What is the importance of industries to our country ?

After independence our great leaders thought of developing our industries. Without industries our country could not make progress. Therefore, plans were made to set up basic industries. Steel is the base of all heavy machinery and big steel plants were set up under the five-year plans. Now our country stands tenth in the industrialized countries of the world.

Industries can be divided under the two heads ( a ) Mineral-based industries ( b ) Agro-based industries. The industries like iron, steel, cement, aluminum and copper which draw the raw material from minerals are called mineral-based industries. The industries which draw their raw material from agriculture and forests are called agro-based industries.

Mineral Based Industries

Iron and Steel Industries :

Iron and steel industry is the base of all the industries. All types of machines which are used in other industries are made of steel. Therefore iron and steel industry is called key industry. Before independence we had steel mills at Jamshedpur, Bhadravati and Burnpur, but these mills could not meet our needs. Therefore, some more steel plants were set up under the five year plans at Bhilai (M.P.), Durgapur (West Bengal), Rourkela (Orissa), Bokaro (Bihar) and Salem (Tamil Nadu).

India has rich deposits of iron-ore and coal. Coal is required for extracting iron from its ore. Therefore most of the iron and steel plants have been set up near the iron and coal fields.

Railway Coach Factories :

Integral Coach Factory at Perambur near Chennai produces coaches for the railway trains. Another coach factory has been set up at Kapurthala in Punjab. These factories produce all types of coaches for the railways. Some coaches are being supplied to other countries.

Railway Engines :

A factory for the production of railway engines has been set up at Chittranjan in West Bengal. It used to produce locomotive engines. Now the locomotive engines are outdated and their place has been taken up by electric engines and diesel engines. The factory at Chittranjan now produces electric engines and another factory at Varanasi produces diesel engines.

Electronics :

A new industry making very fast progress is electronics. Radios, type-writers, television-sets, tape-recorders, computers and video games are only a few of the products being made. In Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Del hi, Haryana and Punjab there are big factories producing computer components and electronic items.

Automobiles :

Vehicles like cars, buses, trucks, jeeps, scooters and motor cycles etc. which move with the power generated in the vehicle itself are called automobiles. India now produces all types of. automobiles. Cars are manufactured at Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai ar\d Gurgaon (near Delhi). Buses, trucks and jeeps are manufactured at Jamshedpur and Chennai. Scooters are made at Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow and Kanpur. Motor cycles at Faridabad, Delhi and Chennai. Tractors are made at Faridabad and Pinjore.

Aeroplanes :

India now produces airplanes for use in civil aviation and for’ the air force. Pushpak, Gnat, Mig and Avro – 748 are some of the aeroplanes produced in India. The centres of manufacturing aircrafts are at Bangalore, Kanpur and Hyderabad.

Heavy Electricals Industries :

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. ( B. H. E. L.) Bhopal and Haridwar produce heavy electrical goods as generators, transformers, turbines and electric motors. Heavy electricals factories are also being set up at Tiruchirapalli and Ramchandrapuram.

Fertilizers :

Chemical fertilizers are necessary to increase our farm produce. Our government has set up fertilizer factories at Sindri (Bihar), Nangal (Punjab), Gorakhpur (Utter Pradesh), Kota (Rajasthan), Vadodara (Gujarat), Trombay (Maharashtra) and at many other places.

Oil Refineries :

India has oil refineries where crude petroleum is refined and made into petrol, diesel, kerosene oil, mobile oil, wax etc * Such oil refineries are at Barauni, Digboi, Trombay, Cochin, Vishakhapatnam, Noonmati, Chennai, Haldia and Koyali.

Cement :

India has rich deposits of lime-stone which is the raw material for the production of cement. India has more than 50 factories which produce cement. Some of these factories are at Surajpur, Dadri, Katni, Sawai Madhopur and Gagal.

Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. has its units at Bangalore, Pinjore, Hyderabad, Kalamassery and Srinagar. It produces machine tools, tractors, watches, offset printing machines and many other machine parts.

Ships :

Ships are made at ship-building yards at Vishakhapatnam, Cochin, Mumbai and Chennai.

Agro-Based Industries

Cotton Textile Industry

It is the oldest and the largest industry in India. It employs the largest number of workmen in our industries. India has more than 700 cotton and textile mills. Most of the mills are in the cotton producing States of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Ahmedabad and Mumbai are the main centres for the production of cotton textiles. The other centres are at Solapur, Kanpur, Delhi, Chennai, Indore, Nagpur, Phagwara and Amritsar.

Woollen Textile Industry :

Most of the woollen mills are located in the Northern parts of India, because wool is got from sheep reared in the slopes of the Himalayas and in Rajasthan. Some good quality wool is also imported from Australia. Now most of the wool is produced from synthetic yarn. Most of the woollen mills now use biended yarn of wool and synthetic wool. Important centres of woollen products are at Ludhiana, Amritsar, Dhariwal, Kanpur, Jamnagar, Mumbai, Bangalore and Srinagar.

Silk Textile Industries :

Silk is produced in Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Main centers of silk weaving industry are at Varanasi, Bangalore, Aurangabad, Srinagar, Kanchipuram, Surat, Murshidabod and Thanjavur. Silk sarees produced at these centers are in great demand in our country and abroad.

Artificial Fibre Textile Industry :

Now instead of pure cotton, wool or silk yarn mixed synthetic and cotton, wool or silk yarn is used for making textiles. Rayon, nylon, terylene, polyester decaron are synthetic fibres. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gwalior, Calcutta and Amritsar are the main centres of this industry.

Jute Industry :

Jute is used for making carpets, ropes, bags and hessian cloth etc. Jute is mostly produced in West Bengal and Assam. Calcutta is the main centre for the production of jute goods. Most of the jute industry is located along the Hooghly in Calcutta. India is the largest producer of jute in the world.

Sugar Industry :

India is the largest producer of sugarcane. Sugar industry is the second largest industry in India. There are half of the sugar mills are in Uttar Pradesh. The other sugar producing States are Bihar, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Paper Industry :

There are about 75 paper mills in India, Paper is made from grass or bamboo pulp. Most of the paper mills are in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Nepanagar in Madhya Pradesh has the largest newsprint mill in India. Newspapers and some magazines are printed on newsprint.

Industries are the back-bone of a country. Industries give employment to millions of people. Different kinds of machines and articles of daily use are produced by industries. Industries depend for their raw material on agriculture or mines. If our industrial and agricultural production increases, we can get things easily and at cheaper rates. Industrial development can raise the living standard of out people.