Class 10 Geography Chapter 6 Question Answers - Manufacturing Industries

Q.1. Classify industries on the basis of :
 (a) Capital investment,
 (b) Ownership
 (c) Bulk and weight of raw material and finished product.

Ans. Industries can be classified into the following categories :

(a) On the basis of capital investment :

1. Large scale industries make large capital investment of more than one crore of rupees. They employ large numbers of people and use a large number of machineries, e.g. cotton textile.
2. Small scale industries involve capital outlay of less than one crore rupees, employ a smaller number of labourers and use few power driven machineries, e.g. cycle parts manufacturing.

(b) On the basis of ownership :

1. Public sector industries are owned and operated by government agencies, e.g. Rourkela Steel Plant.
2. Private sector industries are owned and operated by an individual or a group of individuals, e.g. Bajaj Auto Ltd.
3. Joint sector industries are jointly run by the state and individual entrepreneurs e.g. Oil India Ltd.
4. Cooperative sector industries are owned and managed by the producers and suppliers of raw materials or by workers. They pool in their resources and share the profits and losses proportionately, e.g., sugar industry in Maharashtra.

(c) On the basis of bulk or weight of raw material and finished products :

1. Heavy industries use bulky raw materials and their finished products are also heavy, e.g., iron and steel industry.
2. Light industries use light raw materials and their finished products are also light, eg. electrical industries producing bulbs.

Q.2. Mention the factors responsible for localisation of cotton textile industry in Maharashtra- Gujarat region in early years. What factors were responsible for the decentralisation of the industry? Mention three main problems faced by the industry. What is the contribution of textile industry to Indian economy?

Ans. The favourable factors for the location of cotton textile industry in Maharashtra–Gujarat region in early years were as follows :

(a) Availability of raw cotton from the cotton growing belt of Deccan in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
(b) The port of Mumbai facilitating export of cotton goods and import of machineries and other inputs.
(c) Moist climate in the belt facilitated spinning.
(d) Market for the finished goods.
(e) Finance or capital from Parsi and Bhatia traders.
(f) Good transport network.
(g) Availability of cheap and skilled labour.

Huge market, development of transport network, banking facilities and availability of cheap electricity contributed to the decentralisation of cotton mills in the country. Weaving is highly decentralised to provide scope for incorporating traditional skills and designs of weaving in cotton, zari, embroidary, etc., prevalent among local weavers in different parts of India.

Three major problems faced by cotton textile industries in India are :
(i) Erratic Power Supply.
(ii) Old and obsolete machinery and
(iii) Stiff competition with the synthetic fibre industry.

The textile industry occupies a unique position in the Indian economy :
(a) It contributes significantly to industrial production, 14 per cent of the total production of industries comes from textiles.
(b) It provides employment to about 35 million people directly.
(c) It contributes about 24.6 percent of the foreign exchange earnings of the country.
(d) Textiles contribute 4 percent towards GDP.

Q.3. How are integrated steel plants different from mini steel plants? Name the integrated steel plants of India. What are the problems faced by this industry? What is India’s present position with regard to manufacturing and consumption of iron and steel?

Ans. Mini steel plants are smaller, have electric and induction furnaces, and use steel scrap and sponge iron as raw material. They may have re-rollers manufacturing bar and rods. They produce mild and alloy steel and also liquid steel which are turned into ingots. They are decentralized secondary units scattered across the country to meet local demands. An integrated steel plant is large and handles everything in one complex from assembling raw material and melting of iron ore in the blast furnace to steel making, rolling and shaping. They are usually concentrated near the sources of raw materials and market.

Presently there are 10 integrated steel plant in India, which are as follows :
(a) Indian Iron and Steel Company, IISCO at Kulti and Burnpur, West Bengal.
(b) Tata Iron and Steel Company, TISCO at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
(c) Visveswarayya Iron and Steel Plant, at Bhadravati, Karnataka.
(d) Bhilai Steel Plant, at Bhilai, Chhattisgarh.
(e) Bokaro Steel Plant, at Bokaro, Jharkhand.
(f) Durgapur Steel Plant, at Durgapur, West Bengal.
(g) Rourkela Steel Plant, at Rourkela, Orissa.
(h) Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant, at Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
(i) Salem Steel Plant, Salem, Tamil Nadu.
(j) Vijayanagar Steel Plant in Karnataka.

Though India is an important iron and steel producing country in the world, we are not able to perform to our full potential largely due to the following problems faced by the industry:
(i) High costs and limited availability of coking coal.
(ii) Lower productivity of labour.
(iii) Irregular supply of energy.
(iv) Poor infrastructure.

Today with 32.8 million tonnes of steel production, India ranks ninth among the world crude steel producers.
It is the largest producer of sponge iron. In spite of large quantity of production of steel, per capita consumption of steel per annum is only 32 kg.

Q.4. In which region are most of the jute mills of India concentrated? Why? What are the challenges faced by this industry? What step has resulted in the increase of internal demands of jute in recent years?

Ans. Most of the jute mills of India are concentrated in the Hoogli basin in West Bengal. It is a narrow belt 98 km long and 3 km wide along the Hoogli river.

The factors responsible for the localisation of the jute industry in this region are as follows :
(i) Proximity to the jute producing areas of Ganga-Brahmaputra basin. West Bengal is the leading producer of raw jute in the country and provides the mills with the required raw material.
(ii) Abundant water for processing of raw jute.
(iii) Cheap water transport, supported by a good network of railways and roadways, facilitates the movement of raw materials to the mills.
(iv) Cheap labour from West Bengal and adjoining states of Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.
(v) Banking and insurance facilities from city of Kolkata.
(vi) Port facilities of Kolkata for export of jute goods.

Challenges faced by the jute industry are as follows :
(i) Stiff competition in the international market from synthetic substitutes.
(ii) Competition from other jute goods producing countries like Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, Egypt and Brazil.
(iii) Decrease in demand for packing materials and jute carpet, and high cost of production.
(iv) Old and inefficient machineries.
To face the competition from synthetic fibres and other countries producing jute, government has taken measures to boost up production of jute goods. In 2005, the National Jute Policy was formulated with this objective. Government policy of mandatory use of jute packaging has resulted in the increase of internal demand of jute in recent years.

Q.5. Write about the role of Information Technology Industry in modern India. What are software technology parks and where in India are they located?

Ans. Information Technology industry or IT as it is popularly known specialise in Research and Development (R&D), manufacture of electronics and production of hardware and software. A major impact of this industry in India has been on employment generation. Upto 31st March 2005, the IT industry employed over one million persons. This number was expected to increase eight fold in the following 3 to 4 years. This means that by 2008-2009 the IT industry was expected to provide employment to nearly 8 million people. The industry has also provided employment opportunity to women, and about 30 percent of the people employed in this sector are women.

The IT industry has been a major foreign exchange earner in the last few years because of its fast growing Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) sector. The continuing growth in hardware and software is the key to the success of IT industry in India. The IT industry has provided India a special position in the industrial world. Software technology parks provide single window service and high data communication facility to software exports. There are 18 software technology parks in India. They are located at Srinagar, Mohali, Noida, Jaipur, Gandhinagar, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mysore, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakhapatnam.

Q.6. Discuss the role of NTPC in paving the way to control environmental degradation.

Ans. NTPC is a major power providing corporation in India. It has ISO certification for EMS (Environmental Management System) 14001. The corporation has a proactive approach for preserving the natural environment and resources like water, oil, gas and fuels in places where it is setting up power plants. This is achieved through the following methods :
(a) Optimum utilisation of equipment adopting latest techniques and upgrading existing equipment.
(b) Minimising waste generation by maximising ash utilisation.
(c) Providing green belts for nurturing ecological balances and encouraging afforestation.
(d) Reducing environmental pollution through ash pond management, ash water recycling system and liquid waste management.
(e) Ecological monitoring reviews and online database management for all its power stations.