NCERT
Every NCERT book that matters for UPSC — open a book, then a chapter. Learn each chapter's concepts, then how UPSC tests them — with diagrams, flowcharts and the past questions to attempt.
0% read
← India: People and Economy — all chaptersInternational Trade
Start here: why this chapter matters
In simple wordsA household that buys more from the market than it earns has to borrow or draw down savings. India does the same as a country: every year it buys more from abroad (oil, gold, machines, edible oil) than it sells (engineering goods, medicines, jewellery, refined fuel). This chapter asks three things — how much India trades, what it buys and sells, and with whom — and then looks at the doors the goods pass through: ports and airports.
- Builds on Fundamentals of Human Geography Chapter 8 (International Trade) — the basis of trade, balance of trade, WTO, trade blocs and the general idea of ports. This chapter is India's own record: values, composition, direction and Indian ports.
- Builds on Chapter 7 (Transport and Communication): ocean routes, the Konkan Railway and air transport. Chapter 5 (Minerals and Energy) explains why India imports crude and exports iron ore; Chapter 3 (Agriculture) explains edible-oil and pulse imports.
- Leads into Chapter 9 (Geographical Perspective on Selected Issues and Problems), which takes up environmental and social problems of development.
- UPSC: GS1 (location of ports, resource flows), GS3 (external sector, exports, infrastructure — ports, Sagarmala). Prelims has asked which ports lie in which State, India's main imports and trade partners, export items and new ports; Mains has asked about gold imports, labour-intensive exports and India's shift from food importer to exporter.
| Key term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| International (external) trade | Exchange of goods and services between countries |
| Balance of trade | Value of exports minus value of imports; negative = trade deficit |
| Composition of trade | Which goods make up exports and imports, as shares of the total |
| Direction of trade | Which countries or regions India trades with |
| Port / harbour | A port is a place with facilities to load and unload ships; a harbour is a sheltered water body where ships can anchor safely |
| Hinterland | The land area a port serves — from which exports come and to which imports go |
| Major / minor port | Major: policy and regulation by the central government; minor: by State governments |
| Satellite port | A port built near an older one to relieve congestion (JNPT for Mumbai, Haldia for Kolkata) |
| Import substitution | Producing at home what was being imported |
Reading the chapter-opening photograph (page 86)A very large oil tanker ploughs through open sea, its long deck covered with pipes. It sets the theme: petroleum is India's single biggest import, and almost all of it arrives by ship — which is why ports and sea routes take up half the chapter.
Figure numbering in this reprintThe 2026-27 reprint has Figs 8.1, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 — there is no Fig. 8.2. Tables run from 8.1 to 8.6. Every one is read below.
At a glance — the six ideas to carry away
- Trade: ₹1,214 crore (1950-51) → ₹77.2 lakh crore (2021-22); India ≈ 1% of world trade.
- Imports always exceed exports: deficit ₹14.26 lakh crore in 2021-22.
- Exports: manufactures 67.8%, petroleum products 16.4%, agriculture 11.9% (2021-22).
- Imports: fuel (coal, POL) 31.6%; capital goods 10.1%; foodgrain imports stopped after the Green Revolution.
- Asia and ASEAN ≈ 64% of imports; sea and air carry most trade, land routes only to neighbours.
- 12 major (Centre) + 200 minor (States) ports; west coast has more ports; capacity 20 Mt (1951) → 837 Mt (2016).
1. How much India trades — and the gap
In simple wordsThink of a shop's account book with two columns, money in and money out. India's ‘money out’ column (imports) has been longer than its ‘money in’ column (exports) in every year shown. Both columns have grown fast; the gap has grown too.
No country is self-sufficient, so trade benefits both sides. India's foreign trade has changed sharply in volume, composition and direction. Though India's share of world trade is only about one per cent, it matters in the world economy. Trade was worth ₹1,214 crore in 1950-51 and ₹77,19,796 crore by NCERT's latest figure. NCERT's reasons for the rise: momentum in manufacturing, liberal government policies, and diversification of markets. Through all these years imports have stayed higher than exports.
Reading Table 8.1 — India's Foreign Trade (page 87)Five years, ₹ crore. Exports: 3,75,340 (2004-05) → 8,45,534 → 19,05,011 → 18,52,340 (2016-17) → 31,47,021 (2021-22). Imports: 5,01,065 → 13,63,736 → 27,15,434 → 25,77,422 → 45,72,775. Trade balance negative every year, widest at −14,25,753 in 2021-22. Exports grew about 8.4 times and imports about 9.1 times over the period. Note 2016-17 dipped below 2013-14 for both. (The table prints ‘45,72775’ — a comma slip for 45,72,775.)
Reading Fig. 8.1 — Gap between exports and imports, 2013-14 to 2021-22 (page 86)A line graph from the Economic Survey 2022-23: two lines, imports (squares) above exports (circles), for 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2021-22. Both lines stay nearly flat (exports about ₹17–19 lakh crore, imports about ₹25–27 lakh crore) and dip slightly in 2015-16, then shoot up by 2021-22 (exports ≈ ₹31 lakh crore, imports ≈ ₹46 lakh crore). The vertical distance between the lines — the deficit — widens sharply at the end. Note the x-axis jumps from 2016-17 straight to 2021-22, so the last segment covers five years, not one.
⤵ Why India's trade grew so fast
Manufacturing gathers pacemore goods to sell, more machines and raw materials to buy
Liberal policies (after 1991)lower duties, delicensing, import liberalisation
New marketstrade spread from a few partners to most countries and blocs
Rising fuel and gold demandindustry and higher living standards pull imports up
Resulttrade up thousands of times since 1950-51 — but imports keep running ahead of exports
NCERT details to watch
- The text says trade reached ₹77,19,796 crore ‘in 2020-21’, but that figure is exactly exports + imports for 2021-22 in Table 8.1 (31,47,021 + 45,72,775). Treat it as the 2021-22 total.
- NCERT's own question: growth over 1950-51 = (77,19,796 − 1,214) ÷ 1,214 × 100 ≈ 6,36,000 per cent — trade became about 6,360 times larger (in current rupees, not adjusted for inflation).
- The 2021-22 balance computes to −14,25,754; NCERT prints −14,25,753 (rounding).
- A trade deficit is about goods; the current account adds services and remittances — see the Beyond NCERT box.
Beyond NCERT
- India's share of world merchandise exports remains under 2 per cent in WTO data. UPSC 2023 called ‘India accounts for 3.2% of global export of goods’ incorrect (answer: Statement I false, Statement II on PLI true).
- India's merchandise imports exceed exports, but its services exports (software, business services) exceed services imports — UPSC 2020 (statements 1, 3 and 4 correct). The overall current account usually shows a deficit.
- UPSC 2004: India did not have a trade surplus in 2002-03 (Assertion false). Imports of oil and machines were blamed for the adverse balance in UPSC 1989.
- Foreign Trade Policy 2023 aims at US$ 2 trillion of exports (goods and services) by 2030.
2. What India sells: composition of exports
In simple wordsSeventy years ago India sold mostly what grew in the ground — tea, jute, spices, cashew. Today two-thirds of what it sells is made in factories: engineering goods, chemicals and medicines, cut diamonds and jewellery, clothes — plus refined petrol and diesel made from imported crude.
In 2021-22 manufactured goods were 67.8 per cent of exports, crude and petroleum products 16.4, agriculture and allied 11.9, ores and minerals 2.0. Between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the shares of agriculture and manufactures fell, petroleum products and ‘other commodities’ rose, and ores stayed roughly constant. Traditional items such as cashew declined under tough competition, while floriculture, fresh fruits, marine products and sugar grew. Engineering goods show significant growth; China and other East Asian countries are the main competitors. Gems and jewellery are a large share of trade.
Reading Table 8.2 — Composition of India's Export, 2015–2022 (page 87)Five groups, four years. Manufactured goods 72.9 → 73.6 → 71.2 → 67.8; crude and petroleum products 11.9 → 11.7 → 9.2 → 16.4; agriculture 12.6 → 12.3 → 14.3 → 11.9; ores 1.6 → 1.9 → 3.2 → 2.0; others 1.1 → 0.5 → 2.1 → 1.9. Columns add to 100 (2015-16 to 100.1 by rounding). Petroleum's 2020-21 dip and 2021-22 jump mirror the fall and rebound of world oil prices around the pandemic — the share of a commodity moves with its price, not only its quantity. The activity asks for a bar diagram — see the chart above.
Reading Table 8.3 — Export of Some Principal Commodities, 2021-22 (page 88)₹ crore: manufactured goods 21,32,296; mineral fuels and lubricants 5,15,310; agriculture and allied 3,75,742; ores and minerals 63,754. Divided by total exports (31,47,021) they give 67.8, 16.4, 11.9 and 2.0 per cent — exactly Table 8.2's 2021-22 column, so the two tables agree. The four groups sum to ₹30.87 lakh crore; the remaining ≈ ₹0.6 lakh crore is ‘other commodities’.
| Rising in exports | Falling or under pressure |
|---|---|
| Engineering goods | Cashew and other traditional farm items |
| Petroleum products (refined from imported crude) | Share of manufactures overall (72.9 → 67.8) |
| Floriculture, fresh fruits, marine products, sugar | Share of agriculture (12.6 → 11.9) |
| Gems and jewellery (large share) | Competition from China and East Asia |
Exam traps
- India's big diamond exports rest on cutting and polishing imported rough diamonds, not on Indian mines (UPSC 1993) — pearls and precious stones are also a major import.
- Petroleum products are an export as well as the top import: India imports crude, refines it, and sells part of the output.
- Older patterns: tea once earned the most foreign exchange (UPSC 1979); marine products led agricultural exports in 1997-2000 (UPSC 2002). Shares change — always ask ‘which year?’.
Beyond NCERT — labour-intensive exports (Mains 2017)Manufactured exports have tilted toward capital- and skill-intensive goods (engineering, refined fuel, chemicals, pharma) rather than labour-intensive ones (garments, leather, footwear, toys). Reasons usually cited: rigid labour rules and small firm size, high logistics costs, weak scale, and competition from Bangladesh, Vietnam and China. Measures: apparel and footwear clusters, simpler labour codes, cheaper logistics (ports, Sagarmala), trade agreements for market access.
3. What India buys: composition of imports
In simple wordsIn the 1950s and 1960s India bought food from abroad because it could not feed itself. The Green Revolution ended that. Then oil prices exploded in 1973, and since then fuel has been the biggest item on India's shopping list — along with metals, chemicals, gold and gems, and edible oil.
In the 1950s–60s the main imports were foodgrain, capital goods, machinery and equipment; the balance of payments stayed adverse despite import substitution. After the 1970s foodgrain imports stopped thanks to the Green Revolution, but the 1973 energy crisis raised petroleum prices, and fertilisers and petroleum replaced foodgrain. Today machinery and equipment, special steel, edible oil and chemicals make up much of the basket. Petroleum imports keep rising — oil is both a fuel and an industrial raw material, so demand reflects faster industrialisation and better living standards, and world price spikes add to the bill. Other big items: pearls and precious stones, gold and silver, non-ferrous metals.
Reading Table 8.4 — India's Composition of Import, 2015–22 (page 88)Per cent of imports, 2015-16 → 2016-17 → 2020-21 → 2021-22: fuel (coal, POL) 25.4 → 26.7 → 25.1 → 31.6; capital goods 13.0 → 13.6 → 12.7 → 10.1; food and allied 5.1 → 5.6 → 4.5 → 4.4; fertilisers 2.1 → 1.3 → 1.9 → 2.3; paper, board and newsprint ≈ 0.7–0.9; others 38.1 → 37.0 → 41.6 → 38.5. The columns add up to only 84.5–87.6 per cent — the rest (chiefly gold, silver, pearls and precious stones) is not listed. The text calls the fall in capital goods ‘steady’, but the table shows a rise in 2016-17 before the fall.
Reading Table 8.5 — Import of Some Principal Commodities, 2021-22 (page 89)₹ crore: petroleum, oil and lubricants 12,07,803; non-ferrous metals 4,99,766; chemical products 3,08,882; pearls, precious and semi-precious stones 2,31,279; edible oils 1,41,532; fertilisers 1,05,796; iron and steel 94,053; medicinal and pharma products 67,545; pulp and waste paper 11,934. The first five, in order, answer NCERT's activity. POL alone ≈ 26% of all imports; fertilisers ≈ 2.3%, matching Table 8.4. (The text's ‘non-metal ferrous metals’ is a slip for non-ferrous metals.)
⤵ How India's import basket changed
1950s–60s: food shortagefoodgrain, capital goods, machinery; adverse balance of payments
Import substitutionmake at home what is bought abroad — the gap persists
Late 1960s–70s: Green Revolutionfoodgrain imports discontinued
1973 oil shockpetroleum prices soar; fertilisers and petroleum replace foodgrain
Todayfuel ≈ 32%; metals, chemicals, gems, gold, edible oil; capital goods share falling
Exam traps
- Vegetable (edible) oils are India's largest agricultural import by value (UPSC 2019) — not pulses or fruits. Reasons: oilseeds grown mostly on rain-fed land, low yields, preference for cereals backed by support prices, and unused tree-borne and rice-bran oil (UPSC 2004, statements 1–3).
- Pearls and precious stones were India's top import among edible oil, fertilisers and chemicals in 2001-02 (UPSC 2003); crude and petroleum were about 27% of imports that year (UPSC 2003).
- In 1994-95 the order was petroleum > capital goods > pearls and precious stones > chemicals > iron and steel (UPSC 1996).
- The arid Middle East exports precious stones and pearls to India (UPSC 1996) — besides crude oil.
Beyond NCERT
- Gold: Indian households' demand makes gold one of the largest imports; Mains 2015 linked it to pressure on the balance of payments and the rupee, and asked about the Gold Monetisation Scheme (2015), which mobilises idle household gold.
- Food: India went from importing food under PL-480 in the 1960s to being a net food exporter (rice, sugar, marine products, buffalo meat) — Mains 2023; the reasons are the Green Revolution, procurement and storage, and rising productivity.
4. With whom India trades: direction of trade
In simple wordsJust as most of your shopping happens in nearby markets, most of India's purchases come from its own continent — China, the Gulf oil states, South-East Asia. Europe and North America come next.
India trades with most countries and major blocs. In 2021-22 Asia and ASEAN supplied ₹29.19 lakh crore of imports — about 64 per cent — followed by Europe (6.41), North America (3.78), Africa (3.68) and Latin America (1.62). Imports from every region rose between 2016-17 and 2021-22; those from Asia, Africa and North America nearly doubled. Most trade moves by sea and air; a small part goes by land to neighbours — Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. India aimed to double its share of world trade through import liberalisation, lower import duties, delicensing and a change from process to product patents.
Reading Table 8.6 — Direction of India's Import Trade (page 89)₹ crore, 2016-17 → 2021-22: Europe 4,03,972 → 6,40,577; Africa 1,93,327 → 3,68,156; North America 1,95,332 → 3,78,041; Latin America 1,15,762 → 1,61,995; Asia and ASEAN 15,44,520 → 29,18,577. The five regions add to ₹44.67 lakh crore of the ₹45.73 lakh crore total — the remainder is unallocated or other regions. The text introduces it as region-wise trade, but the table covers imports only; the activity asks for a multiple bar diagram — see the chart above.
Exam traps
- The USA was India's largest trading partner in UPSC 1992 and 2002 — and again in 2021-22 (Beyond NCERT, Ministry of Commerce data), with China as the largest source of imports.
- Process vs product patent: a process patent protects only the method, so the same medicine could be made by another route; a product patent protects the substance itself. India adopted product patents in 2005 under its WTO (TRIPS) commitments (Beyond NCERT).
- Old destination pattern (UPSC 1997): iron ore → Japan, leather goods → UK, tea → Russia, cotton fabrics → USA.
Beyond NCERT — ChabaharIndia is developing a terminal at Chabahar on Iran's Makran coast. Its value: a sea-plus-land route to Afghanistan and Central Asia that does not depend on transit through Pakistan (UPSC 2017).
5. Sea ports as gateways: history and organisation
In simple wordsA port is like a railway station for ships: goods arrive by train and truck from a wide area behind it (the hinterland), are loaded onto ships, and leave for other countries (the foreland). The bigger the hinterland and the better the links into it, the busier the port.
India is surrounded by sea on three sides and has a long coastline; water gives a smooth, cheap surface if there is no turbulence. India has a long seafaring tradition — many ports carry the suffix -pattan (port). The west coast has more ports than the east coast. Ports became gateways of international trade with European traders and British colonisation; the British used them as suction points for resources from their hinterlands, and railways linked local markets to regional, national and international markets. Partition took away Karachi (to Pakistan) and Chittagong (to East Pakistan, now Bangladesh); to compensate, Kandla in the west and Diamond Harbour near Kolkata on the Hugli were developed.
Today India has 12 major ports and about 200 minor or intermediate ports. The central government sets policy and regulates the major ports, which handle most traffic; State governments regulate minor ports. Modernisation, once only a government job, now invites private entrepreneurs. Cargo capacity rose from 20 million tonnes (1951) to more than 837 million tonnes (2016) — about 42 times. A hinterland's boundary is not fixed, and hinterlands of neighbouring ports overlap.
⤵ From colonial outlets to modern gateways
Ancient and medievalseafaring tradition; ‘-pattan’ port towns
Colonial periodports as suction points; railways pull raw materials from the interior
1947 PartitionKarachi and Chittagong lost
New portsKandla (west), Diamond Harbour (east); satellite ports JNPT, Haldia
Modernisationprivate investment; capacity 20 Mt → 837 Mt
Reading Fig. 8.3 — Unloading of goods on port (page 89)A large mechanical grab hanging from a ship's crane drops bulk cargo (it looks like grain or fertiliser) straight into a waiting truck. It shows bulk handling: cranes, grabs and trucks or rail wagons at the quay move cargo between ship and hinterland. Mechanisation of this step is what raised port capacity.
Exam traps
- NCERT says 12 major ports but names 13 places: Kolkata and Haldia are two dock systems of one major port, now the Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Port (Beyond NCERT).
- Diamond Harbour was developed after Partition as a port; the first telegraph line (1851) also ran Kolkata–Diamond Harbour (UPSC 2009).
- Asia's first export processing zone was set up at Kandla in 1965 (UPSC 2009: both statements correct).
Beyond NCERT — ports since the book's data
- The Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 turned major port trusts into port authorities with more autonomy; Sagarmala (2015) pursues port-led development.
- Renamings: Kandla → Deendayal (2017); Tuticorin → V.O. Chidambaranar (2011); Ennore → Kamarajar (2014); Kolkata → Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (2020).
- Vizhinjam (Kerala), commissioned in 2025, is a deep-draft transshipment port close to the main east–west shipping lane; it aims to cut India's dependence on Colombo and Singapore for transshipment (UPSC 2026, only statement 3 correct).
- Rajasthan has studied an artificial inland port at Jalore linked to the Rann of Kachchh by a long channel (UPSC 2016); Andhra Pradesh got a large private sea port in 2009 (UPSC 2009). Mundra (Gujarat) is the largest private port.
6. Major ports of the west coast
In simple wordsThe west coast faces the Middle East, Europe and Africa — where much of India's trade goes — and has deep, sheltered water near Mumbai and Goa. So it has the busiest container and oil ports. Each port has a ‘speciality’, much like each counter in a big post office.
| Port (west) | Site | Speciality | Hinterland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deendayal (Kandla) | Head of the Gulf of Kachchh | Petroleum, petroleum products, fertiliser; offshore terminal at Vadinar; built to relieve Mumbai and to replace Karachi | Western and north-western India |
| Mumbai | Natural harbour; 20 km long, 6–10 km wide, 54 berths | Biggest port (NCERT); country's largest oil terminal; close to routes to West Asia, Mediterranean, North Africa, North America, Europe | Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, UP, parts of Rajasthan |
| Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva) | Satellite port of Mumbai | Largest container port | Overlaps Mumbai's |
| Mormugao | Entrance of the Zuari estuary, Goa; natural harbour | Remodelled in 1961 for iron-ore exports to Japan; Konkan Railway enlarged its hinterland | Goa, Karnataka, southern Maharashtra |
| New Mangalore | Karnataka | Iron ore and iron concentrates; also fertilisers, petroleum, edible oils, coffee, tea, wood pulp, yarn, granite, molasses | Karnataka |
| Cochin (Kochi) | Head of Vembanad Kayal; natural harbour; ‘Queen of the Arabian Sea’ | Close to the Suez–Colombo route | Kerala, southern Karnataka, south-western Tamil Nadu |
Exam traps
- Tuticorin is in Tamil Nadu, Mangalore in Karnataka, Paradip in Odisha — so a visitor need not go to Kerala (UPSC 1982).
- ‘Queen of the Arabian Sea’ = Kochi; the ‘largest container port’ (among major ports) = JNPT; ‘largest oil terminal’ = Mumbai in NCERT.
- NCERT's ‘Mumbai is the biggest port’ is dated: by cargo tonnage Deendayal and Paradip have led the major ports in recent years (Beyond NCERT).
7. Major ports of the east coast and sea routes
In simple wordsThe east coast is smoother and has fewer natural harbours, so engineers have had to help: a channel cut through rock at Visakhapatnam, an artificial harbour at Chennai, dredging on the Hugli. Its ports mostly ship bulk — iron ore and coal from the mineral belt of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
| Port (east) | Site | Speciality | Hinterland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (Kolkata) | On the Hugli, 128 km inland; developed by the British | Riverine; lost traffic to Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Haldia; silting of the Hugli; serves land-locked Nepal and Bhutan | UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, North-East |
| Haldia | 105 km downstream of Kolkata | Relieves Kolkata; bulk cargo — iron ore, coal, petroleum, fertilisers, jute, cotton yarn | Overlaps Kolkata's |
| Paradip | Mahanadi delta, about 100 km from Cuttack | Deepest harbour (NCERT), for very large vessels; iron-ore exports | Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand |
| Visakhapatnam | Andhra Pradesh; land-locked harbour joined to the sea by a channel cut through rock and sand | Outer harbour for iron ore, petroleum, general cargo | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana |
| Chennai | One of the oldest; artificial harbour, 1859 | Not suited to large ships — shallow water near the coast | Tamil Nadu, Puducherry |
| Kamarajar (Ennore) | 25 km north of Chennai | Relieves Chennai | Tamil Nadu |
| V.O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin) | Southern Tamil Nadu | Relieves Chennai; coal, salt, foodgrain, edible oils, sugar, chemicals, petroleum products | Southern Tamil Nadu |
Reading Fig. 8.4 — India: Major Ports and Sea Routes (page 91)A map of India with State boundaries, the Tropic of Cancer and a 600-km scale bar. West coast, north to south: Deendayal Port (Gulf of Kachchh, just south of the Tropic), Mumbai, Mormugao, Mangaluru, Cochin; east coast: Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Kolkata and Haldia (at the Tropic), Paradwip, Vishakhapatnam, Kamarajar (Ennore), Chennai, V.O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin); also Port Blair and Colombo. JNPT is not marked separately. Sea lanes radiate from Mumbai (to Karachi 500 NM, Aden 1,660, Mahé 1,750, Cape Town 4,800, Colombo 890) and from Chennai (to Kolkata 780, Yangon 1,020, Port Blair 700, Penang 1,300), plus Colombo–Kolkata 1,250. Mumbai is the western hub for West Asia, Africa and Europe; Chennai the eastern hub for South-East Asia and the islands.
⤵ Why the two coasts differ
West coastindented, with estuaries and creeks (Zuari, Gulf of Kachchh)
Natural harboursMumbai, Mormugao, Kochi
Faces Gulf, Europe, Africamost trade routes; more ports
East coastsmooth, with wide deltas and shallow water
Engineered harboursChennai (artificial), Visakhapatnam (cut channel), Kolkata (dredged river)
Mineral hinterlandiron ore and coal exports via Paradip, Haldia, Visakhapatnam
Exam traps
- Land-locked harbour = Visakhapatnam (NCERT exercise). The Class 10 NCERT calls it the ‘deepest land-locked and well-protected port’, while this chapter calls Paradip the deepest harbour — learn both phrasings.
- Artificial harbour = Chennai (1859); riverine = Kolkata; Haldia and Ennore and Tuticorin are relief ports.
- Kolkata is 128 km inland and Haldia 105 km downstream — so Haldia is much nearer the sea.
- Kamarajar (Ennore) is the first major port run as a company (UPSC 2023, already in Chapter 7).
8. Airports in international trade
In simple wordsYou would send a sack of rice by train but a phone or a bunch of roses by courier flight. Air cargo is the courier service of trade: fastest, priciest, and only worth it for light, valuable or perishable goods.
Air transport takes the least time and suits high-value or perishable goods over long distances, but it is very costly and unsuitable for heavy and bulky goods — so its share of trade is far smaller than ocean routes. There were 25 major airports (Annual Report 2016-17): Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Srinagar, Jaipur, Calicut, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Cochin, Lucknow, Pune, Chandigarh, Mangaluru, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Kannur. Since 2017 the UDAN scheme has operationalised 73 unserved or underserved airports, including 9 heliports and 2 water aerodromes (PIB, 2023).
Reading Fig. 8.5 — India: Air Routes (page 93)A map of India with dots for national airports and ringed dots for international airports, joined by lines for Indian and other airlines. Routes converge on Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai; Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Nagpur and Guwahati are secondary nodes, and the North-East has a dense web of short routes (Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Imphal, Agartala, Aizawl). International lines leave Mumbai westward ‘to Gulf/Europe/USA’, ‘to Bahrain/London’, Aden, Nairobi, Seychelles, Mauritius and Dubai; Delhi to Kabul, Lahore and Karachi; Kolkata to Dhaka, Chittagong and ‘Rangoon/Bangkok/Tokyo’; Chennai to Singapore and Sydney, Colombo and Port Blair. Place names like ‘Rangoon’ (now Yangon) show the map's age.
| Feature | Sea transport | Air transport |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Slow | Fastest |
| Cost per tonne | Cheapest | Very costly |
| Suits | Heavy, bulky: crude, ore, coal, grain, containers | Light, valuable, perishable: gems, medicines, electronics, flowers, fruit |
| Share of trade | ≈ 95% by volume, 70% by value (Chapter 7) | Small by volume, larger by value |
Exam traps
- NCERT's ‘25 major airports’ is from 2016-17 — counts change; quote the year.
- UDAN's 73 includes heliports and water aerodromes, not only airports.
- Cut flowers, fresh fruit and gems — growth items in this chapter — are exactly the goods that fly.
NCERT's in-text questions and activities — short answers
Calculate the percentage growth in trade in 2020-21 over 1950-51. (page 86)
(77,19,796 − 1,214) ÷ 1,214 × 100 ≈ 6,35,800 per cent; trade became about 6,360 times larger. (The ₹77,19,796 crore figure equals 2021-22 exports + imports in Table 8.1.)
Draw a bar diagram of the trends of exports of all items in Table 8.2; select major commodities exported in 2021-22 from Table 8.3 and draw a bar diagram. (pages 87–88)
Use one group of bars per year (or a 100% stacked bar per year) with a colour per commodity group — see the stacked chart in section 2. For Table 8.3: manufactured goods 21.3, mineral fuels 5.2, agriculture 3.8, ores 0.6 lakh crore — manufactures tower over the rest.
Arrange the items of Table 8.5 in order and name the first five imports of 2021-22. (page 88)
Petroleum, oil and lubricants (12.08 lakh crore) > non-ferrous metals (5.00) > chemical products (3.09) > pearls and precious stones (2.31) > edible oils (1.42); then fertilisers, iron and steel, pharma products, pulp and waste paper.
Why does India import edible oil in spite of being an agriculturally rich country? (page 88)
Oilseeds are grown mostly on rain-fed, marginal land with low yields; farmers prefer cereals with assured support prices and procurement; demand grows fast with population and income; tree-borne and rice-bran oils are under-used; imported palm and soybean oil are cheap.
Select five most and five least important import items and draw bar diagrams; identify imports for which substitutes can be developed in India. (page 88)
Most: POL, non-ferrous metals, chemicals, pearls and stones, edible oils; least: pulp and waste paper, pharma, iron and steel, fertilisers, edible oils. Substitutes: edible oils (oilseed mission, oil palm), fertilisers (nano-urea, new plants, organic manure), petroleum (ethanol blending, electric vehicles, renewables), chemicals and pharma inputs (domestic manufacture), iron and steel (India has ore and capacity).
Draw a multiple bar diagram to represent the major trading partners (Table 8.6). (page 89)
Two bars per region (2016-17 and 2021-22) — see the chart in section 4. Asia and ASEAN dwarf all other regions.
Find out the reasons for the variations in the location of ports along the two coasts. (page 90)
West coast: indented, with estuaries, creeks and deep water near shore — natural harbours; faces West Asia, Europe and Africa; so more ports. East coast: straight, with wide deltas, sandbars and shallow water — fewer natural harbours, so artificial or engineered ones; rivers bring silt (Hugli); faces South-East Asia; ports serve the mineral belt.
Name the nearest domestic and international airports to your place; identify the State with the maximum domestic airports; identify four cities where most air routes converge and give reasons. (page 92)
Answer from your own location. The four convergence cities on Fig. 8.5 are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai: metropolitan size, capital or commercial status, international gateways, central position in their regions, and large passenger and cargo demand. (The State with most airports should be checked in the current AAI list — it changes with UDAN.)
NCERT exercise — answer outlines
Try each question yourself first, then open the outline to compare. The three multiple-choice questions are in the self-check below.
Mention the characteristics of India's foreign trade. (30 words)
Rapid growth in value (₹1,214 crore → ₹77 lakh crore); persistent trade deficit; exports dominated by manufactures (67.8%); imports by petroleum, metals, gems, chemicals; Asia the main source; mostly by sea; only ≈ 1% of world trade.
Distinguish between port and harbour. (30 words)
A harbour is a sheltered water body where ships anchor safely — natural (Mumbai) or artificial (Chennai). A port is the place with docks, cranes, warehouses and transport links where cargo and passengers are handled. A port usually needs a harbour; a harbour need not be a port.
Explain the meaning of hinterland. (30 words)
The land area served by a port — the area from which it gets exports and to which it sends imports. Its size depends on transport links; it has no fixed boundary and often overlaps another port's (Konkan Railway widened Mormugao's).
Name important items which India imports from different countries. (30 words)
Petroleum, oil and lubricants (Gulf countries), non-ferrous metals, chemicals, pearls and precious stones, gold and silver, edible oils (palm oil from South-East Asia), fertilisers, machinery and capital goods, iron and steel, electronics.
Name the ports of India located on the east coast. (30 words)
Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (Kolkata) and Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Kamarajar (Ennore), Chennai and V.O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin).
Describe the composition of export and import trade of India. (150 words)
Exports (2021-22): manufactured goods 67.8% — engineering goods, gems and jewellery, chemicals and pharma, textiles; petroleum products 16.4% (refined from imported crude); agriculture and allied 11.9% — traditional items like cashew falling, floriculture, fruits, marine products and sugar rising; ores 2.0%. Trend: manufactures and agriculture shares falling, petroleum rising.
Imports: 1950s–60s foodgrain and machinery; Green Revolution ended foodgrain imports; after the 1973 oil shock, fertilisers and petroleum. Now fuel 31.6%, capital goods 10.1% and falling, food 4.4%, fertilisers 2.3%; principal items POL (₹12.1 lakh crore), non-ferrous metals, chemicals, pearls and stones, edible oils.
Conclusion: import bill driven by energy and gold; diversification of exports and import substitution (edible oil, fuel) are the policy answers.
Imports: 1950s–60s foodgrain and machinery; Green Revolution ended foodgrain imports; after the 1973 oil shock, fertilisers and petroleum. Now fuel 31.6%, capital goods 10.1% and falling, food 4.4%, fertilisers 2.3%; principal items POL (₹12.1 lakh crore), non-ferrous metals, chemicals, pearls and stones, edible oils.
Conclusion: import bill driven by energy and gold; diversification of exports and import substitution (edible oil, fuel) are the policy answers.
Write a note on the changing nature of the international trade of India. (150 words)
Volume: ₹1,214 crore (1950-51) to ₹77 lakh crore (2021-22), yet ≈ 1% of world trade. Balance: imports always higher — deficit ₹14.26 lakh crore in 2021-22.
Composition: from primary exports (tea, jute, cotton) to manufactures (two-thirds); from food imports to fuel, metals, gems and gold.
Direction: Asia and ASEAN now ≈ 64% of imports; partners diversified beyond the UK and USA.
Policy: from import substitution to liberalisation — lower duties, delicensing, product patents.
Gateways: 12 major + 200 minor ports; capacity 20 Mt → 837 Mt; private investment; air for high-value goods.
Conclusion: trade is larger, more diversified and more Asia-centred, but the deficit and oil dependence remain.
Composition: from primary exports (tea, jute, cotton) to manufactures (two-thirds); from food imports to fuel, metals, gems and gold.
Direction: Asia and ASEAN now ≈ 64% of imports; partners diversified beyond the UK and USA.
Policy: from import substitution to liberalisation — lower duties, delicensing, product patents.
Gateways: 12 major + 200 minor ports; capacity 20 Mt → 837 Mt; private investment; air for high-value goods.
Conclusion: trade is larger, more diversified and more Asia-centred, but the deficit and oil dependence remain.
What to remember
Numbers
Trade 1950-51₹1,214 crore
Trade 2021-22 (exports + imports)₹77,19,796 crore
India's share of world trade (NCERT)≈ 1%
Exports / imports 2021-22₹31,47,021 / ₹45,72,775 crore
Trade balance 2021-22−₹14,25,753 crore
Export shares 2021-22manufactures 67.8%, petroleum 16.4%, agriculture 11.9%, ores 2.0%
Import shares 2021-22fuel 31.6%, capital goods 10.1%, food 4.4%, fertilisers 2.3%
Top import 2021-22 (POL)₹12,07,803 crore (≈ 26% of imports)
Asia and ASEAN imports 2021-22₹29,18,577 crore (≈ 64%)
Ports12 major + ≈ 200 minor
Port capacity20 Mt (1951) → 837 Mt (2016)
Mumbai port20 km × 6–10 km, 54 berths
Kolkata / Haldia128 km inland / 105 km downstream
Paradip / Ennore≈ 100 km from Cuttack / 25 km north of Chennai
Mormugao remodelled / Chennai harbour1961 / 1859
Major airports (2016-17)25
UDAN (since 2017, PIB 2023)73 airports incl. 9 heliports, 2 water aerodromes
Longest route on Fig. 8.4Cape Town–Mumbai 4,800 NM
One-liners
- Imports have exceeded exports in every year NCERT shows.
- Two-thirds of exports are manufactures; a sixth are refined petroleum products.
- Fuel is the biggest import; capital goods' share is falling.
- Green Revolution ended foodgrain imports; the 1973 oil shock made petroleum the top import.
- Asia and ASEAN supply nearly two-thirds of imports.
- Major ports: Centre; minor ports: States.
- West coast: more and natural harbours; east coast: engineered harbours and mineral exports.
- Air cargo: fast and costly — for light, valuable, perishable goods.
Traps to avoid
- Land-locked harbour = Visakhapatnam; deepest harbour (this chapter) = Paradip.
- Artificial harbour = Chennai (1859); riverine = Kolkata.
- Kolkata and Haldia are one major port — hence 12 major ports, 13 names.
- ₹77,19,796 crore is the 2021-22 total, though the text says 2020-21.
- Table 8.4 does not add to 100 — gold and gems are left out.
- India's goods trade is in deficit, but its services trade is in surplus.
- Largest farm import = edible (vegetable) oils, not pulses.
- Diamond exports rest on cutting imported rough, not on Indian mines.
How to strategise
Prelims — what UPSC asks
- Trade composition and balance: top foreign-exchange earner (1979), adverse balance from oil and machines (1989), import order (1996), crude share and top import 2001-02 (2003), largest farm export (2002), no-surplus assertion (2004), edible-oil dependence (2004) and largest farm import (2019), goods vs services (2020), India's 3.2% claim (2023), diamond exports (1993).
- Direction: largest trading partner USA (1992, 2002), destination pairs (1997), Middle East imports (1996), Chabahar (2017).
- Ports: port–State pairs (1982), first EPZ at Kandla (2009), private port in Andhra Pradesh (2009), Rajasthan inland port (2016), Vizhinjam (2026). Learn the port table with site, speciality and renamed names.
Mains — where it appears and how to answer
- GS3: gold imports and the balance of payments (2015), labour-intensive exports (2017), maritime security for sea trade (2025). GS1: from net food importer to exporter (2023).
- Answer frame: trend (NCERT values, deficit) → composition (manufactures, petroleum, gems; fuel and gold imports) → direction (Asia-centred) → gateways (ports, hinterlands, air) → problems (oil dependence, deficit, port congestion, silting) → measures (export diversification, import substitution, Sagarmala, logistics).
- Draw the exports-vs-imports bars, the coast ladder of ports or the hinterland sketch — schematic, without an outline of India.
Self-check
Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.
1. Trade between two countries is termed as:
2. Which one of the following is a land-locked harbour?
3. Most of India's foreign trade is carried through:
4. Which port was developed to make up for the loss of Karachi at Partition?
5. In 2021-22, which group had the largest share of India's exports?
6. Which port is an artificial harbour built in 1859 and unsuitable for large ships?
7. Which agricultural commodity has been India's largest import by value?
8. Which port is the largest container port in India according to NCERT?
UPSC questions from this chapter
Open any question to attempt it in the Question bank — your attempt is saved to your progress.