NCERT Class 11-12 Human Geography Compilation for UPSC Civil Services Exam

1. Human Geography ........................................................................................................................................ 5

1.2. Environment and Human Inter-Relationship .............................................................................................................. 5

1.3. Broad Stages and Thrust of Human Geography ........................................................................................................ 6
1.4. Human Geography and Sister Disciplines of Social Sciences................................................................................. 6

2. Population ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

2.1. Some Basic Concepts of Population Geography ....................................................................................................... 7

2.2. Factors influencing the distribution of population ................................................................................................... 8
Geographical Factors ........................................................................................................................................................... 8
Economic Factors................................................................................................................................................................... 9

2.3. Components of Population Change .............................................................................................................................. 9

Migration ............................................................................................................................................................................... 10

2.4. Trends in population growth ......................................................................................................................................... 10

2.5. Demographic transition .................................................................................................................................................. 11
2.6. Population Composition ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Sex composition.................................................................................................................................................................. 12
Age Structure ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Age-Sex Pyramid ................................................................................................................................................................ 13
Ageing Population ............................................................................................................................................................. 15
Rural urban composition ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Occupational Structure..................................................................................................................................................... 16

2.7. India Census 2011 Data and Observations ................................................................................................................ 17

India: State-wise Population Distribution, Density and Growth, 2011 ........................................................... 17
India: Decadal Birth Rate, Death Rate and Rate of Natural Increase, 1901 -2011 ..................................... 19
India: Rural and Urban Population 2011.................................................................................................................... 19
India: % of Population of Religious Groups ............................................................................................................. 20
Religious Communities of India, 2011 ........................................................................................................................ 22
Uneven spatial distribution of population ................................................................................................................ 22
Density of Population ....................................................................................................................................................... 23
Growth of Population ....................................................................................................................................................... 26
Population Doubling Time .............................................................................................................................................. 28
Regional Variation in Population Growth.................................................................................................................. 29
Population Composition .................................................................................................................................................. 29

2.8. Questions ............................................................................................................................................................................ 33

3. Migration ...................................................................................................................................................... 34

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 3.1. Streams of Migration ....................................................................................................................................................... 34
3.2. Indian Diaspora.................................................................................................................................................................. 35
3.3. Spatial Variation in Migration........................................................................................................................................ 36
3.4. Causes of Migration ......................................................................................................................................................... 36
3.5. Consequences of Migration ........................................................................................................................................... 37
Economic Consequences ................................................................................................................................................. 37
Demographic Consequences ......................................................................................................................................... 38
Social Consequences......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Environmental Consequences ....................................................................................................................................... 38

3.6. Questions ............................................................................................................................................................................ 39

4. Human Settlements ..................................................................................................................................... 39

4.1. Classification of settlements .......................................................................................................................................... 39

4.2. Types and Patterns of Settlements .............................................................................................................................. 40
Compact or Nucleated settlements ............................................................................................................................. 40
Dispersed Settlements ...................................................................................................................................................... 40
Rural Settlements ............................................................................................................................................................... 40
Rural Settlements in India ............................................................................................................................................... 45
Urban Settlements ............................................................................................................................................................. 47
Urban Settlements in India ............................................................................................................................................. 53

4.3. Questions ............................................................................................................................................................................ 59

5. Human Development .................................................................................................................................. 59

5.1. Growth and Development .............................................................................................................................................. 59

5.2. Human Development....................................................................................................................................................... 60
The four pillars of human development .................................................................................................................... 61

5.3. Approaches to human development .......................................................................................................................... 62

5.4. Measuring Human Development ................................................................................................................................. 62
Human Poverty index........................................................................................................................................................ 63
Gross National Happiness (GNH) ................................................................................................................................. 63
International comparisons .............................................................................................................................................. 63

5.5. Human Development in India ....................................................................................................................................... 65

Indicators of Economic Attainments ........................................................................................................................... 66
Indicators of a Healthy Life ............................................................................................................................................. 68
Indicators of Social Empowerment .............................................................................................................................. 69
Human Development Index in India ........................................................................................................................... 70

5.6. Questions ............................................................................................................................................................................ 71

6. Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context .................................................................... 72

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 6.1. Target Area Planning ....................................................................................................................................................... 72
Hill Area Development Programme ............................................................................................................................ 73
Drought Prone Area Programme ................................................................................................................................. 73
Sustainable Development ............................................................................................................................................... 74

6.2. Case Study – Indira Gandhi Canal (Nahar) Command Area ................................................................................. 75
Measures for Promotion of Sustainable Development ........................................................................................ 77

6.3. Case Study – Integrated Tribal Development Project in Bharmaur Region ..................................................... 77
6.4. Questions ............................................................................................................................................................................ 78

7. Transport and Communication .................................................................................................................. 78

7.1. Modes of transportation ................................................................................................................................................. 79

Land Transport .................................................................................................................................................................... 79
Water Transport .................................................................................................................................................................. 84
Air Transport......................................................................................................................................................................... 90
Pipelines ................................................................................................................................................................................. 91

7.2. Communications ............................................................................................................................................................... 92

Satellite Communication.................................................................................................................................................. 92
Cyber Space – Internet ..................................................................................................................................................... 93

7.3. Road Transport in India ................................................................................................................................................... 93

National Highways ............................................................................................................................................................. 93
State Highways .................................................................................................................................................................... 96
District Roads ....................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Rural Roads ........................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Other Roads.......................................................................................................................................................................... 97
Bharatmala ............................................................................................................................................................................ 97

7.4. Rail Transport in India ...................................................................................................................................................... 98

Konkan Railway ................................................................................................................................................................... 99

7.5. Water Transport................................................................................................................................................................. 99

Inland Waterways ............................................................................................................................................................... 99
Oceanic Routes.................................................................................................................................................................. 101

7.6. Air Transportation ........................................................................................................................................................... 101

7.7. Oil and Gas Pipelines ..................................................................................................................................................... 103
Communication Networks ............................................................................................................................................ 103
Television ............................................................................................................................................................................. 103
Satellite Communication................................................................................................................................................ 103

7.8. Questions .......................................................................................................................................................................... 104

8. International Trade .................................................................................................................................... 104

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 8.1. Basis of International Trade ......................................................................................................................................... 105
8.2. Important Aspects of International Trade................................................................................................................ 107
Volume of Trade ............................................................................................................................................................... 107
Composition of Trade ..................................................................................................................................................... 107
Direction of Trade ............................................................................................................................................................ 107

8.3. Balance of Trade .............................................................................................................................................................. 108

8.4. Types of International Trade ........................................................................................................................................ 108
Bilateral trade ..................................................................................................................................................................... 108
Multi-lateral trade ............................................................................................................................................................ 108

8.5. Case for Free Trade......................................................................................................................................................... 109

8.6. World Trade Organisation ............................................................................................................................................ 109
8.7. Regional Trade Blocs...................................................................................................................................................... 110
8.8. Concerns Related to International Trade ................................................................................................................. 112
8.9. Gateways of International Trade................................................................................................................................. 112
Ports....................................................................................................................................................................................... 112

8.10. India’s International Trade ............................................................................................................................................ 114

Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’ Exports.................................................................................... 115
Changing Patterns of the Composition of India’s Import ................................................................................. 115

8.11. Direction of Trade ........................................................................................................................................................... 117

8.12. Sea Ports as Gateways of International Trade ........................................................................................................ 117
Some of the Indian ports along with their hinterlands ...................................................................................... 119

8.13. Airports .............................................................................................................................................................................. 123

8.14. Questions .......................................................................................................................................................................... 123

The following chapters will be covered under Geography > Economic Geography Notes

• Mineral and Energy Resources

• Primary Activities
• Secondary Activities
• Tertiary and Quaternary Activities
• Manufacturing Industries

The following chapters will be covered in the Indian Agriculture Notes

• Water Resources
• Land Resources and Agriculture

Only focus on the bolded words/sentences to save time.

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 1. Human Geography

(This chapter is just for understanding the concept of Human Geography. There is no need to mug up
anything from this chapter.)

• Each and every event or phenomenon which varies over space and time can be studied geographically.
• Physical geography studies physical environment.
• Human geography studies the inter-relationship between the physical environment and sociocultural
environment created by human beings through mutual interaction with each other.
• The dichotomy (contrast) between physical and human is not a very valid one because nature and human
are inseparable elements and should be seen holistically.

Welfare or humanistic school of thought

• Welfare or humanistic school of thought in human geography was mainly concerned with the different
aspects of social well-being of the people. These included aspects such as housing, health and education.

Radical school of thought

• Radical school of thought employed Marxian theory to explain the basic cause of poverty, deprivation and
social inequality.
• Contemporary social problems were related to the development of capitalism.

Behavioural school of thought

• Behavioural school of thought laid great emphasis on lived experience and also on the perception of space
by social categories based on ethnicity, race and religion, etc.

1.2. Environment and Human Inter-Relationship

Naturalisation of Humans

• In the early stages of their interaction with their natural environment, humans adapted to the dictates of
Nature.
• This type of interaction between primitive human society and strong forces of nature was termed as
environmental determinism.

Humanisation of Nature

• Nature provides opportunities and human being make use of these and slowly nature gets humanised and
starts bearing the imprints of human endeavour.

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• The earlier scholars termed this as possibilism.

Neodeterminism

• Another concept which reflects a middle path between the two ideas of environmental determinism and
possibilism is termed as Neodeterminism or stop and go determinism.
• The concept shows that neither is there a situation of absolute necessity (environmental determinism) nor is
there a condition of absolute freedom (possibilism).
• It means that human beings can conquer nature by obeying it and that possibilities can be created within
the limits which do not damage the environment and there is no free run without accidents.
• The free run which the developed economies attempted to take has already resulted in the greenhouse
effect, ozone layer depletion, global warming, receding glaciers and degrading lands.
• The neo-determinism conceptually attempts to bring a balance nullifying the ‘either’ ‘or’ dichotomy.

1.3. Broad Stages and Thrust of Human Geography

Exploration and description

• Imperial and trade interests prompted the discovery and exploration of new areas.
• An encyclopaedic description of the area formed an important aspect of the geographer’s account.

Regional analysis

• Elaborate description of all aspects of a region were undertaken.

• The idea was that all the regions were part of a whole, i.e. (the earth); so, understanding the parts in totality
would lead to an understanding of the whole.

Areal differentiation

• The focus was on identifying the uniqueness of any region and understanding how and why it was different
from others.

Spatial organisation

• Marked by the use of computers and sophisticated statistical tools.

• Laws of physics were often applied to map and analyse human phenomena.
• This phase was called the quantitative revolution.
• The main objective was to identify mappable patterns for different human activities.

1.4. Human Geography and Sister Disciplines of Social Sciences

Fields Sub-fields Sister Disciplines of Social Sciences

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Social Geography — Social Sciences - Sociology

Behavioural Geography Psychology

Geography of Social Well-being Welfare Economics

Geography of Leisure Sociology

Cultural Geography Anthropology

Gender Geography Sociology, Anthropology, Women’s Studies

Historical Geography History

Medical Geography Epidemiology

Urban Geography — Urban Studies and Planning

Political Geography — Political Science

Electoral Geography Psephology

Military Geography Military Science

Population Geography — Demography

Settlement Geography — Urban/Rural Planning

Economic Geography — Economics

Geography of Resources Resource Economics

Geography of Agriculture Agricultural Sciences

Geography of Industries Industrial Economics

Geography of Marketing Business Studies, Economics, Commerce

Geography of Tourism Tourism and Travel Management

Geography of International Trade International Trade

2. Population

2.1. Some Basic Concepts of Population Geography

Population growth

• The population growth or population change refers to the change in number of inhabitants of a territory
during a specific period of time. This change may be positive as well as negative.
• Population change in an area is an important indicator of economic development, social upliftment and
historical and cultural background of the region.

Growth Rate of Population

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• This is the change of population expressed in percentage.

Natural Growth of Population

• Natural Growth = Births – Deaths

Actual Growth of Population

• Births – Deaths + In Migration – Out Migration

Positive Growth of Population

• This happens when the birth rate is more than the death rate between two points of time or when people
from other countries migrate permanently to a region.

Negative Growth of Population

• If the population decreases between two points of time it is known as negative growth of population.
• It occurs when the birth rate falls below the death rate or people migrate to other countries.

Patterns of population

• The term population distribution refers to the way people are spaced over the earth’s surface.
• Broadly, 90 per cent of the world population lives in about 10 per cent of its land area.
• The 10 most populous countries of the world contribute about 60 per cent of the world’s population.
• Of these 10 countries, 6 are located in Asia.

Density of population

• It is the ratio between the numbers of people to the size of land.

• It is usually measured in persons per sq km.

2.2. Factors influencing the distribution of population

Geographical Factors

Availability of water

• People prefer to live in areas where fresh water is easily available.

• It is because of this that river valleys are among the most densely populated areas of the world.

Landforms

• People prefer living on flat plains and gentle slopes.

• This is because such areas are favourable for the production of crops and to build roads and industries.

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• The mountainous and hilly areas hinder the development of transport network and hence initially do not
favour agricultural and industrial development. So, these areas tend to be less populated.
• The Ganga plains are among the most densely populated areas of the world while the mountains zones in
the Himalayas are scarcely populated.

Climate

• An extreme climate such as very hot or cold deserts are uncomfortable for human habitation.
• Areas with a comfortable climate, where there is not much seasonal variation attract more people.
• Areas with very heavy rainfall or extreme and harsh climates have low population.
• Mediterranean regions were inhabited from early periods in history due to their pleasant climate.

Soils

• Areas which have fertile loamy soils have more people living on them as these can support intensive
agriculture.

Economic Factors

Minerals

• Areas with mineral deposits attract industries.

• Mining and industrial activities generate employment.
• So, skilled and semi–skilled workers move to these areas and make them densely populated.
• Katanga Zambia copper belt in Africa is one such good example.

Urbanisation

• Good civic amenities and better employment opportunities draw people to the cities.
• It leads to rural to urban migration and cities grow in size.

Industrialisation

• Industrial belts provide job opportunities and attract large numbers of people.
• The Kobe-Osaka region of Japan is thickly populated because of the presence of a number of industries.

Social and Cultural Factors

• Some places attract more people because they have religious or cultural significance.
• In the same way – people tend to move away from places where there is social and political unrest.

2.3. Components of Population Change

• There are three components of population change – births, deaths and migration.

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• The crude birth rate (CBR) is expressed as number of live births in a year per thousand of population.
• Crude Death Rate (CDR) is expressed in terms of number of deaths in a particular year per thousand of
population in a particular region.

Migration

• Apart from birth and death there is another way by which the population size changes.
• When people move from one place to another, the place they move from is called the Place of Origin and
the place they move to is called the Place of Destination.
• The place of origin shows a decrease in population while the population increases in the place of
destination.
• Migration may be permanent, temporary or seasonal.
• Immigration: Migrants who move into a new place are called Immigrants.
• Emigration: Migrants who move out of a place are called Emigrants.
• There are two sets of factors that influence migration.
1. The Push factors make the place of origin seem less attractive for reasons like unemployment, political
turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics, socio-economic backwardness, etc.
2. The Pull factors make the place of destination seem more attractive than the place of origin for
reasons like better job opportunities and living conditions, peace and stability, security of life, pleasant
climate, etc.

2.4. Trends in population growth

• The population on the earth is more than seven billion.

• It is only during the last few hundred years that population has increased at an alarming rate.

Period Population Time in which Population Doubles

10,000 B.C. 5 million

1650 A.D. 500 million 1,500 years
1804 A.D. 1,000 million 154 years
1927 A.D. 2,000 million 123 years
1974 A.D. 4,000 million 47 years
2025 A.D. 8,000 million projected figure 51 years

• World population exploded in the eighteenth century after the Industrial Revolution.

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Region Population (2018) Area (Km2) Density (P/Km2) World Share

Asia 4,545,133,094 31,033,131 146 59.5%

Africa 1,287,920,518 29,648,481 43 16.9%

Europe 742,648,010 22,134,900 34 9.7%

Latin America & the Caribbean 652,012,001 20,139,378 32 8.5%

Northern America 363,844,490 18,651,660 20 4.8%

Oceania 41,261,212 8,486,460 5 0.5%

• The annual population growth rate in India is 1.64 per cent.

2.5. Demographic transition

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• Demographic transition theory can be used to describe and predict the future population of any area.
• The theory tells us that population of any region changes from high births and high deaths to low births
and low deaths as society progresses from rural agrarian & illiterate to urban industrial and literate society.
• These changes occur in stages which are collectively known as the demographic cycle.
• The first stage has high fertility and high mortality because people reproduce more to compensate for
the deaths due to epidemics and variable food supply.
• The population growth is slow and most of the people are engaged in agriculture.
• Fertility remains high in the beginning of second stage, but it declines with time.
• Improvements in sanitation and health conditions lead to decline in mortality.
• Because of this gap the net addition to population is high.
• In the last stage, both fertility and mortality decline considerably.
• The population is either stable or grows slowly.

2.6. Population Composition

Sex composition

• The ratio between the number of women and men in the population is called the Sex Ratio.
• The sex ratio is an important information about the status of women in a country.
• In regions where gender discrimination is rampant, the sex ratio is bound to be unfavourable to women.
• Such areas are those where the practice of female foeticide, female infanticide and domestic violence
against women are prevalent.
• One of the reasons could be lower socio-economic status of women in these areas.
• You must remember that more women in the population does not mean they have a better status. It could
be that the men might have migrated to other areas for employment.
• On an average, the world population reflects a sex ratio of 102 males per 100 females.
• The highest sex ratio in the world has been recorded in Latvia where there are 85 males per 100 females.
• In contrast, in Qatar there are 311 males per 100 females.
• The world pattern of sex ratio does not exhibit variations in the developed regions of the world.
• The sex ratio is favourable for females in 139 countries of the world and unfavourable for them in the
remaining 72 countries listed by the United Nations.
• In general, Asia has a low sex ratio.
• Countries like China, India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan have a lower sex ratio.
• On the other extreme is greater part of Europe (including Russia) where males are in minority.

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• A deficit of males in the populations of many European countries is attributed to better status of women,
and an excessively male-dominated out-migration to different parts of the world in the past.

Age Structure

• Age structure represents the number of people of different age groups.

• This is an important indicator of population composition, since a large size of population in the age group
of 15- 59 indicates a large working population.
• A greater proportion of population above 60 years represents an ageing population which requires
more expenditure on health care facilities.
• Similarly, high proportion of young population would mean that the region has a high birth rate and the
population is youthful.

Age-Sex Pyramid

• The age-sex structure of a population refers to the number of females and males in different age groups.
• A population pyramid is used to show the age-sex structure of the population.
• The shape of the population pyramid reflects the characteristics of the population.
• The left side shows the percentage of males while the right side shows the percentage of women in each
age group.

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Expanding Populations

• The age-sex pyramid of Nigeria is a triangular shaped pyramid with a wide base and is typical of less
developed countries.
• These have larger populations in lower age groups due to high birth rates.
• If you construct the pyramids for Bangladesh and Mexico, it will look the same.

Constant Population

• Australia’s age-sex pyramid is bell shaped and tapered towards the top.
• This shows birth and death rates are almost equal leading to a near constant population.

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Declining Populations

• The Japan pyramid has a narrow base and a tapered top showing low birth and death rates.
• The population growth in developed countries is usually zero or negative.

Ageing Population

• Population ageing is the process by which the share of the older population becomes proportionally larger.
• This is a new phenomenon of the twentieth century.
• In most of the developed countries of the world, population in higher age groups has increased due to
increased life expectancy.
• With a reduction in birth rates, the proportion of children in the population has declined.

Rural urban composition

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• The rural and urban differences in sex ratio in Canada and West European countries like Finland are just the
opposite of those in African and Asian countries like Zimbabwe and Nepal respectively.
• In Western countries, males outnumber females in rural areas and females outnumber the males in
urban areas.
• In countries like Nepal, Pakistan and India the case is reverse.
• The excess of females in urban areas of U.S.A., Canada and Europe is the result of influx of females from
rural areas to avail of the vast job opportunities.
• Farming in these developed countries is also highly mechanised and remains largely a male occupation.
• By contrast the sex ratio in Asian urban areas remains male dominated due to the predominance of male
migration.
• Also, in countries like India, female participation in farming activity in rural area is fairly high.
• Shortage of housing, high cost of living, paucity of job opportunities and lack of security in cities,
discourage women to migrate from rural to urban areas.

Occupational Structure

• The working population (age group – 15 to 59) take part in various occupations.
• Agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining are classified as primary activities manufacturing as secondary,
trade, transport, communication and other services as tertiary and the jobs related to research, information
technology and developing ideas as quaternary activities.

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• The proportion of working population engaged in these four sectors is a good indicator of the levels of
economic development of a nation.
• This is because only a developed economy with industries and infrastructure can accommodate more
workers in the secondary, tertiary and quaternary sector.
• If the economy is still in the primitive stages, then the proportion of people engaged in primary activities
world be high as it involves extraction of natural resources.

2.7. India Census 2011 Data and Observations

India: State-wise Population Distribution, Density and Growth, 2011

State/UT India/State/ Total Population National Density Decadal growth

Code Union Territory # Persons Share (%) rate 2001-11

India 1210193422 100 382 17.64

01 Jammu & Kashmir 12,548,926 1.04 124 23.71

02 Himachal Pradesh 6,856,509 0.57 123 12.81

03 Punjab 27,704,236 2.29 550 13.73

04 Chandigarh # 1,054,686 0.09 9,252 17.10

05 Uttarakhand 10,116,752 0.84 189 19.17

06 Haryana 25,353,081 2.09 573 19.90

07 NCT of Delhi # 16,753,235 1.38 11,297 20.96

08 Rajasthan 68,621,012 5.67 201 21.44

09 Uttar Pradesh 199,581,477 16.49 828 20.09

10 Bihar 103,804,637 8.58 1,102 25.07

11 Sikkim 607,688 0.05 86 12.36

12 Arunachal Pradesh 1,382,611 0.11 17 25.92

13 Nagaland 1,980,602 0.16 119 -0.47

14 Manipur 2,721,756 0.22 122 18.65

15 Mizoram 1,091,014 0.09 52 22.78

16 Tripura 3,671,032 0.30 350 14.75

17 Meghalaya 2,964,007 0.24 132 27.82

18 Assam 31,169,272 2.58 397 16.93

19 West Bengal 91,347,736 7.55 1,029 13.93

20 Jharkhand 32,966,238 2.72 414 22.34

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21 Orissa 41,947,358 3.47 269 13.97

22 Chhattisgarh 25,540,196 2.11 189 22.59

23 Madhya Pradesh 72,597,565 6.00 236 20.30

24 Gujarat 60,383,628 4.99 308 19.17

25 Daman & Diu # 242,911 0.02 2,169 53.54

26 Dadra & Nagar Haveli # 342,853 0.03 698 55.50

27 Maharashtra 112,372,972 9.29 365 15.99

28 Andhra Pradesh 84,665,533 7.00 308 11.10

29 Karnataka 61,130,704 5.05 319 15.67

30 Goa 1,457,723 0.12 394 8.17

31 Lakshadweep # 64,429 0.01 2,013 6.23

32 Kerala 33,387,677 2.76 859 4.86

33 Tamil Nadu 72,138,958 5.96 555 15.60

34 Puducherry # 1,244,464 0.10 2598 27.72

35 Andaman & Nicobar Islands # 379,944 0.03 46 6.68

Most Populous Least Populous

State Population % State Population %

1. Uttar Pradesh 19,95,81,477 16.49 1. Lakshadweep 64429 0.01

2. Maharashtra 11,23,72,972 9.29 2. Daman & Diu 242911 0.02

3. Bihar 10,38,04,637 8.58 3. Dadra & Nagar Haveli 342853 0.03

4. West Bengal 9,13,47,736 7.55 4. Sikkim 607688 0.05

5. Andhra Pradesh 8,46,65,533 7 5. Chandigarh 1054686 0.09

Highest Population Density Lowest Population Density

State Population Density State Population Density

NCT of Delhi 11297 Arunachal Pradesh 17

Chandigarh 9252 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 46

Puducherry 2598 Mizoram 52

Daman & Diu 2169 Sikkim 86

Lakshadweep 2013 Nagaland 119

Bihar 1102 Manipur 122

West Bengal 1029 Himachal Pradesh 123

Kerala 859 Jammu & Kashmir 124

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Uttar Pradesh 828 Meghalaya 132

Dadra & Nagar Haveli 698 Uttarakhand 189

India: Decadal Birth Rate, Death Rate and Rate of Natural Increase, 1901 -2011

Decades Crude Birth Rate Per 1000 Crude Death Rate Per 1000 Rate of Natural Increase (Per
1000)

1901 - 1911 49.2 42.6 6.6

1911 - 1921 48.1 47.2 0.9

1921 - 1931 46.4 36.2 10.2

1931 - 1941 45.9 37.2 8.7

1941 - 1951 39.9 27.4 12.5

1951 - 1961 41.7 22.8 18.9

1961 - 1971 41.1 19.0 22.1

1971 - 1981 37.2 15 22.2

1981 - 1991 29.5 9.8 19.7

1991-2001 25.4 8.4 17.0

2001 - 2011 21,8 7.1 14.7

India: Rural and Urban Population 2011

State/UT India/State/ Population % of Urban Population

Code Union Territory

Rural Urban

India 833087662 377,105,760 31.16

01 Jammu & Kashmir 9,134,820 3,414,106 27.21

02 Himachal Pradesh 6,167,805 688,704 10.04

03 Punjab 17,316,800 10,387,436 37.49

04 Chandigarh 29,004 1,025,682 97,25

05 Uttarakhand 7,025,583 3,091,169 30.55

06 Haryana 16,531,493 8,821,588 34,79

07 NCT of Delhi 419,319 16,333,916 97.50

08 Rajasthan 51,540,236 17,080,776 24.89

09 Uttar Pradesh 155,111,022 44,470,455 22.28

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10 Bihar 92,075,028 11,729,609 11.30

11 Sikkim 455,962 151,726 24.97

12 Arunachal Pradesh 1,069,165 313,446 22,67

13 Nagaland 1,406,861 573,741 28.97

14 Manipur 1,899,624 822,132 30.21

15 Mizoram 529,037 561,977 51.51

16 Tripura 2,710,051 960,981 26.18

17 Meghalaya 2,368,971 595,036 20.08

18 Assam 26,780,516 4,388,756 14.08

19 West Bengal 62,213,676 29,134,060 31.89

20 Jharkhand 25,036,946 7,929,292 24.05

21 Orissa 34,951,234 6,996,124 16.68

22 Chhattisgarh 19,603,658 5,936,538 23.24

23 Madhya Pradesh 52,537,899 20,059,666 27.63

24 Gujarat 34,670,817 25,712,811 42.58

25 Daman & Diu 60,331 182,580 75.16

26 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 183,024 159,829 46.62

27 Maharashtra 61,545,441 50,827,531 45.23

28 Andhra Pradesh 56,311,788 28,353,745 33.49

29 Karnataka 37,552,529 23,578,175 38.57

30 Goa 551,414 906,309 62,17

31 Lakshadweep 14,121 50,308 78.08

32 Kerala 17,455,506 15,932,171 47.72

33 Tamil Nadu 37,189,229 34,949,729 48.45

34 Puducherry 394,341 850,123 68.31

35 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 244,411 135,533 35,67

India: % of Population of Religious Groups

State/UT Hindus Muslims Christians Sikhs Buddhists Jains Others Not stated

Jammu & Kashmir 28.44 68.31 0.28 1.87 0.90 0.02 0.01 0.16

Himachal Pradesh 95.17 2.18 0.18 1.16 1.15 0.03 0.01 0.12

Punjab 38.49 1.93 1.26 57.69 0.12 1.16 0.04 0.32

20
Chandigarh 80.78 4.87 0.83 13.11 0.11 0.19 0.02 0.10

Uttarakhand 82.97 13.95 0.37 2.34 0.15 0.09 0.01 0.12

Haryana 87.46 7.03 0.20 4.91 0.03 0.21 0.01 0.17

Delhi 81.68 12.86 0.87 3.40 0.11 0.99 0.01 0.08

Rajasthan 88.49 9.07 0.14 1.27 0.02 0.91 0.01 0.10

Uttar Pradesh 79.73 19.26 0.18 0.32 0.10 0.11 0.01 0.29

Bihar 82.69 16.87 0.12 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.24

Sikkim 57.76 1.62 9.91 0.31 27.39 0.05 2.67 0.30

Arunachal Pradesh 29.04 1.95 30.26 0.24 11.77 0.06 26.20 0.48

Nagaland 8.75 2.47 87.93 0.10 0.34 0.13 0.16 0.12

Manipur 41.39 8.40 41.29 0.05 0.25 0.06 8.19 0.38

Mizoram 2,75 1.35 87.16 0.03 8.51 0.03 0.07 0.09

Tripura 83.40 8.60 4.32 0.03 3.41 0.02 0.04 0.14

Meghalaya 11.53 4.40 74.59 0.10 0.33 0.02 8.71 0.32

Assam 61.47 34.22 3.74 0.07 0.18 0.08 0.09 0.16

West Bengal 70.54 27.01 0.72 0.07 0.31 0.07 1.03 0.25

Jharkhand 67.83 14.53 4.30 0.22 0.03 0.05 12.84 0.21

Orissa 93.63 2,17 2.77 0.05 0.03 0.02 1.14 0.18

Chhattisgarh 93.25 2.02 1.92 0.27 0.28 0.24 1.94 0.09

Madhya Pradesh 90.89 6.57 0.29 0.21 0.30 0.78 0.83 0.13

Gujarat 88.57 9.67 0.52 0.10 0.05 0.96 0.03 0.10

Daman & Diu 90.50 7.92 1.16 0.07 0.09 0.21 0.03 0.10

Dadra & Nagar Haveli 93.93 3.76 1.49 0.06 0.18 0.35 0.09 0.14

Maharashtra 79.83 11.54 0.96 0.20 5.81 1.25 0.16 0.25

Andhra Pradesh 88.46 9.56 1.34 0.05 0.04 0.06 0.01 0.48

Karnataka 84.00 12.92 1.87 0.05 0.16 0.72 0.2 0.27

Goa 66.08 8.33 25.10 0.10 0.08 0.08 0.02 0.21

Lakshadweep 2.77 96.58 0.49 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.10

Kerala 54.73 26.56 18.38 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.26

Tamil Nadu 87.58 5.86 6.12 0.02 0.02 0.12 0.01 0.26

Puducherry 87.30 6.05 6.29 0.02 0.04 0.11 0.01 0.17

Andaman & Nicobar 69.45 8.52 21.28 0.34 0.09 0.01 0.15 0.18

21
Islands

Religious Communities of India, 2011

Religious Group 2011

Population (in million) % of Total

Hindus 966.3 79.8

Muslims 172.2 14.2

Christians 27.8 2.3

Sikhs 20.8 1.7

Buddhists 8.4 0.7

Jains 4.5 0.4

Other Religions and Persuasions (ORP) 7.9 0.7

Religion Not Stated 2.9 0.2

Uneven spatial distribution of population

• Population data are collected through Census operation held every 10 years in our country.
• The first population Census in India was conducted in 1872 but its first complete Census was conducted
only in 1881.
• It is clear that India has a highly uneven pattern of population distribution.
• Uttar Pradesh has the highest population followed by Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal.
• The share of population is very small in the states like Jammu & Kashmir (1.04%), Arunachal Pradesh
(0.11%) and Uttarakhand (0.84%) inspite of theses states having fairly large geographical area.
• Such an uneven spatial distribution of population in India suggests a close relationship between
population and physical, socioeconomic and historical factors.
• As far as the physical factors are concerned, it is clear that climate along with terrain and availability of
water largely determines the pattern of the population distribution.
• Consequently, we observe that the North Indian Plains, deltas and Coastal Plains have higher
proportion of population than the interior districts of southern and central Indian States, Himalayas, some
of the north eastern and the western states.
• However, development of irrigation (Rajasthan), availability of mineral and energy resources
(Jharkhand) and development of transport network (Peninsular States) have resulted in moderate to
high concentration of population in areas which were previously very thinly populated.

22
• Among the socio-economic and historical factors, important ones are evolution of settled agriculture;
pattern of human settlement; development of transport network, industrialisation and urbanisation.

Density of Population

• There has been a steady increase of more than 200 persons per sq km over the last 50 years as the density
of population increased from 117 persons/ sq km in 1951 to 382 persons/sq km in 2011.
• Spatial variation of population densities in the country ranges from as low as 17 persons per sq km in
Arunachal Pradesh to 11,297 persons in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
• Among the northern Indian States, Bihar (1102), West Bengal (1029) and Uttar Pradesh (828) have
higher densities.
• Kerala (859) and Tamil Nadu (555) have higher densities among the peninsular Indian states.
• States like Assam, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Odisha have moderate densities.
• The hill states of the Himalayan region and North eastern states of India (excluding Assam) have relatively
low densities while the UTs (excluding Andaman & Nicobar Islands) have very high densities of population.
• Physiological density = total population / net cultivated area
• Agricultural density = total agricultural population / net cultivable area
• Agricultural population includes cultivators and agricultural labourers and their family members.

23
24
25
Growth of Population

• The annual growth rate of India’s population is 1.64 per cent (2011).

26
27
Population Doubling Time

• Population doubling time is the time taken by any population to double itself at its current annual growth
rate.
• The growth rate of population in India over the last one century has been caused by annual birth rate and
death rate and rate of migration and thereby shows different trends.
• There are four distinct phases of growth identified within this period.

Phase I

• The period from 1901-1921 is referred to as a period of stagnant or stationary phase since in this period
population growth rate was very low, even recording a negative growth rate during 1911-1921.
• Both the birth rate and death rate were high keeping the rate of increase low.
• Poor health and medical services, illiteracy of people at large and inefficient distribution system of food and
other basic necessities were largely responsible for a high birth and death rates in this period.

Phase II

• The decades 1921 -1951 are referred to as the period of steady population growth.
• An overall improvement in health and sanitation throughout the country brought down the mortality rate.
• At the same time better transport and communication system improved distribution system.
• The crude birth rate remained high in this period leading to higher growth rate than the previous phase.
• This is impressive at the backdrop of Great Economic Depression, 1920s and World War II.

Phase III

• The decades 1951-1981 are referred to as the period of population explosion in India, which was caused
by a rapid fall in the mortality rate but a high fertility rate of population in the country.
• The average annual growth rate was as high as 2.2 per cent.
• Developmental activities led to the improvement of living condition of people at large.
• Consequently, there was a high natural increase and higher growth rate.
• Besides, increased international migration bringing in Tibetans, Bangladeshis, Nepalis and even people
from Pakistan contributed to the high growth rate.

Phase IV

• Post 1981, the growth rate though remained high, has started slowing down gradually.
• A downward trend of crude birth rate is held responsible for such a population growth.

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• This was, in turn, affected by an increase in the mean age at marriage, improved quality of life particularly
education of females in the country.
• The growth rate of population is, however, still high in the country, and it has been projected by World
Development Report that population of India will touch 1,350 million by 2025.

Regional Variation in Population Growth

• The States like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, and Goa show a
low rate of growth not exceeding 20 per cent over the decade.
• Kerala registered the lowest growth rate (9.4) in the country.
• Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim,
Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand have relatively high growth rate (20-25 per cent).
• The percentage decadal growth rates of the six most populous States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have all fallen during 2001-2011.
• Tamil Nadu (3.9 percentage points) and Puducherry (7.1 percentage points) have registered some increase
during 2001-2011 over the previous decade.
• An important aspect of population growth in India is the growth of its adolescents.
• At present the share of adolescents i.e., up to the age group of 10-19 years is about 20.9 per cent (2011),
among which male adolescents constitute 52.7 per cent and female adolescents constitute 47.3 per cent.
• The National Youth Policy has been designed to look into the overall development of our large youth and
adolescent population.
• The National Youth Policy (NYP–2014) launched in February 2014 proposes a holistic ‘vision’ “To empower
the youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful
place in the community of nations”.
• The NYP–2014 has defined ‘youth’ as persons in the age group of 15–29 years.
• The Government of India also formulated the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in
2015 to provide an umbrella framework to all skilling activities being carried out within the country.

Population Composition

Rural – Urban Composition

• In India, 68.8 per cent of the total population lives in 640,867 villages (2011).
• States like Bihar and Sikkim have very high percentage of rural population.
• The states of Goa and Maharashtra have only little over half of their total population residing in villages.

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• The Union Territories, on the other hand, have smaller proportion of rural population, except Dadra and
Nagar Haveli (53.38 per cent).
• The size of villages also varies considerably.
• It is less than 200 persons in the hill states of north-eastern India, Western Rajasthan and Rann of Kuchchh
and as high as 17 thousand persons in the states of Kerala and in parts of Maharashtra.
• The growth rate of urban population has accelerated due to enhanced economic development and
improvement in health and hygienic conditions.
• The distribution of urban population too has a wide variation throughout the country.
• In the agriculturally stagnant parts of the middle and lower Ganga Plains, Telangana, non-irrigated Western
Rajasthan, remote hilly, tribal areas of northeast, along the flood prone areas of Peninsular India and along
eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, the degree of urbanisation has remained low.

Linguistic Composition

• In the context of modern India, there are about 22 scheduled languages and a number of non-scheduled
languages.
• Among the scheduled languages, the speakers of Hindi have the highest percentage.
• The smallest language groups are Sanskrit, Bodo and Manipuri speakers (2011).

Linguistic Classification

• The speakers of major Indian languages belong to four language families, which have their sub-families and
branches or groups.

Family Sub-Family Branch/Group Speech Areas

Austric (Nishada) Austro-Asiatic Mon-Khmer Meghalaya, Nicobar Islands

1.38% Munda West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra

Austro- Nesian Outside India

Dravidian (Dravida) South-Dravidian Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala

20% Central Dravidian Andhra Pradesh, M.P., Orissa, Maharashtra

North Dravidian Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh

Sino-Tibetan (Kirata) Tibeto-Myanmari Tibeto-Himalayan Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh,

0.85% Siamese-Chinese North Assam Sikkim
Assam- Myanmari Arunachal Pradesh
Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram,

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 Tripura, Meghalaya

Indo-Aryan Iranian Outside India

Indo – European Dardic Jammu & Kashmir
(Aryan) 73% Indo-Aryan Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal
Pradesh, U.P., Rajasthan, Haryana, M.P.,
Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Goa.

Religious Composition

• Hindus are distributed as a major group in many states (ranging from 70- 90 per cent and above) except
the districts of states along Indo-Bangladesh border, Indo-Pak border, Jammu & Kashmir, Hill States of
North-East and in scattered areas of Deccan Plateau and Ganga Plain.
• Muslims, the largest religious minority, are concentrated in Jammu & Kashmir, certain districts of West
Bengal and Kerala, many districts of Uttar Pradesh, in and around Delhi and in Lakshadweep.
• They form majority in Kashmir valley and Lakshadweep.
• The Christian population is distributed mostly in rural areas of the country.
• The main concentration is observed along the Western coast around Goa, Kerala and also in the hill states
of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chotanagpur area and Hills of Manipur.
• Sikhs are concentrated in relatively small area, particularly in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
• Jains and Buddhists, the smallest religious groups in India have their concentration only in selected areas of
the country.
• Jains have major concentration in the urban areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, while the
Buddhists are concentrated mostly in Maharashtra.
• The other areas of Buddhist majority are Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura,
and Lahul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.
• The other religions of India include Zoroastrians, tribal and other indigenous faiths and beliefs.
• These groups are concentrated in small pockets scattered throughout the country.

Composition of Working Population

• The population of India according to their economic status is divided into three groups, namely; main
workers, marginal workers and non-workers.
• Main Worker is a person who works for at least 183 days (or six months) in a year.
• Marginal Worker is a person who works for less than 183 days (or six months) in a year.

31
• It is observed that in India, the proportion of workers (both main and marginal) is only 39.8 per cent
(2011) leaving a vast majority of about 60 per cent as non-workers.
• The states with larger percentages of workers are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya.
• Among the Union Territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have higher participation rate.
• It is understood that, in the context of a country like India, the work participation rate tends to be higher
in the areas of lower levels of economic development since number of manual workers are needed to
perform the subsistence or near subsistence economic activities.
• The occupational composition of India’s population shows a large proportion of primary sector workers
compared to secondary and tertiary sectors.

Sectoral Composition of workforce in India, 2011

Categories Population

Persons % to total Workers Male Female

Primary 26,30,22,473 54.6 16,54,47,075 9,75,75,398

Secondary 1,83,36,307 3.8 97,75,635 85,60,672

Tertiary 20,03,84,531 41.6 15,66,43,220 4,37,41,311

Occupational Categories

• The 2011 Census has divided the working population of India into four major categories:
1. Cultivators
2. Agricultural Labourers
3. Household Industrial Workers
4. Other Workers.

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• It is important to note that the proportion of workers in agricultural sector in India has shown a decline
over the last few decades (58.2% in 2001 to 54.6% in 2011).
• Consequently, the participation rate in secondary and tertiary sector has registered an increase.
• The spatial variation of work participation rate in different sectors in the country is very wide.
• For instance, the states like Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland have very large shares of cultivators.
• On the other hand, states like Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal
and Madhya Pradesh have higher proportion of agricultural labourers.
• The highly urbanised areas like Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry have a very large proportion of workers
being engaged in other services.
• This indicates not only availability of limited farming land, but also large scale urbanisation and
industrialisation requiring more workers in non-farm sectors.

2.8. Questions

• Which one of the following continents has the highest growth of population? (a) Africa (b) South America
(c) Asia (d) North America
• Which one of the following is not a push factor? (a) Water shortage (b) Medical/educational facilities (c)
Unemployment (d) Epidemics
• Which one of the following is not a fact? (a) Human population increased more than ten times during the
past 500 years. (b) It took 100 years for the population to rise from 5 billion to 6 billion. (c) Population
growth is high in the first stage of demographic transition.
• Which one of the following has caused the sex ratio of the United Arab Emirates to be low? (a) Selective
migration of male working population (b) High birth rate of males (c) Low birth rate of females (d) High out
migration of females
• Which one of the following figures represents the working age group of the population? (a) 15 to 65 years
(c) 15 to 66 years (b) 15 to 64 years (d) 15 to 59 years
• Which one of the following countries has the highest sex ratio in the world? (a) Latvia (c) Japan (b) United
Arab Emirates (d) France
• Which one of the following states has the highest density of population in India? (a) West Bengal (b) Kerala
(c) Uttar Pradesh (d) Punjab
• Which one of the following states has the highest proportion of urban population in India according to
2011 Census? (a) Tamil Nadu (b) Maharashtra (c) Kerala (d) Goa
• Which one of the following is the largest linguistic group of India? (a) Sino – Tibetan (b) Indo – Aryan (c)
Austric (d) Dravidian

33
 3. Migration

• Migration has been a very important factor in redistributing population over time and space.
• India has witnessed waves of migrants coming from Central and West Asia and also from Southeast Asia.
• Similarly, large numbers of Indians too have been migrating to places in search of better opportunities.
• igration was recorded beginning from the first Census of India conducted in 1881.
• This data was recorded on the basis of place of birth.
• However, the first major modification was introduced in 1961 Census by bringing in two additional
components viz; place of birth i.e. village or town and duration of residence (if born elsewhere).
• Further in 1971, additional information on place of last residence and duration of stay at the place of
enumeration were incorporated.
• As per 2001 census, out of 1,029 million people in the country, 307 million (30 per cent) were reported as
migrants by place of birth.
• However, this figure was 315 million (31 per cent) in case of place of last residence.

3.1. Streams of Migration

• A few facts pertaining to the internal migration (within the country) and international migration (out of the
country and into the country from other countries) are presented here.
• It is clearly evident that females predominate the streams of short distance rural to rural migration in
both types of migration.
• Contrary to this, men predominate the rural to urban stream of inter-state migration due to economic
reasons.
• Apart from these streams of internal migration, India also experiences immigration from and emigration to
the neighbouring countries.
• Census 2001 has recorded that more than 5 million people have migrated to India from other countries.
• Out of these, 96 per cent came from the neighbouring countries: Bangladesh (3.0 million) followed by
Pakistan (0.9 million) and Nepal (0.5 million).
• Included in this are 0.16 million refugees from Tibet, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran,
and Myanmar.
• As far as emigration from India is concerned it is estimated that there are around 20 million people of
Indian Diaspora, spread across 110 countries.

Immigrants by last residence from neighbouring countries by all duration in India, 2001

34
Countries% No of immigrants % of total immigrants

Total international migration 5,155,423 100

Migration from neighbouring countries 4,918,266 95.5

Afghanistan 9,194 0.2

Bangladesh 3,084,826 59.8

Bhutan 8,337 0.2

China 23,721 0.5

Myanmar 49,086 1.0

Nepal 596,696 11.6

Pakistan 997,106 19.3

Sri Lanka 149,300 2.9

3.2. Indian Diaspora

• During colonial period millions of Indians were sent as indentured labourers to work on plantations in
tropical countries.
✓ The British set people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to Mauritius, Caribbean islands (Trinidad,
Tobago and Guyana), Fiji and South Africa.
✓ The French and the Dutch sent Indians to Reunion Island, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Surinam.
✓ The Portuguese sent people from Goa, Daman & Diu to Angola and Mozambique.
• All such migrations were covered under the time-bound contract known as Girmit Act (Indian Emigration
Act).
• However, the living conditions of these indentured labourers were not better than the slaves.

35
• There was a steady outflow of India’s semi-skilled and skilled labour in the wake of the oil boom in West
Asia in the 1970s.
• There was also some outflow of entrepreneurs, storeowners, professionals, businessmen to Western
Countries.
• Third wave, of migrant was comprised professionals like doctors, engineers (1960s onwards), software
engineers, management consultants, financial experts, media persons (1980s onwards), and others
migrated to countries such as USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Germany, etc.

3.3. Spatial Variation in Migration

• Some states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana attract migrants from other states such as Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, etc.
• Maharashtra occupied first place in the list with 2.3 million net in-migrants, followed by Delhi, Gujarat and
Haryana.
• On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh (-2.6 million) and Bihar (-1.7 million) were the states, which had the
largest number of net outmigrants from the state.
• Among the urban agglomeration (UA), Greater Mumbai received the higher number of in migrants.

3.4. Causes of Migration

• These reasons can be put into two broad categories:

1. push factor, these cause people to leave their place of residence or origin; and
2. pull factors, which attract the people from different places.
• In India people migrate from rural to urban areas mainly due to poverty, high population pressure on the
land, lack of basic infrastructural facilities like health care, education, etc.
• Apart from these factors, natural disasters such as, flood, drought, cyclonic storms, earthquake, tsunami,
wars and local conflicts also give extra push to migrate.
• On the other hand, there are pull factors which attract people from rural areas to cities.
• The most important pull factor for majority of the rural migrants to urban areas is the better opportunities,
availability of regular work and relatively higher wages.
• Better opportunities for education, better health facilities and sources of entertainment, etc. are also quite
important pull factors.
• On the basis of the figures, it can be seen that reason for migration of males and females are different.
• For example, work and employment have remained the main cause for male migration (38 per cent) while it
is only three per cent for the females.

36
• Contrary to this, about 65 per cent of females move out from their parental houses following their
marriage.
• This is the most important cause in the rural areas of India except in Meghalaya where reverse is the case.
• In comparison to these, marriage migration of the male is only 2 per cent in the country.

3.5. Consequences of Migration

• Migration is a response to the uneven distribution of opportunities over space.

• Consequences can be observed in economic, social, cultural, political and demographic terms.

Economic Consequences

• A major benefit for the source region is the remittance sent by migrants.
• Remittances from the international migrants are one of the major sources of foreign exchange.
• In 2002, India received US$ 11 billion as remittances from international migrants.
• Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu receive very significant amount from their international migrants.
• The amount of remittances sent by the internal migrants is very meagre as compared to international
migrants, but it plays an important role in the growth of economy of the source area.
• For thousands of the poor villages of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, etc.
remittance works as life blood for their economy.

37
• Migration from rural areas of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha to the rural areas of
Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh accounted for the success of their green revolution strategy for
agricultural development.
• Besides this, unregulated migration to the metropolitan cities of India has caused overcrowding.
• Development of slums in industrially developed states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
and Delhi are a negative consequence of unregulated migration within the country.

Demographic Consequences

• Migration leads to the redistribution of the population within a country.

• Rural urban migration is one of the important factors contributing to the population growth of cities.
• Age and skill selective out migration from the rural area have adverse effect on the rural demographic
structure.
• High out migration from Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Eastern Maharashtra have brought
serious imbalances in age and sex composition in these states.
• Similar imbalances are also brought in the recipient’s states.

Social Consequences

• Migrants act as agents of social change.

• The new ideas related to new technologies, family planning, girl’s education, etc. get diffused from urban to
rural areas through them.
• Migration leads to intermixing of people from diverse cultures.
• It has positive contribution such as evolution of composite culture and breaking through the narrow
considerations and widens up the mental horizon of the people at large.
• But it also has serious negative consequences such as anonymity, which creates social vacuum and sense of
dejection among individuals.
• Continued feeling of dejection may motivate people to fall in the trap of anti-social activities like crime and
drug abuse.
• Others Migration (even excluding the marriage migration) affects the status of women directly or indirectly.
• In the rural areas, male selective out migration leaving their wives behind puts extra physical as well mental
pressure on the women.
• Migration of ‘women’ either for education or employment enhances their autonomy and role in the
economy but also increases their vulnerability.

Environmental Consequences

38
• Overcrowding of people due to rural-urban migration has put pressure on the existing social and physical
infrastructure in the urban areas.
• This ultimately leads to unplanned growth of urban settlement and formation of slums shanty colonies.
• Apart from this, due to over-exploitation of natural resources, cities are facing the acute problem of
depletion of ground water, air pollution, disposal of sewage and management of solid wastes.

3.6. Questions

• Which one of the following is the main reason for male migration in India? (a) Education (b) Business (c)
Work and employment (d) Marriage
• Which one of the following states receives maximum number of immigrants? (a) Uttar Pradesh (b) Delhi (c)
Maharashtra (d) Bihar
• Which one of the following streams is dominated by male migrants in India? (a) Rural-rural (b) Urban-rural
(c) Rural-urban (d) Urban-Urban
• Which one of the following urban agglomeration has the highest share of in migrant population? (a)
Mumbai UA (b) Delhi UA (c) Bengaluru UA (d) Chennai UA

4. Human Settlements

• The study of human settlements is basic to human geography because the form of settlement in any
particular region reflects human relationship with the environment.
• A human settlement is defined as a place inhabited more or less permanently.

4.1. Classification of settlements

• There is no consensus on what exactly defines a village or a town.

• Although population size is an important criterion, it is not a universal criterion.
• Many villages in densely populated countries of India and China have population exceeding that of some
towns of Western Europe and United States.
• The basic difference between towns and villages is that the people in towns are engaged in secondary and
tertiary sectors, while in the villages most of the people are engaged in primary sectors.
• The census of India, 1991 defines urban settlements as “All places which have municipality, corporation,
cantonment board or notified town area committee and have a minimum population of 5000 persons, at
least 75 per cent of male workers are engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a density of population of at
least 400 persons per square kilometres are urban.

39
4.2. Types and Patterns of Settlements

• Settlements may also be classified by their shape, patterns types.

• The major types classified by shape are:

Compact or Nucleated settlements

• These settlements are those in which large number of houses are built very close to each other.
• Such settlements develop along river valleys and in fertile plains.
• Communities are closely knit and share common occupations.

Dispersed Settlements

• In these settlements, houses are spaced far apart and often interspersed with fields.
• A cultural feature such as a place of worship or a market, binds the settlement together.

Rural Settlements

• Rural settlements are most closely and directly related to land.

• They are dominated by primary activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing etc.
• The settlements size is relatively small.

Some factors affecting the location of rural settlements

40
Water Supply

• Usually rural settlements are located near water bodies such as rivers, lakes, and springs where water can be
easily obtained.
• Sometimes the need for water drives people to settle in otherwise disadvantaged sites such as islands
surrounded by swamps or low lying riverbanks.

Land

• People choose to settle near fertile lands suitable for agriculture.

• In Europe villages grew up near rolling country avoiding swampy, low lying land while people in south east
Asia chose to live near low lying river valleys and coastal plains suited for wet rice cultivation.
• Early settlers chose plain areas with fertile soils.

Upland

• Upland which is not prone to flooding was chosen to prevent damage to houses and loss of life.
• Thus, in low lying river basins people chose to settle on terraces and levees which are “dry points”.
• In tropical countries people build their houses on stilts near marshy lands to protect themselves from flood,
insects and animal pests.

Building Material

• The availability of building materials – wood, stone near settlements is another advantage.
• Early villages were built in forest clearings where wood was plentiful.

41
• In loess areas of China, cave dwellings were important and African Savanna’s building materials were
mud bricks and the Eskimos, in polar regions, use ice blocks to construct igloos.

Defence

• During the times of political instability, war, hostility of neighbouring groups villages were built on
defensive hills and islands.
• In Nigeria, upstanding inselbergs formed good defensive sites.
• In India most of the forts are located on higher grounds or hills.

Planned Settlements

• Sites that are not spontaneously chosen by villagers themselves, planned settlements are constructed by
governments by providing shelter, water and other infrastructures on acquired lands.
• The scheme of villagization in Ethiopia and the canal colonies in Indira Gandhi canal command area in India
are some good examples.

Rural Settlement Patterns

• Patterns of rural settlements reflect the way the houses are sited in relation to each other.
• The site of the village, the surrounding topography and terrain influence the shape and size of a village.

42
Rural settlements may be classified on the basis of a number of criteria:

• On the basis of setting: The main types are plain villages, plateau villages, coastal villages, forest villages
and desert villages.
• On the basis of functions: There may be farming villages, fishermen’s villages, lumberjack villages, pastoral
villages etc.

On the basis of forms or shapes of the settlements

• These may be a number of geometrical forms and shapes such as Linear, rectangular, circular star like, T-
shaped village, double village, cross-shaped village etc.

Linear pattern

• In such settlements houses are located along a road, railway line, river, canal edge or along a levee.

43
Rectangular pattern

• Such patterns of rural settlements are found in plain areas or wide inter montane valleys. The roads are
rectangular and cut each other at right angles.

Circular pattern

• Circular villages develop around lakes, tanks and sometimes the village is planned in such a way that the
central part remains open and is used for keeping the animals to protect them from wild animals.

Star like pattern

• Where several roads converge, star shaped settlements develop by the houses built along the roads.

T-shaped, Y-shaped, Cross-shaped or cruciform settlements

• T-shaped settlements develop at tri-junctions of the roads while Y-shaped settlements emerge as the
places where two roads converge on the third one and houses are built along these roads.
• Cruciform settlements develop on the cross-roads and houses extend in all the four direction.

Double village

• These settlements extend on both sides of a river where there is a bridge or a ferry.

Problems of Rural Settlements

• Rural settlements in the developing countries are large in number and poorly equipped with infrastructure.

44
• They represent a great challenge and opportunity for planners.
• Supply of water to rural settlements in developing countries is not adequate.
• People in villages, particularly in mountainous and arid areas have to walk long distances to fetch drinking
water.
• Water borne diseases such as cholera and jaundice tend to be a common problem.
• The countries of South Asia face conditions of drought and flood very often.
• Crop cultivation sequences, in the absence of irrigation, also suffer.
• The general absence of toilet and garbage disposal facilities cause health related problems.
• The design and use of building materials of houses vary from one ecological region to another.
• The houses made up of mud, wood and thatch, remain susceptible to damage during heavy rains and
floods, and require proper maintenance every year.
• Most house designs are typically deficient in proper ventilation.
• Besides, the design of a house includes the animal shed along with its fodder store within it.
• This is purposely done to keep the domestic animals and their food properly protected from wild animals.
• Unmetalled roads and lack of modern communication network creates a unique problem.
• During rainy season, the settlements remain cut off and pose serious difficulties in providing emergency
services.
• It is also difficult to provide adequate health and educational infrastructure for their large rural population.
• The problem is particularly serious where proper villagization has not taken place and houses are scattered
over a large area.

Rural Settlements in India

• There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India.
• These include:
1. physical features – nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water
2. cultural and ethnic factors – social structure, caste and religion
3. security factors – defence against thefts and robberies.
• Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types:
1. Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,
2. Semi-clustered or fragmented,
3. Hamleted, and
4. Dispersed or isolated.

45
Clustered Settlements

• The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses.

• In this type of village, the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns
and pastures.
• The closely built-up area and its intervening streets present some recognisable pattern or geometric shape,
such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc.
• Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the north-eastern states.
• Sometimes, people live in compact village for security or defence reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand
region of central India and in Nagaland.
• In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available
water resources.

Semi-Clustered Settlements

• Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of
dispersed settlement.
• More often such a pattern may also result from segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village.
• In this case, one or more sections of the village society choose or is forced to live a little away from the
main cluster or village.
• In such cases, generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the
main village, whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks
of the village.
• Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan.

46
Hamleted Settlements

• Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a
common name.
• These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc. in various parts of the country.
• This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors.
• Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower
valleys of the Himalayas.

Dispersed Settlements

• Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts
in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes.
• Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land
resource base of habitable areas.
• Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.

Urban Settlements

• Rapid urban growth is a recent phenomenon.

• Until recent times, few settlements reached the population size of more than a few thousand inhabitants.
• The first urban settlement to reach a population of one million was the city of London by around. A.D. 1810

47
• By 1982 approximately 175 cities in the world had crossed the one million population mark.
• Presently 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban settlements compared to only 3 per cent in
the year 1800.

Classification of Urban Settlements

• Some of the common basis of classification are size of population, occupational structure and
administrative setup.

Population Size

• It is an important criterion used by most countries to define urban areas.

• The lower limit of the population size for a settlement to be designated as urban is 1,500 in Colombia,
2,000 in Argentina and Portugal, 2,500 in U.S.A. and Thailand, 5,000 in India and 30,000 in Japan.
• Besides the size of population, density of 400 persons per sq km and share of non-agricultural workers
are taken into consideration in India.
• In Denmark, Sweden and Finland, all places with a population size of 250 persons are called urban.
• The minimum population for a city is 300 in Iceland, whereas in Canada and Venezuela, it is 1,000 persons.

Occupational Structure

• In some countries, such as India, the major economic activities in addition to the size of the population in
designating a settlement as urban are also taken as a criterion.
• Similarly, in Italy, a settlement is called urban, if more than 50 per cent of its economically productive
population is engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.
• India has set this criterion at 75 per cent.

Administration

• The administrative setup is a criterion for classifying a settlement as urban in some countries.
• For example, in India, a settlement of any size is classified as urban, if it has a municipality, Cantonment
Board or Notified Area Council.
• Similarly, in Latin American countries, such as Brazil and Bolivia, any administrative centre is considered
urban irrespective of its population size.

Location

• Location of urban centres is examined with reference to their function.

• Strategic towns require sites offering natural defence; mining towns require the presence of economically
valuable minerals; industrial towns generally need local energy supplies or raw materials; tourist centres

48
 require attractive scenery, or a marine beach, a spring with medicinal water or historical relics, ports require
a harbour etc.
• Locations of the earliest urban settlements were based on the availability of water, building materials and
fertile land.
• Today, while these considerations still remain valid, modern technology plays a significant role in locating
urban settlements far away from the source of these materials.
• Piped water can be supplied to a distant settlement, building material can be transported from long
distances.
• Apart from site, the situation plays an important role in the expansion of towns.

Functions of Urban Centres

• The earliest towns were centres of administration, trade, industry, defence and religious importance.
• The significance of defence and religion as differentiating functions has declined in general, but other
functions have entered the list.
• Today, several new functions, such as, recreational, residential, transport, mining, manufacturing and most
recently activities related to information technology are carried on in specialised towns.
• Some of these functions do not necessarily require the urban centre to have any fundamental relationship
with their neighbouring rural areas.
• In spite of towns performing multiple functions we refer to their dominant function.
• For example, we think of Sheffield as an industrial city, London as a port city, Chandigarh as an
administrative city and so on.
• Large cities have a rather greater diversity of functions.
• Besides, all cities are dynamic and over a period of time may develop new functions.
• Most of the early nineteenth-century fishing ports in England have now developed tourism.
• Many of the old market towns are now known for manufacturing activities.
• Towns and cities are classified into the following categories.

Administrative Towns

• National capitals, which house the administrative offices of central governments, such as New Delhi,
Canberra, Beijing, Addis Ababa, Washington D.C., and London etc. are called administrative towns.
• Provincial (sub-national) towns can also have administrative functions, for example, Victoria (British
Columbia), Albany (New York), Chennai (Tamil Nadu).

Trading and Commercial Towns

49
• Agricultural market towns, such as, Winnipeg and Kansas City; banking and financial centres like
Frankfurt and Amsterdam; large inland centres like Manchester and St Louis; and transport nodes such
as, Lahore, Baghdad and Agra have been important trading centres.

Cultural Towns

• Places of pilgrimage, such as Jerusalem, Mecca, Jagannath Puri and Varanasi etc.
• These urban centres are of great religious importance.
• Additional functions which the cities perform are health and recreation (Miami and Panaji), industrial
(Pittsburgh and Jamshedpur), mining and quarrying (Broken Hill and Dhanbad) and transport (Singapore
and Mughal Sarai).
• Urbanisation means the increase in the proportion population of a country who live in urban areas.
• The most important cause of urbanisation is rural-urban migration.
• During the late 1990s some 20 to 30 million people were leaving the countryside every year and moving
into towns and cities.
• Developed countries experienced rapid urbanisation during the nineteenth century.
• Developing counties experienced rapid urbanisation during the second half of the twentieth century.

Classification of Towns on The Basis Of Forms

• An urban settlement may be linear, square, star or crescent shaped.

• In fact, the form of the settlement, architecture and style of buildings and other structures are an outcome
of its historical and cultural traditions.
• Towns and cities of developed and developing countries reflect marked differences in planning and
development.
• While most cities in developed countries are planned, most urban settlements of developing countries have
evolved historically with irregular shapes.
• For example, Chandigarh and Canberra are planned cities, while smaller town in India have evolved
historically from walled cities to large urban sprawls.
• Addis Ababa (The New Flower) The name of Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, as the name indicates (Addis-
New, Ababa-Flower) is a ‘new’ city which was established in 1878.
• The whole city is located on a hill-valley topography.
• The road pattern bears the influence of the local topography.
• The roads radiate from the govt headquarters roundabouts.

Types of Urban Settlements

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• Depending on the size and the services available and functions rendered, urban centres are designated as
town, city, million city, conurbation, megalopolis.

Town

• The concept of ‘town’ can best be understood with reference to ‘village’.

• Population size is not the only criterion.
• Functional contrasts between towns and villages may not always be clearcut, but specific functions such as,
manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and professional services exist in towns.

City

• A city may be regarded as a leading town, which has outstripped its local or regional rivals.
• Cities are much larger than towns and have a greater number of economic functions.
• They tend to have transport terminals, major financial institutions and regional administrative offices.
• When the population crosses the one million mark it is designated as a million city.

Conurbation

• The term conurbation applies to a large area of urban development that resulted from the merging of
originally separate towns or cities.
• Greater London, Manchester, Chicago and Tokyo are examples.

Million City

• The number of million cities in the world has been increasing as never before.
• London reached the million mark in 1800, followed by Paris in 1850, New York in 1860, and by 1950 there
were around 80 such cities.
• In 2016, there were 512 cities with at least 1 million inhabitants globally.
• By 2030, a projected 662 cities will have at least 1 million residents.

Megalopolis

• Megalopolis signifies ‘super-metropolitan’ region extending, as union of conurbations.

• The urban landscape stretching from Boston in the north to south of Washington in U.S.A. is the best
known example of a megalopolis.

Distribution of Mega Cities

• A mega city or megalopolis is a general term for cities together with their suburbs with a population of
more than 10 million people.

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• New York was the first to attain the status of a mega city by 1950 with a total population of about 12.5
million. The number of mega cities is now 31.
• The number of mega cities has increased in the developing countries during the last 50 years vis-à-vis the
developed countries.

What is a Healthy City?

• World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that, among other things, a ‘healthy city’ must have:
1. A ’Clean’ and ‘Safe’ environment.
2. Meets the ‘Basic Needs’ of ‘All’ its inhabitants.
3. Involves the ‘Community’ in local government.
4. Provides easily accessible ‘Health’ service.

Problems of Urban Settlements

• People flock to cities to avail of employment opportunities and civic amenities.

• Since most cities in developing countries are unplanned, it creates severe congestion.
• Shortage of housing, vertical expansion and growth of slums are characteristic features of modern cities of
developing countries.
• In many cities an increasing proportion of the population lives in substandard housing, e.g. slums and
squatter settlements.
• In most million plus cities in India, one in four inhabitants lives in illegal settlements, which are growing
twice as fast as the rest of the cities.
• Even in the Asia Pacific countries, around 60 per cent of the urban population lives in squatter settlements.

Economic Problems

• The decreasing employment opportunities in the rural as well as smaller urban areas of the developing
countries consistently push the population to the urban areas.
• The enormous migrant population generates a pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour force, which is
already saturated in urban areas.

Socio-cultural Problems

• Cities in the developing countries suffer from several social ills.

• Insufficient financial resources fail to create adequate social infrastructure catering to the basic needs of the
huge population.
• The available educational and health facilities remain beyond the reach of the urban poor.
• Health indices also, present a gloomy picture in cities of developing countries.

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• Lack of employment and education tends to aggravate the crime rates.
• Male selective migration to the urban areas distorts the sex ratio in these cities.

Environmental Problems

• The large urban population in developing countries not only uses but also disposes off a huge quantity of
water and all types of waste materials.
• An improper sewerage system creates unhealthy conditions.
• Massive use of traditional fuel in the domestic as well as the industrial sector severely pollutes the air.
• The domestic and industrial wastes are either let into the general sewerages or dumped without treatment
at unspecified locations.
• Huge concrete structures erected to accommodate the population and economic play a very conducive role
to create heat islands.

Urban Strategy

• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has outlined these priorities as part of its ‘Urban
Strategy’.
✓ Increasing ‘Shelter’ for the urban poor.
✓ Provision of basic urban services such as ‘Education’, ‘Primary Health care’, ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’.
✓ Improving women’s access to ‘Basic Services’ and government facilities.
✓ Upgrading ‘Energy’ use and alternative ‘Transport’ systems.
✓ Reducing ‘Air Pollution’.

Urban Settlements in India

• Towns flourished since prehistoric times in India.

• Even at the time of Indus valley civilisation, towns like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were in existence.
• The following period has witnessed evolution of towns.
• It continued with periodic ups and downs until the arrival of Europeans in India in the eighteenth century.
• On the basis of their evolution in different periods, Indian towns may be classified as: Ancient towns,
Medieval towns, and Modern towns

Ancient Towns

• There are number of towns in India having historical background spanning over 2000 years.
• Most of them developed as religious and cultural centres.

53
• Varanasi is one of the important towns among these. Prayag (Allahabad), Pataliputra (Patna), Madurai
are some other examples of ancient towns in the country.

Medieval Towns

• About 100 of the existing towns have their roots in the medieval period.
• Most of them developed as headquarters of principalities and kingdoms.
• These are fort towns which came up on the ruins of ancient towns.
• Important among them are Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra and Nagpur.

Modern Towns

• The British and other Europeans have developed a number of towns in India.
• Starting their foothold on coastal locations, they first developed some trading ports such as Surat, Daman,
Goa, Pondicherry, etc.
• The British later consolidated their hold around three principal nodes – Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai
(Madras), and Kolkata (Calcutta) – and built them in the British style.
• Rapidly extending their domination either directly or through control over the princely states, they
established their administrative centres, hill towns as summer resorts, and added new civil, administrative
and military areas to them.
• Towns based on modern industries also evolved after 1850. Jamshedpur can be cited as an example.
• After independence, a large number of towns have been developed as administrative headquarters, e.g.,
Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Dispur, etc., and industrial centres, such as Durgapur, Bhilai,
Sindri, Barauni.
• Some old towns also developed as satellite towns around metropolitan cities, such as Ghaziabad, Rohtak,
Gurugram around Delhi.
• With increasing investment in rural areas, a large number of medium and small towns have developed all
over the country.

Urbanisation in India

• The level of urbanisation is measured in terms of percentage of urban population to total population.
• The level of urbanisation in India in 2011 was 31.16 per cent, which is quite low in comparison to developed
countries.
• Total urban population has increased eleven-fold during the twentieth century.
• Enlargement of urban centres and emergence of new towns have played a significant role in the growth of
urban population and urbanisation in the country.

54
• But the growth rate of urbanisation has slowed down during last two decades.

Classification of Towns on the basis of Population Size

• Census of India classifies urban centres into six classes.

• Urban centre with population of more than one lakh is called a city or class I town.
• Cities accommodating population size between one to five million are called metropolitan cities with
more than five million are mega cities.
• Majority of metropolitan and mega cities are urban agglomerations.
• An urban agglomeration may consist of any one of the following three combinations:
1. a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths,
2. two or more contiguous towns with or without their outgrowths, and
3. a city and one or more adjoining towns with their outgrowths together forming a contiguous spread.

India: Population of Million plus Cities/ Urban Agglomeration, 2011

S.N. Name of Urban Agglomeration Population

1. Srinagar UA 1,273,312

2. Ludhiana (M Corpl) 1,613,878

3. Amritsar UA 1,183,705

4. Chandigarh UA 1,025,682

5. Faridabad (M Corp.) 1,404,653

6. Delhi UA 16,314,838

7. Jaipur (M Corp.) 3,073,350

8. Jodhpur UA 1,137,815

9. Kota (M Corp.) 1,001,365

10. Kanpur UA 2,920,067

11. Lucknow UA 2,901,474

12. Ghaziabad UA 2,358,525

13. Agra UA 1,746,467

14. Varanasi UA 1,435,113

15. Meerut UA 1,424,908

16. Allahabad UA 1,216,719

17. Patna UA 2,046,652

18. Kolkata UA 14,112,536

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19. Asansol UA 1,243,008

20. Jamshedpur UA 1,337,131

21. Dhanbad UA 1,195,298

22. Ranchi UA 1,126,741

23. Raipur UA 1,122,555

24. Durg-Bhillainagar UA 1,064,007

25. Indore UA 2,167,447

26. Bhopal UA 1,883,381

27. Jabalpur UA 1,267,564

28. Gwalior UA 1,101,981

29. Ahmedabad UA 6,352,254

30. Surat UA 4,585,367

31. Vadodara UA 1,817,191

32. Rajkot UA 1,390,933

33. Greater Mumbai UA 18,414,288

34. Pune UA 5,049,968

35. Nagpur UA 2,497,777

36. Nashik UA 1,562,769

37. Vasal Virar City (M Corp.) 1,221,233

38. Aurangabad UA 1,189,376

39. Hyderabad UA 7,749,334

40. GVMC (MC) 1,730,320

41. Vijayawada UA 1,491,202

42. Bengaluru UA 8,499,399

43. Kochi UA 2,117,990

44. Kozhikode UA 2,030,519

45. Thrissur UA 1,854,783

46. Malappuram UA 1,698,645

47. Thiruvananthapuram UA 1,687,406

48. Kannur UA 1,642,892

49. Kollam UA 1,110,005

50. Chennai UA 8,696,010

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51. Coimbatore UA 2,151,466

52. Madurai UA 1,462,420

53. Tiruchirappalli UA 1,021,717

• More than 60 per cent of urban population in India lives in Class I towns.
• Out of 468 cities, 53 cities/urban agglomerations are metropolitan cities.
• Six of them are mega cities with population over five million each.
• More than one-fifth (21.0%) of urban population lives in these mega cities.
• Among them, Greater Mumbai is the largest agglomeration with 18.4 million people.
• Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are other mega cities in the country.

India—Class-wise number of towns and cities and their population, 2011

Class Population Size Number of Cities Total Urban Population % of Total Urban Population

I 1,00,000 and more 468 2,27,899 60.45

II 50,000 - 99,999 474 41,328 10.96

III 20,000 - 49,999 1,373 58,174 15.43

IV 10,000-19,999 1,683 31,866 8.45

V 5,000 - 9,999 1,749 15,883 4.21

VI Less than 5,000 424 1,956 0.51

Functional Classification of Towns

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• On the basis of dominant or specialised functions, Indian cities and towns can be broadly classified as
follows:

Administrative towns and cities

• Towns supporting administrative headquarters are administrative towns, such as Chandigarh, New Delhi,
Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Chennai, etc.

Industrial towns

• Industries constitute prime motive force of these cities, such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar,
Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.

Transport Cities

• They may be ports primarily engaged in export and import activities such as Kandla, Kochchi, Kozhikode,
Vishakhapatnam, etc., or hubs of inland transport, such as Agra, Dhulia, Mughalsarai, Itarsi, Katni, etc.

Commercial towns

• Towns and cities specialising in trade and commerce are kept in this class. Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna,
etc., are some examples.

Mining towns

• These towns have developed in mineral rich areas such as Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi, Ankaleshwar,
Singrauli, etc.

Garrisson Cantonment towns

• A cantonment is a military or police quarters.

• Garrisson towns include Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina, Udhampur, etc.

Educational towns

• Starting as centres of education, some of the towns have grown into major campus towns, such as Roorki,
Varanasi, Aligarh, Pilani, Allahabad, etc.

Religious and cultural towns

• Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Puri, Ajmer, Pushkar, Tirupati, Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Ujjain
came to prominence due to their religious/cultural significance.
• Tourist towns Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udagamandalam (Ooty),
Mount Abu are some of the tourist destinations.

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4.3. Questions

• Which one of the following forms of settlement develops along either side of roads, rivers or canals? (a)
circular (b) linear (c) cross-shaped (d) square
• Which one of the following types of economic activities dominates in all rural settlement? (a) primary (b)
tertiary (c) secondary (d) quaternary
• In which of the following regions has the oldest well-documented urban settlement found? (a) Huang He
Valley (b) Indus Valley (c) Nile Valley (d) Mesopotamia
• How many of the following cities in India have attained the million status at the beginning of 2006? (a) 40
(b) 42 (c) 41 (d) 43
• Sufficiency of which type of resources can help to create adequate social infrastructure catering to the
needs of the large population in the developing countries? (a) financial (b) human (c) natural (d) social
• Which one of the following towns is NOT located on a riverbank? (a) Agra (b) Bhopal (c) Patna (d) Kolkata
• Which one of the following is NOT the part of the definition of a town as per the census of India?
a) Population density of 400 persons per sq km.
b) Presence of municipality, corporation, etc.
c) More than 75% of the population engaged in primary sector.
d) Population size of more than 5,000 persons.
• In which one of the following environments does one expect the presence of dispersed rural settlements?
a) Alluvial plains of Ganga
b) Arid and semi-arid regions of Rajasthan
c) Lower valleys of Himalayas
d) Forests and hills in north-east
• Which one of the following group of cities have been arranged in the sequence of their ranks i.e. 1, 2, 3 and
4 in size?
a) Greater Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai
b) Delhi, Greater Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata
c) Kolkata, Greater Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata
d) Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai

5. Human Development

5.1. Growth and Development

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• Both growth and development refer to changes over a period of time.
• The difference is that growth is quantitative and value neutral. It may have a positive or a negative sign.
• Development means a qualitative change which is always value positive.
• This means that development cannot take place unless there is an addition to the existing conditions.
• Development occurs when positive growth takes place.
• Yet, positive growth does not always lead to development.
• For many decades, a country’s level of development was measured only in terms of its economic growth.
• This meant that the bigger the economy of the country, the more developed it was considered, even
though this growth did not really mean much change in the lives of most people.
• The basic goal of development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful lives.
• A meaningful life is not just a long one. It must be a life with some purpose.
• This means that people must be healthy, be able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free
to achieve their goals.
• These choices are not fixed but keep on changing.

5.2. Human Development

• The works of South Asian economists, Mahbub-ul-Haq and Amartya Sen have succeeded in bringing
people to the centre of any discussion on development.
• The quality of life people enjoys in a country, the opportunities they have and freedoms they enjoy, are
important aspects of development.
• The concept of human development was introduced by Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq.
• Leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge and having enough means to be able to live
a decent life are the most important aspects of human development.
• Dr Haq has described human development as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves
their lives.
• Pakistani economist Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq and Prof Amartya Sen have worked together under the leadership
of Dr Haq to bring out the initial Human Development Reports.
• Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq created the Human Development Index in 1990.
• The United Nations Development Programme has used his concept of human development to publish
the Human Development Report annually since 1990.
• Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen saw an increase in freedom as the main objective of development.
• His work explores the role of social and political institutions and processes in increasing freedom.

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The four pillars of human development

• Human development is supported by the concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and

empowerment.

Equality

• The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender, race, income and in the
Indian case, caste. Yet this is very often not the case and happens in almost every society.
• In India, a large number of women and persons belonging to socially and economically backward groups
drop out of school.
• This shows how the choices of these groups get limited by not having access to knowledge.

Sustainability

• Sustainability means continuity in the availability of opportunities.

• To have sustainable human development, each generation must have the same opportunities.
• All environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping in mind the future.
• Misuse of any of these resources will lead to fewer opportunities for future generations.
• A good example is about the importance of sending girls to school.
• If a community does not stress the importance of sending its girl children to school, many opportunities will
be lost to these young women when they grow up.
• Their career choices will be severely curtailed, and this would affect other aspects of their lives.
• So, each generation must ensure the availability of choices and opportunities to its future generations.

Productivity

• Productivity here means human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work.
• Such productivity must be constantly enriched by building capabilities in people.
• Ultimately, it is people who are the real wealth of nations.
• Therefore, efforts to increase their knowledge, or provide better health facilities ultimately leads to better
work efficiency.

Empowerment

• Empowerment means to have the power to make choices.

• Such power comes from increasing freedom and capability.
• Good governance and people-oriented policies are required to empower people.
• The empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups is of special importance.

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5.3. Approaches to human development

• There are many ways of looking at the problem of human development.

• Some of the important approaches are: (a) The income approach; (b) The welfare approach; (c) Minimum
needs approach; and (d) Capabilities approach.

Income • The idea is that the level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys.
Approach • Higher the level of income, the higher is the level of human development.

Welfare • This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities.
Approach • The approach argues for higher government expenditure on education, health, social
secondary and amenities.
• People are not participants in development but only passive recipients.
• The government is responsible for increasing levels of human development by maximising
expenditure on welfare.

Basic • This approach was initially proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Needs • Six basic needs i.e.: health, education, food, water supply, sanitation, and housing were
Approach identified.
• The question of human choices is ignored, and the emphasis is on the provision of basic
needs of defined sections.

Capability • This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen.

Approach • Building human capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is the
key to increasing human development.

5.4. Measuring Human Development

• The human development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of
health, education and access to resources.
• These rankings are based on a score between 0 to 1 that a country earns from its record in the key areas of
human development.
• The indicator chosen to assess health is the life expectancy at birth.
• A higher life expectancy means that people have a greater chance of living longer and healthier lives.
• The adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge.
• In India – literacy rate denotes the percentage of population above 7 years of age, who is able to read,
write and have the ability to do arithmetic calculations with understanding.
• Access to resources is measured in terms of purchasing power (in U.S. dollars).

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• Each of these dimensions is given a weightage of 1/3.
• The human development index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions.
• The closer a score is to one, the greater is the level of human development.
• Yet it is not the most reliable measure. This is because it does not say anything about the distribution.
• The human poverty index is related to the human development index.
• This index measures the shortfall in human development.
• Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been publishing the Human
Development Report every year.
• This report provides a rank-wise list of all member countries according to the level of human development.
• The Human Development index and the Human Poverty index are two important indices to measure human
development used by the UNDP.

Human Poverty index

• It is a non-income measure.
• The probability of not surviving till the age of 40, the adult illiteracy rate, the number of people who do not
have access to clean water, and the number of small children who are underweight are all taken into
account to show the shortfall in human development in any region.
• Often the human poverty index is more revealing than the human development index.
• Looking at both these measures of human development together gives an accurate picture of the human
development situation in a country.

Gross National Happiness (GNH)

• Bhutan is the only country in the world to officially proclaim the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the
measure of the country’s progress.
• Material progress and technological developments are approached more cautiously taking into
consideration the possible harm they might bring to the environment or spiritual life of the Bhutanese.
• This simply means material progress cannot come at the cost of happiness.
• GNH encourages us to think of the spiritual, non-material and qualitative aspects of development.

International comparisons

• Size of the territory and per capita income are not directly related to human development.
• Often smaller countries have done better than larger ones in human development.
• Similarly, relatively poorer nations have been ranked higher than richer neighbours in terms of human
development.

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• For example, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago have a higher rank than India in the human development
index despite having smaller economies.
• Similarly, within India, Kerala performs much better than Punjab and Gujarat in human development
despite having lower per capita income.

Human Development: Categories, Criteria and Countries

Level of Human Development Score in Development Index Number of Countries

Very High above 0.800 59

High between 0.701 up to 0.799 53

Medium between 0.550 up to 0.700 39

Low below 0.549 38

• Countries with very high human development index are those which have a score of over 0.800.
• According to the Human Development Report of 2018, this group includes 59 countries.
• High level of human development group has 53 countries.

Top Ten Ranked Countries with High Value Index

Rank Country Rank Country

1. Norway 6. Iceland

2. Switzerland 7. Hongkong

3. Australia 8. Sweden

4. Ireland 9. Singapore

5. Germany 10. Netherlands

High Levels of Human Development

• Countries with higher human development are those that invest significantly in their social sector.
• A higher investment in people and good governance has set this group of countries apart from the others.
• The degree of social diversity in these countries is not very high.

Medium Levels of Human Development

• Countries with medium levels of human development form the largest group.
• Most of these are countries which have emerged in the period after the Second World War.
• Some countries from this group were former colonies while many others have emerged after the breakup
of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1990.

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• Many of these countries have been rapidly improving their human development score by adopting more
people-oriented policies and reducing social discrimination.
• Most of these countries have a much higher social diversity than the countries with higher human
development scores.
• Many in this group have faced political instability and social uprisings at some point of time in their recent
history.

Low Levels of Human Development

• As many as 38 countries record low levels of human development.

• A large proportion of these are small countries which have been going through political turmoil and social
instability in the form of civil war, famine or a high incidence of diseases.

5.5. Human Development in India

• It is a well-established fact that majority of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, landless agricultural
labourers, poor farmers and slums dwellers, etc. are the most marginalised lot.
• A large segment of female population is the worst sufferers among all.
• It is also equally true that the relative as well as absolute conditions of the majority of these marginalised
sections have worsened with the development happening over the years.
• There is yet another inter-related aspect of development that has direct bearings on the deteriorating
human conditions.
• It pertains to the environmental pollution leading to ecological crisis.
• Air, soil, water and noise pollutions have not only led to the ‘tragedy of commons’ but these have also
threatened the existence of our society.
• Consequently, the poor are being subjected to three inter-related processes of declining capabilities, i.e.
1. social capabilities – due to displacement and weakening social ties (social capital),
2. environmental capabilities – due to pollution and,
3. personal capabilities – due to increasing incidence of diseases and accidents.
• This, in turn, has adverse effects on their quality of life and human development.
• India with a population of over 1.20 billion is ranked 131 among 188 countries of the world in terms of the
Human Development Index (HDI).
• With the composite HDI value of 0.624 India finds herself grouped with countries showing medium
human development (UNDP 2016).

Human Development Index Values of India and some other Countries

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Country HDI value Rank

Norway 0.949 1

Germany 0.926 4

USA 0.920 10

UK 0.909 16

Russian Fed. 0.804 49

Malaysia 0.789 59

Sri Lanka 0.766 73

Brazil 0.754 79

China 0.738 90

Egypt 0.691 111

Indonesia 0.689 113

South Africa 0.666 119

India 0.624 131

Bangladesh 0.579 139

Pakistan 0.550 147

• Using the indicators selected by the UNDP, the Planning Commission of India also prepared the Human
Development Report for India.
• Subsequently, each state government also started preparing the state level Human Development Reports,
using districts as the units of analysis.
• Although, the final HDI by the Planning Commission of India has been calculated by taking the three
indicators, yet this report also discussed other indicators like economic attainment, social empowerment,
social distributive justice, accessibility, hygiene and various welfare measures undertaken by the state.

Indicators of Economic Attainments

• The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country does not fully reflect the quality of life of a country.
• There are other factors like housing, access to public transport, air, quality and access to drinking water
which also determine the standard of living.
• Jobless growth and rampant unemployment are some of the important reasons for higher incidences of
poverty in India.
• Over the years the per capita income and consumption expenditure in India has increased.
• The percentage of persons below the poverty line in 2011-12 has been estimated as 25.7% in rural areas,
13.7% in urban areas and 21.9% for the country as a whole.

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• Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur
and Odisha, Dadra and Nagar Haveli have recorded more than 30 per cent of their population living below
the poverty line.
• Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura,
Uttarakhand and West-Bengal have recorded between 10 to 20 per cent of their population below poverty
line.
• Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Sikkim, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep have below 10 per cent of their population living below poverty line.

Poverty in India, 2011-12

State % of Population below poverty line

Andhra Pradesh 9.20

Arunachal Pradesh 34.67

Assam 31.98

Bihar 33.74

Chhattisgarh 39.93

Delhi 9.91

Goa 5.09

Gujarat 16.63

Haryana 11.16

Himachal Pradesh 8.06

Jammu & Kashmir 10.35

Jharkhand 36.96

Karnataka 20.91

Kerala 7.05

Madhya Pradesh 31.65

Maharashtra 17.35

Manipur 36.89

Meghalaya 11.87

Mizoram 20.40

Nagaland 18.88

Odisha 32.59

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Punjab 8.26

Rajasthan 14.71

Sikkim 8.19

Tamil Nadu 11.28

Tripura 14.05

Uttarakhand 11.26

Uttar Pradesh 29.43

West Bengal 19.98

Puducherry 9.69

Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1.00

Chandigarh 21.81

Dadra & Nagar Haveli 39.31

Daman & Diu 9.86

Lakshadweep 2.77

All India 21.92

Indicators of a Healthy Life

• Life free from illness and ailment and living a reasonably long life span are indicative of a healthy life.
• Availability of pre and post-natal healthcare facilities in order to reduce infant mortality and post-delivery
deaths among mothers, old age health care, adequate nutrition and safety of individual are some important
measures of a healthy and reasonably long life.
• India has done reasonably well in some of the health indicators like decline in death rate from 25.1 per
thousand in 1951 to 6.5 per thousand in 2015 and infant mortality from 148 per thousand to 37 during the
same period.
• Similarly, it also succeeded in increasing life expectancy at birth from 37.1 years to 66.9 years for males and
36.2 to 70 years for females from 1951 to 2015.
• Similarly, it has also done reasonably well in bringing down birth rate from 40.8 to 20.8 during the same
years, but it still is much higher than many developed countries.
• India has recorded declining female sex ratio.
• The findings of 2011 Census of India are very disturbing particularly in case of child sex ratio in the age
group of 0-6 years.

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• The other significant features of the report are, with the exception of Kerala, the child sex ratio has
declined in all the states and it is the most alarming in the developed state of Haryana and Punjab where
it is below 850 female children per thousand male children.

Indicators of Social Empowerment

• Freedom from hunger, poverty, servitude, bondage, ignorance, illiteracy and any other forms of domination
is the key to human development.
• Access to knowledge about the society and environment are fundamental to freedom.
• Literacy is the beginning of access to such a world of knowledge and freedom.
• Overall literacy in India is approximately 74.04 per cent (2011). while female literacy is 65.46 per cent.
• There are wide regional disparities in literacy rate across the states of India.
• There is a state like Bihar which has very low (63.82 per cent) literacy and there are states like Kerala and
Mizoram which have literacy rates of 93.91 and 91.58 per cent respectively.
• Total literacy as well as female literacy is higher than the national average in most of the states from south
India.

India Literacy Rates, 2011

State Total literacy Female literacy

India 74.04% 65.46%

Jammu and Kashmir 68.74 58.01

Himachal Pradesh 83.78 76.60

Punjab 76.68 71.34

Chandigarh 86.43 81.38

Uttarakhand 79.63 70.70

Haryana 76.64 66.77

NCT of Delhi 86.34 80.93

Rajasthan 67.06 52.66

Uttar Pradesh 69.72 59.26

Bihar 63.82 53.33

Sikkim 82.20 76.43

Arunachal Pradesh 66.95 59.57

Nagaland 80.11 76.69

Manipur 79.85 73.17

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Mizoram 91.58 89.40

Tripura 87.75 83.15

Meghalaya 75.48 73.78

Assam 73.18 67.27

West Bengal 77.08 71.16

Jharkhand 67.63 56.21

Orissa 73.45 64.36

Chhattisgarh 71.04 60.59

Madhya Pradesh 70.63 60.02

Gujarat 79.31 70.73

Daman & Diu 87.07 79.59

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 77.65 65.93

Maharashtra 82.91 75.48

Andhra Pradesh 67.66 59.74

Karnataka 75.60 68.13

Goa 87.40 81.84

Lakshadweep Is. 92.28 88.25

Kerala 93.91 91.98

Tamil Nadu 80.33 73.86

Puduchhery 86.55 81.22

Andaman & Nicobar Is. 86.27 81.84

Human Development Index in India

• India has been placed among the countries showing medium human development.
• Kerala with the composite index value of 0.790 is placed at the top rank followed by Delhi, Himachal
Pradesh, Goa and Punjab.
• Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh are at the bottom among the 23 major states in India.
• Kerala is able to record the highest value in the HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving
near hundred per cent literacy.
• In a different scenario the states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh have very
low literacy.

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• Economically developed states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab and Haryana have higher value of
HDI as compared to states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc.

India - Human Development Index

State HDI Value 2007-08 Rank 2007-08

Kerala 0.790 1

Delhi 0.750 2

Himachal Pradesh 0.652 3

Goa 0.617 4

Punjab 0.605 5

NE (excluding Assam) 0.573 6

Maharashtra 0.572 7

Tamil Nadu 0.570 8

Haryana 0.552 9

Jammu and Kashmir 0.529 10

Gujarat 0.527 11

Karnataka 0.519 12

West Bengal 0.492 13

Uttarakhand 0.490 14

Andhra Pradesh 0.473 15

Assam 0.444 16

Rajasthan 0.434 17

Uttar Pradesh 0.380 18

Jharkhand 0.376 19

Madhya Pradesh 0.375 20

Bihar 0.367 21

Orissa 0.362 22

Chhattisgarh 0.358 23

5.6. Questions

• Which one of the following is India’s rank in terms of Human Development Index among the countries of
the world in 2016? (a) 126 (b) 134 (c) 128 (d) 131

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• Which one of the following states of India has the highest rank in the Human Development Index? (a) Tamil
Nadu (b) Punjab (c) Kerala (d) Haryana
• Which one of the following states of India has the lowest female literacy? (a) Jammu and Kashmir (b)
Arunachal Pradesh (c) Jharkhand (d) Bihar
• Which one of the following states of India has the lowest female child sex ratio 0-6 years? (a) Gujarat (b)
Haryana (c) Punjab (d) Himachal Pradesh
• Which one of the following Union Territories of India has the highest literacy rate? (a) Lakshadweep (b)
Chandigarh (c) Daman and Diu (d) Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Discuss the spatial patterns of female literacy in India in 2011 and bring out the reasons responsible for it.
• Which factors have caused spatial variations in the levels of Human Development among the states in
India?

6. Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context

• Generally, there are two approaches to planning, i.e., sectoral planning and regional planning.
• Sectoral planning means formulation and implementation of the sets of schemes or programmes aimed at
development of various sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, irrigation, services, etc.
• There is no uniform economic development over space in any country.
• Some areas are more developed and some lag behind.
• This uneven pattern of development over space necessitates that the planners have a spatial perspective
and draw the plans to reduce regional imbalance in development.
• This type of planning is termed as regional planning.
• India adopted centralised planning after Independence, but subsequently, it graduated into decentralised
multi-level planning.
• The responsibility of plan formulation was with the Planning Commission at the Centre, State and district
levels.
• But on 1 January 2015, the Planning Commission was replaced by the NITI Aayog.
• NITI Aayog has been set up with the objective of involving the states in economic policy making for
India for providing strategic and technical advice to the Central and State governments.

6.1. Target Area Planning

• The planning process has to take special care of those areas which have remained economically backward.
• The economic development of a region depends upon its resource base.

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• But sometimes resource-rich region also remain backward.
• Economic development requires technology, as well as, investment besides resources.
• With the planning experience of about one-and-a-half decades, it was realised that regional imbalances in
economic development were getting accentuated.
• In order to arrest the accentuation of regional and social disparities, the Planning Commission introduced
the ‘target area’ and target group approaches to planning.
• Some of the examples of programmes directed towards the development of target areas are Command
Area Development Programme, Drought Prone Area Development Programme, Desert Development
Programme, Hill Area Development Programme.
• The Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) and Marginal Farmers Development Agency (MFDA)
which are the examples of target group programme.
• In the 8th Five Year Plan special area programmes were designed to develop infrastructure in hill areas,
north-eastern states, tribal areas and backward areas.

Hill Area Development Programme

• Hill Area Development Programmes were initiated during the Fifth Five Year Plan covering 15 districts
comprising all the hilly districts of Uttar Pradesh (present Uttarakhand), Mikir Hill and North Cachar hills
of Assam, Darjeeling district of West Bengal and Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu.
• The National Committee on the Development of Backward Area in 1981 recommended that all the hill areas
in the country having height above 600 m and not covered under tribal sub-plan be treated as backward
hill areas.
• The detailed plans for the development of hill areas were drawn keeping in view their topographical,
ecological, social and economic conditions.
• These programmes aimed at harnessing the indigenous resources of the hill areas through development of
horticulture, plantation, agriculture, animal husbandry, poultry, forestry and small-scale and village industry.

Drought Prone Area Programme

• This programme was initiated during the Fourth Five Year Plan with the objectives of providing
employment to the people in drought-prone areas and creating productive assets.
• Initially, this programme laid emphasis on the construction of labour-intensive civil works.
• But later on, it emphasised on irrigation projects, land development programmes, afforestation, grassland
development and creation of basic rural infrastructure, such as electricity, roads, market, credit and services.
• The National Committee on Development of Backward Areas reviewed the performance of this programme.

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• It has been observed that this programme is largely confined to the development of agriculture and allied
sectors with major focus on restoration of ecological balance.
• The other strategies of development of these areas include adoption of integrated watershed development
approach at the micro-level.
• The Planning Commission of India (1967) identified 67 districts (entire or partly) of the country prone to
drought.
• The Irrigation Commission (1972) introduced the criterion of 30 per cent irrigated area and demarcated the
drought-prone areas.
• Broadly, the drought prone area in India spread over semi-arid and arid tract of Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Western Madhya Pradesh, Marathwada region of Maharashtra, Rayalseema and Telangana plateaus
of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka plateau and highlands and interior parts of Tamil Nadu.
• The drought-prone areas of Punjab, Haryana and north-Rajasthan are largely protected due to spread of
irrigation in these regions.

Sustainable Development

• The concept of development is dynamic and has evolved during the second half of twentieth century.
• In the post-World War II era, the concept of development was synonymous to economic growth which is
measured in terms of increase in gross national product (GNP) and per capita income.
• But even the countries having high economic growth, experienced speedy rise in poverty because of its
unequal distribution.
• So, in 1970s, the phrases such as redistribution with growth and growth and equity were incorporated
in the definition of development.
• While dealing with the questions related to redistribution and equity, it was realised that the concept of
development cannot be restricted to the economic sphere alone.
• It also includes the issues such as improving the well-being and living standard of people, availing of the
health, education and equality of opportunity and ensuring political and civil rights.
• By 1980s, development emerged as a concept encapsulating wide-spread improvement in social as well as
material wellbeing of all in a society.
• The notion of sustainable development emerged in the wake of general rise in the awareness of
environmental issues in the late 1960s in Western World.
• This sets the scenario for the emergence of new models of development under a broad phrase ‘sustainable
development.’

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• Concerned with the growing opinion of world community on the environmental issues, the UN established
a World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).
• The Commission gave its report (also known as Brundtland Report) entitled ‘Our Common Future’ in 1987.
• The report defines sustainable development as a “development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

6.2. Case Study – Indira Gandhi Canal (Nahar) Command Area

• Indira Gandhi Canal, previously known as the Rajasthan Canal, is one of the largest canal systems in India.
• Conceived by Kanwar Sain in 1948, the canal project was launched on 31 March, 1958.
• The canal originates at Harike barrage in Punjab and runs parallel to Pakistan border at an average
distance of 40 km in Thar Desert (Marusthali) of Rajasthan.
• The total planned length of the system is 9,060 km catering to the irrigation needs of a total culturable
command area of 19.63 lakh hectares.
• Out of the total command area, about 70 per cent was envisaged to be irrigated by flow system and the
rest by lift system.
• The construction work of the canal system has been carried out through two stages.
• The command area of Stage-I lies in Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and northern part of Bikaner districts.
• It has a gently undulating topography and its culturable command area is 5.53 lakh hectares.
• The command area of Stage-II is spread over Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Churu
districts covering culturable command area of 14.10 lakh ha.

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• It comprises desert land dotted with shifting sand dunes and temperature soaring to 50ºC in summers.
• In the lift canal, the water is lifted up to make it to flow against the slope of the land.
• All the lift canals of Indira Gandhi Canal system originate at the left bank of main canal while all the canals
on the right bank of main canal are flow channels.
• Irrigation in Stage-I command area of the canal was introduced in early 1960s, whereas, the command area
of Stage-II began receiving irrigation in mid-1980s.
• The introduction of canal irrigation in this dry land has transformed its ecology, economy and society.
• It has influenced the environmental conditions of the region both positively as well as negatively.
• The availability of soil moisture for a longer period of time and various afforestation and pasture
development programmes under CAD have resulted in greening the land.

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• This has also helped in reducing wind erosion and siltation of canal systems.
• The traditional crops sown in the area, gram, bajra and jowar have been replaced by wheat, cotton,
groundnut and rice. This is the result of intensive irrigation.
• This intensive irrigation, no doubt, initially has led to tremendous increase in agricultural and livestock
productivity.
• But the intensive irrigation and excessive use of water has led to the emergence of twin environmental
problems of waterlogging and soil salinity.

Measures for Promotion of Sustainable Development

• Attaining sustainable development in the command area requires major thrust upon the measures to
achieve ecological sustainability.
• Hence, five of the seven measures proposed to promote sustainable development in the command area are
meant to restore ecological balance.
1. The first requirement is strict implementation of water management policy. The canal project envisages
protective irrigation in Stage-I and extensive irrigation of crops and pasture development in Stage-II.
2. In general, the cropping pattern shall not include water intensive crops. It shall be adhered to and
people shall be encouraged to grow plantation crops such as citrus fruits.
3. The CAD programmes such as lining of water courses, land development and levelling shall be
effectively implemented to reduce the conveyance loss of water.
4. The areas affected by water logging and soil salinity shall be reclaimed.
5. The eco-development through afforestation, shelterbelt plantation and pasture development are
necessary particularly in the fragile environment of Stage-II.
6. The social sustainability in the region can be achieved only if the land allottees having poor economic
background are provided adequate financial and institutional support for cultivation of land.
7. The economic sustainability in the region cannot be attained only through development of agriculture
and animal husbandry. The agricultural and allied activities have to develop along with other sectors of
economy. This shall lead to diversification of economic base and establishment of functional linkages
between basic villages, agro-service centres and market centres.

6.3. Case Study – Integrated Tribal Development Project in Bharmaur Region

• Bharmaur tribal area comprises Bharmaur and Holi tehsils of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh.
• It is a notified tribal area.

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• Bharmaur is inhabited by ‘Gaddi’, a tribal community who practised transhumance and conversed through
Gaddiali dialect.
• Bharmaur tribal region has harsh climate conditions, low resource base and fragile environment.
• Historically, the Gaddis have experienced geographical and political isolation and socio-economic
deprivation.
• The economy is largely based on agriculture and allied activities such as sheep and goat rearing.
• The process of development of tribal area of Bharmaur started in 1970s when Gaddis were included among
‘scheduled tribes’.
• Traditionally, the Gaddis had subsistence agricultural-cum-pastoral economy having emphasis on
foodgrains and livestock production.
• But during the last three decades of twentieth century, the cultivation of pulses and other cash crops has
increased in Bharmaur region.

6.4. Questions

• Regional planning relates to:

a) Development of various sectors of economy.
b) Area specific approach of development.
c) Area differences in transportation network.
d) Development of rural areas.
• ITDP refers to which one of the following?
a) Integrated Tourism Development Programme
b) Integrated Travel Development Programme
c) Integrated Tribal Development Programme
d) Integrated Transport Development Programme
• Which one of the following is the most crucial factor for sustainable development in Indira Gandhi Canal
Command Area?
a) Agricultural development
b) Eco-development
c) Transport development
d) Colonisation of land

7. Transport and Communication

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• Transport is a service or facility for the carriage of persons and goods from one place to the other using
humans, animals and different kinds of vehicles. Such movements take place over land, water and air.

7.1. Modes of transportation

• The principal modes of world transportation are land, water, air and pipelines.
• These are used for inter-regional and intra-regional transport, and each one (except pipelines) carries both
passengers and freight.
• The significance of a mode depends on the type of goods and services to be transported, costs of transport
and the mode available.
• International movement of goods is handled by ocean freighters.
• Road transport is cheaper and faster over short distances and for door-to-door services.
• Railways are most suited for large volumes of bulky materials over long distances within a country.
• High-value, light and perishable goods are best moved by airways.

Land Transport

• The revolution in transport came about only after the invention of the steam engine.
• The first public railway line was opened in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington in northern England and
then onwards, railways became the most popular and fastest form of transport in the nineteenth century.
• It opened up continental interiors for commercial grain farming, mining and manufacturing in U.S.A.
• The invention of the internal combustion engine revolutionised road transport.
• Among the newer developments in land transportation are pipelines, ropeways and cableways.
• Liquids like mineral oil, water, sludge and sewers are transported by pipelines.
• The great freight carriers are the railways, ocean vessels, barges, boats and motor trucks and pipelines.
• In general, the old and elementary forms like the human porter, pack animal, cart or wagon are the most
expensive means of transportation and large freighters are the cheapest.

Pack Animals

• Horses are used as a draught animal even in the Western countries.

• Dogs and reindeer are used in North America, North Europe and Siberia to draw sledges over snow-
covered ground.
• Mules are preferred in the mountainous regions; while camels are used for caravan movement in deserts.
• In India, bullocks are used for pulling carts

Roads

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• Road transport is the most economical for short distances compared to railways.
• The world’s total motorable road length is only about 15 million km, of which North America accounts for
33 per cent.
• The highest road density and the highest number of vehicles are registered in this continent.

Highways

• In North America, highway density is high, about 0.65 km per sq km.

• Every place is within 20 km distance from a highway.
• The Trans Canadian Highway links Vancouver in British Columbia (west coast) to St. John’s City in
Newfoundland (east coast) and the Alaskan Highway links Edmonton (Canada) to Anchorage (Alaska).
• The Pan-American Highway, a large portion of which has been constructed, will connect the countries of
South America, Central America and U.S.A.-Canada.
• The Transcontinental Stuart Highway connects Darwin (north coast) and Melbourne via Tennant Creek and
Alice Springs in Australia.
• Europe has a large number of vehicles and a well-developed highway network.
• In Russia, a dense highway network is developed in the industrialised region west of the Urals with Moscow.
• The important Moscow-Vladivostok Highway serves the region to the east.
• Due to the vast geographical area, highways in Russia are not as important as railways.
• In India, there are many highways linking the major towns and cities.
• For example, National Highway 44 is the longest highway in India connecting Srinagar with Kanyakumari.
• The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) or Super Expressway connects the four metropolitan cities — New Delhi,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Railways

• Railways are a mode of land transport for bulky goods and passengers over long distances.
• The railway gauges vary in different countries and are roughly classified as broad (more than 1.5 m),
standard (1.44 m), metre gauge (1 m) and smaller gauges.
• Europe has one of the densest rail networks in the world.
• The industrial regions exhibit some of the highest densities in the world.
• Passenger transport is more important than freight in many of these countries.
• Underground railways are important in London and Paris.
• Channel Tunnel, operated by Euro Tunnel Group through England, connects London with Paris.
• Trans-continental railway lines have now lost their importance to quicker and more flexible transport
systems of airways and roadways.

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• In Russia, railways account for about 90 per cent of the country’s total transport s.
• Underground railways and commuter trains are also important in Moscow.
• North America has one of the most extensive rail networks.
• In contrast to many European countries, the railways are used more for long-distance bulky freight like
ores, grains, timber and machinery than for passengers.
• The west-east Australian National Railway line runs across the country from Perth to Sydney.
• New Zealand’s railways are mainly in the North Island to serve the farming areas.
• In South America, the rail network is the densest in two regions, namely, the Pampas of Argentina and the
coffee growing region of Brazil.
• In Asia, rail network is the densest in the thickly populated areas of Japan, China and India.

Trans–Continental Railways

• Trans–continental railways run across the continent and link its two ends.
• They were constructed for economic and political reasons to facilitate long runs in different directions.

Trans–Siberian Railway

• Trans–Siberian Railway runs from St. Petersburg in the west to Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast.

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• It is the most important route in Asia and the longest (9,332 km) double-tracked and electrified trans–
continental railway in the world.
• It has helped in opening up its Asian region to West European markets.
• It runs across the Ural Mountains Ob and Yenisei rivers.
• Chita is an important agrocentre and Irkutsk, a fur centre.
• There are connecting links to the south, namely, to Odessa (Ukraine), Baku on the Caspian Coast, Tashkent
(Uzbekistan), Ulan Bator (Mongolia), and Shenyang (Mukden) and Beijing in China.

Trans–Canadian Railways

• This 7,050 km long rail-line in Canada runs from Halifax in the east to Vancouver on the Pacific Coast
passing through Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Calgary.

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• It gained economic significance because it connected the Quebec-Montreal Industrial Region with the
wheat belt of the Prairie Region and the Coniferous Forest region in the north.
• A loop line from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay (Lake Superior) connects this rail-line with one of the important
waterways of the world.
• This line is the economic artery of Canada.
• Wheat and meat are the important exports on this route.

The Union and Pacific Railway

• This rail-line connects New York on the Atlantic Coast to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast passing
through Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Evans, Ogden and Sacramento.
• The most valuable exports on this route are ores, grain, paper, chemicals and machinery.

The Australian Trans–Continental Railway

• This rail-line runs west-east across the southern part of the continent from Perth on the west coast, to
Sydney on the east coast, passing through Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill and Port Augusta.

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• Another major north-south line connects Adelaide and Alice Spring and to be joined further to the Darwin–
Birdum line.

The Orient Express

• This line runs from Paris to Istanbul passing through Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade.
• The journey time from London to Istanbul by this Express is now reduced to 96 hours as against 10 days by
the sea-route.
• The chief exports on this rail-route are cheese, bacon, oats, wine, fruits, and machinery.

Water Transport

• It is much cheaper because the friction of water is far less than that of land.

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• The energy cost of water transportation is lower.
• Water transport is divided into sea routes and inland waterways.

Sea Routes

• Compared to land and air, ocean transport is a cheaper means of haulage (carrying of load) of bulky
material over long distances from one continent to another.
• The development of refrigerated chambers for perishable goods, tankers and specialised ships has also
improved cargo transport.

The Northern Atlantic Sea Route

• This links North-eastern U.S.A. and North-western Europe, the two industrially developed regions.
• The foreign trade over this route is greater than that of the rest of the world combined.
• One fourth of the world’s foreign trade moves on this route.
• It is, therefore, the busiest in the world and otherwise, called the Big Trunk Route.
• Both the coasts have highly advanced ports and harbour facilities.

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The Mediterranean–Indian Ocean Sea Route

• This sea route passes through the heart of the Old World and serves more countries and people than any
other route.
• Port Said, Aden, Mumbai, Colombo and Singapore are some of the important ports on this route.
• The construction of Suez Canal has greatly reduced the distance and time as compared to the earlier route
through the Cape of Good Hope, which was longer than the route through Suez Canal.

The Cape of Good Hope Sea Route

• This trade route connects the highly industrialised Western European region with West Africa, South Africa,
South-east Asia and the commercial agriculture and livestock economies of Australia and New Zealand.
• The volume of trade between both East and West Africa is on the increase due to the development of the
rich natural resources such as gold, diamond, copper, tin, groundnut, oil palm, coffee and fruits.

The Southern Atlantic Sea Route

• This sea route connects West European and West African countries with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
• The traffic is less on this route because of the limited development in South America and Africa.
• Only south-eastern Brazil and Plata estuary and parts of South Africa have large-scale industries.
• There is also little traffic on the route between Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town because both South America
and Africa have similar products and resources.

The North Pacific Sea Route

• Trade across the vast North Pacific Ocean moves by several routes which converge at Honolulu.
• The direct route on the Great Circle links Vancouver & Yokohama & reduces the travelling distance by half.
• This sea route links the ports on the west coast of North America with those of Asia.
• These are Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles on the American side and
Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila and Singapore on the Asian side.

The South Pacific Sea Route

• This sea route connects Western Europe and North America with Australia, New Zealand and the scattered
Pacific islands via the Panama Canal.
• This route is also used for reaching Hong Kong, Philippines and Indonesia.
• The distance covered between Panama and Sydney is 12,000 km.
• Honolulu is an important port on this route.

Coastal Shipping

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• While oceanic routes connect different countries, coastal shipping is a convenient mode of transportation
with long coastlines, e.g. U.S.A, China and India.
• Shenzhen States in Europe are most suitably placed for coastal shipping connecting one member’s coast
with the other.

Shipping Canals

• The Suez and the Panama Canals are two vital man-made navigation canals.

The Suez Canal

• This canal had been constructed in 1869 in Egypt between Port Said in the north and Port Suez in the
south linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
• It gives Europe a new gateway to the Indian Ocean and reduces direct sea-route distance between
Liverpool and Colombo compared to the Cape of Good Hope route.
• It is a sea-level canal without locks which is about 160 km and 11 to 15 m deep.
• About 100 ships travel daily and each ship takes 10-12 hours to cross this canal.
• The tolls are so heavy that some find it cheaper to go by the longer Cape Route whenever the consequent
delay is not important.

The Panama Canal

• This canal connects the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west.
• It has been constructed across the Panama Isthmus between Panama City and Colon by the U.S.
government which purchased 8 km of area on either side.
• The Canal is about 72 km long and involves a very deep cutting for a length of 12 km.
• It has a six lock system and ships cross the different levels (26 m up and down) through these locks before
entering the Gulf of Panama.
• It shortens the distance between New York and San Francisco by 13,000 km by sea.
• The economic significance of this Canal is relatively less than that of the Suez.

Inland Waterways

• Rivers, canals, lakes and coastal areas have been important waterways since time immemorial.
• Boats and steamers are used as means of transport for cargo and passengers.
• The development of inland waterways is dependent on the navigability width and depth of the channel,
continuity in the water flow, and transport technology in use.
• Rivers are the only means of transport in dense forests.
• Very heavy cargo like coal, cement, timber and metallic ores can be transported through inland waterways.

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• In ancient times, riverways were the main highways of transportation as in the case of India.
• But they lost importance because of competition from railways, lack of water due to diversion for irrigation,
and their poor maintenance.
• The following river waterways are some of the world’s important highways of commerce.

The Rhine Waterways

• The Rhine flows through Germany and the Netherlands.

• It is navigable for 700 km from Rotterdam, at its mouth in the Netherlands to Basel in Switzerland.
• Ocean-going vessels can reach up to Cologne.
• The Ruhr river joins the Rhine from the east.
• It flows through a rich coalfield and the whole basin has become a prosperous manufacturing area.
• Dusseldorf is the Rhine port for this region.
• Huge tonnage moves along the stretch south of the Ruhr.
• This waterway is the world’s most heavily used.
• Each year more than 20,000 ocean-going ships and 2,00,000 inland vessels exchange their cargoes.
• It connects the industrial areas of Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands with the
North Atlantic Sea Route.

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The Danube Waterway

• This important inland waterway serves Eastern Europe.

• The Danube river rises in the Black Forest and flows eastwards through many countries.
• It is navigable up to Taurna Severin.
• The chief export items are wheat, maize, timber, and machinery.

The Volga Waterway

• Russia has a large number of developed waterways, of which the Volga is one of the most important.
• It provides a navigable waterway of 11,200 km and drains into the Caspian Sea.
• The Volga-Moscow Canal connects it with the Moscow region and the Volga-Don Canal with the Black Sea.

The Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway

• The Great Lakes of North America Superior, Huron Erie and Ontario are connected by Soo Canal and
Welland Canal to form an inland waterway.

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• The estuary of St. Lawrence River, along with the Great Lakes, forms a unique commercial waterway in the
northern part of North America.
• The ports on this route like Duluth and Buffalo are equipped with all facilities of ocean ports.
• As such large oceangoing vessels are able to navigate up the river deep inside the continent to Montreal.
• But here goods have to be trans-shipped to smaller vessels due to the presence of rapids.
• Canals have been constructed up to 3.5 m deep to avoid these.

The Mississippi Waterways

• The Mississippi-Ohio waterway connects the interior part of U.S.A. with the Gulf of Mexico in the south.
• Large steamers can go through this route up to Minneapolis.

Air Transport

• Air transport has brought about a connectivity revolution in the world.

• The frictions created by mountainous snow fields or inhospitable desert terrains have been overcome.
• The accessibility has increased.
• The airplane brings varied articles to the Eskimos in Northern Canada unhindered by the frozen ground.
• In the Himalayan region, the routes are often obstructed due to landslides, avalanches or heavy snow fall.
• At such times, air travel is the only alternative to reach a place.
• The manufacturing of aircrafts and their operations require elaborate infrastructure like hangars, landing,
fuelling, and maintenance facilities for the aircrafts.
• The construction of airports is also very expensive and has developed more in highly industrialised
countries where there is a large volume of traffic.
• At present no place in the world is more than 35 hours away.
• Supersonic aircraft cover the distance between London and New York within three and a half hours.

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Inter-Continental Air Routes

• In the Northern Hemisphere, there is a distinct east-west belt of inter-continental air routes.
• Dense network exists in Eastern U.S.A., Western Europe and Southeast Asia.
• U.S.A. alone accounts for 60 per cent of the airways of the world.
• New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt Rome, Moscow, Karachi, New Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are the nodal points where air
routes converge or radiate to all continents.
• Africa, Asiatic part of Russia and South America lack air services.
• There are limited air services between 10-35 latitudes in the Southern hemisphere due to sparser
population, limited landmass and economic development.

Pipelines

• Pipelines are used extensively to transport liquids and gases such as water, petroleum and natural gas for
an uninterrupted flow.
• Water supplied through pipelines is familiar to all.
• Cooking gas or LPG is supplied through pipelines in many parts of the world.
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• Pipelines can also be used to transport liquidified coal.
• In New Zealand, milk is being supplied through pipelines from farms to factories.
• In U.S.A. there is a dense network of oil pipelines from the producing areas.
• Big Inch is one such famous pipeline, which carries petroleum from the oil wells of the Gulf of Mexico to the
North-eastern States.
• About 17 per cent of all freight per tonne-km. is carried through pipelines in U.S.A.
• In Europe, Russia, West Asia and India pipelines are used to connect oil wells to refineries, and to ports or
domestic markets.
• Turkmenistan is central Asia has extended pipelines to Iran and also to parts of China.
• The proposed Iran-India via Pakistan international oil and natural gas pipeline will be the longest in the
world.

7.2. Communications

• The telegraph was instrumental in the colonisation of the American West.

• Telephone became a critical factor in the urbanisation of America.
• Firms centralised their functioning at city headquarters and located their branch offices in smaller towns.
• In developing countries, the use of cell phones is important for rural connectivity.
• Today there is a phenomenal pace of development.
• The first major breakthrough is the use of optic fiber cables (OFC).
• Faced with mounting competition, telephone companies all over the world soon upgraded their copper
cable systems to include optic fiber cables.
• These allow large quantities of data to be transmitted rapidly, securely, and are virtually error-free.
• With the digitisation of information in the 1990s, telecommunication slowly merged with computers to
form integrated networks termed as Internet.

Satellite Communication

• Every time you use a cell phone to call a friend, send an SMS or watch a popular programme on cable
television, you are using satellite communication.
• Communication through satellites emerged as a new area in communication technology since the 1970s
after U.S.A. and former U.S.S.R. pioneered space research.
• Artificial satellites, now, are successfully deployed in the earth’s orbit to connect even the remote corners of
the globe with limited onsite verification.
• These have rendered the unit cost and time of communication invariant in terms of distance.

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• This means it costs the same to communicate over 500 km as it does over 5,000 km via satellite.
• India has also made great strides in satellite development.
• Aryabhatt was launched on 19 April 1979, Bhaskar-I in 1979 and Rohini in 1980.
• Bhaskar, Challenger and INSAT I-B have made long-distance communication, television and radio very
effective.

Cyber Space – Internet

• Cyberspace is the world of electronic computerised space.

• It is encompassed by the Internet such as the World Wide Web (www).
• The speed at which this electronic network has spread is unprecedented in human history.
• There were less than 50 million Internet users in 1995, about 400 million in 2000 A.D. and over two billion in
2010.
• In the last few years there has been a shift among global users from U.S.A. to the developing countries.
• The percentage share of U.S.A. has dropped from 66 in 1995 to only 25 in 2005.
• Now the majority of the world’s users are in U.S.A., U.K., Germany, Japan, China and India.

7.3. Road Transport in India

• India has one of the second largest road networks in the world with a total length of 54.8 lakh km.
• After Independence, twenty-year road plan (1961) was introduced to improve the conditions of roads.
• However, roads continue to concentrate in and around urban centres.
• Rural and remote areas had the least connectivity by road.
• For the purpose of construction and maintenance, roads are classified as National Highways (NH), State
Highways (SH), Major District Roads and Rural Roads.
• About 85 per cent of passenger and 70 per cent of freight traffic are carried by roads every year.
• Sher Shah Suri built the Shahi (Royal) road to strengthen and consolidate his empire from the Indus Valley
to the Sonar Valley in Bengal.
• This road was renamed the Grand Trunk (GT) road during the British period, connecting Calcutta and
Peshawar.
• At present, it extends from Amritsar to Kolkata.

National Highways

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Credits: Wikipedia

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 Credits: Wikipedia

• The main roads which are constructed and maintained by the Central Government are known as the
National Highways.
• These roads are meant for inter-state transport and movement of defence men and material in strategic
areas.

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• These also connect the state capitals, major cities, important ports, railway junctions, etc.
• The length of the National Highways has increased from 19,700 km in 1951 to 100475 km in 2015-16.
• The National Highways constitute only about 2 per cent of the total road length but carry 40 per cent of
the road traffic.
• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was operationalised in 1995.
• It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Surface Transport.
• It is entrusted with the responsibility of development, maintenance and operation of National Highways.
• This is also the apex body to improve the quality of the roads designated as National Highways.
• National Highways Development Projects NHAI has taken up some major projects in the country under
different phases:

Golden Quadrilateral

• It comprises construction of 5,846-km long 4/6 lane, high density traffic corridor, to connect India’s four big
metro cities of Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai-Kolkata.
• With the construction of Golden Quadrilateral, the time, distance and cost of movement among the mega
cities of India will be considerably minimised.

North-South and East-West Corridors

• North-South corridor aims at connecting Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir with Kanyakumari in Tamil
Nadu (including Kochchi-Salem Spur) with 4,076-km long road.
• The East-West Corridor has been planned to connect Silchar in Assam with the port town of Porbandar
in Gujarat with 3,640-km of road length.

State Highways

• These are constructed and maintained by state governments.

• They join the state capitals with district headquarters and other important towns.
• These roads are connected to the National Highways.
• These constitute 4 per cent of total road length in the country.

District Roads

• These roads are the connecting link between District Headquarters and the other important nodes in the
district.
• They account for 14 per cent of the total road length of the country.

Rural Roads

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• These roads are vital for providing links in the rural areas.
• About 80 per cent of the total road length in India are categorised as rural roads.
• There is regional variation in the density of rural road because these are influenced by the nature of the
terrain.

Other Roads

• Other roads include Border Roads and International Highways.

• The Border Road Organisation (BRO) was established in 1960 for strengthening defence preparedness
through improvement of strategically important roads along the northern and north-eastern boundary.
• It is a premier multifaceted construction agency.
• It has constructed roads in high altitude mountainous terrain joining Chandigarh with Manali (Himachal
Pradesh) and Leh (Ladakh).
• This road runs at an average altitude of 4,270 metres above the mean sea level.
• Apart from the construction and maintenance of roads in strategically sensitive areas, the BRO also
undertakes snow clearance in high altitude areas.

Indian Road Network 2015-16

Serial No. Road Category Length in Km

1. National Highways /Expressways 1,00,475

2. State Highways 1,54,522

3. Major District Roads 25,77,396

4. Rural Roads 14,33,577

Total 42,65,970

Bharatmala

• Bharatmala is a proposed umbrella scheme for:

✓ Development of State roads along coastal border areas, including connectivity of nonmajor ports;
✓ Backward areas religious and tourist places connectivity programme;
✓ Setubharatam Pariyojana, which is for the construction of about 1500 major bridges and 200 rail over
bridges rail under bridges;
✓ District Headquarters connectivity Scheme for the development of about 9000 km newly declared
National Highways.
• The programme is targeted for completion by 2022. Source:

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7.4. Rail Transport in India

• Indian Railways network is one of the longest in the world.

• It facilitates the movement of both freight and passengers.
• Mahatma Gandhi said, the Indian railways “...brought people of diverse cultures together to contribute to
India’s freedom struggle”.
• Indian Railway was introduced in 1853, when a line was constructed from Bombay to Thane covering a
distance of 34 km.
• Indian Railways is the largest government undertaking in the country.
• The length of Indian Railways network was 66,030 km as on 31 March 2015.
• Its very large size puts a lot of pressure on a centralised railway management system.
• Thus, in India, the railway system has been divided into 16 zones.

Railway Zone Headquarters

Central 1. Mumbai CST

Eastern 2. Kolkata

East Central 3. Hajipur

East Coast 4. Bhubaneswar

Northern 5. New Delhi

North Central 6. Allahabad

North Eastern 7. Gorakhpur

North East Frontier 8. Maligaon (Guwahati)

North Western 9. Jaipur

Southern 10. Chennai

South Central 11. Secunderabad

South Eastern 12. Kolkata

South East Central 13. Bilaspur

South Western 14. Hubli

Western 15. Mumbai [Church Gate)

West Central 16. Jabalpur

• On the basis of the width of track of the Indian Railways, three categories have been made:
1. Broad gauge: The distance between rails in broad gauge is 1.676 metre. The total length of broad
gauge lines was 60510 km in March 2016.
2. Metre gauge: The distance between rails is one metre. Its total length was 3880 km in March 2016.

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 3. Narrow gauge: The distance between the rails in this case is 0.762 metre or 0.610 metre. The total
length of narrow guage was 2297 km in March 2016. It is generally confined to hilly areas.
• Areas around towns, raw material producing areas and of plantations and other commercial crops, hill
stations and cantonment towns were well-connected by railways from the British colonial era.
• These were mostly developed for the exploitation of resources.
• After the Independence of the country, railway routes have been extended to other areas too.

Konkan Railway

• One of the important achievements of the Indian Railways has been the construction of Konkan Railway in
1998.
• It is 760-km long rail route connecting Roha in Maharashtra to Mangalore in Karnataka.
• It is considered an engineering marvel.
• It crosses 146 rivers, streams, nearly 2000 bridges and 91 tunnels.
• Asia’s largest tunnel, which is nearly 6.5 km long, also lies on this route.
• The states of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka are partners in this undertaking.

7.5. Water Transport

• It is a fuel-efficient and eco-friendly mode of transport.

• The water transport is of two types– (a) inland waterways, and (b) oceanic waterways.

Inland Waterways

• It was the chief mode of transport before the advent of railways.

• It, however, faced tough competition from road and railway transport.
• Moreover, diversion of river water for irrigation purposes made them non-navigable in large parts of their
courses.
• India has 14,500 km of navigable waterways, contributing about 1% to the country’s transportation.
• It comprises rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks, etc.
• At present, 5,685 km of major rivers are navigable by mechanised flat bottom vessels.
• For the development, maintenance and regulation of national waterways in the country, the Inland
Waterways Authority was set up in 1986.
• The backwaters (Kadal) of Kerala has special significance in Inland Waterway.
• Apart from providing cheap means of transport, they are also attracting a large number of tourists in
Kerala.

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• The famous Nehru Trophy Boat Race (VALLAMKALI) is also held in the backwaters.

National Waterways of India

Waterways Stretch Specification

NW 1 Allahabad-Haldia • It is one of the most important waterways in India, which is navigable by

stretch (1,620 km) mechanical boats up to Patna and by ordinary boats up to Haridwar.
• It is divided into three parts for developmental purposes- (i) Haldia-
Farakka (560 km), (ii) Farakka-Patna (460 km), (iii) Patna - Allahabad (600
km).

NW2 Sadiya-Dhubri • Brahmaputra is navigable by steamers up to Dibrugarh (1,384 km) which

stretch (891 km) is shared by India and Bangladesh

NW 3 Kottapuram- • It includes 168 km of west coast canal along with Champakara canal (14
Kollam stretch km) and Udyogmandal canal (23 km).

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 (205 km)

NW 4 Specified streches of Godavari and Krishna rivers along with Kakinada Puducherry stretch of
canals (1078 km)

NW 5 Specified stretches of river Brahmani along with Matai river, delta channels of Mahanadi and
Brahmani rivers and East Coast canals (588km).

Oceanic Routes

• India has a vast coastline of approximate 7,517 km, including islands.

• Twelve major and 185 minor ports provide infrastructural support to these routes.
• Approximately 95 per cent of India’s foreign trade by volume and 70 per cent by value moves through
ocean routes.

7.6. Air Transportation

• Air transport in India made a beginning in 1911 when airmail operation commenced over a little distance of
10 km between Allahabad and Naini.
• But its real development took place in post-Independent period.
• The Airport Authority of India is responsible for providing safe, efficient air traffic and aeronautical
communication services in the Indian Air Space.
• The authority manages 125 airports.
• The air transport in India is managed by Air India.
• Now, many private companies have also started passenger services.

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7.7. Oil and Gas Pipelines

• Pipelines are the most convenient and efficient mode of transporting liquids and gases over long distances.
• Even solids can also be transported by pipelines after converting them into slurry.
• Oil India Limited (OIL) under the administrative set up of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is
engaged in the exploration, production and transportation of crude oil and natural gas.
• It was incorporated in 1959 as a company.
• Asia’s first cross country pipeline covering a distance of 1,157 km was constructed by OIL from
Naharkatiya oilfield in Assam to Barauni refinery in Bihar.
• It was further extended up to Kanpur in 1966.
• Another extensive network of pipelines has been constructed in the western region of India of which
Ankleshwar-Koyali, Mumbai High-Koyali and Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) are most important.
• Recently, a 1256 km long pipeline connecting Salaya (Gujarat) with Mathura (U.P.) has been constructed.
• It supplies crude oil from Gujarat to Punjab (Jalandhar) via Mathura.
• OIL is in the process of constructing of 660 km long pipeline from Numaligarh to Siliguri.

Communication Networks

• Radio broadcasting started in India in 1923 by the Radio Club of Bombay.

• Government brought this popular mode of communication under its control in 1930 under the Indian
Broadcasting System.
• It was changed to All India Radio in 1936 and to Akashwani in 1957.

Television

• Initially, the T.V. services were limited only to the National Capital where it began in 1959.
• In 1976, TV was delinked from All India Radio (AIR) and got a separate identity as Doordarshan (DD).
• After INSAT-IA (National Television-DD1) became operational, Common National Programmes (CNP) were
started for the entire network and its services were extended to the backward and remote rural areas.

Satellite Communication

• On the basis of configuration and purposes, satellite system in India can be grouped into two: Indian
National Satellite System (INSAT) and Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System (IRS).
• The INSAT, which was established in 1983, is a multi-purpose satellite system for telecommunication,
meteorological observation and for various other data and programmes.
• The IRS satellite system became operational with the launching of IRS-IA in 1988 from Russia.

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• India has also developed her own Launching Vehicle PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle).
• The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) at Hyderabad provides facilities for acquisition of data and its
processing.

7.8. Questions

• The Trans–Continental Stuart Highway runs between (a) Darwin and Melbourne (b) Edmonton and
Anchorage (c) Vancouver and St. John’s City (d) Chengdu and Lhasa
• Which country has the highest density of railway network? (a) Brazil (b) U.S.A (c) Canada (d) Russia
• The Big Trunk Route runs through (a) The Mediterranean – Indian ocean (b) The North Atlantic Ocean (c)
The South Atlantic Ocean (d) The North Pacific Ocean
• The Big Inch pipeline transports (a) Milk (b) Liquid petroleum gas (LGP) (c) Water (d) Petroleum
• Which one pair of the following places is linked by Channel Tunnel? (a) London – Berlin (b) Paris – London
(c) Berlin – Paris (d) Barcelona – Berlin
• In how many zones has the Indian Railways system been divided? (a) 9 (b) 12 (c) 16 (d) 14
• On which river and between which two places does the National Water Way No. 1 lie? (a) The Brahmaputra,
Sadiya-Dhubri (b) The Ganga, Haldia-Allahabad (c) West Coast Canal, Kottapuram to Kollam
• In which of the following year, the first radio programme was broadcast? (a) 1911 (c) 1927 (b) 1936 (d) 1923

8. International Trade

• Countries need to trade to obtain commodities that they cannot produce themselves or cannot purchase
elsewhere at a lower price.
• The Silk Route is an early example of long distance trade connecting Rome to China – along the 6,000 km
route.
• After the disintegration of the Roman Empire, European commerce grew during twelfth and thirteenth
century with the development of shipping trade between Europe and Asia.
• Fifteenth century onwards, the European colonialism began and along with trade of exotic commodities, a
new form of trade emerged which was called slave trade.
• The Portuguese, Dutch, Spaniards, and British captured African natives and forcefully transported them to
the newly discovered Americas for their labour in the plantations.
• Slave trade was a lucrative business for more than two hundred years till it was abolished in Denmark in
1792, Great Britain in 1807 and United States in 1808.

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• After the Industrial Revolution the demand for raw materials like grains, meat, wool also expanded, but
their monetary value declined in relation to the manufactured goods.
• The industrialised nations imported primary products as raw materials and exported the value added
finished products back to the non-industrialised nations.
• In the later half of the nineteenth century, regions producing primary goods were no more important, and
industrial nations became each other’s principle customers.
• During the World Wars I and II, countries imposed trade taxes and quantitative restrictions for the first time.
• During the post-war period, organisations like General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade (which later
became the World Trade Organisation), helped in reducing tariff.
• International trade is the result of specialisation in production.
• It benefits the world economy if different countries practise specialisation and division of labour in the
production of commodities or provision of services.
• Each kind of specialisation can give rise to trade.
• International trade is based on the principle of comparative advantage, complementarity &
transferability of goods and services & in principle, should be mutually beneficial to the trading partners.
• In modern times, trade is the basis of the world’s economic organisation and is related to the foreign policy
of nations.

8.1. Basis of International Trade

• The world’s national resources are unevenly distributed because of differences in their physical make up i.e.
geology, relief soil and climate.
• Hence to obtain the resources needed countries participate in international trade.

Geological structure

• It determines the mineral resource base.

• Topographical differences ensure diversity of crops and animals raised.
• Lowlands have greater agricultural potential.
• Mountains attract tourists and promote tourism.

Mineral resources

• They are unevenly distributed the world over.

• The availability of mineral resources provides the basis for industrial development.

Climate

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• It influences the type of flora and fauna that can survive in a given region.
• It also ensures diversity in the range of various products, e.g. wool production can take place in cold
regions, bananas, rubber and cocoa can grow in tropical regions.

Population factors

• The size, distribution and diversity of people between countries affect the type and volume of goods
traded.

Cultural factors

• Distinctive forms of art and craft develop in certain cultures which are valued the world over, e.g. China
produces the finest porcelains and brocades.
• Carpets of Iran are famous while North African leather work and Indonesian batik cloth are prized
handicrafts.

Size of population

• Densely populated countries have large volume of internal trade but little external trade because most of
the agricultural and industrial production is consumed in the local markets.
• Standard of living of the population determines the demand for better quality imported products because
with low standard of living only a few people can afford to buy costly imported goods.

Stage of economic development

• At different stages of economic development of countries, the nature of items traded undergo changes.
• In agriculturally important countries, agro products are exchanged for manufactured goods whereas
industrialised nations export machinery and finished products and import food grains and other raw
materials.

Extent of foreign investment

• Foreign investment can boost trade in developing countries which lack in capital required for the
development of mining, oil drilling, heavy engineering, lumbering and plantation agriculture.
• By developing such capital intensive industries in developing countries, the industrial nations ensure import
of food stuffs, minerals and create markets for their finished products.
• This entire cycle steps up the volume of trade between nations.

Transport

• In olden times, lack of adequate and efficient means of transport restricted trade to local areas.
• Only high value items, e.g. gems, silk and spices were traded over long distances.

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• With expansions of rail, ocean and air transport, better means of refrigeration and preservation, trade has
experienced spatial expansion.

8.2. Important Aspects of International Trade

• Important aspects of international trade are volume, sectoral composition and direction of trade.

Volume of Trade

• The actual tonnage of goods traded makes up the volume.

• However, services traded cannot be measured in tonnage.
• Therefore, the total value of goods and services traded is considered to be the volume of trade.
• The total volume of world trade has been steadily rising over the past decades.

Composition of Trade

• The nature of goods and services imported and exported by countries have undergone changes during the
last century.
• Trade of primary products was dominant in the beginning of the last century.
• Later manufactured goods gained prominence and currently, though the manufacturing sector commands
the bulk of the global trade, service sector which includes travel, transportation and other commercial
services have been showing an upward trend.
• The volume of imports and exports of the world merchandise has been growing consistently over the years.
• Manufactured goods contributed to the bulk of world merchandise exports from 2005 to 2015.
• Fuels and mining goods and agricultural goods are also important contributors of merchandise exports.
• There is change in the share of continents in the world merchandise trade as Europe’s contribution is
declining while the contribution of Asian countries is growing.

Direction of Trade

• Historically, the developing countries of the present used to export valuable goods and artefacts, etc.,
which were exported to European countries.
• During the nineteenth century there was a reversal in the direction of trade.
• European countries started exporting manufactured goods for exchange of foodstuffs and raw materials
from their colonies.
• Europe and U.S.A. emerged as major trade partners in the world and were leaders in the trade of
manufactured goods.
• Japan at that time was also the third important trading country.

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• The world trade pattern underwent a drastic change during the second half of the twentieth century.
• Europe lost its colonies while India, China and other developing countries started competing with
developed countries. The nature of the goods traded has also changed.

8.3. Balance of Trade

• Balance of trade records the volume of goods and services imported as well as exported by a country to
other countries.
• If the value of imports is more than the value of a country’s exports, the country has negative or
unfavourable balance of trade.
• If the value of exports is more than the value of imports, then the country has a positive or favourable
balance of trade.
• Balance of trade and balance of payments have serious implications for a country’s economy.
• A negative balance would mean that the country spends more on buying goods than it can earn by selling
its goods. This would ultimately lead to exhaustion of its financial reserves.

India’s Foreign Trade (Value in Rs. Crores)

Year Exports Imports Trade Balance

2004-05 3,75,340 5,01,065 -1,25,725

2009-10 8,45,534 13,63,736 -5,18,202

2013-14 19,05,011 27,15,434 -8,10,423

2016-17 18,52,340 25,77,422 -7,25,082

8.4. Types of International Trade

• International trade may be categorised into two types:

Bilateral trade

• Bilateral trade is done by two countries with each other.

• They enter into agreement to trade specified commodities amongst them.
• For example, country A may agree to trade some raw material with agreement to purchase some other
specified item to country B or vice versa.

Multi-lateral trade

• As the term suggests multi-lateral trade is conducted with many trading countries.
• The same country can trade with a number of other countries.

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• The country may also grant the status of the “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) on some of the trading
partners.

8.5. Case for Free Trade

• The act of opening up economies for trading is known as free trade or trade liberalisation.
• This is done by bringing down trade barriers like tariffs.
• Trade liberalisation allows goods and services from everywhere to compete with domestic products.
• Globalisation along with free trade can adversely affect the economies of developing countries by not
giving equal playing field by imposing conditions which are unfavourable.
• With the development of transport and communication systems goods and services can travel faster and
farther than ever before.
• But free trade should not only let rich countries enter the markets but allow the developed countries to
keep their own markets protected from foreign products.
• Countries also need to be cautious about dumped goods as along with free trade dumped goods of
cheaper prices can harm the domestic producers.
 The practice of selling a commodity in two countries at a price that differs for reasons not related to
costs is called dumping.

8.6. World Trade Organisation

• In 1948, to liberalise the world from high customs tariffs and various other types of restrictions, General
Agreement for Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was formed by some countries.
• In 1994, it was decided by the member countries to set up a permanent institution for looking after the
promotion of free and fair trade and the GATT was transformed into the WTO from 1995.
• WTO is the only international organisation dealing with the global rules of trade between nations.
• It sets the rules for the global trading system and resolves disputes between its member nations.
• WTO also covers trade in services, such as telecommunication and banking, and other issues such as
intellectual rights.
• The WTO has however been criticised and opposed by those who are worried about the effects of free
trade and economic globalisation.
• It is argued that free trade does not make ordinary people’s lives more prosperous.
• It is actually widening the gulf between rich and poor by making rich countries richer.
• This is because the influential nations in the WTO focus on their own commercial interests.

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• Moreover, many developed countries have not fully opened their markets to products from developing
countries.
• It is also argued that issues of health, worker’s rights, child labour and environment are ignored.

8.7. Regional Trade Blocs

• Regional Trade Blocs have come up in order to encourage trade between countries with geographical
proximity, similarity and complementarities in trading items and to curb restrictions on trade.
• Today, 120 regional trade blocs generate 52 per cent of the world trade.
• These trading blocs developed as a response to the failure of the global organisations to speed up intra-
regional trade.
• Though, these regional blocs remove trade tariffs within the member nations and encourage free trade, in
the future it could get increasingly difficult for free trade to take place between different trading blocs.

Regional Head Member Origin Commodities Other Areas

Blocs Quarter nations of
Cooperation

ASEAN Jakarta, Brunei Darussalam, Aug, 1967 Agro products, Accelerate

(Association of Indonesia Cambodia, rubber, palm oil, economic
South East Asian Indonesia, Laos, rice, copra, coffee, growth,
Nations) Malaysia, Myanmar, minerals - copper, cultural
Philippines, coal, nickel and development,
Singapore, Thailand tungsten. Energy - peace and
and Vietnam petroleum and regional
natural gas and stability
Software products

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CIS Minsk, Armenia, Azerbaijan, — Crude oil, natural Integration
(Commonwealth Belarus Belarus, Georgia, gas, gold, cotton, and
of Independent Kazakhstan, fibre, aluminium cooperation
States) Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, on matters of
Russia, Tajikistan, economics,
Turkmenistan, defence and
Ukraine and foreign
Uzbekistan. policy

EU Brussels, Austria, Belgium, EEC- Agro products, Single

(European Belgium Bulgaria, Croatia, March 1957 minerals, market with
Union) Cyprus, Czech EU - Feb. 1992 chemicals, wood, single
Republic, Denmark, 1960 paper, transport currency
Estonia, Finland, vehicles, optical
France, Germany, instruments,
Greece, Hungary, clocks - works of
Ireland, Italy, Latvia, art, antiques
Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta,
Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Netherlands
and United Kingdom

LALA Montevideo, Argentina, Bolivia, 1994

(Latin American Uruguay Brazil, Columbia,
Integration Ecuador, Mexico,
Association) Paraguay, Peru,
Uruguay and
Venezuela

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NAFTA U.S.A., Canada and 1949 Agro products,
(North Mexico motor vehicles,
American Free automotive parts,
Trade computers,
Association) textiles

OPEC Vienna, Algeria, Indonesia, Crude petroleum Coordinate

(Organisation of Austria Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and unify
Petroleum Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, petroleum
Exporting Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. policies.
Countries) and Venezuela

SAFTA (South Bangladesh, Jan-2006 Reduce tariffs

Asian Free Trade Maldives, Bhutan, on inter-
Agreement) Nepal, India, regional
Pakistan and Sri trade
Lanka

8.8. Concerns Related to International Trade

• Undertaking international trade is mutually beneficial to nations if it leads to regional specialisation, higher
level of production, better standard of living, worldwide availability of goods and services, equalisation of
prices and wages and diffusion of knowledge and culture.
• International trade can prove to be detrimental to nations of it leads to dependence on other countries,
uneven levels of development, exploitation, and commercial rivalry leading to wars.
• As countries compete to trade more, production and the use of natural resources spiral up, resources get
used up faster than they can be replenished.
• As a result, marine life is also depleting fast, forests are being cut down and river basins sold off to private
drinking water companies.
• Multinational corporations trading in oil, gas, mining, pharmaceuticals keep expanding their operations at
all costs creating more pollution (does not follow the norms of sustainable development).

8.9. Gateways of International Trade

Ports

• The chief gateways of the world of international trade are the harbours and ports.

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• Cargoes and travellers pass from one part of the world to another through these ports.
• The ports provide facilities of docking, loading, unloading and the storage facilities for cargo.
• In order to provide these facilities, the port authorities make arrangements for maintaining navigable
channels, arranging tugs and barges, and providing labour and managerial services.
• The importance of a port is judged by the size of cargo and the number of ships handled.
• The quantity of cargo handled by a port is an indicator of the level of development of its hinterland.
• San Francisco is the largest land-locked harbour in the world.
• Generally, ports are classified according to the types of traffic which they handle.

Types of port according to cargo handled

1. Industrial Ports: These ports specialise in bulk cargo-like grain, sugar, ore, oil, chemicals and similar
materials.
2. Commercial Ports: These ports handle general cargo-packaged products and manufactured good.
These ports also handle passenger traffic.
3. Comprehensive Ports: Such ports handle bulk and general cargo in large volumes.
• Most of the world’s great ports are classified as comprehensive ports.

Types of port on the basis of location

Inland Ports

• These ports are located away from the seacoast.

• They are linked to the sea through a river or a canal.
• Such ports are accessible to flat bottom ships or barges.
• For example, Manchester is linked with a canal; Memphis is located on the river Mississippi; Rhine has
several ports like Mannheim and Duisburg; and Kolkata is located on the river Hooghly, a branch of the
river Ganga.

Out Ports

• These are deep water ports built away from the actual ports.
• These serve the parent ports by receiving those ships which are unable to approach them due to their large
size. Classic combination, for example, is Athens and its out port Piraeus in Greece.

Types of port on the basis of specialised functions

Oil Ports

• These ports deal in the processing and shipping of oil.

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• Some of these are tanker ports and some are refinery ports.
• Maracaibo in Venezuela, Esskhira in Tunisia, Tripoli in Lebanon are tanker ports.
• Abadan on the Gulf of Persia is a refinery port

Ports of Call

• These are the ports which originally developed as calling points on main sea routes where ships used to
anchor for refuelling, watering and taking food items.
• Later on, they developed into commercial ports.
• Aden, Honolulu and Singapore are good examples.

Packet Station

• These are also known as ferry ports.

• These packet stations are exclusively concerned with the transportation of passengers and mail across
water bodies covering short distances.
• These stations occur in pairs located in such a way that they face each other across the water body, e.g.
Dover in England and Calais in France across the English Channel.

Entrepot Ports

• These are collection centres where the goods are brought from different countries for export.
• Singapore is an entrepot for Asia.
• Rotterdam for Europe, and Copenhagen for the Baltic region

Naval Ports

• These are ports which have only strategic importance.

• These ports serve warships and have repair workshops for them.
• Kochi and Karwar are examples of such ports in India.

8.10. India’s International Trade

• India’s contribution in the world trade is only one per cent of the total volume.
• In 1950-51, India’s external trade was worth Rs.1,214 crore, which rose to Rs. 44,29,762 crores in 2016-17.
• There are numerous reasons for this sharp rise in overseas trade, such as the momentum picked up by the
manufacturing sectors, the liberal policies of the government and the diversification of markets.
• Though there has been an increase in the total volume of import and export, the value of import continued
to be higher than that of exports.

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Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’ Exports

• The share of agriculture and allied products has declined, whereas, shares of petroleum and crude products
and other commodities have increased.
• The shares of ore minerals and manufactured goods have largely remained constant over the years from
2009-10 to 2010-11and 2015-16 to 2016-17.
• The decline in traditional items is largely due to the tough international competition.
• Amongst the agricultural products, there is a decline in the export of traditional items, such as coffee,
cashew, etc.
• Manufacturing sector alone accounted for 73.6 per cent of India’s total value of export in 2016-17.
• Engineering goods have shown a significant growth in the export.
• China and other East Asian countries are our major competitors.
• Gems and jewellery contribute a larger share of India’s foreign trade.

Composition of India’s Export, 2009-2017 (Percentage share in Exports)

Commodities 2009-10 2010-11 2015-16 2016-17

Agriculture and allied products 10.0 9.9 12.6 12.3

Ore and Minerals 4.9 4.0 1.6 1.9

Manufactured goods 67.4 68.0 72.9 73.6

Crude and petroleum products 16.2 16.8 11.9 11.7

Other commodities 1.5 1.2 1.1 0.5

Export of Some Principal Commodities (in crore rupees)

Commodities 2016-17

1. Manufactured goods 13,63,232

2. Agriculture and allied products 2,28,001

3. Mineral fuels and Lubricants 2,16,280

4. Ores and Minerals 35,947

Changing Patterns of the Composition of India’s Import

• India faced serious food shortage during 1950s and 1960s.

• The major item of import at that time was food grain, capital goods, machinery and equipment.
• The balance of payment was adverse as imports were more than export in spite of all the efforts of import
substitution.

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• After 1970s, food grain import was discontinued due to the success of Green revolution, but the energy
crisis of 1973 pushed the prices of petroleum, and import budget was also pushed up.
• Food grain import was replaced by fertilisers and petroleum.
• Machine and equipment, special steel, edible oil and chemicals largely make the import basket.
• There is a steep rise in the import of petroleum products.
• It is used not only as a fuel but also as an industrial raw material.
• It indicates the tempo of rising industrialisation and better standard of living.
• Sporadic price rise in the international market is another reason for the same.
• Import of capital goods maintained a steady increase due to rising demand in the export-oriented
industrial and domestic sectors.
• Non-electrical machinery, transport equipment, manufacturers of metals and machine tools were the main
items of capital goods.
• Import of food and allied products declined with a fall in imports of edible oils.
• Other major items of India’s import include pearls and semi-precious stones, gold and silver, metalliferous
ores and metal scrap, non-ferrous metals, electronic goods, etc.

Import of Some Principal Commodities (in crore rupees)

Commodities 2016-17

1. Petroleum, oil and lubricants 5,82,762

2. Non-ferrous metals 2,62,961

3. Pearls, precious and semi-precious stones 1,59,464

4. Chemical products 1,47,350

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5. Edible oils 73,048

6. Iron and steel 55,278

7. Fertilisers and fertiliser manufacturing 33,726

8. Medicinal and Pharma products 33,504

9. Pulp and wastepaper 6,537

8.11. Direction of Trade

• India has trade relations with most of the countries and major trading blocks of the world.
• India aims to double its share in the international trade within the next five years.
• It has already started adopting suitable measures such as import liberalisation, reduction in import duties,
delicensing and change from process to product patents.
• Most of India’s foreign trade is carried through sea and air routes.
• However, a small portion is also carried through land route to neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan,
Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Direction of India’s Import trade (in crore rupees)

Region Imports

2010-11 2016-17

Europe 3,23,857 4,03,972

Africa 1,18,612 1,93,327

North America 1,00,602 1,95,332

Latin America 64,576 1,15,762

Asia and ASEAN 10,29,881 15,44,520

8.12. Sea Ports as Gateways of International Trade

• An interesting fact about ports in India is that its west coast has more ports than its east coast.

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 Coromandel coast (Tamil Nadu) ➔ Coastline of emergence (shallow continental shelf)
 Malabar coast (Kerala Coast) ➔ Coastline of emergence (shallow continental shelf)
 Konkan coast (Maharashtra and Goa Coast) ➔ Coastline of submergence (deep ports)
 West flowing rivers form estuaries whereas east flowing rivers form deltas (accumulation of
sediments).
 Estuaries are ideal for port construction. Building and maintaining the ports is easy and cost
effective.
 The plants and sand bars in estuaries help prevent shoreline erosion.

• Though ports have been in use since ancient times, the emergence of ports as gateways of international
trade became important after the coming of the European traders and colonisation of the country.

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• This led to the variation in the size and quality of ports.
• There are some ports which have very vast area of influence and some have limited area of influence.
• At present, India has 12 major ports and 200 minor or intermediate ports.
• In case of the major ports, the central government decides the policy and plays regulatory functions.
• The minor ports are those whose policy and functions are regulated by state governments.
• The major ports handle larger share of the total traffic.
• The British used the ports as suction points of the resources from their hinterlands.
• The extension of railways towards the interior facilitated the linking of the local markets to regional
markets, regional markets to national markets and national markets to the international markets.
• The partition of the country snatched away two very important ports, i.e., Karachi port went to Pakistan
and Chittagong port to the Bangladesh.
• To compensate the losses, many new ports, like the Kandla in the west and the Diamond Harbour near
Kolkata on river Hugli in the east were developed.
• Despite this major setback, Indian ports continued to grow after the Independence.
• Today, Indian ports are handling large volumes of domestic, as well as, overseas trade. Most of the ports
are equipped with modern infrastructure.
• Previously, the development and modernisation were the responsibility of the government agencies but
considering the increase in function and need to bring these ports at par with the international ports,
private entrepreneurs have been invited for the modernisation of ports in India.
• The capacity of Indian ports increased from 20 million tonnes of cargo handling in 1951 to more than 837
million tonnes in 2016.

Some of the Indian ports along with their hinterlands

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Kandla Port

• Kandla Port situated at the head of Gulf of Kuchchh has been developed as a major port to cater to the
needs of western and north western parts of the country and also to reduce the pressure at Mumbai port.
• The port is specially designed to receive large quantities of petroleum and petroleum products and
fertiliser.
• The offshore terminal at Vadinar has been developed to reduce the pressure at Kandla port.
• Demarcation of the boundary of the hinterland would be difficult as it is not fixed over space.
• In most of the cases, hinterland of one port may overlap with that of the other.

Mumbai

• Mumbai is a natural harbour and the biggest port of the country.

• The port is situated closer to the general routes from the countries of Middle East, Mediterranean countries,
North Africa, North America and Europe where the major share of country’s overseas trade is carried out.
• The port is 20 km long and 6-10 km wide with 54 berths and has the country’s largest oil terminal.
• M.P., Maharashtra, Gujarat, U.P. and parts of Rajasthan constitute the main hinterlands of Mumbai ports.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port

• Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva was developed as a satellite port to relieve the pressure at the
Mumbai port.
• It is the largest container port in India.

Marmagao Port

• Marmagao Port, situated at the entrance of the Zuari estuary, is a natural harbour in Goa.
• It gained significance after its remodelling in 1961 to handle iron-ore exports to Japan.
• Construction of Konkan railway has considerably extended the hinterland of this port.
• Karnataka, Goa, Southern Maharashtra constitute its hinterland.

New Mangalore Port

• New Mangalore Port is located in Karnataka and caters to the needs of the export of iron-ore.
• It also handles fertilisers, petroleum, edible oils, coffee, tea, wood pulp, yarn, granite stone, molasses, etc.
• Karnataka is the major hinterland for this port.

Kochchi Port

• Kochchi Port, situated at the head of Vembanad Kayal, popularly known as the ‘Queen of the Arabian
Sea’, is also a natural harbour.

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• This port has an advantageous location being close to the Suez-Colombo route.
• It caters to the needs of Kerala, southern Karnataka and south western Tamil Nadu.

Kolkata Port

• Kolkata Port is located on the Hugli river, 128 km inland from the Bay of Bengal.
• Like the Mumbai port, this port was also developed by the British.
• Kolkata had the initial advantage of being the capital of British India.
• The port has lost its significance considerably on account of the diversion of exports to the other ports such
as Vishakhapatnam, Paradeep and its satellite port, Haldia.
• Kolkata port is also confronted with the problem of silt accumulation in the Hugli river.
• Its hinterland covers U.P., Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim and the north-eastern states.
• Apart from this, it also extends ports facilities to land-locked countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.

Haldia Port

• Haldia Port is located 105 km downstream from Kolkata.

• It has been constructed to reduce the congestion at Kolkata port.
• It handles bulk cargo like iron ore, coal, petroleum, petroleum products and fertilisers, jute, jute products,
cotton and cotton yarn, etc.

Paradeep Port

• Paradeep Port is situated in the Mahanadi delta, about 100 km from Cuttack.
• It has the deepest harbour especially suited to handle very large vessels.
• It has been developed mainly to handle large-scale export of iron-ore.
• Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the parts of its hinterland.

Visakhapatnam Port

• Visakhapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh is a land-locked harbour, connected to the sea by a channel cut
through solid rock and sand.
• An outer harbour has been developed for handling iron-ore, petroleum and general cargo.
• Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the main hinterland for this port.

Chennai Port

• Chennai Port is one of the oldest ports on the eastern coast.

• It is an artificial harbour built in 1859.
• It is not much suitable for large ships because of the shallow waters near the coast.

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• Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are its hinterland.

Ennore

• Ennore, a newly developed port in Tamil Nadu, has been constructed 25 km north of Chennai to relieve the
pressure at Chennai port.

Tuticorin Port

• Tuticorin Port was also developed to relieve the pressure of Chennai port.
• It deals with a variety of cargo, including coal, salt, food grains, edible oils, sugar, chemicals and petroleum
products.

8.13. Airports

• Air transport plays an important role in the international trade. It has the advantage of taking the least time
for carriage and handling high value or perishable goods over long distances.
• It is very costly and unsuitable for carrying heavy and bulky commodities. This ultimately reduces the
participation of this sector in the international trade as compared to the oceanic routes.
• There were 25 major airports functioning in the country (Annual Report 2016-17).
• They are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai,
Thiruvananthapuram, Srinagar, Jaipur, Calicut, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Cochin, Lucknow, Pune, Chandigarh,
Mangaluru, Vishakhapatnam, Indore, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Kannur.

8.14. Questions

• Why does India import edible oil in spite of being an agriculturally rich country?
• Most of the world’s great ports are classified as: (a) Naval Ports (b) Oil Ports (c) Comprehensive Ports (d)
Industrial Ports
• Which one of the following continents has the maximum flow of global trade? (a) Asia (b) North America (c)
Europe (d) Africa
• Which one of the following South American nation, is a part of OPEC? (a) Brazil (b) Chile (c) Venezuela (d)
Peru
• In which of the following trade blocs, is India an associate member? (a) SAFTA (b) OECD (c) ASEAN (d) OPEC
• Trade between two countries is termed as (a) Internal trade (b) External trade (c) International trade (d)
Local trade
• Which one of the following is a land locked harbour? (a) Vishakhapatnam (b) Mumbai (c) Ennor (d) Haldia
• Most of India’s foreign trade is carried through (a) Land and sea (b) Land and air (c) Sea and air (d) Sea

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