Geography Class 12: Sugar Industry, Petrochemical Industry and Knowledge Based Industries

Introduction: 

Industrialization plays a pivotal role in the growth and development of a country. It results in an increment of per capita income, creates employment opportunities, boosts infrastructure facilities, and beyond. From being an agriculture-based economy to emerging as a crucial player on the map of a world in the context of knowledge-processing, the Indian economy has witnessed a massive transformation. Here get hold of the important highlights related to  

Petrochemical Industry 

The significance of the Petrochemical Industry is huge in India. Right from décor products like Carpets to plastic bottles, from clothes we wear to fertilisers, from tires to paints are created from a few petrochemicals. Even in the production of manufacturing cosmetics and pharmaceuticals petrochemicals are being used. Petrochemicals contain hydrocarbons that come from the processing of natural gas and crude oil. An array of industries including agriculture, construction, personal care, packaging, and plastic are extensively dependent on petrochemicals.

Important Facts related to the Indian Petrochemical Industry:

 Growth Rate -15% 

 Market size – US$700 million

This industry is growing at the fastest pace in India since its inception and continues to contribute extensively to the growth of the country while lending an immense contribution to the growth of the manufacturing industry. The Petrochemical Industry in India is Oligopolistic and is highly concentrated.

Main petrochemical companies in India

Four key players rule through the roost in the Petrochemical Industry. They include RIL (Reliance Industries Ltd), IPCL (Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited), GAIL (Gas Authority of India Ltd.), and HPL (Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.) used to dominate the industry to a large extent. Interestingly, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited was amalgamated with RIL and this further increased the concentration. Currently, together they account for more than 70% of the total petrochemical capacity of the country. However, when it comes to the downstream petrochemical sector, the scenario slightly differs being highly fragmented. There are more than 40 companies that exist in the market.

The Characteristics of Petrochemical Industry in India

The Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited is cyclical. Not just in India but across the globe, this industry is dominated by sulky demand and feedstock prices. In the context of per capita consumption, related to petrochemical products, India lags far behind other countries in the world. 

The rapid expansion of the Petrochemical Industry is already generating significant amounts of surplus and the same is being channelized towards exports.

Main Segments in the Indian Petrochemical industry

Polymers

Polyester Intermediates.

Aromatics (Paraxylene) 

Benzene, MX, OX and Toluene

Synthetic Fibres

Other significant companies include:

National Organic Chemical Industry Ltd.

Manali Petrochemical Limited

Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.

I G Petrochemicals Limited

Tamilnadu Petroproducts Limited

The Andhra Petrochemicals Limited

Sugar industry

The sugar industry in India is the second most significant agro-based industry. India is the largest producer of both cane sugar and sugarcane, India is the largest producer in the world contributing approximately 8% of the total production of Sugar in the world. This industry employs over 4 lakh persons directly while indirectly contributing to the income of a large number of farmers. The nature of the Sugar industry in India is seasonal due to a multitude of factors. 

Location of the Sugar Industry

The majority of the Sugar factories are located in cane-producing regions.

Maharashtra has emerged as one of the top states in sugar production in the country. It produces approximately one-third of the total sugar production in the country. There are 119 sugar mills in Maharashtra out of which 87 mills operate in the cooperative sector.

Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the second-largest sugar-producing state in India. The majority of the sugar factories are concentrated in two belts. Out of them, one is the taria region and another is the Ganga-Yamuna doab. The majority of the sugar factories in UP are located in Saharanpur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, and Bulandshahr districts.

Districts like Basti, Gorakhpur, Kheri Lakhimpur, Bahraich, and Gonda are significant sugar-producing districts located in the Terai region.

When it comes to the production of sugar, South India does not lag.

There are numerous districts in Tamil Nadu that contribute significantly when it comes to sugar production. They include Coimbatore, Villupuram and Vellore Tiruvannamalai. As far as Karnataka’s contribution is concerned in the context of Sugar production, districts like Tiruchchirappalli, Belgaum, Mandya, Bellary, Shimoga, Chitradurga, and Bijapur, districts dominate.

The sugar industry in the South is distributed in various coastal regions including East Godavari, Visakhapatnam districts, West, Godavari, Medak, and Nizamabad districts (Telangana), and Chittoor district (Rayalaseema)

The other top Sugar producing States in India include Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.

Bihar: Muzaffarnagar, Gaya, Saran Champaran, Siwan Darbhanga. 

Punjab: Gurdaspur, Sangartir, Jalandhar, Amritsar, and Patiala. 

Haryana: Yamuna Nagar, Hissar, Rohtak, Faridabad

Gujrat: Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Valsad

Knowledge-Based Industries

Knowledge industries are comparatively new types of industries based on the intensive utilisation of human capital and technology. The majority of the industries are dependent on knowledge as an input in some or another way. Such industries include science, education, consulting, finance, information technology, insurance, communications, and health service. 

India is one of the top countries in the world in the context of a youthful population. It has an immense potential to become a top ICT (information and communication technology) industry provided barriers related to infrastructure, education, and regulatory measures are overcome. The entire world is all set to embrace AI unimaginably and hence it is the best time for India to make a rapid shift towards a Knowledge-based economy to gain a competitive edge in the world’s market.

The key location of key KPO  (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) centres in India:

 Mumbai

 Hyderabad

 Delhi NCR

 Pune

 Bangalore 

 Chennai.

Mumbai is India’s financial capital and has garnered the attention of numerous KPO players in the context of processing knowledge services related to the investment research domain.

Biggest challenges faced by Indian knowledge-based Industries

• Confidence of investors
• Timely delivery of projects
• Ease of doing business
• Despite consistent efforts to boost the FDI, India lags in posing a convincingly healthy picture in the context of ease of doing business.

Conclusion:

Industrialization in India has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past two decades. The gradual shift of Indian industrialization from an agro-based economy to a knowledge-based economy is palpable. However, that does not mean that the emphasis or interest in Agro-based industries has begun declining. It is just that the inclination of foreign investment is higher towards knowledge-based industries and it has opened new avenues of foreign investment in India.