Manufacturing Industries
Agro-based industries
Explain where and why cotton, jute and sugar industries are located.
Textiles: a special industry. It adds a great deal to production, jobs and foreign exchange. It is the only industry in India that is complete in the value chain: it handles everything from raw fibre to the finished, high-value product (fibre, then yarn, then cloth, then garments).
Cotton textiles: a short history.
- In ancient India, cloth was made by hand spinning and handloom weaving. Power-looms came after the 18th century.
- In colonial times, Indian weavers could not compete with mill-made cloth from England, and they suffered.
- The first successful mill opened in Mumbai in 1854. Later, the two world wars raised Britain's demand for cloth and gave the industry a push.
- Early mills grew in the cotton belt of Maharashtra and Gujarat: raw cotton, markets, transport and ports, workers and a moist climate were all at hand.
Spinning in a few places, weaving everywhere. Spinning is concentrated in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, and India's yarn is world class. Weaving is spread out (handlooms, power-looms, mills) so that traditional skills in cotton, silk, zari and embroidery stay alive. But weaving makes mostly low-quality cloth and cannot use much of the good yarn we spin. Khadi, spun by hand, gives work to many weavers at home. The industry also supports farmers, cotton pickers, dyers, tailors, and the dye and packaging industries.
Jute: the Hugli belt. No country makes more raw jute and jute goods than India, and it is the second biggest exporter after Bangladesh. The first jute mill was set up at Rishra near Kolkata in 1855. After Partition (1947) the mills stayed in India, but three-fourths of the jute-growing land went to Bangladesh. Why are the mills along the Hugli?
- jute fields close by;
- cheap water transport, plus railways and roads;
- plenty of water to process the jute;
- cheap labour from West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh;
- Kolkata for banks, insurance and a port for exports.
Sugar: mills stay near the fields. India is second in sugar and first in gur and khandsari. Sugarcane is bulky, and the longer it travels, the more sucrose (sugar content) it loses, so mills are built close to the cane fields. Sixty per cent of mills are in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where much of the cane grows. The work is seasonal (only at harvest time), which suits cooperatives.
Sugar moves south and west. More mills are now in Maharashtra and the southern states because:
- the cane there has more sucrose;
- the cooler climate gives a longer crushing season;
- cooperatives work better there.
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