All exercise questions (and the in-text activity asked within the chapter) from the NCERT textbook Fundamentals of Human Geography, Chapter 6, “Tertiary and Quaternary Activities”, exactly as the English edition prints them, with a full model answer for each. Try your own answer first, then check it against this one.
1 Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below
Q. Which one of the following is a tertiary activity?
(a) Farming (b) Trading (c) Weaving (d) Hunting
Answer: (b) Trading. Trade and commerce belong to the tertiary sector, which involves the commercial output of services rather than the production of tangible goods. Farming and hunting are primary activities, and weaving is a secondary activity that processes raw material into a finished good.
Q. Which one of the following activities is NOT a secondary sector activity?
(a) Iron Smelting (b) Catching fish (c) Making garments (d) Basket Weaving
Answer: (b) Catching fish. Iron smelting, making garments and basket weaving all process a raw material into a finished product and are secondary activities. Catching fish is the direct extraction of a resource from nature, which makes it a primary activity, not a secondary one.
Q. Which one of the following sectors provides most of the employment in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata?
(a) Primary (b) Quaternary (c) Secondary (d) Service
Answer: (d) Service. These four cities are major metropolitan centres, and the chapter explains that in more developed, urbanised economies a higher percentage of workers is employed in providing services (the tertiary/service sector) than in the primary or secondary sectors.
Q. Jobs that involve high degrees and level of innovations are known as:
(a) Secondary activities (b) Quaternary activities (c) Quinary activities (d) Primary activities
Answer: (c) Quinary activities. The chapter describes quinary activities as those performed by the highest level of decision makers or policy makers, focused on the creation, re-arrangement and interpretation of new and existing ideas and the evaluation of new technologies: this is the chapter’s own description of the highest degree of innovation in the service sector.
Q. Which one of the following activities is related to quaternary sector?
(a) Manufacturing computers (b) Paper and Raw pulp production (c) University teaching (d) Printing books
Answer: (c) University teaching. The chapter’s own list of Quaternary Sector personnel names “university classrooms” among its examples. Manufacturing computers, paper/pulp production and printing books are all secondary-sector activities that process raw materials into finished goods.
Q. Which one out of the following statements is not true?
(a) Outsourcing reduces costs and increases efficiency. (b) At times engineering and manufacturing jobs can also be outsourced. (c) BPOs have better business opportunities as compared to KPOs. (d) There may be dissatisfaction among job seekers in the countries that outsource the job.
Answer: (c) “BPOs have better business opportunities as compared to KPOs” is not true. The chapter states the KPO industry is distinct from BPO because it involves highly skilled workers, and that “KPO enables companies to create additional business opportunities”. The chapter credits KPO, not BPO, with creating additional business opportunities; it never says BPO has better ones, so (c) is the one statement the chapter does not support. The other three statements are stated in the chapter.
2 Answer the following questions in about 30 words
Q. Explain retail trading service.
Answer: Retail trading is the business activity concerned with the sale of goods directly to consumers, mostly through fixed stores devoted to selling. Non-store retail trading includes street peddling, handcarts, mail-order, telephone selling, vending machines and the internet.
Q. Describe quaternary services.
Answer: Quaternary activities involve the collection, production and dissemination of information, or even the production of information itself. They centre on research and development and are an advanced form of service requiring specialised knowledge and technical skills, such as the work of mutual fund managers, tax consultants, software developers and statisticians.
Q. Name the fast emerging countries of medical tourism in the world.
Answer: India has emerged as the leading country of medical tourism in the world. Medical tourism also brings abundant benefits to developing countries like India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
Q. What is digital divide?
Answer: The digital divide is the unequal distribution, across the globe, of the opportunities created by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based development: developed countries have surged ahead in providing ICT access while developing countries have lagged behind. It also exists within a single country, for example between metropolitan centres and peripheral rural areas in India or Russia.
3 Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words
Q. Discuss the significance and growth of the service sector in modern economic development.
Answer: Tertiary activities include both production and exchange: the production of services that are “consumed” (measured indirectly through wages and salaries) and exchange through trade, transport and communication that overcome distance. Unlike secondary activities, tertiary activities rely on the specialised skills, experience and knowledge of workers rather than on machinery and factory processes. In the initial stages of economic development, a larger proportion of people worked in the primary sector; in a developed economy, the majority of workers are employed in tertiary activity and a moderate proportion in the secondary sector. Today most people are service workers, and in more developed countries a higher percentage of workers is employed in providing services compared to less developed countries; the trend in tertiary employment has been increasing, while it has remained unchanged or has been decreasing in the primary and secondary sectors. The tertiary sector today ranges from trade, transport, communication and tourism, to knowledge-based quaternary activities such as research and development, and quinary activities performed by the highest level of decision makers, and this quaternary/quinary sector, together with the tertiary sector, has replaced most primary and secondary employment as the basis for economic growth in developed economies.
Q. Explain in detail the significance of transport and communication services.
Answer: Transport is a service or facility by which people, materials and manufactured goods are physically carried from one location to another, satisfying society’s need for mobility; at every stage of a production-distribution-consumption system, the value of material is significantly enhanced by transportation. Transport distance can be measured as km distance, time distance or cost distance, and as transport systems develop, places are linked into networks of nodes and links: a developed network with many links means places are well-connected. Demand for transport depends on population size, and routes depend on the location of places, patterns of trade, the landscape, climate and the funds available. Communication services involve the transmission of words, messages, facts and ideas; because messages were historically carried by hand, animals, boats, roads, rail and air, all forms of transport are also called lines of communication. Telecommunications have revolutionised communication by cutting the time needed to send a message from weeks to minutes, and developments such as mobile telephony and satellites have made communication increasingly independent of transport, though very large volumes of mail are still handled by post offices worldwide. Radio, television (mass media), newspapers, satellite communication and the internet have together made information available instantly across the world, making transport and communication together essential to trade, tourism, outsourcing and every other tertiary and quaternary activity described in this chapter.
4 Project / Activity
Q. Find out the activities of BPO.
Answer: This is a project/activity question meant for the student to research locally (visiting or reading about a BPO). Based on the chapter’s own account, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing where routine business processes such as customer support and call-centre services, human resources and data processing are handed to an outside agency, often overseas, to reduce costs and improve efficiency; unlike KPO, BPO work does not need highly specialised knowledge workers.
Q. Find out from a travel agent the documents you need to travel abroad.
Answer: This is a project/activity question meant for the student to find out directly from a travel agent. In general, travelling abroad from India requires a valid passport, a visa for the destination country (where required), a valid ticket/itinerary, proof of accommodation, sufficient foreign exchange or a valid international card, and (for some countries) travel insurance and health/vaccination certificates; a travel agent should be consulted for the exact list for a specific destination.
5 In-text activity (asked within the chapter)
Q. Describe the nature of work against each colour-name. (Colour of the collar: Red, Gold, White, Grey, Blue, Pink)
Answer:
| Colour of the collar | Nature of work |
|---|---|
| Red | Workers in primary activities (farming, mining, fishing, forestry); named for the outdoor nature of their work (NCERT Ch 4). |
| Gold | The chapter’s own term for quinary activities: the special and highly paid skills of senior business executives, government officials, research scientists, and financial and legal consultants. |
| White | Salaried office, professional, administrative and managerial work done mainly with the mind, for example clerks, managers and accountants. |
| Grey | Work that falls between white collar and blue collar: skilled technical jobs that need some training, for example technicians and IT support staff. |
| Blue | Manual or physical labour, for example factory, construction, mining and maintenance workers. |
| Pink | Service jobs traditionally associated with women, for example nursing, reception and secretarial work. |
Red (Ch 4) and gold (Ch 6) are defined in the book; the other four are the standard meanings of these labels.