CHAPTER 6 - MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES ( GEOGRAPHY SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASS 10 )

1. What is manufacturing?

 Production of goods in large quantities after processing from raw materials to more valuable products is called manufacturing. For example paper is manufactured from wood, sugar from sugarcane, iron and steel from iron ore and aluminium from bauxite. Clothes manufactured from yarn is also an industrial product.

2. Name any three physical factors for the location of the industry.

Industrial locations are complex in nature. These are influenced by availability of raw material, labour, capital, power and market, etc. 

On the basis of source of raw materials used: Agro based: cotton, woollen, jute, silk textile, rubber and sugar, tea, coffee, edible oil. Mineral based: iron and steel, cement, aluminium, machine tools, petrochemicals. 

The cotton textile industry was concentrated in the cotton growing belt of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Availability of raw cotton, market, transport including accessible port facilities, labour, moist climate, etc. contributed towards its localisation. This industry has close links with agriculture and provides a living to farmers, cotton plantation workers and workers engaged in ginning, spinning, weaving, dyeing, designing, packaging, tailoring and sewing. The industry by creating demands supports many other industries, such as, chemicals and dyes, packaging materials and engineering works. Many industries tend to come together to make use of the advantages offered by the urban centres known as agglomeration economies.

3. Name any three human factors for the location of an industry.
Three human factors which affect the industrial location are availability of cheap labour, availability of services such as consultants and financial advice and availability of market.
4. What are basic industries? Give an example.
Basic or key industries are those which supply their products as raw materials to manufacture other goods e.g. iron and steel and copper smelting, aluminium smelting.

The iron and steel industry is the basic industry since all the other industries — heavy, medium and light, depend on it for their machinery. Steel is needed to manufacture a variety of engineering goods, construction material, defence, medical, telephonic, scientific equipment and a variety of consumer goods.
5. Name the important raw materials used in the manufacturing of cement?
Limestone, silica and gypsum are the raw materials used for cement industry. Coal and electric power are needed apart from rail transportation.
6. How are integrated steel plants different from mini steel plants? What problems does the industry face? What recent developments have led to a rise in the production capacity?

The difference between the two is that integrated steel plants put together the whole process from converting the iron ore to production and manufacturing of steel and finished and semi-finished products. On the other hand, mini steel plants use pig iron or leftovers from integrated steel plants to make alloys.

India is the 3rd largest producer of iron ore and the main supplier to leading markets, including China. In terms of quantities mined, we stand only after Australia and Brazil.

1-tonne capacity plant in the green-field category would take anywhere close to INR 7000.00 crores to set up. With modest means due to low per-capita incomes, few Indian entities can build large plants to take advantage of economies of scale using the equity route. Most plants thus depend upon debt financing and borrowings. Finances being expensive in India is a major drawback in setting up more steel plants.

An overview by the Ministry of Steel under the Government of India (JPC: up to March 2020) found that against a world average per capita consumption of 224.5 kgs, India’s was a mere 75 kgs due to low per capita income and overall poverty.

Steel-making is a power-intensive business, and India is a power-deficit country despite a large number of Power Purchase Agreements being signed in the mid-90s and early 2000s. The deficiency of electricity puts India at a disadvantage when it comes to producing steel the way it wants to.

India’s relation to coal vis-à-vis iron ore remains inverse. There is much less coal for every tonne of iron-ore mined, which calls for coal imports to keep captive power plants running. Australia and Indonesia are two major areas that supply coal to India. Of these, Australia has been hiking coal prices which directly affects the price of iron and steel in India.

Despite its large population and every incentive to explore newer ways of construction, India sticks to its time-tested use of concrete in most constructions. The west, the Gulf, and other settled markets use much more steel to build columns and structures. The latter helps reduce the weight of constructions, takes much less time to put together, needs much less maintenance, and can rise high in the sky while taking the steel along. 

India isn’t doing badly for its size, population, and complexity. That said, a country of its size and ambitions ought to consume a lot more steel to bring the industry to par with the world and reap all the benefits of using the metal.

7. How do industries pollute the environment?

Although industries contribute significantly to India’s economic growth and development, the increase in pollution of land, water, air, noise and resulting degradation in the environment that they have caused, cannot be overlooked. Industries are responsible for four types of pollution: (a) Air (b) Water (c) Land (d) Noise. The polluting industries also include thermal power plants.

8. Discuss the steps to be taken to minimise environmental degradation by industry?
Every litre of waste water discharged by our industry pollutes eight times the quantity of freshwater. How can the industrial pollution of fresh water be reduced? Some suggestions are-
(i) minimising use water for processing by reusing and recycling it in two or more successive stages
(ii) harvesting of rainwater to meet water requirements
(iii) treating hot water and effluents before releasing them in rivers and ponds. Treatment of industrial effluents can be done in three phases
(a) Primary treatment by mechanical means. This involves screening, grinding, flocculation and sedimentation.
(b) Secondary treatment by biological process

(c) Tertiary treatment by biological, chemical and physical processes. This involves recycling of wastewater. Overdrawing of ground water reserves by industry where there is a threat to ground water resources also needs to be regulated legally. Particulate matter in the air can be reduced by fitting smoke stacks to factories with electrostatic precipitators, fabric filters, scrubbers and inertial separators. Smoke can be reduced by using oil or gas instead of coal in factories. Machinery and equipment can be used and generators should be fitted with silencers. Almost all machinery can be redesigned to increase energy efficiency and reduce noise.

9. Why is it important for our country to keep the mill sector lower than power loom and handloom?

India exports yarn to Japan. Other importers of cotton goods from India are U.S.A., U.K., Russia, France, East European countries, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and African countries India has the second largest installed capacity of spindles in the world, with 43.13 million spindles (2011-12) after China. Since the mid-eighties, the spinning sector has received a lot of attention. We have a large share in the world trade of cotton yarn, accounting for one fourth of the total trade. However, our trade in garments is only 4 per cent of the world’s total. Our spinning mills are competitive at the global level and capable of using all the fibres we produce. The weaving, knitting and processing units cannot use much of the high quality yarn that is produced in the country. There are some large and modern factories in these segments, but most of the production is in fragmented small units, which cater to the local market. This mismatch is a major drawback for the industry. As a result, many of our spinners export cotton yarn while apparel/garment manufactures have to import fabric.