Resource
Topic: Natural Resources: Classification, Planning and Sustainable Use · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 1 "Resources and Development"
Meaning
A resource is anything in our surroundings that can meet human needs, if three conditions hold. It must be technologically accessible, which means we have the tools to reach it. It must be economically feasible, which means it is worth the cost of taking out. It must be culturally acceptable, which means people accept its use. Resources are not free gifts of nature. They are created by human activity, through the link between nature, technology and institutions (the rules and organisations a society builds). As Erich Zimmermann (1933) put it, "resources are not, they become."
Example
Sunlight has always fallen on the desert at Bhadla in Rajasthan. It became a resource only when solar panels made it usable and cheap enough. Today Bhadla Solar Park turns that sunlight into electricity.
Don't confuse with
- Natural resource: this is only the part that comes from nature. A resource also covers human skills, because humans are themselves resources.