Resources And Economic Activities

According to the stage of evolution, economic activities are grouped into five main types.

Explanation – The main types under the stage of evolution are – Primary activities, Secondary activities, Tertiary activities, Quarternary activities, and Quinary activities.

In the primary activity, people are directly involved with the resources of nature.

Explanation – Being directly involved with the resources of nature, these activities include food gathering, hunting animals, minerals (mining), fishing, etc.

Processing and converting raw materials into a finished form is called secondary activity.

Explanation – In the secondary activities, humans increase the value of resources by converting raw materials into a finished product. Examples include – production of sugar from sugarcane and iron and steel from its raw materials etc.

The workers involved in tertiary activities are called Pink collar workers.

Explanation – Tertiary activities include transport, trade, and communication. These activities are related to the promotion of secondary activities. Examples include – bankers, specialized persons in particular fields, etc.

In developing countries, primary and secondary activities are more prevalent than the tertiary and quinary activities.

Explanation – Developing countries (low income or middle-income countries) are those who have a relatively less developed economic and industrial base. The phrase ‘developing’ describes the current scenario of a particular country and not the future direction of progress.

Lumbering refers to the trade of cutting, processing and transporting timber. It is a primary activity because in that process we are directly using natural resources.

Quarternary sector comprises of professionals in education, legal aid, medicine, entertainment, etc. People working in these fields are highly qualified.

Tertiary activities include transport, trade, and communication. These activities are related to the promotion of secondary activities. Examples – shipment and logistics companies

Quinary sector comprises of services rendered by decision makers and policy makers – both in private and public sector.

Quinary sector comprises of services rendered by decision makers and policy makers – both in private and public sector. They are advisers or consultants.

1. Blue collar workers- humans working in secondary activities are called blue collar workers they work to process primary resources by processing and converting them to finished products.

2. Entertainment- it is a quaternary activity here service rendered by highly qualified professionals in the field of law, education, medicine, etc.

3. Trade- trade, transport, and communication comes under tertiary activities. Here manpower works to add value to finished or manufactured products.

4. Primary- in the first stage humans used natural resources directly. Primary activities are as follows- fishing, agriculture, mining, etc.

5. Labour- we can divide labour into two part on the basis of skill. Un-Skilled labour does basic work in industrial process where is skilled labour take part in high quality and an important job like programming a software.

Primary activities are those activities in which human beings are involved directly with the resources of nature. Being the first stage of activity, it includes food gathering, hunting animals, fishing, grazing, extracting minerals, lumbering and cultivation land.

The people involved in the primary sector are called red-collar workers.

Tertiary activities include trade, transport, and communication. These activities are designed in a manner whereby they promote the activities of the secondary sector.

This sector involves people with specialized skills in particular fields such as bankers, technicians, etc. and the people involved are called pink-collar workers.

Quinary activities comprise of people who are decision makers and policy makers at the highest level. The decision-making activity of advisors, consultants in both the private and public sector fall in this category.

Popular in metropolitan cities, the workers belonging to this sector are called gold-collar workers.

Following are the different types of economic activities practiced by man:

1. Primary activities - Primary activities are those activities in which human beings are involved directly with the resources of nature. Being the first stage of activity, it includes food gathering, hunting animals, fishing, grazing, extracting minerals, lumbering and cultivation land. The people involved in the primary sector are called red-collar workers.

2. Secondary activities – Secondary activities include those activities through which humans are able to increase the value of resources by processing and converting raw materials into a valuable product.
Examples include – production of sugar from sugarcane, iron, and steel from its raw materials, etc. Raw materials combined with other inputs such as technology, labour, capital among others are combined together. The workers belonging to this sector are called blue-collar workers.

3. Tertiary activities - Tertiary activities include trade, transport, and communication. These activities are designed in a manner whereby they promote the activities of the secondary sector. This sector involves people with specialized skills in particular fields such as bankers, technicians, etc. and the people involved are called pink-collar workers.

4. Quarternary activities – Quarternary sector comprises of professionals rendering services in education, legal aid, medicine, entertainment, management, recreation, research, and development. Generally concentrated in urban areas, the workers belonging to this sector are called white-collar workers.

5. Quinary activities - Quinary activities comprises of people who are decision makers and policy makers at the highest level. The decision-making activity of advisors, consultants in both the private and public sector fall in this category. Popular in metropolitan cities, the workers belonging to this sector are called gold-collar workers.

a. PINK COLLAR- workers involved in tertiary activities are pink collar workers. Tertiary activities are a trade, transport, and commerce.

b. LABOUR - skilled labourers are those who work in the technical field or in other professions jobs. Unskilled workers do basic work like transportation.

c. JUDGES- people take part in quinary activities are gold collar workers. Judges are gold collar workers.

d. AGRICULTURE- red collar activities are primary activities such as agriculture, fishing, mining, etc. Here people use natural resources directly.

a) Tertiary

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b. Secondary

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c. Quinary

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Tertiary – bank, people working in a bank

Secondary – Transport service companies, people loading goods for transportation

Quinary – a panel of consultants discussing work

2. Industry refers to a large processing unit for a particular commodity (s). It not only involves processing of raw materials but further involves in manufacturing, packaging and transporting material.

Students can pick any 1 industry and do a detailed study of the activities taking place there. Thereafter, a proper table describing these activities can be prepared.

The reasons for this trend are as below:

•Income factor giving rise to high paying jobs – In developed regions, people are more educated and skilled which gives rise to the demand for high paying jobs

•Underdevelopment in the developing countries – this results in a delay in the introduction of technology to the systems, and hence more people are engaged in the primary activities.

•Levels of poverty – poverty leads to illiteracy which in turn is related to skill. This vicious cycle becomes difficult to break.

•Social factors – lack of equal opportunity for all

•Education and literacy rates

Developed countries of the world:

•U.S.A

•France

•United Kingdom

•Canada

•Germany

•Denmark

•New Zealand

•Switzerland

•Netherlands

•Singapore

•Japan

•Australia