Distribution of Major Industries in India

The distribution of major industries in India is generally uneven, mainly due to concentration of enterprises, financial resources, suitable conditions in certain regions and also due to uneven distribution of key resources and necessary raw materials. Growth Poles play an important role in the development of industries in India.

An industrial centre from which the process of development penetrates into the surrounding region, which in turn results in the comprehensive development in the area, is called Growth Pole. Though there are many minor and major industrial regions of India, identification of growth pole is crucial in the development of the backward areas. Growth Pole plays a vital role in nullifying the regional imbalances. Absence of Forward and Backward linkages leads to no growth in the surrounding areas. Some of the important industries in India, their distribution and the factors that influence their distribution are given bewlow.

Textile Industries in India

Textile industry is the second largest source of employment in India after agriculture. Textile industries in India can be classified into three categories namely, Cotton textile industry, Jute textile industry and Woollen textile industry.

Cotton Textile Industry in India

• Cotton is generally called white gold. Cotton industry contributes significantly to the industrial production ( 14% ) and it provides second largest employment to the people after agriculture.
  
  India ranks third in the world in production of cotton. India has second biggest installed capacity of spindles in the world, next only to China.
  
  
• The first cotton mill was set up in Mumbai in 1854. Mumbai-Surat-Ahmedabad region was established as an important area for cotton industries because of availability of cotton fields, port locations, good entrepreneurs and humid coastal climate. The industry got spread into the entire country because of railways, hydro power and cotton fields.
  
  
• Important Centres of Cotton Industry -
  
  
  • Maharashtra - Mumbai, Jalgaon, Nashik, Solapur
    
    
  • Gujarat - Surat, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad. Fine quality cotton is available in Ahmedabad and Mumbai
    
    
  • Tamil Nadu - Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tirupur
    
    
  • Karnataka - Mysore, Davanagere, Bellary
    
    
  • Madhya Pradesh - Indore, Gwalior
    
    
  • Rajasthan - Kota, Jaipur, Bhilwara
    
    
  • West Bengal - Murshidabad
    
    
  • Uttar Pradesh - Modinagar, Agra, Kanpur
  
  
• Cotton processing involves many processes of which Ginning, Spinning and Weaving are important. In South India, we can find spinning mills and in West India, we can find many weaving mills.
  
  India exports Yarn mainly to Japan. Cotton goods from India are mainly exported to USA, Russia, UK and other European countries, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, etc.



Jute Textile Industry in India

• Jute is generally called Golden Fibre. India ranks first in production of raw jute and jute goods and it ranks second as an exporter after Bangladesh.
  
  Jute is biodegradable but Plastics are posing threat to the Jute industry. Government has regulated the sugar industry to use 50% of its bags to be made with Jute.
  
  
• Jute industry is mainly located on the banks of river Hooghly. The main reason for concentration of industry here was due to availability of Jute and fresh water, cheap inland water transportation, availability of coal from Raniganj, British entrepreneurship, cheap labour that was available from West Bengal and adjoining states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, etc.
  
  
• The Jute mill that was first established in India was at Rishra, West Bengal in 1855. The other centers in West Bengal are Kolkata, Serampore, Fort Gloster, Budge-Budge, Jagatdal, Titagarh, etc.
  
  In Assam, the main centres are Dhubri and Guwahati. In Bihar, the centres are Katihar and Muktapur and in Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur and Gorakhpur. In Andhra Pradesh, the centres are Eluru and Nellimarla.
  
  
• In Andhra Pradesh, Mesta (a type of Jute) cultivation is in practice. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, there is a huge market for Jute because of demand from sugar industries.



Woollen Textile Industry in India

• The first Woollen textile mill was established at Kanpur in 1876. India ranks seventh in the world in wool production with a share of about 1.8 percent. We are importing Merino wool from South Africa and Australia.
  
  
• In India, most of the woollen textile mills are located in Punjab, which is the largest producer of wool in the country. Dhariwal in Punjab is the largest center in wool production. The other important centres are Amritsar, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Kanpur, Agra, Jaipur, Srinagar, etc.
  
  
• The woollen textiles industry in the country is partly machine based industry and partly a cottage industry. Jammu and Kashmir is the largest producer of cottage based woollen goods.

Sugar Industry

• India is world's largest sugarcane producer but it ranks fourth in terms of sugar production. It is self-sufficient in sugar production and it also exports sugar.
  
  Many of the sugar factories in India are located in Uttar Pradesh because the state remains to be the largest producer of sugarcane.
  
  
• Sugarcane has to be crushed within 24 hours of its cutting. So, sugar industries are always located in the vicinity of sugarcane fields. In India, sugar factories are small as compared to the factories in Australia, Indonesia and Cuba.
  
  
• As Sugar industry remains to be a seasonal industry, labour cannot be engaged throughout the year in this industry. The byproducts of sugar industry are used in many other industries.
  
  Bagasse is used in paper and cardboard industries, Molasses is used in chemicals, liquor and power alcohol industries, Press-mud is used in carbon paper and shoe polish industries.
  
  
• The main centres of sugar industries are located in Meerut and Saharanpur in Ganga-Yamuna Doab, Gorakhpur and Gonda in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Darbhanga, Champaran and Saran in Bihar, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Akola and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, Mysore, Mandya, Bellary and Gulbarga in Karnataka, Coimbatore and Tanjore in Tamil Nadu, Nizamabad in Telangana, Anakapalli and Tanuku in Andhra Pradesh.
  
  
• The main problems in sugar industry are frequent fluctuations in demand and supply, sometimes we will be exporting and some other times importing, lack of coordination between cane growers and sugar factory owners, inferior quality cane is cultivated in Northern India, etc.

Cement Industry

• The first cement industry was established in Madras in the year 1904. As it did not function well, it was closed down.
  
  Later, at Katni in Madhya Pradesh, at Lakheri in Rajasthan and at Porbandar in Gujarat, cement industries were started. These three can be considered as the real beginning of cement industries.
  
  
• Generally cement factories are located along National Highways and railway lines for easier transportation. Cement per capita consumption in India is very low when compared to the advanced countries.
  
  
• The centres of cement production are Katni, Satna and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, Puliyur and Madukkarai in Tamil Nadu, Porbandar and Bhuj in Gujarat, Wadi and Gulbarga in Karnataka, Basant Nagar and Mancherial in Telangana, Yerraguntla and Jaggayyapeta in Andhra Pradesh.

Paper Industry

• Paper is generally a forest based industry requiring bamboo, sabai grass, bagasse, straw, etc. and similarly chemicals like Sodium Sulphate, Ammonium Sulphate, Caustic soda, Sulphur, Chlorine, clay, lime, resin, etc.
  
  
• The paper industry comprises of two industries, (i) Pulp manufacturing industries, which are located in the midst of the forest, where wood and Bamboo is located and (ii) Paper manufacturing industries which are generally located at port cities.
  
  India is importing pulp from Finland, Sweden, Russia and Canada.
  
  
• The locations of paper mills in India are Vikhroli, Thane, Ballarpur and Nashik in Maharashtra, Nepanagar (first newsprint manufacturing factory), Ratlam and Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh, Dandeli, Bhadravati and Belagola in Karnataka, Bhadrachalam and Sirpur in Telangana, Dhubri and Nagaon in Assam, Brajarajnagar and Rayagada in Odisha.

Fertilizer Industries

• In India, the first fertilizer factory was established in Sindri, Jharkhand. The fertilizer industry in India uses byproducts of coal mining, oil refinery industries, iron and steel industries as its raw materials and hence most of the fertilizer plants are located near to these plant areas.
  
  
• Fertilizers produced in India are basically Ammonia based and to some extent Phosphate based and complex NPK based fertilizers.
  
  As raw materials for Phosphatic variety are less available in India, they are imported from Morocco and Algeria. Nitrogen based chemical fertilizers are not good in the longer run.
  
  
• The important centres of fertilizer industry are Barauni, Gorakhpur, Panipat, Nangal, Vadodara, Aluva, Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Trombay, Paradip, etc.

Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Industry

• Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Industry in India made a tremendous progress and is one among the fastest growing industrial sector. We are nearly self-sufficient in this area.
  
  India was able to develop its own technologies and obtain foreign technologies for manufacturing basic life saving drugs.
  
  
• India manufactures a wide range of bulk drugs which include steroids and hormones, vitamins, antibiotics, semisynthetic penicillins, synthetic phytochemicals, etc.
  
  A wide range of bulk drugs and formulations are exported to many countries like USA, Russia, African and European countries. We also import some drugs of new discoveries.
  
  
• In India, there exists both Government and private controlled pharmaceutical industries. Companies like Hindustan Antibiotics Limited, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL) and Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd are some of the pharmaceutical industries controlled by the Government.
  
  Some of the important pharmaceutical companies in the private sector include Aurobindo Pharma, Sun Pharma, Dr.Reddy's Laboratories, Glaxo, Pfizer, Alembic, etc.