Official syllabus
ICSE Class X Economics Syllabus 2026 – 27
Explore the official topics, exam pattern and source PDF in one place.
Overview
Purpose: Economics helps students understand economic concepts and problems, relate theory to everyday life, and develop the ability to interpret economic information and reason about choices, resources and public policy.
Class X focus: The course develops the study of productive resources, market structures and economic institutions, public finance, money and banking, inflation and consumer awareness. Students connect these areas with contemporary Indian economic conditions and apply their understanding through internal-assessment assignments.
Full syllabus
Aims and Eligibility instruction
Candidates offering Economic Applications in (Group III) are not eligible to offer Economics (Group II)
Aims:
- To acquire the knowledge of terms, facts, concepts, trends, principles, assumptions, etc. in Economics.
- To develop familiarity with the basic terminology and elementary ideas of Economics.
- To acquire knowledge of contemporary economic problems and to appreciate the efforts being made to solve these problems.
- To develop an understanding of the Nation’s physical and human resources and how to avoid their misuse.
- To understand the various economic processes that help in improving our standard of living.
The Productive Mechanism unit
1. The Productive Mechanism
Factors of production: Land, labour, capital and entrepreneur: their impact on the production structure in an economy.
(i) Land: meaning and characteristics, productivity of land – meaning only; factors affecting productivity of land.
(ii) Labour: meaning and characteristics; division of labour: meaning, type and advantages; efficiency of labour; meaning, reasons for low efficiency of Indian labour.
(iii) Capital: meaning and characteristics and types: physical and financial capital- meaning with examples; Capital Formation; meaning, Process of capital formation; Need for capital formation;
(iv) Entrepreneur: meaning, functions and role of entrepreneur in economic development.
Theory of Demand and Supply unit
2. Theory of Demand and Supply
(i) Meaning and concept of Demand and Supply.
Law of demand and supply: demand and supply schedule and curve (both individual and market); movement and shift of the demand and supply curve; determinants of demand and supply; exceptions to the law of demand.
Meaning of demand and supply; the concept of Demand, types of demand and concept of supply to be explained (with examples).
A basic understanding of the law of demand and supply in which demand and supply schedules to be used to explain the demand and supply curves. The individual demand and supply curves must be distinguished from market demand and supply curves. Concept of movement and shift of Demand and Supply curves are to be explained. Determinants of demand and supply are to be specified. Exceptions to the law of demand are to be discussed.
(ii) Elasticity of demand and elasticity of supply: meaning, types, percentage method of measuring elasticity of demand and elasticity of supply, factors affecting elasticity of demand and supply.
The concept of price elasticity of demand and elasticity of supply are to be explained with percentage method. Factors affecting the elasticity of demand and supply are to be specified. (Numerical problems are not for testing).
Market unit
3. Market
Meaning and types.
Meaning of Market; Types of Markets: Perfect competition, Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly - meaning with examples; a brief understanding of the features of the different types of markets along with differences.
Banking in India unit
4. Banking in India
(i) Money
A basic understanding of the inconvenience of the barter system and the evolution of money; legal definition of money; functions of money: medium of exchange, measure of value; standard of deferred payment, store of value.
(ii) Commercial banks: Meaning and functions.
Meaning. Functions of Commercial banks: Accepting deposits (a brief understanding of the types of deposits); Advancing loans (a brief understanding of the types of loans, methods of advancing loans); Credit creation (a brief understanding of credit creation on the basis of Primary and derivative deposits).
(iii) Central Bank
Meaning. Functions of Central Bank: monopoly of Note issue; Bankers Bank; Banker, Agent and Advisor to the Government; Custodian of Foreign Exchange; Lender of the Last Resort: A brief understanding of the functions.
(iv) Monetary Policy of the Central Bank
(a) Qualitative Credit control measures: margin requirements; credit rationing; moral suasion.
(b) Quantitative Credit control measures: Bank Rate, Open Market Operations, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), Statutory Liquidity Ratio.
A brief understanding of the above.
(v) Demonetisation
A brief understanding.
(vi) Public Finance
(a) Meaning of Public Finance.
(b) Sources of Public Revenue:
- Tax Revenue.
Direct Tax (meaning, merits and demerits); Indirect Tax (meaning, merits and demerits); difference between direct and indirect taxes.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) - Meaning and objectives;
Progressive, proportional, regressive and degressive taxes - meaning only. - Non-tax revenue.
Meaning with examples.
(c) Public Expenditure.
Meaning of public expenditure, Revenue and Capital expenditure with examples; reason for growth of public expenditure in India.
(d) Public Debt.
Meaning and types of Public debts.
Inflation unit
5. Inflation
(i) Inflation, Wholesale Price Index (WPI), Consumer Price Index (CPI), Food Basket.
Meaning of the above.
(ii) Stages of Inflation
Creeping, Walking, Running and Hyper – meaning only.
(iii) Types of Inflation: Cost push inflation and demand- pull inflation
Meaning, causes and differences only (diagram not required). Positive and negative effects of inflation on production. Positive and negative effects of inflation on distribution with reference to fixed income group and business income group only.
Consumer Awareness unit
6. Consumer Awareness
(i) Consumer Exploitation and Consumer awareness.
Meaning of consumer exploitation; a brief understanding of the forms of consumer exploitation; reasons for exploitation of consumers in India - a brief understanding. Meaning of Consumer Awareness.
(ii) Consumer Rights & Duties.
A brief understanding of the above. COPRA - meaning and features; RTI - meaning and significance.
(iii) Food adulteration.
Meaning and harmful effects.
(iv) Technical and Administrative measures for Consumer Protection:
A brief understanding of: Public Distribution System (PDS); Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS); AGMARK, ECOMARK.
Marks & examination pattern
| Assessment | Marks | Weightage |
|---|---|---|
| Paper: Theory | 80.00 | |
| Internal Assessment | 20.00 |
Paper: Theory
- Duration
- 2 hours
There will be one paper of two hours duration carrying 80 marks and Internal Assessment of 20 marks. The paper will be divided into two sections A and B.
Paper pattern and choice
Section A will consist of questions requiring short answers and will cover the entire syllabus. There will be no choice of questions. Section B will consist of questions which will require detailed answers. There will be a choice and candidates will be required to answer four questions from this section.
Internal Assessment
One project/assignment as prescribed by the teacher from the syllabus.
Practical & Projects
Internal Assessment
The minimum number of assignments:
One project/assignment as prescribed by the teacher from the syllabus.
Suggested Assignments:
- A visit to a local industrial unit and analyse the combination of the factors of production being used in the production process.
- Survey 15 people from your neighbourhood about the type of taxes they pay. From your survey conclude which type of tax is easier to pay and why.
- Visit a nearby store. Select five items of regular consumption. Study the following: the impact of GST on these five products; how this has impacted the demand for these products; how it has benefitted the producer, consumer and the government.
EVALUATION
The assignments/project works are to be evaluated by the subject teacher and by an External Examiner.
(The External Examiner may be a teacher nominated by the Head of the school, who could be from the faculty, but not teaching the subject in the section/class. For example, a teacher of Economics of Class XI may be deputed to be an External Examiner for Class X, Economics projects.)
The Internal Examiner and the External Examiner will assess the assignments independently.
Award of Marks: (20 Marks)
Subject Teacher (Internal Examiner) 10 marks
External Examiner 10 marks
The total marks obtained out of 20 are to be sent to the Council by the Head of the school.
The Head of the school will be responsible for the online entry of marks on the Council’s CAREERS portal by the due date.
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT IN ECONOMICS - GUIDELINES FOR MARKING WITH GRADES
| Grade | Preparation/ Research | Information | Observation | Inference | Presentation | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Follows instructions with understanding. Masters research techniques easily. Reference work is orderly. | A good deal of relevant matter. Uses wide range of sources. | Systematic record of data; good arrangement of data; creative representation. | Work indicates understanding, good comprehension of subject. | Methodical, precise and clear expression; neat and tidy presentation; optimum utilisation of skills. | 4 |
| II | Follows instructions but needs a little help in research techniques. Reference notes quite orderly. | Selects matter relevant to context. Limited use of references/ sources. | Able to record data correctly. | Can judge and grasp information correctly; conclusion quantitatively evaluated. | Work neat and tidy and clearly presented; methodical and appropriate techniques used. | 3 |
| III | Follows instructions but needs constant guidance. Reference notes at times disorderly. | Relevant matter but limited reference work. Matter is sketchy. | Assistance required in presenting, recording and arranging data. | Requires some assistance to grasp the relevance and validity of information; able to relate to economic scenario. | Reasonably clear but work disorganised in places; writing untidy in places. | 2 |
| IV | Struggles with research methods and needs constant guidance. Reference notes copied without reference to keywords. | Hardly any reference material. Use of irrelevant matter. Matter is quite sketchy. | Tends to make mistakes in organising data. | Assistance required in order to grasp the relevance and validity of information; tends to make errors. | Sequence of work acceptable but not very neat; poor presentation. | 1 |
| V | Cannot follow instructions. Works ‘blindly’ without reference to keywords. | No reference work/copied from other textbooks/ sketchy matter. | Makes mistakes in organizing data; not able to proceed even with assistance. | Cannot process results; faulty conclusions in spite of assistance provided. | Data presentation untidy and disorganised; effort and initiative lacking. | 0 |
Prescribed Books
Refer to the official source; no separate requirements have been recorded.