chapter 27: the dynamics of regions: india section (3): continental/sub continental region india

Chapter 27: The Dynamics of Regions: India

SECTION (3): CONTINENTAL/SUB CONTINENTAL

REGION

INDIA


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Climate

Mid-June to September a hot wet season

• Low pressure

• Rain-bearing clouds from the south-west over the Indian Ocean

• Heavy rainfall and flooding

• Tropical cyclones

• Southwest monsoon


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Climate

October to February a cool dry season

• High pressure

• Dry wind from the north-east

• Retreating monsoon


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Climate

March to Mid-June a hot dry season

• 45ºC

• India depends on the water from the monsoon rains for crop growth

• Monsoon is too low – drought

• Monsoon is too heavy – flooding

• Thar Desert located in north-west of India


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Soils

• Tropical red soils also called laterite soils

• Soils have been heavily leached except for iron which gives the soil its reddish appearance

• Eastern and Western Ghats

• Black soils are common in the Deccan Plateau

• Volcanic

• High clay content and hold moisture


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Relief and drainage

The Himalayas

• Alpine fold mountains

• Landslides and earthquakes are common


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Relief and drainage

Ganges Valleys

• Low-lying fertile floodplain of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers

• Deep layer of alluvial soils

• Most densely populated area of India


PHYSICAL PROCESSES

Relief and drainage

Deccan Lava Plateau

• It is a triangular piece of land covering most of the peninsula of India

• Plateaus are called Ghats

• Consists of weathered basalt rock

• Volcanic eruptions

• The soils hold moisture and are suitable for irrigation


PRIMARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Agriculture

• Cereal production with most of the region’s produce being sold locally

• India’s farm output ranks second in the world

• Land in India is farmed intensively but it is of a subsistence nature

• Farms are small, e.g. under two hectares

• Rural villages have high population densities

• Rice is the most commonly grown crop



Agriculture (continued)

• Rice makes up 90 per cent of the local diet

• Highest output of food per unit of land than any other crop

• Paddy fields need intensive manual labour

• Wheat and millet are grown in drier regions

• Double cropping is also practised in the region: one crop e.g. rice, is grown during the wet season and another, e.g. wheat, during the drier season



Agriculture (continued)

• Plantation farming of cash crops such as cotton, tea

• Region’s farms are a major supplier to the world

• India has more cattle per capita than any other country

• Cattle as sacred animals

• Monoculture occurs in the region

• Calcification and salination


Agriculture and the Green Revolution

• The Green Revolution was set up and funded by governments to improve farming practices in developing countries: Help them achieve self-sufficiency The Green Revolution began in India in the 1970s Population increasing at 1.5 per cent per annum Brought with it irrigation schemes, genetically

modified foods, farmers education, fertilisers/pesticides and high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat

Crop production per hectare increased Green Revolution has only benefited the states that

can afford its new technology


Problems

Overproduction of crops

• Market value price fell

• Mechanisation has caused loss of jobs and outward migration

• The use of fertilisers on the land lead to pollution of ground water

• The answer to agricultural problems in India is land reform

• In the 1990s a quarter of the best farmland in India was owned by 5 per cent of the region’s farming families


SECONDARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Manufacturing activities

• In 1947 India became independent from Britain

• Industry was underdeveloped

• 2 per cent of the population were employed in manufacturing

• India was involved in food processing, e.g. tea production

• Some light manufacturing, e.g. cotton production

• The main industries are located in the large urban centres of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras)



Manufacturing activities (continued)

• Hoped to bring industry into the more rural parts of the country by investing in more labour-intensive local craft industries, e.g. weaving

• Heavy industries were encouraged in India as it has a rich supply of natural resources, e.g. Kolkata’s iron and steel manufacturing

• India contains one of the largest iron and steel companies in the world: Tata Iron and Steel Company

• India is the tenth largest steel producer in the world and the lowest consumer per capita

• Expanded into ICT technologies




• Are attracted to the region as it has good energy supplies

• Locally extracted coal is used to generate 60 per cent of the region’s electricity and the rest is powered by hydro-electric power (HEP)

• India also has large reserves of minerals, e.g. bauxite and copper

• Large, well-educated, low-cost labour force

• India invested in education

• India produces more university graduates than Canada and USA combined and 40 per cent of these graduates have science or engineering degrees




• Salaries of well-educated graduates in the region can be as little as one-tenth that of American graduates

• Bangalore is the main location for software companies – often referred to as India’s Silicon Valley

• IBM located there

• In 2002, 30 British companies have outsourced teleservice jobs to India, e.g. Aviva

• Mumbai is the main port in the region




• The government has also introduced a policy of industrialisation

• Established software parks, improved infrastructure and special economic zones that offered tax breaks

• India is considered a newly industrialising country (NIC)


TERTIARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Tourism• Fastest growing economic sector in India with 3

million people visiting the region last year, an increase of 18 per cent

• Tourist industry in India is worth almost $4 billion and 23 per cent of the workforce is involved directly in this sector

• Close proximity to the Himalayan Mountains

• Historic buildings, e.g. Taj Mahal

• Beach holidays, e.g. Goa

• Bollywood is a growing sector of the region’s economy earning over €2 billion per year



Tourism (continued)

• International tourism is still limited – put off by the visible poverty

• Government has tried to overcome this by introducing standards of cleanliness and hospitality

• Internal tourism is growing

• ‘Monsoon holidays’

• Niche holidays

• Adventure holidays



Transport

• India has a low gross domestic product (GDP).

• Public transport across the region is not uniformly accessible

• Transport system in rural areas is very underdeveloped

• Over half of the rural villages in India have no tarred roads

• Traffic moves very slowly

• Second largest rail network in the world



Transport (continued)

• Rail system is out of date and uses steam engines

• Improvements in India’s transport sector were boosted in 1989 when Kolkata’s underground railway was introduced

• Government dominates air transport in India

• Air India

• Internal airline Indian Airlines


HUMAN PROCESSES

Population Dynamics

• Population of over 1 billion (17 per cent of the world’s population)

• Second most populous country in the world

• High birth rate and inward migration

• Growing at a rate of 1.6 per cent per year and is predicted to reach over 2 billion by 2040

• Population spread in the region is uneven

• India is in the late expanding stage of the demographic transition model


HUMAN PROCESSES

Population Dynamics (continued)

• With improvements in healthcare the death rate has declined

• Regarded as a developing world country

• In the 1970s the government introduced incentives for families to try to reduce the birth rate

• Family planning is difficult to introduce

• It is hoped that as India becomes increasingly urbanised the birth rate will naturally decline


HUMAN PROCESSES

Language

Hindi is the official language of India

• No common language

• 200 million people speak Dravidian languages

• Most people working in business and politics can speak English

• 1,600 different languages spoken in India

• 18 of these are official languages

• Language can be a cause of tension


HUMAN PROCESSES

Religion

The major religion in India is Hindu

• Islam is the major religion in the states of Punjab and Kashmir – over 80 per cent of the population are followers

• Sikhism, Buddhism and Christianity are also recognised religions in India

• Hindu religion has also introduced the Caste system

• The Caste system is in decline especially in the cities

• People from the lower levels of Hindu society are attracted to converting to Islam


HUMAN PROCESSES

Religion (continued)

• Islam was introduced to India by the Muslim traders from the Middle East

• 1947: after British colonial rule ended in India the region was separated along religious lines, creating the Muslim state of Pakistan in the north and the Hindu dominated India in the south

• 12 million people moved to join the area of their faith

• Tensions still exist

• Rioting in 2002


HUMAN PROCESSES

Religion (continued)

• Tensions still run high between the two areas over the Muslim state of Kashmir

• The cow is a sacred animal

• 200 million cows are found in the region, nearly one-fifth of the world’s cow population

• Cows are viewed by some as hindering the development of the region


THE GROWTH OF MUMBAI

• Mumbai developed as a trading port for the East India Trading Company in the seventeenth century with a population of approximately 60,000. Place of religious freedom

Muslims and Hindus people fled to Mumbai for security reasons

Swelled the numbers living in Mumbai

Supplied workers for the newly developing cotton and weaving industries


THE GROWTH OF MUMBAI (continued)

Important trading centre for the British textile industry

Largest port in India handling 25% of the region’s trade

Financial capital and home to the famous Bollywood film industry

Most populous city in India and the second most populous city in the world

Richest city in India with the highest GDP per capita


Problems

• Pollution

• Smog

• Overcrowding, in 2001 density was 2,200 people per km²

• Growth of shanty towns

• Poor hygiene standards


Shanty towns – ‘bustees’

• Dharavi – largest bustee in Mumbai and Asia

• Home to nearly 10 million people

• Government of the region plans to demolish Dharavi

• €800 million development

• Build business parks, a university and hotels in the area

• They hope to re-house the inhabitants of the area into apartments elsewhere in the city

chapter 27: the dynamics of regions: india section (3): continental/sub continental region india

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