Assam HS Economic Geography key terms

The branch of geography that studies how people make a living from the earth, examining where production, exchange and consumption occur and why those patterns differ from place to place.

A method of explaining why an activity sits where it does by weighing costs of transport, land, labour and access to markets, often using models of least-cost or maximum-profit position.

Work that directly harvests or extracts natural resources, such as farming, fishing, forestry and mining, producing raw materials that later stages may process.

Work that transforms raw materials into finished or semi-finished goods, covering manufacturing, processing and construction, and typically adding value through labour and machinery.

Work that provides services rather than goods, including trade, transport, banking, tourism, education and health, often located near the customers who use them.

Highly specialised knowledge work such as research, consultancy, software design, data analysis and higher education, where information and expertise are the main product being sold.

Farming whose output mainly feeds the farmer's own household, with little surplus sold, usually involving small plots, family labour and simple tools.

Farming organised to sell most of its output in markets, often using hired labour, purchased inputs and larger holdings to raise productivity and profit.

A rotational system in which forest patches are cleared and burned, cropped for a few years, then abandoned to regenerate while the farmer moves to a new plot.

The local name in North-East India for slash-and-burn shifting cultivation, practised on hill slopes with short cropping and long fallow periods, now under pressure from shortening fallows.

Large-scale farming of a single cash crop such as tea, rubber or coffee, usually for export, requiring substantial capital, processing facilities and a resident labour force.

The mid-twentieth-century spread of high-yielding seed varieties with fertiliser, irrigation and pesticides, which sharply raised cereal output in parts of Asia including India.

The number of crops harvested from the same field in a year, expressed as a percentage of the sown area relative to net sown area; higher values indicate more intensive land use.

Farming that supports many people per hectare through heavy hand labour, multiple cropping and careful water and manure management on small holdings.

The choice of where to place a factory, shaped by access to raw materials, power, labour, transport, markets, capital and government policy incentives.

Alfred Weber's model holding that a factory will locate where total transport and labour costs are lowest, pulling towards material sources or markets depending on weight loss in processing.

The weight of localised raw material needed to produce one unit of finished product; a high index pulls industry towards the material source, a low index towards the market.

Cost savings that firms gain by clustering near one another, through shared suppliers, skilled labour pools, infrastructure and quicker exchange of information.

A manufacturing activity with no strong pull to raw materials or markets because its products are light and valuable, so it can locate almost anywhere costs and policy favour.

A planned area with roads, power and water provided for a group of factories, often developed by government to attract firms and reduce their setup costs.

A demarcated area where firms receive tax concessions, simplified regulation and better infrastructure to boost exports and attract investment.

The total market value of goods and services produced within a country's borders in a year, widely used to compare the size and growth of economies.

A composite measure combining life expectancy, education and income per person to rank countries by how far they enable people to live long, informed and decent lives.

Average income per person, found by dividing total national income by population; a rough indicator of living standards that hides inequality within a country.

The historical shift of populations from high birth and death rates through a phase of rapid growth to low birth and death rates as health and prosperity improve.

A paired bar graph showing the number of males and females in each age group, revealing whether a population is young, ageing or distorted by migration or war.

The number of children and elderly people per hundred working-age persons, indicating how heavy the burden on earners is in a given population.

Conditions that drive people away from a place, such as poverty or conflict, and conditions that attract them elsewhere, such as jobs or safety, together explaining migration.

The movement of people from villages to towns and cities, usually seeking work, education or services, and a major cause of rapid urban growth in developing economies.

The rising share of a country's population living in towns and cities, accompanied by the growth of urban employment, housing and infrastructure.

The part of the population that is working or actively seeking work, usually counted within specified age limits and classified by sector of employment.

Unregistered and largely unregulated economic activity, such as street vending or home-based piecework, that employs many workers without contracts or social security.

A situation where workers are engaged in jobs below their skill level or for fewer hours than they want, so their productive capacity is not fully used.

A natural resource that can be replenished by natural processes within a human lifetime, such as solar energy, wind, flowing water, forests and fertile soil, if used within limits.

A resource formed over geological time, such as coal, petroleum or metal ore, whose stock is finite and is depleted once extracted and consumed.

The exhaustion or serious reduction of a natural resource through overuse, so that remaining supplies become scarcer, costlier or of lower quality.

Development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, balancing economic growth with environmental care and social equity.

The area of land and water needed to supply a person's or a country's resources and absorb its wastes, used to compare consumption against available biocapacity.

The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels or clearing forests, a principal driver of climate change linked to energy use.

The plantation-based cultivation and processing of tea, mainly in the Brahmaputra valley, that makes Assam one of the world's largest tea-producing regions and a major employer.

The broad flood plain of the Brahmaputra river running across Assam, holding most of the state's population, agriculture, tea gardens and oil and gas fields.

The flat land beside a river that is periodically covered by floodwater, leaving fertile silt and supporting dense farming, though also exposed to damage.

Fertile soil deposited by rivers, rich in potash and lime but often low in nitrogen and organic matter, supporting intensive cultivation on flood plains and deltas.

Cultivation on stepped platforms cut into hillsides to hold soil and water, common in mountain areas where flat land is scarce.

A city that is disproportionately larger than the second city of its country, dominating its economy, politics and culture.

An economy in which growth depends mainly on producing and applying ideas, skills and technology rather than on materials and manual labour.

Manufacturing aimed chiefly at foreign markets, often in zones where imported parts are assembled and re-exported with duty concessions.