INDUSTRIES
Punjab has essentially an agrarian economy with a low industrial output. The
absence of basic minerals is the main reason for low level of industrial
progress. A notable feature of the industrial scenario of the Punjab is its
small-sized industrial units. There are 194,000 small scale industrial units in
the state in addition to 586 large and medium units.
IMPORTANT INDUSTRIES
Industrial units in the state are namely divided into three:
1. Agro-based industrial
units:- These may be classified as food products,
beverages, cotton, wood and paper industries.
2. Machinery units
3. Chemical units
Some notable industries are:
COTTON TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Punjab produces about 70 percent of the best quality cotton
in India. The
easy availability of the raw material facilitates the localisation of this
industry in Punjab. In spite of several advantages, there is one main
disadvantage that the total spindlage capacity of the state is only 1.5 percent
of the country.
The cotton mills are located at
Abohar, Malout, Phagwara, Amristar, Kharar
and Ludhiana. Malerkotla, Abohar, Malout and Bhatinda are important for cotton
ginning and pressing and about 25.3 lakh bales of cotton are pressed annually
over here. About 97 million kgs of yarn and 36.5 million metres of cloth
were produced in the cotton textile mills of Punjab.
SUGAR INDUSTRY
The Sugar mills in Punjab are located at
Batala, Gurdaspur, Bhogpur, Phagwara, Nawanshahar, Zira, Morinda, Rakhra, Dhuri,
Fazilka, Nakodar, Budhewal, Bhatinda
and Jagraon.
A salient feature of the Sugar industry is that out of the 14 mills,12 are
in the Co-operative sector and only two are privately owned. Compared to Uttar
Pradesh and some other states, the size of the sugar mills in Punjab is
small. The Co-operative sugar mill at Morinda is the biggest in the state with a
daily crushing capacity of 4,000 tonnes of sugarcane.
DAIRY INDUSTRY
The primary source of milk and other dairy products in the state is the buffalo.
Punjab ranks at the top in the country is the availability of milk. A major part
of the milk produced in the state is consumed at the individual household level,
only a limited quantity of milk is produced and processed in the milk plant.
In Punjab there are milk plants in the Public Sector,
Private sector and Co-operative sector. The plants are mainly located at Verka (Amristar
district), Ludhiana, Mohali, Jalandhar, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur,
Ferozepur, Sangrur, Bhatinda, Faridkot, Nabha, Moga, Kot Kapura and Hamira. The
plant at Moga, known as Food Specialities, is the biggest
plant in the state with a processing capacity of 435 thousand litres of milk.
This plant produces a variety of milk products like ghee, sweets, lassi
etc.
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