Manufacturing Industries

Agro-Based Industries

These industries depend on agricultural products as the basic raw material: Textile industries, sugar industry and vegetable oil industry are good examples of agro-based industries.

Textile Industries

Textile industries form a prominent segment of industrial scene in India. Currently they contribute about 12% of the industrial production, 4.0 of the GDP and 12% of the country’s export earnings. These industries provide direct employment to 35 million people, which includes substantial number of SC/ST and women. The textile sector is the second largest provider of employment after agriculture.

Cotton Textiles

The location of cotton textile industry is influenced by a large number of factors, such as availability of raw cotton, power (hydro-electricity or coal), chemicals for dyeing, cheap abundant labour, transport, market etc. Humid climate is an added advantage because the thread frequently breaks in dry climate. Cotton cloth is produced in three different sectors viz.

1. Mills,
2. Power-looms
3. Handlooms

Mills

The mill sector played a dominant role in cotton textile industry at the initial stage. But its importance was reduced drastically with the growth of powerlooms and handloom. The share of mill sector in cotton cloth production came down from 81 per cent in 1950-51 to only 5.6 per cent in 2013-14.

Powerlooms

The decentralised powerloom sector plays a pivotal r ole in meeting the clothing needs of the country. The production of cloth as well as generation of employment have been rapidly increasing in powerloom sector. This sector not only contributes significantly to the cloth production in the country but also provides employment to millions of people. The powerloom industry produces a wide variety of cloth with intricate designs. The powerloom sector accounts for about 82.8 per cent of the total cloth production in the country and contributes significantly to the export earnings. It provides employment to 59.20 lakh persons. As in February, 2014 there were 5.4 lakh powerloom units with 23.68 lakh powerlooms.

Handlooms

The handloom sector provides employment to over 65 lakh persons engaged in weaving and allied activities. This sector constitutes nearly 12.3 per cent of the total cloth produced in the country and also contributes substantially to the export earnings. Distribution of Cotton textile mills Cotton textile mills are located in more than one hundred towns and cities of India. Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are the leading cotton textile producing states. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab are other important cotton textile producing states. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Kanpur are four-leading centres of this industry.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra excels all other states in the development of cotton textile industry. It produces 38% cloth and 30% yarn of India. About three lakh workers are engaged in this industry in Maharashtra. Mumbai is the largest centre in India having 57 mills out of Maharashtra’s total of 119 mills. Mumbai is rightly called the ‘Cottonopolis’ of India.

Following are the main reasons of phenomenal growth of cotton textile industry in and around Mumbai:

• Mumbai enjoys humid climate which is essential for this industry because thread does not break so frequently in the humid climate.
• Mumbai is a very important port which helps import of machinery and long staple cotton.Cheap hydroelectricity is readily available from the nearby areas.
• The black-cotton soil in the hinterland of Mumbai provides cotton as the basic raw material.
• Cheap labour can be drawn from the surrounding areas.
• There is ready market for Mumbai products both in India and abroad.
• Mumbai is well connected by a network of roads and railways which helps in easy transportation of raw material and shed goods.
• Facilities for washing and dyeing also exist here.
• There is no dearth of capital inputs.
• Mumbai has advantage of early start.

Apart from Mumbai, Solapur, Pune, Kolhapur, Satara, Wardha, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Akola, Sangli, Amravati and Jalgaon are other centres of cotton textile industry in Maharashtra.

Gujarat

Gujarat is the second largest producer of cotton textiles. Ahmedabad is the largest centre where 67 out of 118 mills of Gujarat are located. Ahmedabad is the second largest centre of cotton textile industry after Mumbai. Following facilities are available at Ahmedabad:

• Ahmedabad lies near the main cotton belt of India and there is no problem of obtaining raw cotton.
• Climate is humid and is suited to this industry.
• Cheap hydroelectricity is readily available.
• Cheap and skilled labour is drawn from the nearby areas.
• Ahmedabad is served by a network of railways and roadways.
• Land at Ahmedabad is much cheaper as compared to Mumbai.
• Cost of living is also less at Ahmedabad than that of Mumbai.
• Most of Ahmedabad mills produce cheap cloth which ready market amongst the poor masses of India.
• The other important centres of Gujarat are: Vadodar a, Surat, Bharuch, Rajkot, Porbandar, Maurvi, Bhavnagar, etc.

Madhya Pradesh

Gwalior, Ujjain, Indore, Dewas, Ratlam, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Burhanpur, Mandsaur, etc. are important centres.

West Bengal

Kolkatta, Haora, Murshidabad, Hugli, Serampur, Shyamnagar and Panihati.

Uttar Pradesh

Kanpur with 14 mills is the largest centre and is known as Manchester of Uttar Pradesh. Other important centres are: Moradabad, Agra, Bareilly, Aligarh, Modinagar, Saharanpur, Rampur, Etawah, Varanasi, Hathras, Mirzapur, etc.

Tamil Nadu

This state has the largest number of 439 mills but most of them (416) are spinning mills which manufacture yarn of different grades. Coimbatore is the most important centre having 200 mills out of Tamil Nadu’s 439 mills and is known as Manchester of Tamil Nadu. Other important centres are: Chennai (10 mills), Madurai, Tirunelveli, Trichnapalli, Salem, Perambur, Tuticorin, etc.

Andhra Pradesh

Guntur, East Godavari and Udayagiri.

Telangana

Hyderabad, Secunderabad.

Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Alleppey, Quilon, Trichur.

Bihar

Gaya, Patna, Bhagalpur.

Rajasthan

Pali, Beawar, Vijaynagar, Kishangarh, Ganganagar, Bhilwara, Udaipur, Jaipur, Kota, Ajmer.

Punjab

Amritsar, Ludhiana, Phagwara.

Haryana

Bhiwani, Hissar, Rohtak.

Karnataka

Bengaluru, Belgaum, Mangalore, Chitradurga, Davangere, Gulbarga, Chennapatnam, Mysore.