Class 12th International Trade BOOK 2

Class 12th - Geography - International Trade - Full Chapter Explanation
Introduction
International Trade Meaning and Need
International Trade is mutually beneficial as no

country is self-sufficient
India and International Trade
● Although India’s contribution in the world trade is as low as one per cent of the total volume, yet it plays
a significant role in the world economy.
● In 1950-51, India’s external trade was worth Rs.1,214 crore, which rose to Rs. 44,29,762 crore in 2016-17.
Reason
There are numerous reasons for this sharp rise in overseas trade, such as the momentum picked up by the
manufacturing sectors, the liberal policies of the government and the diversification of markets.
Introduction
The nature of India’s foreign trade has changed over the years.
Import Export
Though there has been an increase in the total volume of import and
Explain
export, the value of import continued to be higher than that of exports.
Introduction
What we are going to study in this chapter?
● Changing pattern of the composition of India’s exports.

● Changing pattern of the composition of India’s import.
● Direction of Trade.
● Sea port as gateways of International Trade.
● Airports.
Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’s Exports
Exports are goods and services that are produced in one country and
Export
sold to buyers in another.
● The composition of commodities in India’s international trade has been undergoing a change
over the years.
● The share of agriculture and allied products has declined, whereas, shares of petroleum and
crude products and other commodities have increased.
● The shares of ore minerals and manufactured goods have largely remained constant over the
years from 2009-10 to 2010-11and 2015-16 to 2016-17.
Reason
● The decline in traditional items ( like coffee, Cashew etc) is largely due to the tough
international competition.
● Though an increase has been registered in floricultural products, fresh fruits, marine
products and sugar, etc.
Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’s Exports
● Manufacturing sector alone accounted for 73.6 per cent of India’s

total value of export in 2016-17.
● Engineering goods have shown a significant growth in the export.
● China and other East Asian countries are our major competitors.
● Gems and jewellery contributes a larger share of India’s foreign trade.
Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’s Imports
Import An import is a good or service bought in one country that was produced in another.
● India faced serious food shortage during the 1950s and 1960s.
● The major item of import at that time was foodgrain, capital goods, machinery, and equipment.
● The balance of payment was adverse as imports were more than export in spite of all the efforts
of import substitution.
● After 1970s, foodgrain import was discontinued due to the success of Green revolution but the
energy crisis of 1973 pushed the prices of petroleum, and import budget was also pushed up.
Impact
● Foodgrain import was replaced by fertilisers and petroleum.

● Machine and equipment, special steel, edible oil and chemicals largely make the import basket.
Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’s Imports
Analysis of Imports
● There is a steep rise in the import of petroleum products.
● It is used not only as a fuel but also as an industrial raw material.
● It indicates the tempo of rising industrialisation and standard of living.
● Sporadic price rise in the international market is another reason for the same.
● Import of capital goods maintained a steady increase due to rising demand in
the export-oriented industrial and domestic sectors.
Non-electrical machinery, transport equipment, manufacturers of metals and machine tools.

● Import of food and allied products declined with a fall in imports of edible oils.
● Other major items of India’s import include pearls and semi-precious stones, gold and silver,
metalliferous ores and metal scrap, non-ferrous metals, electronic goods, etc
Direction of Trade
India has trade relations with most of the countries and major trading blocks of the world.
Region-wise and sub-region-wise trade during the period 2016-17.
● Most of India’s foreign trade is carried through sea and air routes.
● However, a small portion is also carried through land route to
neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
Direction of Trade
India’s objective
● India aims to double its share in the international trade within the next five years.
● It has already started adopting suitable measures such as import liberalisation, reduction
in import duties, delicensing and change from process to product patents.
Sea ports as Gateways of International Trade
India and Sea Transport
● Surrounded by sea from three sides

● A long coastline.
● Water provides a smooth surface for very cheap transport
provided there is no turbulence.
● Long tradition of sea faring and developed many ports with
place name suffixed with pattan meaning port.
● In India is that its west coast has more ports than its east coast.
Why?
Ports as a gate ways of International Trade
● Ports have been in use since ancient times.

● The emergence of ports as gateways of international
trade became important after the coming of the
European traders and colonisation of the country by
the British.
● At present, India has 12 major ports and 200 minor or
intermediate ports.
● In case of the major ports, the central government
decides the policy and plays regulatory functions.
● The minor ports are there whose policy and functions
are regulated by state governments.
● The major ports handle larger share of the total traffic.
The British used the ports as suction points of the resources from their hinterlands.
The extension of railways towards the interior facilitated the linking of the local markets to regional
markets, regional markets to national markets and national markets to the international markets.
Snatched away two very important ports, i.e., Karachi port

Independence Partition went to Pakistan and Chittagong port to the erstwhile
east-Pakistan and now Bangladesh.
To compensate the losses, many new ports, like the

Kandla in the west and the Diamond Harbour near Kolkata
on river Hugli in the east were developed.
Indian Ports and their Success
● Indian ports are handling large volumes of

domestic, as well as, overseas trade.
● Most of the ports are equipped with modern
infrastructure.
● Previously, the development and modernisation
was the responsibility of the government agencies,
but considering the increase in function and need to
bring these ports at par with the international
ports, private entrepreneurs have been invited for
the modernisation of ports in India.
● The capacity of Indian ports increased from 20
million tonnes of cargo handling in 1951 to more
than 837 million tonnes in 2016.
Some of the Indian ports along with their hinterlands are as follows:
Kandla Port
● Situated at the head of Gulf of Kuchchh has been
developed as a major port to cater to the needs of
western and north western parts of the country and also
to reduce the pressure at Mumbai port.
● The port is specially designed to receive large quantities
of petroleum and petroleum products and fertiliser.
● The offshore terminal at Vadinar has been developed to
reduce the pressure at Kandla port.
Note : Demarcation of the boundary of the hinterland would

be difficult as it is not fixed over space. In most of the cases,
hinterland of one port may overlap with that of the other.
Mumbai Port
● Mumbai is a natural harbour and the biggest port of the
country.
● The port is situated closer to the general routes from the
countries of Middle East, Mediterranean countries, North
Africa, North America and Europe where the major share of
country’s overseas trade is carried out.
● The port is 20 km long and 6-10 km wide with 54 berths and
has the country’s largest oil terminal.
● M.P., Maharashtra, Gujarat, U.P. and parts of Rajasthan
constitute the main hinterlands of Mumbai ports.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port

● Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva was developed as
a satellite port to relieve the pressure at the Mumbai
port.
● It is the largest container port in India.
Marmagao Port
● Situated at the entrance of the Zuari estuary, is a
natural harbour in Goa.
● It gained significance after its remodelling in
1961 to handle iron-ore exports to Japan.
● Construction of Konkan railway has considerably
extended the hinterland of this port.
● Karnataka, Goa, Southern Maharashtra
constitute its hinterland.
New Mangalore Port

● New Mangalore Port is located in the state of Karnataka
and caters to the needs of the export of iron-ore and
iron-concentrates.
● It also handles fertilisers, petroleum products, edible oils,
coffee, tea, wood pulp, yarn, granite stone, molasses, etc.
Karnataka is the major hinterland for this port.
Kochchi Port
● Kochchi Port, situated at the head of Vembanad Kayal,
popularly known as the ‘Queen of the Arabian Sea’, is also
a natural harbour.
● This port has an advantageous location being close to the
Suez-Colombo route. It caters to the needs of Kerala,
southern Karnataka and south-western Tamil Nadu.
Kolkata Port
● Kolkata Port is located on the Hugli river, 128 km inland from the
Bay of Bengal.
● Like the Mumbai port, this port was also developed by the British.
● Kolkata had the initial advantage of being the capital of British India.
● The port has lost its significance considerably on account of the
diversion of exports to the other ports such as Visakhapatnam,
Paradwip and its satellite port, Haldia.
● Kolkata port is also confronted with the problem of silt
accumulation in the Hugli river which provides a link to the sea.
● Its hinterland covers U.P., Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim and
the north-eastern states.
● Apart from this, it also extends ports facilities to our neighbouring
land-locked countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.
Haldia Port
● Haldia Port is located 105 km downstream from Kolkata.
● It has been constructed to reduce the congestion at
Kolkata port.
● It handles bulk cargo like iron ore, coal, petroleum,
petroleum products and fertilisers, jute, jute products,
cotton and cotton yarn, etc.
Paradwip Port
● Paradwip Port is situated in the Mahanadi delta, about 100
km from Cuttack.
● It has the deepest harbour specially suited to handle very
large vessels. It has been developed mainly to handle
large-scale export of iron-ore.
● Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the parts of its
hinterland.
Visakhapatnam Port
● Visakhapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh is a land-locked
harbour, connected to the sea by a channel cut through
solid rock and sand.
● An outer harbour has been developed for handling
iron-ore, petroleum and general cargo.
● Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the main hinterland
for this port.
Chennai Port
● Chennai Port is one of the oldest ports on the eastern
coast. It is an artificial harbour built in 1859.
● It is not much suitable for large ships because of the
shallow waters near the coast. Tamil Nadu and
Puducherry are its hinterland.
● Ennore, a newly developed port in Tamil Nadu, has been
constructed 25 km north of Chennai to relieve the
pressure at Chennai port.
Tuticorin Port
● Tuticorin Port was also developed to relieve the pressure
of Chennai port.
● It deals with a variety of cargo, including coal, salt, food
grains, edible oils, sugar, chemicals and petroleum
products.
Airports
Air transport plays an important role in the international trade.
Positive Negative
It has the advantage of taking the least It is very costly and unsuitable for carrying
time for carriage and handling high value heavy and bulky commodities.
or perishable goods over long distances.
This ultimately reduces the participation of this sector in the

international trade as compared to the oceanic routes.
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad,

There were 25 major airports Kolkata, umbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Srinagar, Jaipur, Calicut, Nagpur,
functioning in the country. Coimbatore, Cochin, Lucknow, Pune, Chandigarh, Mangaluru,
Vishakhapatnam, Indore, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Kannur.
Airports
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Class 12th - Geography - International Trade - Full Chapter Explanation

International Trade is mutually beneficial as no

What we are going to study in this chapter?

● Changing pattern of the composition of India’s exports.

● Manufacturing sector alone accounted for 73.6 per cent of India’s

● Foodgrain import was replaced by fertilisers and petroleum.

Non-electrical machinery, transport equipment, manufacturers of metals and machine tools.

Region-wise and sub-region-wise trade during the period 2016-17.

India and Sea Transport

● Surrounded by sea from three sides

Ports as a gate ways of International Trade

● Ports have been in use since ancient times.

Snatched away two very important ports, i.e., Karachi port

To compensate the losses, many new ports, like the

Indian Ports and their Success

● Indian ports are handling large volumes of

Note : Demarcation of the boundary of the hinterland would

Jawaharlal Nehru Port

New Mangalore Port

This ultimately reduces the participation of this sector in the

Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad,

Digraj Singh Rajput

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