Tertiary and Quaternary Activities PDF

When you fall ill you go to your family doctor Unit-III or you call a doctor. Sometimes your parents Chapter-6 take you to a hospital for treatment. While in school, you are taught by your teachers. In the event of any...

When you fall ill you go to your family doctor Unit-III or you call a doctor. Sometimes your parents Chapter-6 take you to a hospital for treatment. While in school, you are taught by your teachers. In the event of any dispute, legal opinion is obtained from a lawyer. Likewise, there are many professionals who provide their services against payment of their fee. Thus, all types of services are special skills provided in exchange of payments. Health, education, law, governance and recreation etc. require professional skills. These services require other theoretical knowledge and practical training. Tertiary activities are related to the service sector. Manpower is an important component of the Tertiary and service sector as most of the tertiary activities are performed by skilled labour, professionally Quaternary Activities trained experts and consultants. In the initial stages of economic development, larger proportion of people worked in the primary sector. In a developed economy, the majority of workers get employment in tertiary activity and a moderate proportion is employed in the secondary sector. Tertiary activities include both production and exchange. The production involves the ‘provision’ of services that are ‘consumed’. The output is indirectly measured in terms of wages and salaries. Exchange, involves trade, transport and communication facilities that are used to overcome distance. Tertiary activities, therefore, involve the commercial output of services rather than the production of tangible goods. They are not directly involved in the processing of physical raw materials. Common examples are the work of a plumber, electrician, technician, launderer, barber, shopkeeper, driver, cashier, teacher, doctor, lawyer and publisher etc. The main difference between secondary activities and tertiary activities is that the expertise provided by services relies more heavily on specialised skills, experience and knowledge of the workers rather than on the production techniques, machinery and factory processes. TYPES OF TERTIARY ACTIVITIES By now you know that you purchase your books, stationery from traders shop, travel by Reprint 2024-25  Fig. 6.1: Service Sector 46 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25 bus or rail, send letters, talk on telephone and Periodic markets in rural areas are found obtain services of teachers for studies and where there are no regular markets and local doctors at the time of illness. periodic markets are organised at different Thus, trade, transport, communication temporal intervals. These may be weekly, bi- and services are some of the tertiary activities weekly markets from where people from the discussed in this section. The chart provides surrounding areas meet their temporally the basis for classifying the tertiary activities. accumulated demand. These markets are held on specified dates and move from one Trade and commerce place to another. The shopkeepers thus, remain busy on all the days while a large area Trade is essentially buying and selling of items is served by them. produced elsewhere. All the services in retail Urban marketing centres have more widely and wholesale trading or commerce are specialised urban services. They provide specifically intended for profit. The towns and ordinary goods and services as well as many of cities where all these works take place are the specialised goods and services required by known us trading centres. people. Urban centres, therefore, offer The rise of trading from barter at the local manufactured goods as well as many level to money-exchange of international scale specialised markets develop, e.g. markets for has produced many centres and institutions labour, housing, semi or finished products. such as trading centres or collection and Services of educational institutions and distribution points. professionals such as teachers, lawyers, Trading centres may be divided into rural consultants, physicians, dentists and veterinary and urban marketing centres. doctors are available. Rural marketing centres cater to nearby settlements. These are quasi-urban centres. They serve as trading centres of the most rudimentary type. Here personal and professional services are not well-developed. These form local collecting and distributing centres. Most of these have mandis (wholesale markets) and also retailing areas. They are not urban centres per se but are significant centres for making available goods and services which are most frequently demanded by rural folk. Fig. 6.3: Packed Food Market in U.S.A. Retail Trading This is the business activity concerned with the sale of goods directly to the consumers. Most of the retail trading takes place in fixed establishments or stores solely devoted to selling. Street peddling, handcarts, trucks, door-to-door, mail-order, telephone, automatic vending machines and internet are examples Fig. 6.2: A Wholesale Vegetable Market of non-store retail trading. Tertiary and Quaternary Activities 47 Reprint 2024-25  particular route; and cost distance or the More on Stores expense of travelling on a route. In selecting the mode of transport, distance, in terms of time or Consumer cooperatives were the first of cost, is the determining factor. Isochrone lines the large-scale innovations in retailing. are drawn on a map to join places equal in terms Departmental stores delegate the of the time taken to reach them. responsibility and authority to departmental heads for purchasing of commodities and for overseeing the sale in different sections Network and Accessibility of the stores. As transport systems develop, different Chain stores are able to purchase places are linked together to form a merchandise most economically, often network. Networks are made up of nodes going so far as to direct the goods to be and links. A node is the meeting point of manufactured to their specification. They two or more routes, a point of origin, a point employ highly skilled specialists in many of destination or any sizeable town along a executive tasks. They have the ability to route, Every road that joins two nodes is experiment in one store and apply the called a link. A developed network has results to many. many links, which means that places are well-connected. Wholesale Trading Factors Affecting Transport Wholesale trading constitutes bulk business Demand for transport is influenced by the size through numerous intermediary merchants of population. The larger the population size, and supply houses and not through retail the greater is the demand for transport. stores. Some large stores including chain stores Routes depend on: location of cities, are able to buy directly from the manufacturers. towns, villages, industrial centres and raw However, most retail stores procure supplies materials, pattern of trade between them, nature from an intermediary source. Wholesalers often of the landscape between them, type of climate, extend credit to retail stores to such an extent and funds available for overcoming obstacles that the retailer operates very largely on the along the length of the route. wholesaler’s capital. Communication Transport Communication services involve the Transport is a service or facility by which transmission of words and messages, facts people, materials and manufactured goods and ideas. The invention of writing preserved are physically carried from one location to messages and helped to make communication another. It is an organised industry created dependent on means of transport. These were to satisfy man’s basic need of mobility. actually carried by hand, animals, boat, road, Modern society requires speedy and efficient rail and air. That is why all forms of transport transport systems to assist in the production, are also referred to as lines of communication. distribution and consumption of goods. At Where the transport network is efficient, every stage in this complex system, the value communications are easily disseminated. of the material is significantly enhanced by Certain developments, such as mobile transportation. telephony and satellites, have made Transport distance can be measured as: communications independent of transport. All km distance or actual distance of route length; forms are not fully disassociated because of the time distance or the time taken to travel on a cheapness of the older systems. Thus, very 48 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25 large volumes of mail continue to be handled legislation have established corporations to by post offices all over the world. supervise and control the marketing of such Some of the communication services are services as transport, telecommunication, discussed below. energy and water supply. Professional services are primarily health care, engineering, law and Telecommunications management. The location of recreational and The use of telecommunications is linked to the entertainment services depends on the market. development of modern technology. It has Multiplexes and restaurants might find location revolutionised communications because of the within or near the Central Business District speed with which messages are sent. The time (CBD), whereas a golf course would choose a reduced is from weeks to minutes. Besides, the site where land costs are lower than in the CBD. recent advancements like mobile telephony Personal services are made available to the have made communications direct and people to facilitate their work in daily life. The instantaneous at any time and from anywhere. workers migrate from rural areas in search of The telegraph, morse code and telex have almost employment and are unskilled. They are become things of the past. employed in domestic services as Radio and television also help to relay news, pictures, and telephone calls to vast housekeepers, cooks, and gardeners. This audiences around the world and hence they are segment of workers is generally unorganised. termed as mass media. They are vital for One such example in India is Mumbai’s advertising and entertainment. Newspapers are dabbawala (Tiffin) service provided to about able to cover events in all corners of the world. 1,75,000 customers all over the city. Satellite communication relays information of the earth and from space. The internet has truly revolutionised the global communication system. Services Services occur at many different levels. Some are geared to industry, some to people, and some to both industry and people, e.g. the transport systems. Low-order services, such as grocery shops and laundries, are more common and widespread than high-order services or more specialised ones like those of accountants, consultants and physicians. Services are provided to individual consumers who can Fig. 6.4: Dabbawala Service in Mumbai afford to pay for them. For example, the gardener, the launderers and the barber do primarily physical labour. Teacher, lawyers, physicians, musicians and others perform PEOPLE ENG AGED IN ENGA mental labour. TERTIAR TERTIARY ACTIVITIES TIARY Many services have now been regulated. Today most people are service workers. Services Making and maintaining highways and are provided in all societies. But in more bridges, maintaining fire fighting departments developed countries a higher percentage of and supplying or supervising education and workers is employed in providing services as customer -care are among the important compared to less developed countries. The services most often supervised or performed by trend in employment in this sector has been governments or companies. State and union Tertiary and Quaternary Activities 49 Reprint 2024-25 increasing while it has remained unchanged or are scattered. Historic towns also attract decreasing in the primary and secondary tourists, because of the monument, heritage activities. sites and cultural activities. SOME SELECTED EXAMPLES Tourist Attractions Tourism Climate: Most people from colder regions expect to have warm, sunny weather for beach Tourism is travel undertaken for purposes of holidays. This is one of the main reasons for recreation rather than business. It has become the importance of tourism in Southern Europe the world’s single largest tertiary activity in total and the Mediterranean lands. The registered jobs (250 million) and total revenue Mediterranean climate offers almost consistently (40 per cent of the total GDP). Besides, many higher temperatures, than in other parts of local persons, are employed to provide services Europe, long hours of sunshine and low rainfall like accommodation, meals, transport, throughout the peak holiday season. People entertainment and special shops serving the taking winter holidays have specific climatic tourists. Tourism fosters the growth of requirements, either higher temperatures than their own homelands, or snow cover suitable infrastructure industries, retail trading, and for skiing. craft industries (souvenirs). In some regions, Landscape: Many people like to spend tourism is seasonal because the vacation period their holidays in an attractive environment, is dependent on favourable weather conditions, which often means mountains, lakes, but many regions attract visitors all the year spectacular sea coasts and landscapes not round. completely altered by man. History and Art: The history and art of an area have potential attractiveness. People visit ancient or picturesque towns and archaeological sites, and enjoy exploring castles, palaces and churches. Culture and Economy: These attract tourists with a penchant for experiencing ethnic and local customs. Besides, if a region provides for the needs of tourists at a cheap cost, it is likely to become very popular. Home-stay has emerged as a profitable business such as heritage homes in Goa, Madikere and Coorg in Karnataka. Medical Services for Overseas Patients in India About 55,000 patients from U.S.A. visited India Fig. 6.5: Tourists skiing in the snow capped in 2005 for treatment. This is still a small mountain slopes of Switzerland number compared with the millions of surgeries performed each year in the U.S. healthcare Tourist Regions system. India has emerged as the leading country of medical tourism in the world. World The warmer places around the Mediterranean class hospitals located in metropolitan cities Coast and the West Coast of India are some of cater to patients all over the world. Medical the popular tourist destinations in the world. tourism brings abundant benefits to developing Others include winter sports regions, found countries like India, Thailand, Singapore and mainly in mountainous areas, and various scenic landscapes and national parks, which Malaysia. Beyond medical tourism, is the trend 50 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25 of outsourcing of medical tests and data QUINAR QUINAR Y ACTIVITIES ARY interpretation. Hospitals in India, Switzerland and Australia have been performing certain The highest level of decision makers or policy medical services – ranging from reading makers perform quinary activities. These are radiology images, to interpreting Magnetic subtly different from the knowledge based Resonance Images (MRIs) and ultrasound tests. industries that the quinary sector in general Outsourcing holds tremendous advantages for deals with. patients, if it is focused on improving quality or providing specialised care. Quinary activities are services that focus on the creation, re-arrangement and interpretation of new and existing ideas; data Medical Tourism interpretation and the use and evaluation of When medical treatment is combined with new technologies. Often referred to as ‘gold international tourism activity, it lends itself collar’ professions, they represent another to what is commonly known as medical subdivision of the tertiary sector representing tourism. special and highly paid skills of senior business executives, government officials, research scientists, financial and legal QUATERN QUA AR TERNAR Y ACTIVITIES ARY consultants, etc. Their importance in the What do a CEO of an MNC in Copenhagen, at structure of advanced economies far New York and a medical transcriptionist at outweighs their numbers. Bangalore have in common? All these people work in a segment of the service sector that is knowledge oriented. This sector can be divided Outsourcing has resulted in the opening into quaternary and quinary activities. up of a large number of call centres in India, Quaternary activities involve some of the China, Eastern Europe, Israel, Philippines following: the collection, production and and Costa Rica. It has created new jobs in dissemination of information or even the these countries. Outsourcing is coming to production of information. Quaternary activities those countries where cheap and skilled centre around research, development and may workers are available. These are also out- be seen as an advanced form of services involving migrating countries. With the work available specialised knowledge and technical skills. though outsourcing, the migration in these countries may come down. Outsourcing The Quaternary Sector countries are facing resistance from job- The Quaternary Sector along with the Tertiary seeking youths in their respective countries. Sector has replaced most of the primary and secondary employment as the basis for The comparative advantage is the main economic growth. Over half of all workers In reason for continuing outsourcing. New developed economies are in the ‘Knowledge trends in quinary services include knowledge Sector’ and there has been a very high growth processing outsourcing (KPO) and ‘home in demand for and consumption of information- based services from mutual fund managers shoring’, the latter as an alternative to to tax consultants, software developers and outsourcing. The KPO industry is distinct statisticians. Personnel working in office from Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) as buildings, elementary schools and university it involves highly skilled workers. It is classrooms, hospitals and doctors’ offices, theatres, accounting and brokerage firms all information driven knowledge outsourcing. belong to this category of services. KPO enables companies to create additional business opportunities. Examples of KPOs Like some of the tertiary functions, quaternary activities can also be outsourced. include research and development (R and D) They are not tied to resources, affected by activities, e-learning, business research, the environment, or necessarily localised by intellectual property (IP) research, legal market. profession and the banking sector. Tertiary and Quaternary Activities 51 Reprint 2024-25  European and African countries, In these Where Will it All Lead to? countries IT skilled staff with good English language skills are available at lower wages than those in the developed countries. Thus, a company in Hyderabad or Manila does work on a project based on GIS techniques for a country like U.S.A or Japan. Overhead costs are also much lower making it profitable to get job-work carried out overseas, whether it is in India, China or even a less populous country like Botswana in Africa. Describe the nature of work against each colour-name Colour of the collar Nature of work Red ? Gold ? White ? Grey ? Blue ? Pink ? THE DIGITAL DIVIDE DIGITAL Opportunities emerging from the Information and Communication Technology based development is unevenly distributed across the globe. There are wide ranging economic, Outsourcing political and social differences among countries. Outsourcing or contracting out is giving work How quickly countries can provide ICT access to an outside agency to improve efficiency and benefits to its citizens is the deciding factor. and to reduce costs. When outsourcing While developed countries in general have involves transferring work to overseas surged forward, the developing countries have locations, it is described by the term off - lagged behind and this is known as the digital shoring, although both off - shoring and outsourcing are used together. Business divide. Similarly digital divides exist within activities that are outsourced include countries. For example, in a large country like information technology (IT), human India or Russia, it is inevitable that certain areas resources, customer support and call centre like metropolitan centres possess better services and at times also manufacturing connectivity and access to the digital world and engineering. versus peripheral rural areas. Data processing is an IT related service easily be carried out in Asian, East 52 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25  EXERCISES 1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below. (i) Which one of the following is a tertiary activity? (a) Farming (c) Weaving (b) Trading (d) Hunting (ii) Which one of the following activities is NOT a secondary sector activity? (a) Iron Smelting (c) Making garments (b) Catching fish (d) Basket Weaving (iii) Which one of the following sectors provides most of the employment in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. (a) Primary (c) Secondary (b) Quaternary (d) Service (iv) Jobs that involve high degrees and level of innovations are known as: (a) Secondary activities (c) Quinary activities (b) Quaternary activities (d) Primary activities (v) Which one of the following activities is related to quaternary sector? (a) Manufacturing computers (c) University teaching (b) Paper and Raw pulp production (d) Printing books (vi) 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. 2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words. (i) Explain retail trading service. (ii) Describe quaternary services. (iii) Name the fast emerging countries of medical tourism in the world. (iv) What is digital divide? 3. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words. (i) Discuss the significance and growth of the service sector in modern economic development. (ii) Explain in detail the significance of transport and communication services. Project/Activity (i) Find out the activities of BPO. (ii) Find out from a travel agent the documents you need to travel abroad. Tertiary and Quaternary Activities 53 Reprint 2024-25