ECONOMY
How does the second biggest population in the world live and survive? The system of making and spending money is called ‘economy‘. Economy has a lot to do with what products a country makes, and how the country sells these products. In the last ten years, India’s economy has become much stronger.
India is now the 3rd biggest economy in the world, and it has a working population of over 600 million people!
There are three main areas for work in India:
Agriculture (farming; working on the land or with nature)
Industry (making and producing things)
Services (providing services for people)
We will look at them briefly.
AGRICULTURE A hundred years ago, India was almost totally a farmers land. Today 60% of Indians work in this sector. India sells (exports) food to other countries but buys (or imports) very little. India feeds itself!
The main agricultural (farming) products that India makes are: rice, wheat, cotton, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. It also has a large industry of sheep, goat, poultry (chicken) and fish farming. These animals are kept for their production of milk, eggs and meat. Agriculture brings in 17% of the national income.
INDUSTRY Only 17% of Indians work in Industry (production), but this sector produces 28% of the national income. The Indian steel industry is 122 yrs old. With the help of steel, Indian companies produce aircrafts, ships, cars, and machine tools. Arcelor Mittal and Tata Steel are the biggest steel companies in India and among the biggest in the world. Tata steel alone employs over 600.000 people worldwide.
India also has a large textile industry. Clothes from India are exported all over the world. Other important areas of industry are: computer, computer software design and chemicals and cement.
Computer services are a major industry in India
SERVICES Less than a quarter of India’s work force labour in the service sector. But yet the service sector is very important for India: well over half of the national income comes from services. Many of the most educated people in India are involved in services. American and British Banks and companies employ staff in India for their telephone services.
Many of the service jobs are found in the area of what we call ‘Information Technology‘. Indian computer software consultants, operators and developers interact every day with clients in Europe and America. Apart from that, there are growing numbers of Indian business consultants employed by firms in the West. Much of their work is done over the internet and by telephone. Indian wages are lower than British wages, and companies save money and make more profit by employing Indian staff instead of British staff. We call this out-sourcing.
There are many other areas in the service industry, such as shops (retail), transportation, and a growing tourism sector.