NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Social Science Chapter 9 Regulation of Unfair Practices — THINK ABOUT IT

Method. Look for a price that is printed or notified rather than bargained — a fare chart at a bus stand, the maximum retail price on a medicine strip, a notified minimum wage, a ration-shop rate. For each, ask two questions: is this a maximum (a price ceiling, protecting buyers) or a minimum (a price floor, protecting sellers or workers)? And who would be hurt if the price were left entirely to the market?

What a good answer must contain: one specific example you have actually seen, whether it is a ceiling or a floor, and the welfare reason behind it in the chapter's terms — that markets allocate by willingness and ability to pay, so essentials can become inaccessible to those with less purchasing power.

Sample answer. On every medicine strip at our chemist's shop there is a printed maximum retail price, and the shopkeeper cannot charge more than that even when a medicine is in short supply. This is a price ceiling. It was done because a person who is ill has almost no choice — they cannot postpone the purchase or switch to a substitute the way they could with tea and coffee — so without a cap a seller could charge a great deal during a shortage. The chapter gives exactly this case: “the government sets maximum prices (price ceiling) for essential goods like medicines to prevent overcharging.”

The clearest example the chapter itself records is the sanitiser cap of 2020. Demand surged, stocks ran out, prices rose sharply, and some shopkeepers began hoarding and black-marketing. The government declared sanitisers essential commodities under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and capped the maximum retail price at ₹100 for a 200 ml bottle. Meanwhile many companies started production and sanitisers soon became widely available at fair prices.