Chapter 5 INDUSTRIES

Classification Of Industries

Industries are economic activities focused on producing goods, extracting minerals, or providing services. They can be classified based on several factors:

Raw Materials

• Agro-based: Utilize plant and animal products (e.g., food processing, cotton textile, dairy).
• Mineral-based: Use mineral ores as raw materials (e.g., iron and steel).
• Marine-based: Process sea and ocean products (e.g., fish oil).
• Forest-based: Utilize forest produce (e.g., paper, furniture).

Size

• Small-scale: Involve less capital, people, and production volume. Includes cottage industries (handicrafts) and industries like silk weaving and food processing.
• Large-scale: Require significant capital, employment, and produce large volumes using advanced technology (e.g., automobiles, heavy machinery).

Ownership

• Private Sector: Owned and operated by individuals or groups.
• Public Sector: Owned and operated by the government (e.g., SAIL).
• Joint Sector: Owned and operated jointly by the government and individuals.
• Cooperative Sector: Owned and operated by producers or suppliers of raw materials, or workers (e.g., Amul, Sudha Dairy).

Factors Affecting Location Of Industries

The location of industries is influenced by factors such as the availability of raw materials, land, water, labor, power, capital, transport, and markets. Governments often provide incentives like subsidies and infrastructure development to encourage industries in backward areas, leading to the growth of towns and cities.

Industrial System

An industrial system comprises inputs (raw materials, labor, capital, infrastructure), processes (transforming raw materials into finished products like ginning, spinning, weaving, dyeing for textiles), and outputs (the final product and income earned). For example, the inputs for a shirt include cotton, labor, factory, and transport costs, with the output being the finished shirt.

Industrial Regions

Industrial regions form when numerous industries cluster together, sharing benefits of proximity. Major global regions include eastern North America, western and central Europe, eastern Europe, and eastern Asia. In India, significant industrial regions are the Mumbai-Pune cluster, Bangalore-Tamil Nadu region, Hugli region, Ahmedabad-Baroda region, Chottanagpur industrial belt, Vishakhapatnam-Guntur belt, Gurgaon-Delhi-Meerut region, and the Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram industrial cluster. These regions are often located in temperate areas, near seaports, and coalfields.

Industrial Disaster

Industrial accidents, primarily caused by technical failures or mishandling of hazardous materials, can lead to severe consequences. The Bhopal disaster in 1984, involving a massive leak of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas from a pesticide factory, resulted in thousands of deaths and long-term health issues for survivors. In 2005, a gas well blowout in Chongqing, China, caused numerous deaths and injuries. Measures to reduce such risks include separating residential areas from industrial zones, improving fire safety systems, limiting storage of toxic substances, and enhancing pollution control.

Distribution Of Major Industries

The world's major industries are iron and steel, textiles, and information technology. While iron and steel and textiles are established industries, IT is an emerging sector. Major iron and steel producers include Germany, USA, China, Japan, and Russia. The textile industry is concentrated in India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Silicon Valley (California) and Bangalore (India) are key hubs for the Information Technology industry.

Iron And Steel Industry

The iron and steel industry is a feeder industry, providing raw materials for other sectors. It involves inputs like iron ore, coal, limestone, labor, capital, and infrastructure. The process includes smelting iron ore in a blast furnace and refining it to produce steel, which is strong, can be shaped easily, and is resistant to rust, often enhanced with alloys. Steel is fundamental to modern infrastructure, used in vehicles, tools, machinery, and buildings.

Jamshedpur

Located in Jharkhand, Jamshedpur is a major iron and steel center, conveniently situated near raw material sources (iron ore, coal, manganese from Odisha and Chhattisgarh), water (Kharkai and Subarnarekha rivers), and the Kolkata market. TISCO, established in 1907, was India's first major steel plant, and its success spurred further industrial development in the region.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, a significant steel city in the USA, benefits from its location near coalfields and the Great Lakes waterway, which facilitates cheap transport of iron ore from Minnesota. Its proximity to the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny rivers ensures water supply. While historically located near raw materials, steel mills have shifted to areas with better port facilities for importing raw materials and exporting finished goods.

Cotton Textile Industry

Weaving cloth from fibers like cotton, wool, silk, jute, and man-made fibers is an ancient art. The cotton textile industry, initially reliant on hand spinning and looms, developed significantly with power looms after the Industrial Revolution. India, China, Japan, and the USA are major producers. India has a rich tradition of hand-spun and hand-woven textiles, but mechanized industries from the West later outcompeted them due to lower costs and higher production. Mumbai, with its favorable climate, port facilities, and labor availability, became an early center for the mechanized textile industry.

Ahmedabad

Located in Gujarat, Ahmedabad is a major textile center known as the "Manchester of India." Its development is attributed to proximity to cotton-growing areas, a favorable climate for textile production, ample land, skilled labor from surrounding regions, and good transport links, including nearby port facilities for imports and exports.

Osaka

Osaka, known as the "Manchester of Japan," thrives due to its extensive plains providing land for mills, a warm humid climate suitable for spinning and weaving, the Yodo River for water supply, readily available labor, and port facilities for importing raw cotton and exporting finished textiles. However, other industries have increasingly overshadowed its textile sector.

Exercises

The chapter's exercises focus on understanding industries by defining key terms like 'industry' and distinguishing between different classifications (agro-based vs. mineral-based, public vs. joint sector). They require identifying factors influencing industry location, explaining the reasons behind the expansion of the cotton textile industry in Mumbai, and comparing conventional and non-conventional energy sources. Practical activities include listing raw materials and end products, identifying tertiary activities, and locating iron and steel industries on a map, culminating in a group activity to decide the optimal location for a steel plant based on various factors.