CBSE Class 12 Geography Secondary Activities Notes

Secondary Activities

Secondary Activities are involved in transforming raw materials into valuable products. These activities provide finished goods for the consumption of consumers. Thus, secondary activities include manufacturing, processing and construction (infrastructure) industries

Manufacturing

Manufacturing refers to the conversion of finished goods through the application of power. Manufacturing may be done by modern methods or may be primitive. Modern manufacturing is characterised by application of power, mass production of identical products and specialised labour in large factories for producing standardised commodities. Manufacturing involves the production of all range of products from handicrafts to moulding of iron and steel, making soft toys or assembling computer components or vehicles bound for space.

Characteristics of Modern Large Scale Manufacturing

Characteristics of modern large scale manufacturing are Specialisation of Skills/Methods of Production Products under craft method are very costly because factories produce only those products which are made-to-order. On the other hand, mass production is related to production of large quantities of standardised parts. In this process, each worker is engaged in only one task and performs that task repeatedly.

Mechanisation
Mechanisation is use of gadgets and machines to accomplish tasks. Automation is the advanced stage of mechanisation in which machines or computer works in all the manufacturing process itself without any human interference or thinking.

Technological Innovation
Research and development strategy plays a great role in technological innovations. Technological innovations enables quality control, eliminating waste and inefficiency and combating pollution.

Organisational Structure and Stratification

Modern manufacturing is characterised by
- a complex machine technology.
- specialisation and division of labour for producing more goods with less efforts, and low costs.
- huge amount of capital.
- large organisations and infrastructure.
- executive bureaucracy. 

Uneven Geographic Distribution

Modern manufacturing is concentrated only on less than 10% of world’s land area. Due to concentration of modern manufacturing, these areas have become economically and politically stronger. This area is much smaller as compared to sites where agriculture is performed.

Difference between ‘Manufacturing’ Industry and ‘Manufacturing Industry’

Manufacturing literally means ‘to make by hand’. However, now it includes goods ‘made by machines’. It is essentially a process which involves transforming raw materials into finished goods of higher value for sale in local or global markets. Conceptually, an industry is a geographically located manufacturing unit maintaining books of accounts and records under a management system.
The term industry is comprehensive, so it is also used as synonymous with ‘manufacturing’. When terms like ‘steel industry’ and ‘chemical industry’ are used, one thinks of factories and processes. But there are many secondary activities which are not carried on in factories such as in the ‘entertainment industry’ and Tourism industry, etc. So for clarity, the wider expression ‘manufacturing industry’ is used.

Factors Influencing Industrial Location

Important factors which influence industrial locations are

Access to Market
Market is a place where people who have a demand for goods and the ability to purchase (purchasing power), buy from the sellers who sell their goods at that place. Nearness to a market for manufactured goods is the most important factor in the location of industries. Large global markets are found in developed regions of Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, where purchasing power of the people is very high. Large markets are also found in the densely populated regions of South and South-East Asia. Some industries such as aircraft manufacturing and arms industry have global markets.

Access to Raw Material
Industries which use cheap, bulky and weight-losing material (ores) and perishable goods (vegetables, milk and milk products) are located close to the sources of raw material such as steel, sugar, cement, agro-processing and dairy industries. The closeness of industry to the source of the raw material is also dependent on perishability1.

Access to Labour Supply
Although increasing mechanisation, automation and flexibility of industrial process have reduced the dependence of industry upon the labour, but still some manufacturing processes require skilled labour.

Access to Sources of Energy
Heavy industries like iron, steel and aluminium industries need more power to function. Thus, these industries are located close to the source of the energy supply or power house. Hydroelectricity and petroleum are the main sources of energy for industries which have replaced the traditional form of coal energy.

Access to Transportation and Communication Facilities
Rapid and efficient transport facilities for the movement of raw materials to the factory and finished goods to the market are essential for the development of industries.

The cost of transportation affects the location of industries. For example, due to a highly developed transport system in Western Europe and Eastern America have always resulted in the concentration of industries in these areas. Communication helps to exchange and manage information and ideas.

Government Policy

‘Regional policies’ made by government are important to promote balanced economic development. These policies guides the setting up of various industries in particular regions.

Access to Agglomeration Economies/Links between Industries
When many industries concentrate in a particular region to share factors of production for greater profits, it is termed as agglomeration economies. Linkages between these industries increases savings and profit for every industry.

Footloose Industries

Footloose industries can be located at a wide variety of places. They are not dependent on any specific raw material. They largely depend on component parts which can be obtained anywhere. They produce in small quantity and also employ a small labour force. These are generally non polluting industries. The important factor in their location is accessibility by road network.

Classification of Manufacturing Industries
Manufacturing industries are classified on the basis of four characteristics
(i) Based on size
(ii) Based on inputs/raw materials
(iii) Based on output/products
(iv) Based on ownership

Industries Based on Size

The size of industries is determined by the amount of capital invested, number of workers employed and volume of production. These industries are

Household Industries or Cottage Manufacturing
It is a simple and smallest manufacturing unit. The artisans with local raw materials and simple tools produce everyday goods. The work is done at home with the help of their family members or part time labour. The finished products of this unit may be for consumption in the same household or for sale in the village/local markets, or for barter2. This manufacturing unit is not much affected by capital and transportation system. This is because it has low commercial significance and most of the tools are created locally.
This sector manufactures some daily use products like food stuffs, fabrics, mats, containers, tools, furniture, shoes and figurines (statue) from wood lot and forest and so on.

Small Scale Manufacturing
Use of local raw-material, simple power-driven machines, semi-skilled labour and production done in workshop are its main characteristics. Countries like India, China, Indonesia and Brazil, etc have developed labour-intensive small scale manufacturing units in order to provide better employment opportunities to their population.

Large Scale Manufacturing
This industry is characterised by a number of supporting factors like, a large market, various raw materials, enormous use of energy, specialised workers, advanced technology, assembly-line mass production and large capital investments. This type of manufacturing has grown in the United Kingdom, North-Eastern USA and Europe, where these units have been working for last 200 years. Due to their importance, these have diffused to almost all over the world.

On the basis of the system of large scale manufacturing, world’s major industrial regions may be grouped under two broad types.
These are
(i) Traditional large scale industrial regions which are thickly clustered in a few more developed countries.
(ii) High-technology large scale industrial regions which have diffused to less developed countries.

Industries based on Inputs/ Raw Materials

These industries are further classified into the following groups

Agro-based Industries
These industries involve the processing of raw materials obtained from the agricultural farms and fields into finished products to be sold in the rural and urban markets. Examples of these industries are food processing, sugar, pickles, fruit juices, beverages (tea, coffee and cocoa), spices and oils fats and textiles (cotton, jute, silk), rubber, etc.

Food Processing
It includes canning, producing cream, fruit processing and confectionery items. Preserving techniques such as drying, fermenting3 and pickling, which have been known since ancient times, are used in this industry on a large scale, due to high demand of these products mainly after the industrial revolutions.

Agri-Business
Agri-business is a type of commercial farming on an industrial scale which is financed by businesses whose main interests lie outside agriculture. For example, large corporations in tea plantation business. Agri-business farms are large size mechanised farms, highly structured, reliant on chemicals, and are also described as ‘agro-factories.’

Mineral Based Industries
Minerals are the main raw materials for this industry.
These are of three types
(i) FerrousMetallicMinerals based Industries These industries use ferrous metallic minerals which contain ferrous (iron), such as iron and steel industries.
(ii) Non-ferrous Metallic Minerals based Industries These industries use raw-materials like aluminium, copper, gold. For example, jewellery, copper and aluminium industries.
(iii) Non-metallic Minerals based Industries These industries use non-metallic minerals, such as cement and pottery industries. 

Chemical Based Industries
A number of chemical industries use natural chemical minerals. Example of these industries are; petro-chemical industry using mineral oil (petroleum), salt, sulphur and potash industries using natural minerals, synthetic fibres. Plastic industries also use natural chemicals. Chemical industries are also based on raw materials obtained from wood and coal.

Forest based Raw Material using Industries
Various major and minor forests products are used as raw materials. Examples of such industries are furniture industry which uses timber, paper industry which uses wood, bamboo and grass and lac industry which uses lac obtained from forests as raw material.

Animal Based Industries
These industries are completely based on products obtained from animals. For example, leather for leather industry, wool for woollen textiles. Ivory is also obtained from elephant’s tusks.

Industries based on Output/Product

These are of two types
(i) Basic Industries The industry whose products are used to make other goods by using them as raw materials are basic industries. For example, iron and steel industry.
(ii) Consumer Goods/ Non-basic Industries These industries manufacture such goods which are ready to use for consumers. For example, industries producing breads and biscuits, tea, soaps and toiletries, paper for writing, televisions, etc.

Industries Based on Ownership

These industries are

Public Sector Industries
In this sector, government has the main authority which owns and manages these industries. For example, India has many Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). In socialist countries, these industries are directly owned and managed by the state. In mixed economies, both public and private sectors enterprises work in different domains, but still government remains the real owner.

Private Sector Industries
Individual investors and private organisations have the authority to own and manage these industries. In capitalist countries, industries are generally owned privately.

Joint Sector Industries
These industries are managed jointly by public and private sectors. The private and public sectors together establish and manage these industries. 

Traditional Large-Scale Industrial Regions

These regions have heavy industries which are located near coal-fields and engaged in metal smelting, heavy engineering, chemical manufacturing or textile production. These heavy industries are now known as smokestack industries, as these emit a lot of smoke in the environment. The factors that characterise the traditional industrial regions are

l High proportion of employment in manufacturing industries.
l High-density, inferior quality housing and poor services.
l Unattractive environment, e.g. high level of pollution, waste heaps, etc.
l Problems of unemployment, emigration and ruined land areas due to closure of factories because of a worldwide fall in demand of the products made by these industries.

The Ruhr Coal-field, Germany
It has been one of the most important industrial regions of Europe for a long time. Coal, iron and steel formed the basis of the economy. But with the decline in demand of coal, the industry started shrinking.
The Ruhr region is responsible for 80 per cent of Germany’s total steel production. The future success of Ruhr is now based on the newly developed industries like huge Opel car assembly plant, new chemical plants, universities. Out-of-town shopping centres have appeared resulting in a ‘New Ruhr’ landscape.

High Technology Industries
It is also known as high-tech industry, and it is the latest generation of manufacturing activities. The advanced scientific and engineering products are manufactured by the application of intensive Research and Development (R and D). The highly skilled specialists i.e. professional workers (white collar workers) make up a large share of the total work force, as compared to the actual production workers (blue collar workers).
The notable examples of high-tech industries are robotics on the assembly line, Computer Aided Design (CAD) and manufacturing and so on.
The high-tech industries which are regionally concentrated, self-sustained and highly specialised are called technopolis. For example, the Silicon Valley near San Francisco and Silicon Forest near Seattle. 

Some Examples of World’s Most Important Manufacturing Industries

Manufacturing contributes greatly to the economy of the world. The world’s most important manufacturing industries are iron and steel, textiles, automobiles, petrochemicals and electronics.

Iron and Steel Industries

It is a basic industry. It is also known as heavy industry because it uses large quantities of bulky raw materials and products manufactured in this industry are also heavy. The large integrated4 steel industry is traditionally located close to the sources of raw materials i.e. iron-ore, coal, manganese and limestone or at places where these could be easily brought from foreign markets, e.g. near ports.

Mini steel plants are less expensive to build and operate. These can be located near markets because of the abundance of scrap metal, which is the main input in these plants. Carbon (Coke) and limestone are used to extract iron from iron ore by smelting in a blast furnace5. After this process, the molten iron is cooled and moulded to form pig iron. This pig iron is further processed to make steel by adding strengthening materials like manganese.

Distribution of Iron and Steel Industry

Iron and Steel industry is concentrated in the advanced countries of North America, Europe and Asia.

North America
Most of the production comes from North Appalachian region (Pittsburgh), Great Lake region (Chicago-Gary, Erie, Cleveland, Lorain, Buffalo and Duluth) and the Atlantic Coast (Sparrows Point and Morisville) in USA. This industry is also extended towards the Southern state of Alabama. Pittsburgh region is now declining and has become the rust bowl of USA.

Europe
The leading producers are UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourgh, the Netherlands and Russia. The important centres are Scun Thorpe, Port Talbot, Birmingham and Sheffield in UK; Duisburg, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Essen in Germany; Le Creusot and St. Ettienne in France; Moscow, St. Petersburg, Lipetsk, Tula in Russia and Krivoi Rog and Donetsk in Ukraine.

Asia
The leading producers are Japan, China and India. The important centres are Nagasaki and Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan; Shanghai, Tienstin and Wuhan in China and Jamshedpur, Kulti-Burnpur, Durgapur, Rourkela, Bhilai, Bokaro, Salem, Visakhapatnam and Bhadravati in India. 

Cotton Textile Industry

This industry requires a huge amount of cotton as raw material. India, China, USA, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt produce more than half of the world’s raw cotton. The UK, North-West European countries and Japan import cotton yarn to produce cotton textile. Europe alone accounts for nearly half of the world’s cotton imports.

But this industry has now shown a declining trend in many countries due to a stiff competition with synthetic fibres. With the scientific advancement and technological improvement the industrial structure is showing a change.
For example, from Second World War, till the 1970s Germany was the leading producer of cotton textiles but now it has declined. Cotton textiles has shifted to less developed countries where labour cost is low as compared to developed countries.

It has three sub-sectors
(i) Handloom Sector It is a labour-intensive sector that provides employment to semi-skilled workers. It needs only a small capital investment. It includes spinning, weaving and finishing of the fabrics process.
(ii) Powerloom Sector Powerlooms are less labourintensive due to introduction of machines which increase the volume of production. These sectors are highly capital intensive. They require good quality raw cotton.
(iii) Mill Sector This sector is highly capital intensive and produces fine clothes in bulk.