CLASS 6 || CHAPTER - Economic Activities Around Us || NEW NCERT || CBSE Exploring || SOCIAL SCIENCE

Economic Activities
Around Us
The root of prosperity is economic activity, the lack of it
brings material distress. The absence of fruitful economic
activity endangers both current prosperity and future growth.
— Kauṭilya’s Arthaśhāstra
Introduction
In Chapter 13, we learnt about two types of activities –
economic and non- economic. Activities that create monetary
value are called economic activities. We also learnt about
the importance of non-economic activities. To understand
these activities better we will learn how economic activities
are classified and what differentiates them in this chapter.
1. How are economic activities
classified?
2. What differentiates these
activities to be grouped into
sectors?
3. How are the three sectors
interconnected?
The Big
Questions

196Exploring Society: India and Beyond Economic Life Around Us
Over the decades, the number of economic activities has
increased tremendously. For example, earlier most people
were involved in activities such as agriculture, livestock
rearing, production of tools, pottery and weaving cloth.
As societies progressed, the number of economic activities
through which people earn their livelihoods increased
vastly.
Today, there are diverse economic activities such as
manufacturing computers, mobile phones and drones;
working in banks, schools and hotels; driving various types
of vehicles for transportation; making furniture; tailoring
clothes using machines; creating software; repairing
refrigerators and washing machines; etc. Classifying all
these activities helps us to understand how they function
and the links they have with each other.
The Classification of Economic Activities
into Economic Sectors
Some economic activities share similar characteristics and
based on this, they can be grouped together or classified
into broader groups called economic sectors. The three
main types of economic sectors are primary, secondary and
tertiary economic sectors.
The illustration on the facing page maps out the broad
activities under these categories.
A. Primary activities
Those economic activities in which people are directly
dependent on nature to produce go