Economic Activities Around Us — Class 6 Social Science
Exploring Society: India and Beyond · Chapter 14
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- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
Chapter summary
Key ideas & terms
- Economic sector
- A broad group of economic activities that share similar characteristics; there are three main sectors.
- Primary sector
- Activities that extract goods directly from nature, such as farming, fishing, mining and forestry.
- Secondary sector
- Activities that process raw materials from the primary sector into new products, such as manufacturing.
- Tertiary sector
- The service sector, which provides support like transport, banking, trade and communication.
- Cooperative
- A group of people who voluntarily come together to meet their economic and social needs and make decisions collectively.
- Export
- Goods and services produced in one country and sold to buyers in another country.
Extra questions & answers
What are economic activities?
Economic activities are those that create monetary value — activities done in exchange for money or money's worth.
What are the three economic sectors?
The primary sector, the secondary sector and the tertiary sector.
What is the primary sector?
The group of activities that produce goods directly from nature, such as agriculture, mining, fishing, raising livestock and forestry.
What is the secondary sector?
The group of activities that process raw materials from the primary sector into new products, such as manufacturing flour, cloth, steel and cars.
What is the tertiary sector also called, and what does it do?
It is called the service sector and provides services that support the other two sectors, such as transport, banking, trade and communication.
Give one example each of a primary, secondary and tertiary activity.
Farming (primary), making furniture in a factory (secondary) and transporting goods or teaching (tertiary).
Which sector does milking cows belong to?
Milking cows belongs to the primary sector, because milk is obtained directly from a natural source (livestock).
How does the AMUL story show all three sectors?
Farmers milk cows (primary), milk is processed into butter and powder in factories (secondary), and products are transported and sold (tertiary).
What is a cooperative?
A group of people who voluntarily come together to meet their economic and social needs, owning it and making decisions collectively.
Why are the three sectors said to be interdependent?
Because converting raw materials into finished products for consumption needs all three sectors working together and supporting each other.
THINK ABOUT IT
Can you think of any primary activities that you may have seen in the past? What are the natural resources used in these activities? Name two of them and discuss your experiences with your classmates. 1.
1. Agriculture / farming in the village fields near my grandparents' house. The farmers grow wheat and rice. The natural resources used are soil, water, seeds and sunlight. I saw them ploughing the field and irrigating it before sowing.
Can you think of any primary activities that you may have seen in the past? What are the natural resources used in these activities? Name two of them and discuss your experiences with your classmates. 2.
2. Fishing / fish farming at a pond near my town. The fishermen catch fish with nets. The natural resources used are water of the pond/river or sea and the fish stock itself. I saw them early morning bringing their catch to the local market.
LET'S EXPLORE
Now that we have seen some examples of secondary sector activities, can you name two more economic activities in the secondary sector? 1.
1. Baking bread and biscuits in a bakery - wheat flour obtained from agriculture (primary sector) is processed and baked into bread in a factory.
Now that we have seen some examples of secondary sector activities, can you name two more economic activities in the secondary sector? 2.
2. Making furniture from timber - wood collected from forests (primary sector) is cut, shaped and assembled into tables, chairs and beds in a furniture production unit.
DON'T MISS OUT
Just like AMUL, there are many other milk cooperatives under brands such as Nandini from Karnataka, Mother Dairy from Delhi-NCR, Aavin from Tamil Nadu, Vijaya from Andhra Pradesh, Kevi from Nagaland, Sudha from Bihar, Verka from Punjab, etc. Can you name one cooperative around you that has helped groups like farmers, persons with disabilities, and women, to come together and has brought prosperity to their lives?
One cooperative near me is Mother Dairy (in Delhi-NCR) and similarly the local Self-Help Group milk collection centre in my area. Like AMUL, it collects milk directly from small farmers and women members, tests its quality, processes and sells it, removing the middlemen. The profit is shared among members, giving women and small farmers a regular income and a voice in decision-making.
THINK ABOUT IT
Observe the different stages of the process shown in Fig. 14.1 on page 206 and discuss them with your fellow classmates.
Fig. 14.1 shows how a textbook is made. First wood is obtained by cutting trees and its fibre (pulp) is extracted - this is a primary activity. Then the pulp is taken to a paper mill where it is cleaned, pressed and rolled into paper sheets and then to a printing press where the book is printed, cut and bound - these are secondary activities. Finally lorries, trains and shops distribute and sell the books to students - this is a tertiary activity. All three sectors work together to bring the book from the forest to the classroom.
LET'S EXPLORE
Label the pictures in the illustration shown in Fig. 14.1 on page 206 as: 1. Primary sector
1. Primary sector - the first pictures where trees are cut and wood pulp is collected from the forest. This involves directly extracting raw material from nature.
Label the pictures in the illustration shown in Fig. 14.1 on page 206 as: 2. Secondary sector
2. Secondary sector - the middle pictures where pulp is processed into paper in the paper mill and paper is printed, cut and bound into textbooks in the printing factory.
Label the pictures in the illustration shown in Fig. 14.1 on page 206 as: 3. Tertiary sector
3. Tertiary sector - the last pictures where finished textbooks are loaded on trucks, transported and sold in retail bookshops to reach students.
DON'T MISS OUT
What are the different ways through which we can judiciously use paper in the classrooms and offices of your school?
We can use paper judiciously by writing on both sides of the paper, using rough paper for drafts, reusing old notebooks, recycling used paper, avoiding wastage and printing only when needed, using digital boards and e-notices instead of paper notices, and collecting waste paper separately for recycling. Recycling one tonne of paper saves about 17 trees.
LET'S EXPLORE
List the economic activities in your neighbourhood and label them appropriately as primary, secondary or tertiary. Draw arrows to show how they are connected to each other. In what ways are they dependent on each other? What would happen if one of the activities ceased to exist?
Example from my neighbourhood: Primary - a vegetable vendor buys vegetables from a nearby farm and a dairy booth sells milk from local cattle. Secondary - a bakery bakes bread from flour, a tailor stitches clothes from cotton fabric, and an electrician's workshop repairs appliances. Tertiary - an auto-rickshaw transports vegetables and bread to the market, a bank gives loans to the shopkeepers, and a school and clinic provide education and health services. They are connected: the farm provides grain to the bakery (primary -> secondary) and the auto and shop (tertiary) deliver and sell the bread. They depend on each other for raw materials, processing and services. If the transport (tertiary) stopped, farm produce would rot and bakery goods would not reach customers; if farming (primary) stopped, the bakery would have no flour and shops would have nothing to sell.
Questions, activities and projects
1. What is the primary sector? How is it different from the secondary sector? Give two examples.
The primary sector is the group of economic activities where people directly depend on nature to extract raw materials. The secondary sector processes and transforms those raw materials into finished or more useful goods. Difference: primary produces raw material from nature, secondary converts that raw material into products for sale or use. Examples: Primary - agriculture (growing wheat on a farm) and fishing (catching fish from a river/sea); Secondary - grinding wheat into flour in a mill and making furniture from timber in a furniture unit.
2. How does the secondary sector depend on the tertiary sector? Illustrate with a few examples.
The secondary sector depends on the tertiary sector for support services to produce and sell its goods. It needs transport to bring raw materials and to send finished products to markets, banking and finance to get loans to run factories, communication to take orders, and trade and warehousing to store and sell products. For example, a textile factory needs trucks (transport) to bring cotton and to deliver cloth to shops, needs banks to finance machines, and needs shops and e-commerce delivery services to sell the cloth to consumers.
3. Give an example of interdependence between primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Show it using a flow diagram.
Example of AMUL milk cooperative and also the book-making chain shows interdependence: Primary -> Secondary -> Tertiary and back. Flow diagram: Cows / Livestock (Primary - farmer milks cows) -> Milk Processing Factory (Secondary - pasteurisation and making butter, cheese, milk powder) -> Transport by trucks/trains + Retail shops (Tertiary - distribution and sale) -> Consumers. Similarly, for books: Forest / Trees (Primary - wood pulp) -> Paper Mill & Printing Press (Secondary - paper and textbooks) -> Transport & Bookshops (Tertiary - delivery to schools). Without primary there is no raw material, without secondary there is no finished product, and without tertiary the product cannot reach people. Each sector supports the others.