NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science (Exploring Society) Chapter 14: Economic Activities Around Us

These Class 6 Social Science Exploring Society Chapter 14 solutions cover Economic Activities Around Us from Exploring Society: India and Beyond, the new NCF-2023 textbook for the 2026–27 session. The chapter belongs to the theme Economic Life Around Us and explains how economic activities are classified into the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, what differentiates them, and how the three sectors are interconnected — illustrated through the inspiring story of the AMUL dairy cooperative. Below you get step-by-step answers to all Questions, activities and projects, clear notes on key terms, extra practice, MCQs, Assertion–Reason and FAQs.

Class: 6 Subject: Social Science Book: Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter: 14 Theme: Economic Life Around Us Session: 2026–27
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Class 6 Social Science Exploring Society Chapter 14 – Overview

Chapter 14, Economic Activities Around Us, builds on the idea from Chapter 13 that activities which create monetary value are called economic activities. As societies progressed, the number of such activities grew enormously, so we group those that share similar characteristics into broad economic sectors. The chapter explains the three main sectors: the primary sector (people depend directly on Nature to produce goods — agriculture, mining, fishing, raising livestock, forestry); the secondary sector (people process the outputs of the primary sector into new goods — construction, manufacturing, utilities like water and electricity); and the tertiary or service sector (people provide services that support the other two — transport, trade, banking, communication, healthcare). It then shows how the three sectors are interconnected through the famous story of AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited), a dairy cooperative set up in 1946 that freed farmers from middlemen and brought them prosperity by handling milk collection, processing and sale together.

Key Concepts & Terms

Economic activity: any activity that creates monetary value, that is, value that can be measured in terms of money (such as farming, manufacturing or running a shop).

Economic sectors: broad groups that bring together various activities sharing similar characteristics; these activities help with the economic prosperity of a nation. The three sectors are primary, secondary and tertiary.

Primary sector: the group of activities that involves the extraction of raw materials directly from Nature — farming, mining, fishing, forestry, raising livestock, poultry, etc. Here people depend directly on Nature to produce goods.

Secondary sector: the group of activities that involves the processing of raw materials derived from the primary sector into products for sale or consumption — manufacturing in factories, construction, and utilities like water, electricity and gas.

Tertiary (service) sector: the group of activities that provides services which complement both the primary and secondary sectors — transportation, trade, banking, communication, software, healthcare, education and management of business.

Cooperative: a group of people who voluntarily come together to meet their economic and social needs in a formal way; they own the cooperative and take decisions collectively.

Middlemen: persons who buy goods from producers and sell them to consumers, charging a fee for this service.

AMUL: the Anand Milk Union Limited, a milk cooperative set up in 1946 in Anand district, Gujarat, under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel and Dr. Varghese Kurien, after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel advised the farmers to form a cooperative.

Other key terms: Pasteurisation (preserving milk by heating it to a specific temperature to kill harmful bacteria), Warehouses (large buildings used for storing products), Retail (the sale of goods in small quantities to the end consumer), and Export (goods and services produced in one country and sold to buyers in another country).

“Questions, activities and projects” — Full Solutions

All questions below are reproduced verbatim from the NCERT textbook’s end-of-chapter Questions, activities and projects section. Answers are original, written in exam-ready style.

1. What is the primary sector? How is it different from the secondary sector? Give two examples.

ANSWER The primary sector is the group of economic activities in which people are directly dependent on Nature to produce goods. It involves the extraction of raw materials directly from Nature, such as farming, fishing, forestry, mining and raising livestock. How it is different from the secondary sector: in the primary sector, raw materials are taken directly from Nature, whereas in the secondary sector people depend on the outputs of the primary sector and transform or process them to produce new goods in factories and production units. In short, the primary sector produces raw materials and the secondary sector processes them into finished products. Two examples of the primary sector: (i) cultivating grains and vegetables on agricultural farms, and (ii) extracting coal from mines (other valid examples are fishing, forestry and raising livestock).

2. How does the secondary sector depend on the tertiary sector? Illustrate with a few examples.

ANSWER The secondary sector manufactures and processes goods, but on its own it cannot reach the raw materials it needs or deliver its finished products to buyers. It depends on the tertiary (service) sector for the support services that make this possible. Examples of this dependence: 1. Transportation — trucks, lorries, railways, ships and aircraft carry raw materials to factories and move the finished products to markets, shops and other states. 2. Trade and retail — traders, wholesalers and retail shops sell the factory’s goods to consumers, so the goods actually get used. 3. Banking — banks lend money, handle payments and help factories run smoothly. 4. Communication — mobile, internet and other communication services let factories take orders, manage supplies and stay in touch with customers. Without these services, a factory could not get raw materials, run its operations or sell its products, so the secondary sector clearly depends on the tertiary sector.

3. Give an example of interdependence between primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Show it using a flow diagram.

ANSWER A clear example of interdependence between all three sectors is the AMUL dairy cooperative from Anand district in Gujarat, described in the chapter: Primary activity: the farmers milk their cows and buffaloes and sell the milk to the dairy. Milk is obtained directly from a natural source (livestock), so this is a primary sector activity. Secondary activity: at the factory the milk is processed and converted from one form (liquid) into another — milk powder, ghee, cheese, butter and other products. Processing milk into new goods is a secondary sector activity. Tertiary activity: AMUL uses lorries, trucks, railways, air and shipping to transport its products, and sells them through retail stores and shops across India (and even exports them). Transportation, trading and retail are tertiary sector activities. All three depend on one another: without farmers there is no milk, without factories there are no products, and without transport and shops the products never reach consumers. Flow diagram: Farmers milk cows/buffaloes (Primary) → Milk processed into butter, ghee, milk powder in factory (Secondary) → Products transported and sold in shops / exported (Tertiary) → Reach the consumer.

Note: The textbook also includes in-chapter activities — Think About It (recalling primary activities you have seen and the natural resources used), two Let’s Explore prompts (naming two more secondary-sector activities, and labelling the paper-to-textbook stages in Fig. 14.1 as primary, secondary and tertiary), and a neighbourhood project. These are personal observation and project tasks; sample answers are given in the extra-practice section below.

Extra Practice Questions

Short Answer Type Questions

Q1. What is an economic activity?

ANSWERAn economic activity is any activity that creates monetary value — that is, value that can be measured in terms of money. Farming, manufacturing furniture, running a shop and working in a bank are all examples of economic activities.

Q2. Name the three main economic sectors.

ANSWERThe three main economic sectors are the primary sector, the secondary sector and the tertiary (service) sector. Activities with similar characteristics are grouped into these broad sectors.

Q3. Why is the tertiary sector also called the service sector?

ANSWERThe tertiary sector is called the service sector because it provides services — such as transport, banking, communication, healthcare, education and teaching — that support people working in the primary and secondary sectors, rather than producing or processing goods.

Q4. What is a cooperative? Name one milk cooperative other than AMUL.

ANSWERA cooperative is a group of people who voluntarily come together to meet their economic and social needs in a formal way; the members own the cooperative and take decisions together. Other milk cooperatives include Nandini (Karnataka), Mother Dairy (Delhi-NCR), Aavin (Tamil Nadu), Verka (Punjab) and Sudha (Bihar).

Q5. Who set up AMUL, and when?

ANSWERAMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited) was set up in 1946 under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, a lawyer and freedom fighter, and Dr. Varghese Kurien, an engineer. It was formed after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel advised the farmers of Anand to start a cooperative.

Long Answer Type Questions

Q1. Explain the three economic sectors with one example each.

ANSWEREconomic activities are classified into three sectors based on their characteristics. The primary sector includes activities in which people depend directly on Nature to produce goods by extracting raw materials — for example, a farmer growing wheat on a field. The secondary sector includes activities in which the outputs of the primary sector are processed and transformed into new goods in factories — for example, wheat being ground into flour in a mill, or cotton being made into cloth. The tertiary or service sector includes activities that provide services to support the other two sectors — for example, a truck driver transporting grains from the farm to the market, or a teacher, doctor or banker offering their services. Together, these three sectors carry a product from the natural source all the way to the final consumer.

Q2. Describe the story of AMUL and how it helped the farmers of Anand.

ANSWERAbout 50 years before the time of the textbook’s story, the farmers of Anand district in Gujarat had to cycle or walk long distances in scorching heat to sell their milk to neighbouring villages before it spoiled. They depended on middlemen who bought the milk in bulk at very low prices, and the farmers often felt cheated and harassed. One day the farmers collectively approached the national leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who advised them to form a cooperative so they could become independent of the middlemen. Following his advice, AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited) was set up in 1946 under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel and Dr. Varghese Kurien. The cooperative let the farmers, including women, handle the collection, pasteurisation, processing and sale of milk themselves and take decisions collectively. Their income rose gradually, they no longer needed the middlemen, and they became like one big family. As it grew, AMUL set up a factory in Anand to make butter and milk powder, and today it sells a wide range of products across India and even exports them.

Q3. Make a list of economic activities you might find in your neighbourhood and label them as primary, secondary or tertiary, explaining how they depend on one another.

ANSWERIn a typical neighbourhood we can find activities from all three sectors. Primary: a vegetable farmer or a person rearing cows or hens depends directly on Nature to produce goods. Secondary: a flour mill, a bakery or a small furniture workshop processes raw materials (grain, wood) into finished products. Tertiary: the grocery shop, the auto-rickshaw or delivery van, the bank, the clinic and the mobile-repair shop provide services. These are connected: the farmer’s grain (primary) goes to the mill to become flour and to the bakery to become bread (secondary), and the delivery van and shops (tertiary) carry and sell it to customers. If one activity stopped — say transport — the goods could not move, and the others would suffer, which shows how the sectors depend on each other. (Use the actual activities you see around you in your own answer.)

MCQs & Assertion–Reason

1. Activities that create monetary value are called:

(a) non-economic activities    (b) economic activities    (c) leisure activities    (d) cultural activities

2. How many main economic sectors are there?

(a) two    (b) three    (c) four    (d) five

3. Which of the following is a primary sector activity?

(a) Manufacturing cars    (b) Banking    (c) Fishing    (d) Software development

4. The sector that processes raw materials into new products in factories is the:

(a) primary sector    (b) secondary sector    (c) tertiary sector    (d) natural sector

5. Transportation, banking and communication are examples of the:

(a) primary sector    (b) secondary sector    (c) tertiary sector    (d) raw-material sector

6. The tertiary sector is also known as the:

(a) farming sector    (b) service sector    (c) factory sector    (d) mining sector

7. AMUL was set up in the year:

(a) 1940    (b) 1946    (c) 1956    (d) 1966

8. Who advised the farmers of Anand to form a cooperative?

(a) Dr. Varghese Kurien    (b) Tribhuvandas Patel    (c) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel    (d) Jawaharlal Nehru

9. Persons who buy goods from producers and sell them to consumers for a fee are called:

(a) cooperatives    (b) middlemen    (c) farmers    (d) engineers

10. Converting milk into butter and milk powder in a factory is an example of a:

(a) primary sector activity    (b) secondary sector activity    (c) tertiary sector activity    (d) non-economic activity

Answer key: 1-(b), 2-(b), 3-(c), 4-(b), 5-(c), 6-(b), 7-(b), 8-(c), 9-(b), 10-(b).

For each Assertion–Reason question, choose: (A) Both true and the Reason correctly explains the Assertion; (B) Both true but the Reason is not the correct explanation; (C) Assertion true, Reason false; (D) Assertion false, Reason true.

A-R 1. Assertion: Farming and fishing belong to the primary sector.

Reason: In primary sector activities, people are directly dependent on Nature to produce goods by extracting raw materials.

A-R 2. Assertion: The secondary sector depends on the primary sector.

Reason: The secondary sector processes the raw materials produced by the primary sector into new goods.

A-R 3. Assertion: The tertiary sector produces raw materials directly from Nature.

Reason: The tertiary sector provides services such as transport, trade and banking that support the other two sectors.

A-R 4. Assertion: AMUL helped the farmers of Anand become independent of middlemen.

Reason: As a cooperative, the farmers handled the collection, processing and sale of milk themselves and took decisions collectively.

A-R 5. Assertion: The three economic sectors work in isolation from one another.

Reason: The three sectors together convert natural raw materials into finished products for the final consumer.

Answer key: 1-(A), 2-(A), 3-(D), 4-(A), 5-(D).

Exam Tips & Common Mistakes

How to score full marks in this chapter

Memorise the clear definition of each sector — primary (extracts raw materials directly from Nature), secondary (processes those raw materials into new goods), tertiary (provides supporting services) — and keep two examples of each ready. For interdependence questions, always use the textbook’s AMUL example and draw a simple flow diagram from farmer → factory → shop → consumer. Remember the key facts about AMUL: founded in 1946, in Anand (Gujarat), advised by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, led by Tribhuvandas Patel and Dr. Varghese Kurien.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Confusing the sectors — remember primary produces, secondary processes, tertiary serves.
  • Calling manufacturing or factory work a primary activity — it is a secondary activity.
  • Thinking the sectors work separately — they are interconnected and depend on one another.
  • Mixing up the founders of AMUL with the leader who advised forming the cooperative (Sardar Patel advised; Tribhuvandas Patel and Dr. Varghese Kurien led it).
  • Forgetting that the tertiary sector is also called the service sector.
  • Leaving activity/project questions blank — write your own examples from your neighbourhood.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chapter 14 of Class 6 Social Science Exploring Society about?

Chapter 14, Economic Activities Around Us, explains how economic activities are classified into the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, what differentiates them, and how the three sectors are interconnected — illustrated through the story of the AMUL dairy cooperative.

What is the difference between the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors?

The primary sector extracts raw materials directly from Nature (farming, fishing, mining). The secondary sector processes those raw materials into new goods in factories (manufacturing, construction). The tertiary or service sector provides supporting services such as transport, trade, banking and communication.

What is the exercise heading for Chapter 14 of Exploring Society?

The end-of-chapter exercise in Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 14 is headed Questions, activities and projects and contains 3 numbered questions, all answered step by step on this page.

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