Natural Resources and Location of Industries in India

What the official syllabus says

General Studies-III (Main Examination, Paper VI), (C) Geography:

• Distribution of key natural resources across India and Gujarat: Major resources: Land, soil, rocks, minerals, water and vegetation resources, etc. Factors responsible for the location of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sector industries in various parts of India and Gujarat, issues and problems, etc.

This page takes the India part of the line. Gujarat's resources and industrial regions have a page of their own: Gujarat: Natural Resources and Industrial Location.

Topics in detail

Land and soil resources

• Land use classification: forest, net sown area, fallow, wasteland, land put to non-agricultural uses
• Land degradation and desertification; Wastelands Atlas
• Pressure on land: urbanisation, industry and fragmentation of holdings

Rocks and minerals

• Classification: metallic (ferrous and non-ferrous), non-metallic, fuel minerals; atomic minerals
• Mineral belts: Chota Nagpur, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Rajasthan
• Iron ore, manganese, bauxite, copper, mica, limestone, gold: main areas
• Coal (Gondwana and Tertiary), lignite, petroleum and natural gas (Mumbai High, Assam, Cambay basin, Barmer, Krishna-Godavari)
• Critical minerals (lithium, rare earths) and the National Critical Mineral Mission
• Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and its amendments; District Mineral Foundations

Water resources

• Surface water and groundwater; per capita availability
• Irrigation: canals, tanks, wells and tube wells
• Multipurpose river valley projects
• Groundwater over-exploitation; Atal Bhujal Yojana; Jal Shakti Abhiyan; Jal Jeevan Mission
• Rainwater harvesting and watershed development

Vegetation resources

• Forest produce: timber and minor forest produce
• Fodder and grasslands; livestock dependence
• Medicinal plants and bio-resources

Energy and marine resources

• Conventional energy resources: coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydro and their regional distribution
• Non-conventional resources: solar and wind belts (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka), geothermal, tidal (Gulf of Khambhat, Gulf of Kachchh, Sundarbans)
• Marine resources: fisheries of the east and west coasts, polymetallic nodules, the blue economy
• Conservation of resources: sustainable use, recycling, substitution

Location of industries

• Factors: raw materials, power, labour, market, transport, water, capital, government policy, agglomeration; Weber's least-cost theory
• Primary sector: agriculture, mining, fisheries, forestry and the factors that shape where they are
• Secondary sector: iron and steel, cotton and synthetic textiles, sugar, cement, fertilisers, petrochemicals, automobiles, electronics
• Tertiary sector: IT and services in large cities, finance, tourism, logistics hubs
• Industrial regions of India: Mumbai-Pune, Hugli, Bengaluru-Chennai, Gujarat, Chota Nagpur, Gurugram-Delhi-Meerut, and others
• Policy tools: Special Economic Zones, industrial corridors (Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor), National Industrial Corridor Development Programme

Issues and problems

• Regional imbalance in industrial development
• Industrial pollution and resource depletion
• Land acquisition and displacement
• Water conflicts between industry, agriculture and cities
• Informal employment and the problems of small industries

Overlaps

• Prelims General Studies: Economic Geography (agriculture, industry and services; agro, mineral, forest, fuel and manpower based industries).