Chapter Notes

LIFELINES OF NATIONAL ECONOMY

Just as our bodies need lifelines like arteries and veins to move blood and nutrients, a nation's economy needs lifelines to move goods, services, and ideas. These lifelines are the networks of transport, communication, and trade. Without them, a factory's products could never reach customers, a farmer's crops would stay in the village, and a country would be isolated.

An efficient system of transport and communication is the foundation for fast development. It connects supply locations with demand locations, allowing traders to move products to consumers. Today, India's vast and diverse population is well-linked internally and with the rest of the world, thanks to these modern lifelines that have enriched our lives and boosted the economy.

Transport

The movement of goods and people can happen across three main domains: land, water, and air. This gives us three primary modes of transport.

Roadways

India has the second-largest road network in the world, totaling about 62.16 lakh km (as of 2020-21). Roads are often more advantageous than railways for several reasons:

• Lower Construction Cost: Building roads is generally cheaper than laying railway lines.
• Versatility in Terrain: Roads can be built in challenging landscapes, such as dissected and undulating topography, and can even traverse mountainous regions like the Himalayas.
• Economical for Short Distances: For transporting a few people or a small amount of goods over short distances, road transport is more cost-effective.
• Door-to-Door Service: Roads offer the convenience of picking up and dropping off goods directly at the source and destination, which significantly reduces the cost of loading and unloading.
• Feeder Role: Roads act as a crucial link to other modes of transport, connecting people to railway stations, airports, and seaports.

In India, roads are classified into six categories based on their capacity:

• Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways: This is a major road development project designed to reduce travel time and distance between India's mega cities. It links Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai and Delhi with six-lane Super Highways. The project also includes the North-South corridors, connecting Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) with Kanniyakumari (Tamil Nadu), and the East-West Corridor, connecting Silchar (Assam) with Porbander (Gujarat). These projects are implemented by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

• National Highways: These are the primary road systems that link the extreme parts of the country.

• State Highways: These roads connect a state capital with the various district headquarters within that state.

• District Roads: These roads connect the district headquarters with other places within the same district.

• Other Roads: This category includes rural roads that link villages with towns. These roads received a major boost under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana, a scheme that aims to connect every village with a major town through an all-season motorable road.

• Border Roads: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a Government of India undertaking established in 1960, builds and maintains roads in the country's border areas. These roads are of strategic importance and have improved accessibility and economic development in difficult terrains of the northern and north-eastern borders.

Roads are also classified by the material used for construction:

• Metalled roads, made of cement, concrete, or bitumen, are all-weather roads.
• Unmetalled roads are not usable during the rainy season.

Railways

Railways are the principal mode of transportation for both freight (goods) and passengers in India, especially over long distances. For over 150 years, Indian Railways has been a great integrating force, binding the economic life of the country and accelerating the development of industry and agriculture.

The first train in India ran from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, covering a distance of 34 km. Today, the Indian Railways is the largest public sector undertaking in the country, reorganized into 17 zones.

The distribution of the railway network is heavily influenced by several factors:

• Favourable Conditions: The northern plains, with their vast level land, high population density, and rich agriculture, have the most favourable conditions for railway growth.
• Challenges:
  • In the peninsular region, tracks are laid through low hills, gaps, or tunnels.
  • The Himalayan mountains are unfavourable due to high relief, sparse population, and limited economic opportunities.
  • Laying tracks is difficult in the sandy plains of western Rajasthan, the swamps of Gujarat, and the forested areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
  • The development of the Konkan railway along the west coast has been a major achievement, facilitating movement in an important economic region, but it faces problems like landslides and the sinking of tracks.

Despite its importance, rail transport faces problems like passengers traveling without tickets, theft and damage to railway property, and unnecessary chain pulling, which causes delays and heavy losses.

Pipelines

Pipeline transport is a relatively new mode on India's transportation map. Initially used to transport water, pipelines are now crucial for transporting:

• Crude oil
• Petroleum products
• Natural gas from oil and gas fields to refineries, fertilizer factories, and thermal power plants.
• Solids, when converted into a slurry.

There are three important pipeline networks in the country:

1. From the oil field in upper Assam to Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh).
2. From Salaya in Gujarat to Jalandhar in Punjab.
3. The Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) cross country gas pipeline, which links Mumbai High and Bassein gas fields with industrial complexes in western and northern India.

Waterways

Waterways are the cheapest mode of transport and are ideal for carrying heavy and bulky goods. They are also fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly. India has 14,500 km of inland navigation waterways.

The National Waterways Act, 2016 declared 111 inland waterways as National Waterways (NWs). Some of the most important ones include:

• NW No.1: The Ganga river between Prayagraj and Haldia (1620 km).
• NW No.2: The Brahmaputra river between Sadiya and Dhubri (891 km).
• NW No.3: The West-Coast Canal in Kerala (205 km).
• NW No.4: Specified stretches of Godavari and Krishna rivers (1078 km).
• NW No.5: Specified stretches of the river Brahmani (588 km).

Major Sea Ports

With a long coastline of 7,516.6 km, India has 12 major and 200 non-major ports. These major ports handle about 95 percent of India's foreign trade.

West Coast Ports:

• Deendayal Port (Kandla): Located in Kuchchh, it was the first port developed after Independence to ease the trade volume on Mumbai port after Karachi port went to Pakistan. It is a tidal port.
• Mumbai: The biggest port with a spacious, natural, and well-sheltered harbour.
• Jawaharlal Nehru Port: Planned to decongest the Mumbai port.
• Mormugao Port (Goa): The leading iron ore exporting port, accounting for about 50% of India's iron ore exports.
• New Mangalore Port (Karnataka): Caters to the export of iron ore concentrates from Kudremukh mines.
• Cochin: The extreme south-western port, located at the entrance of a lagoon with a natural harbour.

East Coast Ports:

• V.O. Chidambaranar Port (Tuticorin), Tamil Nadu: An extreme south-eastern port with a natural harbour and a flourishing trade with neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
• Chennai: One of the oldest artificial ports, ranked next to Mumbai in trade volume.
• Vishakhapatnam: The deepest landlocked and well-protected port.
• Paradwip Port (Odisha): Specialises in the export of iron ore.
• Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Kolkata: An inland riverine port that serves the large Ganga-Brahmaputra basin. Being a tidal port, it requires constant dredging.
• Haldia Port: Developed as a subsidiary port to relieve pressure on the Kolkata port.

Airways

Air travel is the fastest, most comfortable, and most prestigious mode of transport. It can easily cover difficult terrains like high mountains, deserts, dense forests, and long oceans.

Pawanhans Helicopters Ltd. provides helicopter services to inaccessible areas and difficult terrains, such as the north-eastern states and interior parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. It also provides services for the off-shore operations of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Communication

Communication is the exchange of information and ideas. Modern technology has made long-distance communication possible without any physical movement. There are two major types of communication: personal and mass communication.

• Personal Communication: The Indian postal network is the largest in the world, handling both parcels and personal written communications.

  • First-class mail (cards and envelopes) is airlifted for faster delivery.
  • Second-class mail (book packets, newspapers) is carried by surface mail (land and water).
  • India also has one of the largest telecom networks in Asia, with Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) facilities reaching most villages.

• Mass Communication: This includes radio, television, newspapers, magazines, books, and films. It provides entertainment and creates awareness about national programs and policies.

  • All India Radio (Akashwani) broadcasts programs in national, regional, and local languages.
  • India publishes newspapers in about 100 languages and dialects, with the largest number in Hindi, followed by English and Urdu.
  • India is the largest producer of feature films in the world. The Central Board of Film Certification is the authority to certify both Indian and foreign films.

International Trade

Trade is the exchange of goods among people, states, and countries. When trade occurs between two or more countries, it is called international trade. It is considered the "economic barometer" for a country because its advancement is an index of economic prosperity.

• Export and Import: These are the two main components of trade. Export is selling goods to other countries, while import is buying goods from other countries.
• Balance of Trade: This is the difference between a country's exports and imports.
  • A favourable balance of trade occurs when the value of exports is greater than the value of imports.
  • An unfavourable balance of trade occurs when the value of imports exceeds the value of exports.

India's major exports include gems and jewellery, chemicals, and agricultural products. Major imports include petroleum crude, base metals, and electronic items. In recent years, India has emerged as a software giant, earning large amounts of foreign exchange through the export of information technology.

Tourism as a Trade

In the last two decades, tourism in India has grown into a significant industry. It is now considered a form of trade because it brings in foreign currency and supports local economies.

• Benefits of Tourism:
  • Promotes national integration.
  • Provides support to local handicrafts and cultural pursuits.
  • Helps in developing international understanding of India's culture and heritage.
• Types of Tourism: Foreign tourists visit India for various reasons, including heritage tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, medical tourism, and business tourism.

The government has launched several schemes like Swadesh Darshan 2.0 and PRASHAD to boost this upcoming industry, which has vast potential for development across the entire country.