UPSC Geography Manufacturing Industries NCERT Extracts - Manufacturing Industries in India

Location of Industries

• Location of industries is influenced by several factors like access to raw materials, power, market, capital, transport and labour, etc.
• Relative significance of these factors varies with time and place. There is strong relationship between raw material and type of industry.
• Industries using weight-losing raw materials are located in the regions where raw materials are located.
• The sugar mills in India are located in sugarcane growing areas.
• Similarly, the locations of pulp industry, copper smelting and pig iron industries are located near their raw materials.
• In iron and steel industries, iron ore and coal both are weight-losing raw materials. Therefore, an optimum location for iron and steel industries should be near raw material sources.
• This is why most of the iron and steel industries are located either near coalfields (Bokaro, Durgapur, etc.) or near sources of iron ore (Bhadravati, Bhilai, and Rourkela).
• Similarly, industries based on perishable raw materials are also located close to raw material sources.
• Power provides the motive force for machines, and therefore, its supply has to be ensured before the location of any industry.
• However, certain industries, like aluminium and synthetic nitrogen manufacturing industries tend to be located near sources of power because they are power intensive and require huge quantum of electricity.
• Markets provide the outlets for manufactured products. Heavy machine, machine tools, heavy chemicals are located near the high demand areas as these are market orientated.
• Cotton textile industry uses a non-weight-losing raw material and is generally located in large urban centre, e.g. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, etc.
• Petroleum refineries are also located near the markets as the transport of crude oil is easier and several products derived from them are used as raw material in other industries.
• Koyali, Mathura and Barauni refineries are typical examples. Ports also play a crucial role in the location of oil refineries.
• India, being a democratic country aims at bringing about economic growth with balanced regional development.
• Establishment of iron and steel industry in Bhilai and Rourkela were based on decision to develop backward tribal areas of the country.

The Iron and Steel Industry

• The other raw materials besides iron ore and coking coal, essential for iron and steel industry are limestone, dolomite, manganese and fire clay.
• All these raw materials are gross (weight losing), therefore, the best location for the iron and steel plants is near the source of raw materials.
• In India, there is a crescent shaped region comprising parts of Chhattisgarh, Northern Odisha, Jharkhand and western West Bengal, which is extremely rich in high grade iron ore, good quality coking coal and other supplementing raw materials.

TISCO

• The Tata Iron and Steel plant lies very close to the Mumbai-Kolkata railway line and about 240 km away from Kolkata, which is the nearest port for the export of steel.
• The rivers Subamarekha and Kharkai provide water to the plant.
• The iron ore for the plant is obtained from Noamundi and Badam Pahar and coal is brought from Joda mines in Odisha. Coking coal comes from Jharia and west Bokaro coalfields.
• Before 1947, there was only one iron and steel plant in the country - Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO). It was privately owned. After Independence, the government took the initiative and set up several iron and steel plants.
• TISCO was started in 1907 at Sakchi, near the confluence of the rivers Subamarekha and Kharkai in Jharkhand.                               
• Later on Sakchi was renamed as Jamshedpur. Geographically, Jamshedpur is the most conveniently situated iron and steel centre in the country.
• Sakchi was chosen to set up the steel plant for several reasons. This place was only 32 km away from Kalimati station on the Bengal-Nagpur railway line.
• It was close to the iron ore, coal and manganese deposits as well as to Kolkata, which provided a large market.
• TISCO, gets coal from Jharia coalfields, and iron ore, limestone, dolomite and manganese from Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
• The Kharkai and Subamarekha rivers ensured sufficient water supply. Government initiatives provided adequate capital for its later development.  

IISCO

• The Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) set up its first factory at Hirapur and later on another at Kulti.
• In 1937, the Steel corporation of Bengal was constituted in association with IISCO and set up another iron and steel producing unit at Bumpiir (West Bengal).
• All the three plants under IISCO are located very close to Damodar valley coal fields (Raniganj, Jharia, and Ramgarh).
• Iron ore comes from Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Water is obtained from the Barakar River, a tributary of the Damodar.
• All the plants are located along the Kolkata-Asansol railway line. Unfortunately, steel production from IISCO fell considerably in 1972-73 and the plants were taken over by the government.

Visvesvaraiya Iron and Steel Works Ltd. (VISL)

• The third integrated steel plant, the Visvesvaraiya Iron and Steel Works, initially called the Mysore Iron and Steel Works, is located close to an iron ore producing area of Kemangundi in the Bababudan hills.
• Limestone and manganese are also locally available. But this region has no coal. At the beginning, charcoal obtained by burning wood from nearby forests was used as fuel till 1951.
• Afterwards, electric furnaces were installed which use hydroelectricity from the Jog Falls hydel power project. The Bhadravati river supplies water to the plant. This plant produces specialised steels and alloys.
• After independence, during the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), three new integrated steel plants were set up with foreign collaboration: Rourkela in Odisha, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and Durgapur in West Bengal.
• These were public sector plants under Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL). In 1973, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was created to manage these plants.

Rourkela Steel Plant

• The Rourkela Steel plant was set up in 1959 in the Sundargarh district of Odisha in collaboration with Germany.
• The plant v/as located on the basis of proximity to raw materials, thus, minimising the cost of transporting weight losing raw material.
• This plant has a unique locational advantage, as it receives coal from Jharia (Jharkhand) and iron ore from Sundargarh and Kendujhar.
• The Hirakud project supplies power for the electric furnaces and water is obtained from the Koel and Sankh rivers.

Bhilai Steel Plant

• The Bhilai Steel Plant was established with Russian collaboration in Durg District of Chhattisgarh and started production in 1959.
• The iron ore comes from Dalli-Rajhara mine, coal comes from Korba and Kargali coal fields.
• The water comes from the Tanduladam and the power from the Korba Themal Power Station.
• This plant also lies on the Kolkata-Mumbai railway route.
• The bulk of the steel produced goes to the Hindustan Shipyard at Vishakhapatnam.

Durgapur Steel Plant

• Durgapur Steel Plant, in West Bengal, was set up in collaboration with the government the United Kingdom and started production in 1962.
• This plant lies in Raniganj and Jharia coal belt and gets iron ore from Noamundi.
• Durgapur lies on the main Kolkata-Delhi railway route.
• Hydel power and water is obtained from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

Bokaro Steel Plant

• This steel plant was set up in 1964 at Bokaro with Russian collaboration.
• This plant was set up on the principle of transportation cost minimisation by creating Bokaro-Rourkela combine.
• It receives iron ore from the Rourkela region and the wagons on return take coal to Rourkela.
• Other raw materials come to Bokaro from within a radius of about 350 km.
• Water and Hydel power is supplied by the Damodar Valley Corporation.

Other Steel Plants

• New steel plants which were set up in the Fourth Plan period are away from the main raw material sources. All the three plants are located in South India.
• The Vizag Steel Plant, in Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is the first port based plant which started operating in 1992. Its port location is of advantage.
• The Vijaynagar Steel Plant at Hosapete in Kamataka was developed using indigenous technology. This uses local iron ore and limestone. The Salem Steel Plant in Tamil Nadu was commissioned in 1982.

The Cotton Textile Industry

• The cotton textile industry is one of the traditional industries of India.
• In the ancient and the medieval times, it used to be only a cottage industry.
• India was famous worldwide for the production of muslin, a very fine variety of cotton cloth, calicos, chintz and other different varieties of fine cotton cloth.
• The development of this industry in India was due to several factors.
• One, it is a tropical country and cotton is the most comfortable fabric for a hot and humid climate.
• Second, large quantity of cotton was grown in India. Abundant skilled labour required fov this industry was available in this country.
• In fact, in some areas the people were producing cotton textiles for generations and transferred the skill from one generation to the other and in the process perfected their skills.
• Initially, the British did not encourage the development of the indigenous cotton textile industry.                
• They exported raw cotton to their mills in Manchester and Liverpool and brought back the finished products to be sold in India.
• This cloth was cheaper because it was produced at mass scale in factories in U.K. as compared to the cottage based industries of India,                      
• In 1854, the first modem cotton mill was established in Mumbai.
• This city had several advantages as a cotton textile manufacturing centre It was very close to the cotton producing areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Raw cotton used to be brought to Mumbai port to be transported to England.
• Therefore, cotton was available in Mumbai city itself.
• Moreover, Mumbai even then was the financial centre and the capital needed to start an industry was available there.
• As a large town, providing employment opportunities attracted labour in large numbers.
• Hence, cheap and abundant labour too was available locally.
• The machinery required for a cotton textile mill could be directly imported from England.
• Subsequently, two more mills, the Shahpur Mill and the Calico Mill were established in Ahmedabad. By 1947, the number of mills in India went up to 423 but the scenario changed after partition, and this industry suffered a major recession.
• This was due to the fact that the most of the good quality cotton growing areas had gone to West Pakistan and India was left with 409 mills and only 29 per cent of the cotton producing area.
• After Independence, this industry gradually recovered and eventually flourished.
• The cotton textile industry in India can be broadly divided into two sectors, the organised sector and the unorganised sector.
• The decentralised sector includes cloth produced in handlooms (including Khadi) and powerlooms.
• The production of the organised sector has drastically fallen from 81 per cent in the mid- twentieth century to only about 6 per cent in 2000.
• At present, the powerlooms on the decentralised sector produce more than the handloom sector.
• Cotton is a "pure" raw material which does not lose weight in the manufacturing process. so other factors, like, power to drive the looms, labour, capital or market may determine the location of the industry.
• At present the trend is to locate the industry at or close to markets, as it is the market that decides what kind of cloth is to be produced.
• Also the market for the finished products is extremely variable, therefore, it becomes important to locate the mills close to the market.
• The Swadeshi movement gave a major impetus to the industry as there was a call for boycotting all British made goods in favour of Indian goods.
• After 1921, with the development of the railway network other cotton textile centres expanded rapidly.
• In southern India, mills were set up at Coimbatore, Madurai and Bengaluru.
• In central India, Nagpur, Indore, Solapur and Vadodara became cotton textile centres. Cotton textile mills were set up at Kanpur based on local investment.
• Mills were also set up at Kolkata due to its port facilities.
• The development of hydro-electricity also favoured the location of the cotton textile mills away from the cotton producing areas.
• The rapid development of this industry in Tamil Nadu is the result of the abundant availability of hydel power for the mills.
• Lower labour costs at centres like Ujjain, Bharuch, Agra, Hathras, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli also caused industries to be located away from cotton producing areas.
• Presently, the major centres of the cotton textile industry are Ahmedabad, Bhiwandi, Solapur, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Indore and Ujjain.
• Tamil Nadu has the largest number of mills and most of them produce yam rather than cloth. Coimbatore has emerged as the most important centre with nearly half the mills located there.
• In Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur is the largest centre.

Jute Textiles

• India is the largest producer of raw jute and jute goods and stands at second place as an exporter after Bangladesh.
• The first jute mill was set up near Kolkata in 1859 at Rishra. After Partition in 1947, the jute mills remained in India but three-fourth of the jute producing area went to Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan).
• The growing global concern for environment friendly, biodegradable materials, has once again opened the opportunity for jute products.

Sugar Industry

• The sugar industry is the second most important agro-based industry in the country. India is the largest producer of both sugarcane and cane sugar and contributes about 8 per cent of the total sugar production in the world.
• This industry provides employment for more than 4 lakh persons directly and a large number of farmers indirectly.
• Sugar industry is a seasonal industry because of the seasonably of raw materials.
• Development of the industry on modem lines dates back to 1903, when a sugar mill was started in Bihar. Subsequently, sugar mills were started in other parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
• Sugarcane is a weight-losing crop. The ratio of sugar to sugarcane varies between 9 to 12 per cent depending on its variety.                              
• Its sucrose content begins to dry during haulage after it has been harvested from the, field.
• Better recovery of sugar is dependent upon its being crushed within 24 hours of its harvesting. Sugar factories hence, are located within the cane producing regions.
• Maharashtra has emerged as a leading sugar producer in the country and produces more than one-third of the total production of the sugar in the country.
• Uttar Pradesh is the second largest producer of sugar.

Fertiliser Industry

• The fertiliser industry is centred around the production of nitrogenous fertilisers (mainly urea), phosphatic fertilisers and ammonium phosphate (DAP) and complex fertilisers which have a combination of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potash (K),
• The third, i.e. potash is entirely imported as the country does not have any reserves of commercially usable potash or potassium compounds in any form. India is the third largest producer of nitrogenous fertilisers.         
• At present, there are 10 public sector undertakings and one in cooperative sector at Hazira in Gujarat under the Fertiliser Corporation of India.
• The first cement plant was set up in Chennai in 1904. After Independence the industry expanded. Decontrol of price and distribution since 1989 and other policy reforms led the cement industry to make rapid strides in capacity, process, technology and production.

Some Important Facts

• In industries, accidents/disasters mainly occur due to technical failure or irresponsible handling of hazardous material.
• One of the worst industrial disasters of all time occurred in Bhopal on 3 December, 1984 around 00:30 a.m.
• It was a technological accident in which highly poisonous Methyl Isocynate (MIC) gas along with Hydrogen Cyanide and other reaction products leaked out of the pesticide factory of Union Carbide.
• The official death toll was 3,598 in 1989. Thousands, who survived still suffer from one or many ailments like blindness, impaired immune system, gastrointestinal disorders etc.
• Emerging industries are also known as 'Sunrise Industries'. These include Information technology, Wellness, Hospitality and Knowledge.
• Smelting: It is the process in which metals are extracted from their ores by heating beyond the melting point
• Iron and Steel Industry is a feeder industry whose products are used as raw material for other industries. Steel is often called the backbone of modem industry.
• All the important steel producing centres such as Bhilai, Durgapur, Bumpur, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro are situated in a region that spreads over four states - West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Bhadravati and Vijay Nagar in Kamataka, Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu are other important steel centres utilising local resources.
• Pittsburgh: It is an important steel city of the United States of America.
• The steel industry at Pittsburgh enjoys locational advantages. Some of the raw material such as coal is available locally, while the iron ore comes from the iron mines at Minnesota, about 1,500 km from Pittsburgh.
• Between these mines and Pittsburgh is one of the world's best routes for shipping ore cheaply - the famous Great Lakes waterway.
• Trains carry the ore from the Great Lakes to the Pittsburgh area. The Ohio, the Monogahela and Allegheny rivers provide adequate water supply.
• The first textile mill in the country was established at Fort Gloster near Kolkata in 1818 but it closed down after some time.
• Ahmedabad was therefore often referred to as the 'Manchester of India'.
• It is an important textile centre of Japan, also known as the 'Manchester of Japan'.
• The textile industry at Osaka depends completely upon imported raw materials.
• The information technology industry deals in the storage, processing and distribution of information. The major hubs of the IT industry are the Silicon Valley, California and Bengaluru, India.
• Silicon Valley, is a part of Santa Clara Valley, located next to the Rocky Mountains of North America.
• The state government of Kamataka was the first to announce an IT Policy in 1992.
• Production of goods in large quantities after processing from raw materials to more valuable products is called manufacturing.
• India has world class production in spinning, but weaving supplies low quality of fabric as it cannot use much of the high quality yam produced in the country.
• We have a large share in the world trade of cotton yam, 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 yam that is produced in the country.
• There are some large and modem 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 yam while apparel/garment manufactures have to import fabric.
• The iron and steel Industry is the basic industry since all the other industries - heavy, medium and light, depend on it for their machinery.
• Iron ore, coking coal and lime stone are required in the ratio of approximately 4:2:1. Some quantities of manganese, are also required to harden the steel.
• It is the largest producer of sponge iron. m 2010-11 per capita cosumption of steel in the country was only around 49 kg per annum against the world average of 182 kg.
• Mini steel plants are smaller, have electric furnaces, use steel scrap and sponge iron. They have re-rollers that use steel ingots as well.
• They produce mild and alloy steel of given specifications.
• An integrated steel plant is large, handles everything in one complex - from putting together raw material to steel making, rolling and shaping.  
• Most of the public sector undertakings market their steel through Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL).
• In the 1950s China and India produced almost the same quantity of steel. Today, China is the largest producer of steel. China is also me world's largest consumer of steel.
• In 2004, India was the largest exporter of steel which accounted for 2.25 per cent of the global steel trade.
• Chotenagpur plateau region has the maximum concentration of iron and steel industries.
• It is largely, because of the relative advantages this region has for the development of this industry.                                
• Though, India is an important iron and steel producing country in the world yet, we are not able to perform to our full potential largely due to
• High costs and limited availability of coking coal
• Lower productivity of labour
• Irregular supply of energy and
• Poor infrastructure.
• Aluminium Smelting Aluminium smelting is me second most important metallurgical industry in India.
• It is light, resistant to corrosion, a good conductor of heat, mallable and becomes strong when it is mixed with other metals.
• It is used to manufacture aircraft, utensils and wires. It has gained popularity as a substitute of steel, copper, zinc and lead in a number of industries.