Economic Activities Around Us 6 Soial science Chapter 14 CBSE Notes 2025-26

Economic activities are all around us, shaping the way people earn their livelihood and contribute to the nation’s prosperity. These activities are broadly classified based on whether they create value that can be measured in terms of money. In this chapter, you learn that economic activities are different from non-economic activities because they generate monetary value and help improve material well-being.

Classification of Economic Activities Economic activities can be grouped into three main sectors: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each sector involves a specific type of work and is distinguished by the kind of resources it uses and its contribution to society.

The primary sector includes activities where people are directly dependent on nature for producing goods. Examples are agriculture, mining, fishing, animal husbandry, and forestry. These jobs directly extract or collect resources from the natural environment. For instance, farmers grow crops or rear livestock, miners extract coal, and fishermen catch fish from rivers or seas.

• Agriculture is one of the most common primary activities in India, involving cultivation of grains, pulses, fruits and vegetables.
• Other important primary activities are forestry (collecting wood and forest products), rearing livestock (cows, goats, sheep), mining minerals, and fishing.
• Greenhouse farming and fish farming (also called aquaculture) are modern examples within this sector.

Secondary Sector Activities The secondary sector involves transforming raw materials obtained from the primary sector into new products through manufacturing and processing. This includes factories and industries where grains are milled into flour, cloth is woven from cotton, and wood is turned into furniture. It also includes construction of buildings, roads, and the supply of utilities like electricity and water.

• Manufacturing plants that produce automobiles, textiles, and medicines form a big part of this sector.
• Converting raw milk into butter, cheese and powder in a processing unit is a classic example.
• In 2022, India produced about 45 lakh passenger vehicles, 10.3 lakh commercial vehicles, 8.6 lakh three-wheelers, and 2 crore two-wheelers, highlighting the scale of manufacturing.

All these activities do not happen in isolation. For example, a textile factory depends on the cotton supplied by farmers, and a furniture unit needs wood from forests. These connections show how secondary activities need the output from the primary sector.

Tertiary Sector Activities The tertiary sector or service sector supports the primary and secondary sectors by providing various services. It does not produce goods but offers services that facilitate the working of all other sectors. This includes transportation, banking, healthcare, communication, retail, and education.

Doctors, nurses, teachers, drivers, vendors, electricians, shopkeepers, and software professionals are people employed in this sector. Services such as transporting milk from farms to the market, selling groceries, running hotels, or managing warehouses and logistics play a vital role in ensuring all goods and products reach the consumers.

• Transport and communication help move raw materials and finished products from one place to another.
• Banking provides finance for running and expanding businesses.
• Warehouses allow storage of goods before they are sold.
• Retail stores and shops are where consumers finally buy the products made elsewhere.

How Sectors are Interconnected No sector works alone. They depend on one another to keep the economic wheel moving smoothly. A famous example of sector interdependence is seen in the story of AMUL, a dairy cooperative in Gujarat. Farmers (primary sector) milk their cows and supply the milk to AMUL. Then, in AMUL’s factories (secondary sector), this milk is processed into different products like butter, cheese, and milk powder. Finally, the products are distributed and sold across India and even abroad using trucks, trains, and retail shops (tertiary sector).

The farmers in Anand district no longer depend on middlemen thanks to their cooperative. Instead, they organise collection, processing, and sale of milk themselves, sharing profits and making collective decisions. This improved their income and brought economic prosperity to the whole community.

Other famous dairy brands like Nandini (Karnataka), Mother Dairy (Delhi-NCR), Aavin (Tamil Nadu) and Verka (Punjab) work on similar lines, empowering communities through economic cooperation.

Case Study: From Raw Material to Finished Product A practical example of sector interdependence can be observed in the making of textbooks. First, wood pulp is extracted from trees (primary sector). Next, the pulp is converted into paper at factories (secondary sector), after which the paper is printed and bound into books. Finally, books are transported to schools and bookstores or sold online (tertiary sector). Without the working together of all three sectors, the textbooks you use in class could not be produced or delivered to you.

In recent times, recycling has become an important activity. For example, recycling just one tonne of paper can save 17 trees and 2.5 cubic metres of landfill space. It also requires 70% less energy and water compared to producing new paper from wood pulp.

Summary of Chapter

• Economic activities are actions that produce goods or provide services for earning money and prosperity.
• These activities are divided into three sectors—primary, secondary, and tertiary—each with different functions and roles.
• Primary sector involves natural resources, secondary sector deals with manufacturing and processing, and tertiary sector provides all supporting services.
• All sectors are closely connected and depend on each other for smooth functioning.
• Real-life examples like AMUL cooperative and textbook production help us see how these connections work in practice.
• Understanding this classification helps us appreciate the contribution of each sector to our society and economy.

To quickly recap: the primary sector collects natural resources, the secondary sector uses these resources to make final products, and the tertiary sector provides all the services that help both these sectors reach people everywhere. Each sector is important for the nation’s economic development and for improving daily life.

Practice Questions

1. What is the primary sector? How is it different from the secondary sector? Give two examples.
2. How does the secondary sector depend on the tertiary sector? Give a few examples.
3. Give an example of interdependence between primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Show it in a flow diagram.

By understanding these concepts, you will be able to classify economic activities and see how each sector adds value in our everyday life. These revision notes are designed to make the learning straightforward and help you remember the key points quickly during exams.

CBSE Class 6 Social Science Notes Chapter 14 – Economic Activities Around Us: Summary and Key Points

These CBSE Class 6 Social Science Chapter 14 notes cover all important points about economic activities and their classification into primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Reading these notes helps you easily identify sector differences and understand real-world examples.

With a clear explanation of how the three economic sectors are linked, these revision notes make learning interactive and efficient. Find summary tables, definitions, and sample questions to prepare well for your exams and build a strong understanding for higher classes.