life supporting resource. But today,
with the increasing consumerism and affluent societies,
resources are getting rapidly depleted, even to the extent
of leading to the irrecoverable loss due to extinction of
several plant and animal species. Some of the human
activities, which cause damage to the environment are
over exploitation of resources, pollution, deforestation,
mining, destruction of natural habitats, construction,
etc. Let us now discuss how some of these activities are
damaging our earth and environment.
(i) Overexploitation: This results when harvesting
of resources exceeds their reproduction or
replenishment. It means that when we exploit
the species faster than the natural populations
can recover, then it may result in extinction of
the species, thus affecting directly or indirectly

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 the ecological cycle and our environment. For Notes
example, removal of wild medicinal plants,
excessive grazing of pastures by animals,
destruction of forests, and water aquifers,
overfishing and over hunting, results in
overexploitation of forests and natural habitats.
(ii) Mining: Mines are dug below the earth’s surface
to get ores. The ores are then refined to extract
the valuable elements, such as metals, gems,
minerals, etc. Some of the environmental impacts
of mining include erosion, formation of sinkholes,
loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil,
groundwater and surface water by chemicals
from the mining processes.
(iii) Deforestation: It is the clearance of a forest or
stand of trees where the land is converted to a non-
forest use, such as agriculture and construction
of houses. It results in loss of habitat for many
plants and animals living in the forest. It may also
lead to extinction of plant and animal species.
(iv) Pollution: This word is derived from the Latin
word “polluere” meaning “to soil” or “defile
(contaminate)”. Pollution is caused by pollutants,
which may be solid, liquid or gaseous in nature.
Pollution is the effect of undesirable changes in
our surroundings that have harmful effects on
plants, animals and human beings. Pollutants
are produced due to human activity, which
have a detrimental effect on our environment.
For example, factories consume a lot of water
and electricity and release harmful chemicals
in air, land and water, thus contaminating the
atmosphere. Water pollution caused by factories
and other industries can be the most serious
problem. They also pollute the air through fossil
fuel emissions. These emissions include carbon
dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are
harmful to the living beings.

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 Pollutants are of two types, as described in Table 5.2.
Table 5.2: Pollutants
Pollutants that can decompose Pollutants that cannot decompose
Pollutants that break down into simpler, Pollutants which cannot be broken down into
harmless substances naturally (by the simpler and harmless substances are called
action of moisture and bacteria) are called non-biodegradable pollutants. The harmful
biodegradable pollutants effect caused by these pollutants will be there
for hundreds of years.
Examples: vegetable waste, sewage waste, Examples: plastics, insecticides, pesticides,
paper, wood, cattle dung, agricultural waste chemicals like mercury or lead, aluminium,
from organic farms, etc. glass, etc.

Some of the other factors responsible for polluting the

environment are as follows:
• Exhaust fumes released from vehicle pollutes
the air.
• Excessive use of chemicals in agriculture (like
insecticides and fertilisers) affect the alkailinity
of the soil or the soil pH. It adversely affects the
health of microorganisms and other organisms in
the soil.
• Plastic waste like bottles, bags, etc., thrown on
land and sea pollutes the water and destroys the
flora and fauna.
• Dangerous gases (cholorofluorocarbons or CFCs,
methane, carbon dioxide, etc.) released into
the air.
The various types of pollution are summarised in
Table 5.3.

Table 5.3: Types of Pollution

Land Pollution Water Pollution Air Pollution
What it is? • Damage to the • Adding harmful • Addition of harmful
land because substances and gases and particles
of harmful disease causing in air results in air
substances is bacteria and other pollution.
known as land microorganisms to
pollution. rivers, lakes, and
oceans results in
water pollution.

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 Land Pollution Water Pollution Air Pollution
What happens • Diseases, such • Diseases, such as • Heart and breathing
because of this as dysentery, dysentery, diarrhoea, problems and
pollution? cholera and jaundice, typhoid, etc. cancers.
typhoid • Local earnings, like • Climate change,
• Less land is tourism, fishing, etc. droughts, famines
available for use are adversely affected. and floods
of forests, farms • Less drinking water
or homes
Why does it • Cutting down • Throwing waste in • Burning of fuels
happen? forests water • Smoke from traffic
• Harmful • Leakage from sewer • Burning waste and
pesticides and lines remains of crops
fertilisers • Release of waste water • Pesticides and
• Mining and heavy from houses, farms fertilisers
construction and factories • Smoke from factories
• Release of • Accidental oil leakage • Dust from
sewage, toilet from ships construction
waste, waste from
houses/factories,
and chemical
waste
How to prevent • Reduce waste • Do not throw waste • Use renewable
it? • Segregate into water bodies sources of energy
(separate) waste • Do not throw • Avoid polluting
products chemicals, medicines, vehicles
• Plant trees oils, etc., in drains • Stop others from
• Adopt natural • Avoid using pesticides burning waste and
and organic and fertilisers left-over crops
farming methods • Ensure proper • Avoid pesticides
• Use biodegradable treatment of sewage and fertilisers which
items and factory waste release harmful
• Use water wisely gases

If we separate all our waste before throwing it away, it

will help us manage the non-biodegradable pollutants
in a better manner. For example, if you keep all your
vegetable waste covered in soil for some weeks, it will
make the soil fertile and you will have less waste to
throw away. Also harmful wastes can be separated from
water before it mixes into our drinking water.

Climate change
Have you ever sat in a car or bus which has been
parked in an open area under the sun, with windows

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 Notes closed for a long time? Have you felt that it is much
hotter inside a closed vehicle because the heated air is
blocked inside? Similarly, the earth is becoming hotter
because of burning fossil fuels (coal, petrol, diesel, etc.).
These gases trap and prevent the earth’s heat from
escaping, leading to a global warming. This is called the
“greenhouse effect”.
Forests are the main mechanism for the conversion
of carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen. The loss
of forest cover, coupled with the increasing release of
carbon dioxide and other gases through industrialization
contributes to the ‘greenhouse effect’. Some greenhouse
gases occur naturally and enter the atmosphere as a
result of both natural processes (such as decomposition
of organic matter) and human activity (such as burning
fossil fuels and agriculture).
Greenhouse gases that occur both naturally and
from human activities include water vapour, carbon
dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and
ozone (O3). Other greenhouse gases have essentially no
natural sources, but are the side products of industrial
processes or manufactured for human purposes,
such as cleaning agents, refrigerants, and electrical
insulators. These include the fluorinated gases:
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydro chlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs). This greenhouse
effect causes snow to melt very fast.
Carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from
burning oil, coal and gas for energy use is a serious
problem as it is harmful to the environment. Carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 31% since
pre-industrial times, causing more heat to be trapped
in the lower atmosphere. As a result, there are frequent
floods and changes in climate as well as damage to
crops and animal life.

Harmful radiation
You might be knowing that the atmosphere protects us
from harmful radiation from the sun. This is done by a
layer all around the earth, in the atmosphere, called the
‘Ozone Layer’. It is made of a gas called ‘Ozone’. This

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 layer in the atmosphere protects us from the harmful Notes
radiation.
Cleaning chemicals, coolants in refrigerators and air-
conditioners, etc., release ozone depleting substances,
such as chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. These
destroy the ozone in the atmosphere, making ‘holes’ in
the ozone layer. The harmful radiation comes in through
these ‘holes’ and cause increased incidence of health
disorders, such as skin cancer.

Natural disasters
Natural disasters include floods, earthquakes,
landslides, storms, etc. Our actions in exploiting
natural resources for building structures, such as large
dams and buidlings sometimes aggravates the impact
of natural calamities and disasters.

Saving the environment: What can you do?

To save our environment, we need to educate people.
Education is important, as it gives people the knowledge
and skills that they need to perform. Educating people
about the environment, through the environment and
for the environment will enlighten them in utilizing
their knowledge and skills for saving the environment
as responsible citizens.
(i) Learning about the environment: Learning
about the environment focuses mainly on
acquisition of knowledge and understanding of
our surroundings and related issues.
(ii) Learning through the environment: Learning
through the environment refers to the processes
of learning while being engaged with environment
inside and outside the classroom. It focuses on
learning process, such as observation, hands-on
experience, learning-by-doing, problem-solving
through an exposure to the environment and
learning. The direct contact with the environment
provides the relevant context for acquiring
knowledge, skills, aesthetic appreciation and
practical experience to learning. Environment
damage can be minimised by developing the skills

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 and knowledge required for efficient resource
utilisation, green processes and technologies
and integrating these into our businesses and
daily activities.
(iii) Learning for the environment: Learning for
the environment aims at the development of an
informed response and responsibility towards
DUCE the environment.

RE USE Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

There are three Rs which you can apply for saving
CYCLE the environment – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It is a
concept of the modern waste management.
Reduce: Do not use what you do not need. If we reduce at
source, there is a lesser chance of waste generation and
the pressure on our already stretched natural resources
is reduced. On an individual level we can reduce the use
of unnecessary items while shopping, buy items with
minimal packaging, avoid buying disposable items and
also avoid asking for plastic carry bags. Use your own
reusable cloth or jute bags instead of plastic bags.
Reuse: Reuse the materials for other purposes, such
as making pillow covers or rags out of used shirts or
ladies suits.
Recycling: Recycling is reusing some components of the
waste that may have some economic value. Recycling
has readily visible benefits, such as conservation of
resources reduction in energy used during manufacture
and reducing pollution levels. Some materials, such
as aluminum and steel can be recycled many times.
Metal, paper, glass and plastics are recyclable. Plastic
items are recycled into new plastic products. Kitchen
wet waste can be utilised to make compost that can
be used as an organic fertiliser. To do this every house
should segregate the waste into wet and dry garbage.
Wet garbage includes most kitchen wastes, which can
be used for preparing vermicompost. Most dry garbage
is recyclable. Several technological breakthroughs
have recently been made to recover material from
industrial waste. Non-toxic solid waste should be
properly segregated and disposed of in landfills that are

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 properly sealed to avoid leakage and contamination of
surrounding land and groundwater.
Let us now see some examples of 3 Rs (Table 5.4).

Table 5.4: Examples of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Reduce: Use less things Reuse: Use things for Recycle: Use things in new or
longer time different ways

Paper for each notebook Use both sides of paper Paper is recycled into making
means cutting down for writing. Give your old paper again. It is also used to make
of a tree. Do not leave books and notebooks to papier mache, which is a composite
too much spaces, while someone who can use material consisting of paper pieces
writing the text. Reduce them. In this way, you or pulp which is sometimes
the wastage of paper. will promote reuse of reinforced with textiles, bound with
paper. an adhesive, such as glue, starch,
or wallpaper paste.

Actions for saving the environment

Some actions that you can take for yourself and
encourage your friends, family and neighbours to take
are shown in Table 5.5.
Table 5.5: Actions for Saving the Environment
Avoid Prefer
Air pollution Burning materials, for example Using natural ventilation or fans in
burning wheat or rice straw in place of airconditioners
agricultural field
Energy use Leaving electrical lights or Using public transport buses and
appliances on, when not required cycles (instead of cars), using solar
or wind energy
Water pollution Throwing waste in rivers and Using recycled water or water
lakes harvested through rains for
watering garden plants
Waste Using plastic bags Segregating waste before throwing,
so that the biodegradable waste
can be harvested
Chemicals in food Using chemical pesticides or Organic (natural and chemical free)
fertilisers food to promote organic farming
Forest Plants Over-use of paper should be Reusing paper for making paper
avoided based products
Water Over-use of water should be Reducing water use during bathing
avoided by using water filled in a bucket
instead of shower

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 Notes

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

Activity 1
Factors influencing the environment
Materials required
Pen and Notebook
Procedure
• Form groups of three students.
• Based on what you learnt about the environment and how
different things or actions are effecting the environment,
make a list of all factors (things or actions) that affect the
environment.
• Think about all the articles you use daily that are made
from plastic and answer the following questions
(a) How plastic is made?
(b) What are those plastic articles you usually use?
(c) What effects does plastic have on our environment?
(d) How can you reduce the amount of plastic you use?
(e) What happens to plastic when you throw it away?
• Discuss these factors in detail. One volunteer group
explains their list to the rest of the class who give feedback.

Activity 2
Steps you can take to save the environment
Materials required
Pen, Notebook
Procedure
• Use same groups as above.
• Think about your day from the time you wake up until the
time you sleep. In this time, what steps can you take to
help save the environment?
• Write a note on the actions that you would take at home
or at school to do the following activities:
(a) Collecting waste paper and reusing what is reusable
(for crafts, papiermache, making rough books, etc.)
(b) Encouraging use of both sides of paper.
(c) Discouraging wastage and casual use of paper,
pencils, etc.
(d) Proper use of notebooks and not tearing out pages.
(e) Discouraging use of throw away pens and encouraging
use of refillable items.
(f) Making rough pads with blank sheets from old
notebooks.

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 Check Your Progress Notes
A. Multiple choice questions
Read the questions carefully and circle the letter (a),
(b), (c) or (d) that best answers the question.
1. What are some of the environmental changes caused
due to modern methods of agriculture?
(a) Chemical pollution due to fertilisers
(b) Improvement in the environment
(c) Lower air pollution due to crops
(d) Decrease in forest areas
2. How can we conserve our health and environment?
(Choose all the correct options)
(a) Grow organic crops
(b) Use natural fertilisers
(c) Manage waste water
(d) Use more air conditioning
3. A steel factory burns firewood and charcoal for heating
and melting the steel? What are the possible effects on
the environment? (Choose all the correct options)
(a) Increase in global temperature
(b) Decrease in global temperature
(c) Increase in air pollution
(d) Decrease in air pollution

B. Short answer questions

1. What are the five sources of energy available to us?

Give two examples of each source?
2. What are the sources of pollution?
3. Classify the following under the three respective
categories of natural resources:
Air, iron, sand, petroleum, wind, clay, fish, forest, gold,
pearls.
Inexhaustible Renewable Non- renewable

What have you learnt?

After completing this session, you will be able to
• describe the relation between society and environment.
• identify common environmental problems.

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 Notes Session 2: Conserving Natural Resources
In this session, you will learn about the actions that we
can take to conserve natural resources. Conservation
is the proper management of a natural resource to
prevent its exploitation, destruction or degradation.
Conservation is the sum total of activities, which
can derive benefits from natural resources but at the
same time prevent excessive use, which may lead to
destruction or degradation. It means using them more
efficiently and less wastefully.
As a first step, we can conduct the resource audit
to examine the consumption of the resources and
accordingly take measures to conserve them. For
example, for an energy use audit, we can examine the
use of the air conditioning system, ventilation system,
light system and entry of sunlight into the room or the
building. We can plan energy saving measures, such as
cleaning the dust from the tubelights to get more light,
regular servicing and maintenance of home appliances
and switching off lights and devices when not in use,
etc. to conserve energy. Energy conservation also help
in saving fossil fuel and money.

Soil conservation
Soil conservation means checking soil erosion and
improving soil fertility by adopting various methods.
Soil conservation can be useful for the following:
1. Maintenance of soil fertility: The fertility can be
maintained by adding manure and fertilizers
regularly as well as by rotation of crop.
2. Control on grazing: Grazing should be allowed
only on specified areas.
3. Reforestation: Planting of trees and vegetation
reduces soil erosion.
4. Terracing: Dividing a slope into several flat fields
to control rapid run of water. It is practised mostly
in hilly areas.
5. Contour ploughing: Ploughing at right angles to
the slope allows the furrows to trap water and
check soil erosion by rain water.

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 Water conservation
Conservation and management of water are essential
for the survival of mankind, plants and animals. This
can be achieved by adopting the following methods:
1. Growing vegetation in the catchment areas, which
will hold water in the soil and allow it to percolate
into deeper layers and contribute to formation of
ground water.
2. Constructing dams and reservoirs to regulate
supply of water to the fields, as well as to enable
generation of hydroelectricity.
3. Sewage should be treated and only the clear water
should be released into the rivers.
4. Industrial wastes (effluents) should be treated
to prevent chemical and thermal pollution of
fresh water.
5. Judicious use of water in our day-to-day life.
6. Rainwater harvesting should be done by storing
rainwater and recharging groundwater.
7. Watershed, which is a single unit of land with its
water drainage system includes soil and water
management for developing vegetative cover in
the area.

Energy conservation
We use a lot of non-renewable energy resource for our
needs. Since resources are limited, we need to conserve
them as much as possible. Conservation of resources or
energy means saving them and using them efficiently.
Can you think of ways to save the natural resources?
Some ideas have been given here in table 5.6.
Table 5.6: Ways of Conserving Energy
• Switch off lights, fans, TV and other electrical items, when not in use
• Use tube lights and energy efficient bulbs that save energy rather than bulbs.
• Keep the bulbs and tubes clean.
• Remove dust on the tubes and bulbs to improve lighting levels by 10 to 20%.
• Use pressure cooker to save energy required for cooking.
• Keep vessels covered with a lid during cooking. It is useful in cooking the food faster
and saving energy.
• Electric items like air conditioners geysers, heaters and dryers use a lot of electrical
power. Use them when necessary.

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 • Do not keep the door of a refrigerator open for a long time.
• Cool hot food before putting in the refrigerator.
• Use methods of cooking that use less energy, like use a pressure cooker or solar cooker
to cook food.
• Travelling in a bus or travelling in a group in a carpool is better than going alone in
a car.

Do you know? Food conservation

In the long-term, Food conservation and storage have been practiced to
renewable energy will be feed mankind in times of shortage. Food is stored in
cheaper and will cause
less pollution. warehouses on large scale and in refrigerators at home.
Food is also preserved through various methods to
prevent the spoilage due to harmful bacteria and other
microorganisms.

Forest conservation
Forest conservation means the retention of existing
forest or the creation of new forest at the levels prescribed
by the State or local authority. Participation of the
community living in and around the forest is important
for the success of the forest conservation programme.

The teacher will facilitate these activities and give additional

feedback and summarise for the students as needed.

Activity 1
Conserving natural resources
Material required
Pen, notebook, chart paper, colours, crayons etc.
Procedure
• Form a group with four students in each group.
• Make a list of all the energy or natural resources you use
in a day, such as petrol or diesel for coming to school in a
bus, electricity for light, etc. Then make a list of how you
can reduce the amount of resources in each step.
• Make a poster on ‘Conserving the Environment’. Write
short note on the following topics:
(a) Rain water harvesting
(b) Home composting
(c) Garden on terrace,
(d) Organic gardening
(e) Drip irrigation

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Unit 5.indd 180 24-08-2018 16:40:39