NCERT Solutions for Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 12 Understanding Markets
Updated on 2026-09-05
About this chapter
A market is any place — or platform — where people buy and sell. It is the bazaar , the haat , the mārukatté of Kannada; it can be a weekly cart-market, a mall, a mandī, or an app on a phone. The chapter opens in the Hampi Bazaar of the Vijayanagara Empire, which the Portuguese traveller Domingos Paes called “the best-provided city in the world”. Every market needs a buyer, a seller and a price they both accept. The guava story makes this concrete: at ₹80/kg the cart stays full and buyers walk away; at ₹20/kg the cart empties at once and buyers are left disappointed; at ₹40/kg everyone is served. Over time, the quantity offered by sellers and the quantity wanted by buyers settle the price. Markets come in pairs of types. Physical and online; domestic and international; wholesale and retail
- Chapter opening
- What is a Market?
- The Glorious Hampi Bazaar, Karnataka
- Fig. 12.4
- After the skit
- Where bargaining stops
- –253Prices and Markets
- Late-night vegetables and end-of-season woollens
- Physical and online markets compared
- Fig. 12.11, Movement of Physical Goods in Markets
Exercises
- Chapter opening — The Big Questions Page 247
- What is a Market? — In-text Questions Page 250
- The Glorious Hampi Bazaar, Karnataka — LET'S EXPLORE Page 251
- Fig. 12.4 — LET'S EXPLORE Page 251
- After the skit — In-text Questions Page 252
- Where bargaining stops — THINK ABOUT IT Page 252
- –253Prices and Markets — In-text Questions Page 252
- Late-night vegetables and end-of-season woollens — THINK ABOUT IT Page 254
- Physical and online markets compared — THINK ABOUT IT Page 255
- Fig. 12.11, Movement of Physical Goods in Markets — LET'S EXPLORE Page 257
- Tracing a real supply chain in your own neighbourhood — LET'S EXPLORE Page 262
- Surat — DON'T MISS OUT Page 262
- The Role of Markets in People's Lives — THINK ABOUT IT Page 263
- Aakriti the painter — In-text Questions Page 263
- How markets benefit society — LET'S EXPLORE Page 263
- Traditions that go beyond buying and selling — LET'S EXPLORE Page 265
- Government's Role — LET'S EXPLORE Page 266
- Kauṭilya's Arthaśhāstra on the ghee trade — THINK ABOUT IT Page 267
- Providing public goods — THINK ABOUT IT Page 267
- How can consumers assess the quality of products and services? — THINK ABOUT IT Page 268
- Fig. 12.29 — In-text Questions Page 268
- BEE Star labels at home — LET'S EXPLORE Page 269
- Reputation, word of mouth and online reviews — In-text Questions Page 269
- The chapter in four points — Before we move on … Page 270
- –272End-of-chapter exercise — Questions and activities Page 271