All economic activities namely primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary, revolve around obtaining and utilising resources necessary for survival. Secondary activities add value to natural resources by transforming raw materials into valuable products.
Cotton in the boll has limited use but after it is transformed into yarn, becomes more valuable and can be used for making clothes. Iron ore, cannot be used; directly from the mines, but after being converted into steel it gets its value and can be used for making many valuable machines, tools, etc. The same is true of most of the materials from the farm, forest, mine and the sea. Secondary activities, therefore, are concerned with manufacturing, processing and construction (infrastructure) industries.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing involves a full array of production from handicrafts to moulding iron and steel and stamping out plastic toys to assembling delicate computer components or space vehicles. In each of these processes, the common characteristics are the application of power, mass production of identical products and specialised labour in factory settings for the production of standardised commodities.
Manufacturing may be done with modern power and machinery or it may still be very primitive. Most of the Third World countries still ‘manufacture’ in the literal sense of the term. It is difficult to present a full picture of all the manufacturers in these countries. More emphasis is given to the kind of ‘industrial’ activity which involves less complicated systems of production.