Class 12 Geography Notes Chapter 21 : NCERT CBSE RBSE and Other State Board Solutions for Class 12 Geography Notes for Chapter 21 International Trade Notes questions answers MCQs Download PDF
Class 12 Geography Notes Chapter 21 International Trade
Changing Patterns of the Composition of India’s Exports
- During recent years, a change has been recorded in the composition of commodities in India’s international trade. There is a decline in the share of agriculture and allied products whereas shares of petroleum and crude products and other commodities have increased. The share of petroleum products has increased mainly because of the rise in petroleum prices and increase in the petroleum refining capacity of India.
- A huge decline is registered in the export of traditional items like, coffee, spices, tea, pulses, etc due to the tough international competition. Though an increase has been registered in floricultural products, fresh fruits, marine products and sugar, etc. But manufacturing sector alone accounted for 68% of India’s total value of export in 2010-11.
- The major competitors of India are China and other East Asian countries. Apart from this, the gems and jewellery are other commodities that have larger share in India’s international trade.
Changing Patterns of the Composition of India’s Import
- During 1950s and 1960s, India faced serious food shortage, thus the country had to import food grain, capital goods, machinery and equipments at large scale.
- The balance of payment was adverse as imports were more than export inspite of all the efforts of imports substitution.
- After 1970s, the success of green revolution discontinued the food grain import. But the energy crises of 1973 replaced the import of food grains by fertilizers and petroleum as the prices of petroleum had been raised.
- Besides, other imported goods were machine and equipment, special steel, edible oil and chemicals.
- According to economic Survey 2011-12, petroleum products have registered a rapid increase in import goods.
- It is a raw material for petrochemical industries and also used as fuel. The increase signifies the tempo of rising industrialisation and improvement in standard of living.
- Periodic price rise of petroleum in the international market may be another reason for this increase.
- Import of capital goods like non-electrical machinery, transport equipment, manufactures of metals and machine tools registered a steady increase. This increase could be because of increasing demand in the export oriented industrial and domestic sectors.
- Import of food and allied products registered a decrease because of a sudden decline in imports of edible oils.
- Pearls and semi-precious stones, gold and silver, metalliferrous ores and metal scrap, non-ferrous metals, electronic goods, etc are other important items of India’s import.
Direction of Trade
- India is a trading partner with most of the countries and major trading blocks of the world.
- India has goal to double its share in international trade within the next 5 years. To achieve this objective, India has started to adopt suitable measures which includes import liberalisation, reduction in import duties, de-licensing and change from process to product patents.
- India has created an example in terms of percentage of Asia and ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations) in total trade of world has increased. It was 33.3% in 2000-01 and it increased to 57.3% in the 2011-12 . In contrast to this, the share of Europe and America decreased from 42.5% to 30.8%. This has helped India to survive during the global crisis in Europe and America.
- With the development of India’s trade direction, India’s trading share with different countries also changed. During 2003 -04, USA was India’s largest trading partner. Now UAE has displaced USA as it was India’s largest trading partner during 2010-11.
- After UAE, China is the second largest trading partner with India continuing this position from 2008-09 to 2010-11. USA has sliped to third position.
- India’s foreign trade is mainly carried through oceanic and air routes. Foreign trade via land route is only limited to the neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Sea ports as Gateways of International Trade
- India has a long history of international trade via sea ports as it has long coastline and is opened to sea from three sides. Water provides smooth surface and cheap transport without any hinderance.
- India has developed many ports on its coast. These ports are named with suffix ‘pattan’ meaning port. It is interesting to know that India has more sea ports on West coast than its East coast.
- After coming of the European traders and colonisation of the country by the British, the Indian ports have emerged as gateways of international trade.
- There are some parts which have very vast area of influence and some have limited area of influence.
Major and Minor ports
- At present, India has 12 major and 185 minor or intermediate ports. For major ports, central Government is responsible for deciding the policies and regulate their functions and for minor ports, State Government is responsible for the same functions stated above.
- A larger port of total traffic is handled by major ports, e.g. about 71% of the India’s oceanic traffic was handled by the the 12 major ports during 2008-09.
- The Britishers used these ports to export natural resources of India; particularly from their hinterland but this trend was discontinued after 1947.
- The India lost its two very important ports i.e. Karachi port to Pakistan and Chittagong port to Bangladesh (erstwhile East-Pakistan). But India recovered successfully from this loss by opening many new ports, for instance, Kandla in the West and the Diamond harbour near Kolkata on river Hugli in the East.
- Today, large volumes of domestic and international trade are handled by these Indian ports. Most of the ports are equipped with modem infrastructure.
- Previously, it was expected that government agencies are responsible for the development and modernisation of Indian ports. But it was considered that there is a need to increase the functions and bring these ports at par with the international ports. Thus, private entrepreneurs have been invited for the modernisation of ports in the country.
- The cargo handling capacity of Indian ports increased from 20 million tonnes in 1951 to more than 600tnillion tonnes at present.
Important Ports
Some of the Indian ports along with their hinterlands are as follows:
Kandla Port
- This port is situated at the head of Gulf of Kuchchh. The main objectives of this major port are to serve the needs of Western and North-Western ports of the country and also to reduce the pressure at Mumbai port.
- This port is mainly designed to receive large quantities of petroleum and petroleum products and fertilizers.
- To reduce the pressure at Kandla port, an offshore terminal named Vadinar has also been developed.
- Due to confusion in demarcation of the boundary, hinterland of one port may overlap with that of the other.
Mumbai Port
- This is a natural harbour and the biggest port of India.
- The location of this port is 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.
- This port is extended over a large area with the length of 20 km and width of 6-10 km with 54 berths and has the country’s largest oil terminal.
- The main hinterlands of this port are Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Rajasthan.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port
- This satellite port is located at Nhava Sheva. It was developed to relieve the pressure at the Mumbai port.
- It is the largest container port in India.
Marmagao Port
- It is located at the entrance of the Zuari estuary which 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 extended its hinterland, e.g. Karnataka, Goa, Southern Maharashtra constitute its hinterland.
New Mongalore Port
- It is mainly used to export iron-ore and iron concentrates, and other commodities like fertilizers, petroleum products, edible oils, coffee, tea, wood pulp, yam, granite stone, molasses, etc.
- It is located in Karnataka which is its major hinterland.
Kochchi Port
- This port is popularly known as ‘Queen of the Arabian sea’.
- It is a natural harbour and situated at the head of Vembanad Koyal.
- Kochchi port is located close to the Suez-Colombo route.
- It serves the needs of Kerala, Southem-Kamataka, and South-Western Tamil Nadu.
Kolkata Port
- It is located on the Hugli river 128 km inland from the Bay of Bengal. This port was developed by the British as it was once 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 Vishakhapatnam, Paradwip and satellite port, Haldia.
- It is also facing the problem of silt accumulation in the Hugli river, which hinders the link to the sea.
- Its hinterland covers Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim and the North-Eastern states. - It also provides port facilities to our neighbouring land-locked countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.
Haldia Port
- It 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 fertilizers, jute, jute products, cotton, and cotton yarn, etc.
Paradwip Port
- The port is located in the Mahanadi delta and it is about 100 km far from Cuttack.
- It has advantage of having the deepest harbour, thus it is best suited to handle very large vessels.
- It mainly handles large scale export of iron-ore.
- Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand constitute its hinterland.
Vishakhapatnam Port
- It is a land locked harbour situated in Andhra Pradesh.
- It is connected to the sea by a channel which is cut through solid rock and sand.
- To handle various commodities like iron-ore, petroleum and general cargo an outer harbour has been developed.
- Andhra Pradesh is the main hinterland for this port.
Chennai Port
- The artificial harbour of Chennai is one of the oldest ports on the eastern coast.
It was built in 1859. - Because of the shallow water near the coast, it is not suitable for large ships.
- Tamil Nadu and Puducherry constitute its hinterland.
Ennore Port
- This newly developed port, is situated 25 km north of Chennai.
- It was developed to minimise the pressure at Chennai port.
Tuticorin Port
- It is another port which was developed to relieve the pressure of Chennai port.
- This port handles a number of commodities like coal, salt, food grains, edible oils, sugar, chemicals and petroleum products.
Airports
Air transport plays a significant role in the international trade of a nation.
The advantages are follows:
- Air transport is very useful for handling high value or perishable goods over long distance.
- It takes less time to transport cargo.
The disadvantages are as follows:
- Air transportation is very costly.
- It is not suitable for the transportation of heavy and bulky commodities.
Thus, having these disadvantages air transport is not/less preferred for international trade as compared to oceanic routes. At present, there are 12 international airports. They are; Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengalura, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochchi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. Apart from these, there are 112 domestic airports in India.
NCERT Solution for Class 12 Geography Notes chapter wise
Class 12 Geography Notes : Fundamentals of Human Geography
Class 12 Geography Notes: India – People and Economy
Class 12 Geography Notes Chapter 21 International Trade TEXTUAL QUESTION & ANSWER
Q.1. Which one of the following is a landlocked harbor?
(a) Mumbai
(b) Visakhapatnam
(c) Error
(d) Haldia
Ans :- (b) Vishakhapattnam
Q.2. Trade between two countries is termed as
(a) Internal trade
(b) International trade
(c) External trade
(d) Local trade
Ans :- (b) International trade
Q.3. Most of India’s foreign trade is carried through
(a) Land and air
(b) Land and sea
(c) Sea and air
(d) Sea
Ans :- (d) Sea
Q.4. Which one of the following is India’s largest trading partner(2004-2005)
(a) U. K.
(b) U.S.A.
(c) China
(d) Germany
Ans :- (b) U.S.A.
VERY SHORT TYPE QUESTION & ANSWER
Q.5. Mention the characteristics of India’s foreign trade.
Ans :- The noted characteristics of India’s foreign trade are – India’s foreign trade increase in total volume of imports and exports.
(ii) India imports more items than its exports.
(iii) Due to the rise in prices of crude petroleum in the international market. India’s trade deficit increases which is another characteristic of India’s foreign trade.
Q.6. Explain the meaning of hinterland.
Ans :- The area of a port from where the export items moves to the particular port. The area of that particular port is known as the hinterland Example : The cotton growing areas of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. All these regions are supplied cotton to Mumbai port.
Q.7. Name the ports of India located on the east coast.
Ans :- The ports of India which are located on the east coast are –
(a) Tuticorin
(b) Chennai
(c) Ennore
(d) Visakhapatnam
(e) Paradip
(f) Haldia
(g) Kolkata.
Q.8. Distinguish between port and harbor.
Ans : Port :
(i) Port is a place where there are all facilities like landing boarding, loading and unloading of the ships is known as port. Example – Mumbai,
(ii) Ports are termed as the gateways of trade.
Harbour :
(i) Harbour is a shallow sea region along the coast and port where ships are anchored for landing boarding, loading and unloading is
known as harbour. Example – Mumbai harbour.
(ii) Harbours are not called as the gateways of trade.
Q.9. Give the names of important items which India imports from different countries.
Ans :- The following table shows the important items which India imports from different countries.
| Commodities | 2004-05 |
| Fertilisers | 5,53 |
| Edible oil | 10.75 |
| Pulp and waste paper | 2.12 |
| Paper board and manufactures | 3,04 |
| Newsprint | 1,70 |
| Non-ferrous metals | 5,63 |
| Metalliferous ores and metal scrap | 10.65 |
| Iron and steel | 11.67 |
| Petroleum crude and products | 42,34 |
| Machinery | 48,12 |
| Pulses | 12,58 |
| Coal, Coke and briquettes | 2.03 |
| Non-metallic minerals manufactures | 23,97 |
| Medicinal and Pharma products | 6,27 |
| Chemical products | 2,46 |
| Other textile yam, fabrics, etc | 3,98 |
| Professional instruments, etc. | 43,75 |
| Gold and silver | 48,63 |
| Pearls,precious and semi precious stones | 1,34,09 |
Q.10. What do you understand about the Unfavourable Balance of Trade?
Ans :- Balance of trade, or net exports as it is sometimes called, is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports of an economy over a certain period of time measured in the currency of that economy. It is the relationship between a nation’s imports and exports. A positive balance is known as a trade surplus if it consists of exporting more than is imported; a negative balance is referred to as a trade deficit or, informally, a trade gap. The balance of trade is sometimes divided into a goods and a services balance.
Q.11. Give two major parts of East Coast of India
Ans :- Samse as Q.No.264
SHORT TYPE QUESTION & ANSWER : (MARKS – 3)
Q.12. Give a note on the changing pattern of India’s import.
Ans :- Changing Pattern of the Composition of India’s Import :
(i) India faced a serious food shortage during the 1950s and 1960s.
(ii) Major items of import at that time were foodgrain, capital goods, machinery and equipment.
(iii) Balance of payment was adverse as imports were more than export despite our best efforts of important substitution.
(iv) After the 1970s food grain import stopped due to the success of the green revolution but the energy crisis of 1973 pushed the prices of petroleum, and the import budget was also pushed up.
(v) Foodgrain import was replaced by fertilisers and petroleum.
(vi) Machine and equipment, special steel, edible oil and chemicals largely make the import basket.
India Composition of Import 1997-2004
| Commodities | 1997-98 | 2000-01 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 |
| Petroleum crude and product | 19.68 | 31.32 | 26.32 | 29.6 | 32.1 |
| Capital goods | 19.18 | 11:48 | 13.99 | 13.0 | 15.8 |
| Chemical and related products | 11.33 | 7.71 | 7.99 | 6.2 | 7.4 |
| Textile yarn and fabrics | 0.99 | 1.19 | 1.61 | 1.61 | 1.75 |
| Food and related items | 4.04 | 3.37 | 4.36 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Pearls and semi-precious stones | 8.06 | 9.62 | 9.12 | 8.4 | 6.1 |
| Gold and Silver | 7.64 | 9.28 | 8.77 | 10.0 | 7.6 |
| others | 29.08 | 25.53 | 27.84 | 27.69 | 24.84 |
Q.13. Discuss briefly the changing nature of India’s International Trade.
Aus :- The nature of India’s international trade has changed over the years. Though there has been an increase in the total volume of import and export the value of import and continued to be higher than that of exports. There is also an increase in trade deficit over the last several years. This increase in deficit is attributed to the price rise of crude petroleum which forms a major component of India’s import items.
| Year | Exports | Imports | Total Trade | Trade Deficit |
| 1994-95 | 826.740 | 899,710 | 1,72,6450 | -72,970 |
| 2000-01 | 2,03,5710 | 2,30,8730 | 4,34.4440 | -273,020 |
| 2004-05 (P) | 3,56,0890 | 4,81.0640 | 8,37,1330 | -1,24,9950 |
India faced a serious food shortage during the 1950s and 1960s. The major item of import at that time was foodgrain, capital goods, machinery and equipment. After the 1970s, foodgrain import was discontinued due to the success of the green revolution but the energy crisis of 1973 pushed the prices of petroleum and the import budget was also pushed up. Machines and equipment, special steel, edible oil and chemicals make the import items.
The following table shows the India’s composition of import items during 1997-2004
| Controodities | 1997-98 | 2000-01 | 2003-04 |
| Petroleum crude and products | 19.68 | 31.32 | 26.32 |
| Capital goods | 19.18 | 11,48 | 13.99 |
| Chemical and related products | 11.33 | 7.71 | 7.99 |
| Textile yarn and fabrics | 0.99 | 1.19 | 1.61 |
| Food and related items | 4.04 | 3.37 | 4.36 |
| Pearls and semi-precious stones | 8.06 | 9.62 | 9.12 |
| Gold and Silver | 7.64 | 9.28 | 8.77 |
| Others | 29.08 | 25.53 | 27.84 |
Q.14. Write a note on the airports of India.
Ans :- Air transport plays an important role in the international trade. It has the advantage of taking the least time for carriage and handling high value or perishable goods over long distances It is very costly and unsuitable for carrying heavy and bulky commodities. This ultimately reduces the participation of this sector in the international trade as compared to the oceanic routes.
At present, there are 13 international airports and 112 domestic airports functioning in the country. They are – Ahmedabad. Amritsar, Bangalore Chennai, Delhi, Goad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochchi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.
You have already studied about air transport in the previous chapter. You consult the chapter on transport to find out the main features of ais transport in India.
Q.15. What is the contribution of India in World Trade?
Ans :- international trade has undergone a sea change in recent years in terms of volume, composition as well as direction. Although India’s contribution in world trade is as low as one percent of the total volume, yet it plays a significant role in the world economy.
In 1950-51, India’s external trade was worth Rs. 1,2140 million, which rose to Rs. 8,37.1330 million in 2004-05. 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.
Though there has been an increase in the total volume of import and export, the value of import continued to be higher than that of exports. There has also been an increase in trade deficit over the last couple of years. This increase in deficit is attributed to the price rise of crude petroleum which forms a major component of India’s import list.
Q.16. Describe the changing Pattern of India’s International Trade.
Ans :- The nature of India’s international trade has changed over the years. Though there has been an increase in the total volume of import and export the value of import and continued to be higher than that of exports. There is also an increase in trade deficit over the last several years. This increase in deficit is attributed to the price rise of crude petroleum which forms a major component of India’s import items.
