Industries are the organisations or enterprises which are involved in Production and supply of good and services. Industries are generally classified as primary, secondary and tertiary. However, on the basis of weight of the end product, Industries can also be classified as weight losing and weight gaining industries.
| Weight losing Industries | Weight gaining industries |
| Raw material is heavier compared to final product. | Raw materials are lighter as compared to final product. |
| E.g. – Iron and steel industry. | E.g. – Bakery industry |
| Tend to locate near the raw material to reduce transportation costs of raw materials. | Tend to locate near the market to reduce the transportation cost of end product to market. |
TYPES OF INDUSTRIES
| PRIMARY SECTOR | SECONDARY SECTOR | TERTIARY SECTOR |
| Producing goods using natural resources directly. | Natural products are changed into other forms using manufacturing processes. | They themselves do not produce any good. |
| Forms the base of all other sectors. | It is a next step after primary sector. Also called, industrial sector. | They provide services to primary and secondary sectors. Also called, “service sector”. |
| E.g. – Dairy, fisheries, agriculture | E.g. – Using sugarcane to make sugar or Gur. | E.g. – Transportation services. |
GENERAL LOCATIONAL FACTORS FOR INDUSTRIES
Industrial locations are complex in nature. The interplay of several factors plays its role in determining the best location for any industry. Several geographers and regional planners have tried to identify those locational factors as given below:
- Availability of raw materials: Nearness to raw materials allows industries to get uninterrupted supplies of raw materials at low cost.
- Nature of industry: Weight losing industries are located near raw materials and weight gaining industries are.
- Transportation cost: Junction points of waterways, roadways and railways become humming centres of industrial activity.
- Availability of cheap and skilled labour
- Clusterisation and development of inter-industrial linkages; Benefits of agglomeration to leverage the economies of scale and reduce overall cost of production.
- Capital, entrepreneurship and innovation to continuously move the industries and make them stand strong in the era of competition.
- Electricity, fuel and energy.
- Proximity to market and regular demand: The finished goods should reach the market at the end of the process of manufacturing. Thus nearness to the market is an add-on quality in the process of selecting a location for industry.
- Government policies like public investment ease of doing business and FDI norms etc.
