Chapter 14 Class 6 Social Science Solutions NCERT,
Economic Activities Around Us Chapter 14 Class 6 Social Science,
Class 6 Social Science Chapterwise Complete Solutions,
Summary: Chapter 14-Economic Activities Around Us
In Chapter 13, we learned the difference between economic activities (activities that create monetary value) and non-economic activities (done out of love, care, or service). In this chapter, we study how economic activities are classified into sectors, how they work, and how they depend on each other.
1. Why do we classify economic activities?
Earlier, most people were involved in simple tasks like farming, livestock rearing, pottery, weaving, and tool-making.
As societies developed, the kinds of work people do increased greatly—like manufacturing mobile phones, creating software, driving vehicles, running hotels, repairing machines, banking, healthcare, and more.
To understand these many activities, we group them into three economic sectors.
2. Economic Sectors
Economic activities with similar characteristics are grouped into three sectors:
A. Primary Sector:
Those economic activities in which people are directly dependent on nature to produce goods are known as primary activities or primary sector economic activities.
Examples:
- Farming (grains, vegetables)
- Fishing
- Forestry (collecting wood)
- Mining (coal, minerals)
- Raising livestock (cows, goats)
- Poultry farms (eggs)
- These activities provide the raw materials needed by other sectors.
B. Secondary Sector:
Economic activities in which people are dependent on outputs of the primary sector and transform them to produce goods are known as secondary activities or secondary sector economic activities.
Examples:
- Turning wheat into flour in mills
- Producing tea from tea leaves
- Making furniture or paper from wood
- Using iron ore to make steel and automobiles
- Extracting oil from groundnuts
- Processing milk into butter, cheese, or milk powder
- This sector also includes construction, water supply, electricity, and gas services.
C. Tertiary Sector (Service Sector):
All those economic activities that provide support to people involved in primary and secondary activities are called tertiary activities or tertiary sector economic activities.
Examples:
- Transport services: trucks, trains, ships carrying goods
- Sellers and vendors selling products
- Doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, pilots
- Technicians repairing mobiles and TVs
- Banks, hotels, restaurants
- Communication services: mobile, internet
- Warehouses storing goods
- Software development and IT services
- This sector plays a major role in modern economies.
3. Interdependence Among the Sectors:
All three sectors depend on each other.
None of these sectors can function alone.
Let’s understand interdependence with the example of a milk cooperative in Anand, Gujarat.
Primary Sector – Producing Milk:
- Milk comes directly from nature, so it belongs to the primary sector.
- Without farmers producing milk, there would be no raw material for the other sectors.
Secondary Sector – Processing Milk
- Milk is taken to factories for pasteurisation (heating to remove harmful bacteria).
- Factories convert milk into butter, cheese, ghee, curd, milk powder, etc.
- Here, raw milk is changed into useful products.
- This involves machines, workers, and technology — all part of the secondary sector.
- Without milk from farmers, these factories cannot work.
Tertiary Sector – Transporting & Selling the Products
- Trucks, trains, and other transport are used to carry milk products to stores.
- Shops and supermarkets sell AMUL butter, cheese, and milk powder.
- Banks, communication services, advertising, and warehousing help the cooperative operate smoothly.
- These services help products reach consumers across India and even other countries.
- Without transport, shops, and banking services, consumers cannot buy the products made by factories.
This shows that:
- Primary sector → provides the raw material
- Secondary sector → processes raw material
- Tertiary sector → delivers goods and services to people
All three sectors must work together for the final product to reach us.
The Big Questions?
1. How are economic activities classified?
Answer.
Economic activities are classified into three main sectors based on the type of work :
(a) Primary Sector
Economic Activities that use natural resources directly are classified as the Primary Sector.
Examples: farming, fishing, mining, forestry, raising livestock.
(b) Secondary Sector
The Economic Activities that process raw materials from the primary sector to make new products are known as the Secondary Sector.
Examples: making flour from wheat, turning cotton into cloth, manufacturing cars, and construction.
(c) Tertiary Sector
The Economic Activities that provide services to support the primary and secondary sectors are known as the Tertiary Sector.
Examples: transport, banking, healthcare, communication, teaching, and shops.
2. What differentiates these activities to be grouped into sectors?
Answer.
Economic activities are grouped into sectors because each type of activity has certain common features, such as the kind of work involved, the resources used, and the role they play in the economy. When activities share similar characteristics, they can be placed in the same group or economic sector.
The main factors that differentiate these activities are:
1. Based on their dependence on nature and other sectors:
a) Primary Sector
These activities involve using natural resources directly from the Earth.
They depend completely on nature, land, climate, and natural availability.
Examples: farming, fishing, mining, and forestry.
Why are they grouped separately?
They focus on extracting resources and are highly dependent on nature.
b) Secondary Sector
These activities involve processing raw materials from the primary sector into finished or semi-finished goods.
They depend heavily on primary sector output for raw materials.
Examples: turning cotton into cloth, making sugar from sugarcane, and producing steel from iron ore.
Why grouped separately?
Because they involve manufacturing and industrial processing, which is different from extracting resources.
c) Tertiary Sector
These activities provide services needed by both the primary and secondary sectors.
They depend on the other sectors for their existence, but they support them in return.
Examples: transport, banking, communication, education, hospitals, and marketing.
Why are they grouped separately?
Because they do not produce goods, they provide supporting services.
2. Based on their contribution to the economy
Different sectors add different levels of value to the economy:
Primary activities (like farming or mining) usually generate lower value, because they involve raw and unprocessed materials.
Secondary activities (like manufacturing) add more value because they convert raw materials into useful products.
Tertiary activities add even higher value, because modern economies depend greatly on services such as IT, banking, transport, tourism, and education.
Example:
Wheat (primary) has low value.
Bread made from wheat (secondary) has a higher value.
Delivery and sale of bread (tertiary) adds further value.
3. Based on the nature of the output:
Primary: Raw materials
Secondary: Manufactured goods
Tertiary: Services
This basic difference in what they produce helps classify them into sectors.
4. Based on the role played in the production chain:
Each sector performs a distinct function in moving goods or services from the beginning to the end:
Primary → Start of the production chain
Secondary → Middle of the production chain
Tertiary → End of the production chain (distribution, transport, selling, etc.)
3. How are the three sectors interconnected?
Answer.
The three sectors depend on each other and work like links in a chain.
Example: Milk (AMUL Dairy Cooperative):
Primary Sector:
- Farmers get milk from cows.
Secondary Sector:
- Factories turn milk into butter, cheese, ghee, and milk powder.
Tertiary Sector:
- Trucks transport the milk products to shops; banks, communication, and marketing help in selling.
All three must work together for milk to reach our homes. If one sector stops, the others cannot function properly.
Questions, activities, and projects
1. What is the primary sector? How is it different from the secondary sector? Give two examples.
Answer.
The primary sector includes those economic activities that involve using natural resources directly from nature.
It is completely dependent on nature, like soil, water, forests, and minerals.
Examples of primary sector activities are:
- Farming (growing wheat, rice)
- Fishing (catching fish from rivers/sea)
Difference between the primary sector and the secondary sector-
1. Dependency:
Economic Activities of the Primary Sector are highly dependent on Mother Nature, whereas Secondary activities are dependent on raw materials from the Primary Sector.
2. Raw material:
The primary sector collects raw materials from nature, whereas the Secondary sector converts raw materials into finished or semi-finished products.
2. Example:
a) Cutting trees for wood is an activity of the primary sector, whereas making furniture from wood is an example of a secondary activity.
b) Sugarcane farming is an example of the primary sector, whereas producing sugar from sugarcane.
2. How does the secondary sector depend on the tertiary sector? Illustrate with a few examples.
Answer.
The secondary sector processes the raw materials that are received from the primary sector and converts them it finished goods.
The secondary sector cannot function smoothly without the services provided by the tertiary sector. Reasons for the same are listed below:
1. Transportation Services:
Transportation is one kind of service that is related to the tertiary sector, which is key to the factories' running.
Factories need transport to:
Bring raw materials (like cotton, wood, minerals).
Send finished goods (like cloth, paper, steel) to markets.
Therefore, transportation services ( tertiary sector) are key for the sectoral sector( factories).
2. Banking Services:
Banking services are one kind of tertiary sector.
Industries need:
Loans for buying machines
Insurance for the factory
Payment systems
3. Communication Services:
Communication Services are one kind of tertiary sector. The secondary sector needed them to connect to the different vendors/suppliers, customers, or even communicate with the different machines.
For example,
A toy factory uses emails and courier services to contact suppliers and distributors.
The secondary sector depends on the tertiary sector for transport, banking, power, communication, and marketing, making it impossible to function without these services.
3. Give an example of interdependence between primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Show it using a flow diagram.
Answer.
Primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors are interdependent on each other and complete the supply chain to the economy.
For example, let us take the example of the Paper industry:
The following sector-wise economic activities are involved in the paper industry-
a) Primary Sector-
Primary sector activities are-
- Trees are cut from forests.
- Wood is taken to extract pulp.
b) Secondary Sector-
Secondary sector activities are-
- Pulp is processed in a paper factory.
- Paper is turned into notebooks and books.
c) Tertiary Sector-
Tertiary sector activities are -
- Transport trucks carry wood to the factory and books to markets.
- Banks give loans to the factory.
- Shops sell books to students.
- Electricity suppliers power the machines.
Flow Diagram Showing Interdependence
PRIMARY SECTOR
(Cutting wood from trees)
│
▼
SECONDARY SECTOR
(Making paper & printing books)
│
▼
TERTIARY SECTOR
(Transport, banking, electricity,
shops selling books)
Chapter-Wise Solutions of Class 6 Social Science
- Chapter 1 | Locating Places on Earth
- Chapter 2 | Oceans and Continents
- Chapter 3 | Landforms and Life
- Chapter 4 | Timeline and Sources of History
- Chapter 5 | India, That Is Bharat
- Chapter 6 | The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation
- Chapter 7 | India’s Cultural Roots
- Chapter 8 | Unity in Diversity, or ‘Many in the One’
- Chapter 9 | Family and Community
- Chapter 10 | Grassroots Democracy – Part 1 Governance
- Chapter 11 | Grassroots Democracy – Part 2 Local Government in Rural Areas
- Chapter 12 | Grassroots Democracy – Part 3 Local Government in Urban Areas
- Chapter 13 | The Value of Work
- Chapter 14 | Economic Activities Around Us
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