As one of the largest countries in the world, India has a thriving economy. But because of the many people that live in the country, their average income is still very low. In the first decades after becoming independent, India’s government controlled much of the economy, making it very difficult for foreign companies to invest freely. In the last few decades, this has changed. India has chosen a more capitalist way to go. 


India's workforce in % of the economy

Image: Klaus Rosmanitz



Farming

Over half of India’s people get their income from farming. The most important products are corn, rice, sorghum and wheat. Other products include tea, cotton, sugar cane and jute.


The Green Revolution in the 1960s made it possible for India to provide enough food for its population. New technology in farming, hybrid crops, the use of fertilizers, irrigation programs and more automation improved the quantity and quality of crops that farmers got from their land. India’s farms are small, mainly because they are split up among the children of a family when their father dies.


Cows are sacred animals in India and people respect them. As Hindus are not allowed to eat beef, the south Asian country has almost a third of the world’s cattle. Cows can be seen roaming the streets almost everywhere. In many rural areas, they are still used to plow the fields.



Rice farming in India
Image: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons


Industry and Mining

India is one of the world’s biggest producers of iron ore and coal. As a result, the iron and steel industry is a basis for producing cars and other vehicles, ships and electrical goods. Although the textile industry is a traditional sector of the economy that the British built up, many clothes are still produced at home. Handicraft and hand-made jewellery are sources of income for millions of people.


The chemical industry is one of the fastest growing in India. Almost 13% of the country’s GDP comes from this part of the economy. It also caused the worst industrial accident in history. In 1984 a poisonous gas escaped from an American chemical plant in Bhopal, killing 20,000 people. A few years later, the American company paid almost 500 million dollars to the victims and their families.



The Service Sector

In the last decades, India has experienced a boom in the service sector. Today, about half of the country’s money comes from it. India has a great reputation in the computer sector, producing millions of IT experts, who are welcomed all over the world because of their great skills. Software and computer technology from India have become very popular. Western companies hire these experts because they are cheaper than laborers at home.


In addition, India has become the world capital of call centers. This service is very popular in the west, especially among British and American firms. Other expanding areas of the service sector include telecommunications and banking.



Transportation

India’s state-owned railway system goes back to the British colonial government of the 19th century. The British exploited India’s raw materials and built a big network of railway lines to get them to the coast. Today, millions of people travel by train, one of the cheapest ways of travelling, and the only means of transport that poor people can afford.


Although the Indian government has built many new roads in the past, a large number of Indians are still are without cars. Especially in rural India people often walk long distances and use carts for transport. Rickshaws are widespread in many Indian cities.



Railway Station in India
Image: Sridhar Rao, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons


Energy

About 70% of India’s energy comes from burning fossil fuels. The country must import oil and gas to meet its energy demands. India also plans to increase the number of nuclear power stations, even though the Fukushima disaster has raised questions of the safety of nuclear energy. As the economy increases at a fast pace it is doubtful whether India’s electricity production can keep up.



Economic Problems

Even though India has made large steps in economic growth, many problems remain unsolved. Growing bureaucracy, unemployment and corruption are only a few. In contrast to the days when many Indians left their country to work in the developed world, more and more are coming back to settle down hoping to achieve a better standard of living in their home country.



Nuclear power plant in India
Image : Reetesh Chaurasia, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • afford = to have enough money to buy something
  • automation = the use of computers and machines to do certain jobs
  • average income = the money that a normal person gets for the work that they do
  • basis = starting point
  • beef = meat from a cow
  • boom = here: strong increase in business
  • bureaucracy = administration, paper work
  • call center = an office where people answer customers' questions or sell things by using a telephone instead of meeting people in person
  • capitalist = when a country's businesses and companies are controlled by private people
  • cart = a vehicle with two or four wheels and no roof ; it is often pulled by a horse and used for transporting things
  • cattle = cows
  • cause = lead to
  • century = a period of a hundred years
  • corruption = when a person does something illegally and takes money for it
  • cotton =  a plant with white hairs on its seeds; used for making cotton cloth and thread 
  • crop = plant, like wheat, rice or corn that farmers grow and sell as food
  • decade = a period of ten years
  • developed world = the industrial countries
  • doubtful = you are not sure
  • economy = the relationship between production, trade and money in a country
  • electricity = power that is transported in wires and cables ; it is used to produce light or heat and make machines work
  • energy demands = the amount of energy that the whole country needs
  • escape = to get away from
  • especially = above all
  • expand = grow
  • experience = to go through
  • exploit = to use a country's minerals and raw materials for business and industries
  • even though = while
  • fast pace = very quickly
  • fertilizer = a substance that is put into the soil to make plants grow
  • foreign = from other countries
  • fossil fuels = material like coal, oil or gas that is used to produce energy ; it was created by dead animals and plants millions of years ago
  • GDP = gross domestic product = total value of all the goods and services that a country produces in one year
  • goods = products
  • government = the people who rule a country
  • growth = increase , expansion
  • handicraft = activity, like making baskets, in which you use your hands to make products that you can sell
  • hire = to give someone a job
  • hybrid crops = new plants that are produced from different other types
  • improve = to make better
  • in addition = also
  • in contrast to = compared with; something that is different
  • increase = grow
  • independent = free from another country
  • invest = to spend money in order to make a profit from it
  • iron ore = rock or piece of earth that has iron in it
  • irrigation = when water is brought to farming land because it is too dry
  • IT = information technology = the study of computers and how information gets from one place to another
  • jewelry = small things that you wear for decoration, like a bracelet, necklace or ring
  • jute = thin threads from a plant used to make rope and cloth
  • keep up = here: grow in the same way
  • laborer = worker
  • means of transport = the ways people and goods travel from one place to another
  • network = system
  • nuclear energy = energy that you get when you split atoms
  • plant = here: factory
  • plow = to turn over the earth so that farmers can plant seeds
  • poisonous = containing a substance that can kill or hurt you
  • population = the people that live in a country
  • raise = to bring about
  • reputation = the opinion that people have about someone or what they think about something
  • rickshaw = small vehicle in Southeast Asia; pulled by a bicycle or a person ; it usually can carry one or two passengers
  • roam = wander around without knowing where to go
  • rural areas = the countryside
  • sacred = holy
  • settle down = here: stay to live in their home country
  • service sector = part of the economy that offers a service instead of producing something - teachers, doctors, policemen etc.. belong to the service sector
  • skill = special thing that you are able to do
  • split up = divide
  • sorghum = seeds of a crop grown in tropical countries
  • source of income = where the money comes from
  • standard of living = quality of life and the money you have to live
  • state-owned = belonging to the government
  • steel = strong metal that can be easily shaped; made out of iron
  • sugar cane = tall tropical plant with thick stems from which sugar is made
  • thriving = booming, very successful
  • unemployment = when people are out of work
  • unsolved = without a result
  • vehicle = machine that is used to transport people and goods from one place to another
  • victim = person who is hurt or killed in an accident
  • wheat = the grain that white bread is made from; or the plant that it grows on
  • widespread = very popular