An industry refers to an economic activity that is concerned with the production of goods, extraction of minerals or the provision of services. For example, the iron and steel industry (production of goods), the coal mining industry (extraction of coal), and the tourism industry (service provider) are all considered industries.

Some of the world’s major industries include:

• Iron and steel industry – Predominantly in Germany, USA, China, Japan and Russia.
• Textile industry – Majorly in India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
• Information technology industry – The Silicon Valley of Central California and the Bangalore region of India are major hubs.

Distribution of Major Industries in India

Industrial Distribution in India

Iron and Steel Industry

• These industries are known as feeder industries as their products are used as raw materials for other industries.
• The product obtained by this industry is used as raw material by other industries.
• The inputs for the industry include raw materials such as iron ore, coal and limestone, along with labour, capital, site and other infrastructure. The process of converting iron ore into steel involves smelting and refining. The output obtained is steel (often referred to as the backbone of modern industry.) which is a basic material needed in every other industry.
• In a developing country like India, the Iron and Steel industry has leveraged the advantage of cheap labor, raw material, and the ready market.
• All the significant steel-producing centres such as Bhilai, Durgapur, Burnpur, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro are situated in a region that spreads over four states, namely West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh.
• Bhadravati and Vijay Nagar in Karnataka, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu are other important steel centres utilising local resources.
• The development of the iron and steel industry paved the way for rapid industrial development in India.

Cotton & Textile Industry

• Weaving cloth from yarn is a time-honored skill. Cotton, wool, silk, jute, flax have been used for making cloth.
• Fibres are the raw material of the textile industry and textile industries can be divided on the basis of raw materials used in them.
• Fibres can be natural or synthetic. Natural fibres are obtained from wool, silk, cotton, linen and jute. Synthetic fibres include nylon, polyester, acrylic and rayon.
• The cotton textile industry is one of the world’s oldest industries.
• The Muslins of Dhaka, Chintzes of Masulipatnam, Calicos of Calicut and Gold-wrought cotton of Burhanpur, Surat and Vadodara are some of the well known and highly demanded fibres worldwide for their quality and design.
• After the industrial revolution, the first successful mechanized textile mill was established in Mumbai in 1854. The warm, moist climate, a port for importing machinery, availability of raw material and skilled labour resulted in rapid expansion of the industry in the region.
• In Gujarat on the banks of the Sabarmati river the first cotton textile mill was established in 1859. It soon became the second-largest textile city of India, after Mumbai. Ahmedabad was therefore often referred to as the ‘Manchester of India’.

Industries in India

Information & Technology Industries

• The information technology industry deals with the storage, processing and distribution of information.
• Due to a series of technological, political, and socio-economic events the industry has become global in a decade.
• The main factors guiding the location of these industries are resource availability, cost and infrastructure.
• Apart from Bengaluru in India, there are other emerging information technology hubs in metropolitan centres of the nation such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. Other cities such as Gurgaon, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Chandigarh are also important centres of the IT industry.

Classification of Industries

Industries can be classified on the basis of raw materials, size and ownership.

• Based on Raw Material – Industries classified based on the type of raw material they use. For example – Agro based industries use plant and animal based products as their raw materials. Marine based industries use products from the sea and oceans as raw materials, etc.
• Based on Size – Industries classified based on the amount of capital invested, number of people employed and the volume of production. Based on size, industries can be classified into small scale and large scale industries. For example – Production of automobiles and heavy machinery are large scale industries. They produce large volumes of products, Investment of capital is higher and the technology used is superior while Cottage and household industries are small scale industries where the products are manufactured by hand and use a lesser amount of capital and technology.
• Based on Ownership – based on the ownership industries can be divided into Private sector – owned and operated by individuals or a group of individuals Public sector or state-owned – owned and operated by the government, such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) .Joint sector- owned and operated both by the state and individuals or a group of individuals, example, Maruti Udyog limited.Cooperative sector – owned and operated by the producers or suppliers of raw materials, workers or both. Example – Amul India and IFFCO Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperatives.

• Industries in India

• Newspaper in India