Overview
• Production and exchange are both parts of tertiary activity. production entails ‘supply’ of ‘consumed’ services. Wages and salaries are used to measure output indirectly.
• Trade, transportation, and communication infrastructures are all employed to overcome distance in exchange. As a result, tertiary activities focus on commercial output of services rather than manufacture of tangible things. They aren’t involved in physical processing of raw materials.
• Quinary actions are carried out by highest level of decision makers or policymakers. These are distinct from knowledge-based sectors that quinary sector deals with in general.
Types of Tertiary Activities
• Tertiary activities are divided into four categories. Trade, transportation, communication, and services are four categories. Providing services in exchange for money is one of them.
Trade and Commerce
• Buying and selling products made elsewhere is essence of trade and business. Trading centres are collecting and distribution points where trading takes place. These centres are organised into following categories:
(1) Rural Marketing Centres: These centres are semi-urban in nature and serve local needs and areas. Mandis [wholesale marketplaces] and retail markets are found in majority of these places. In rural places, there are weekly or biweekly markets, and people from surrounding areas meet its demand. Markets are held on specific dates, and vendors travel from one location to next.
(2) Urban Marketing Centres: These markets sell and provide both common and specialised goods and services, such as labour, housing, & semior finished products, for example. Educational institutions and professions such as teachers, doctors, & lawyers expand their services.
(3) Retail Trading: It is a sort of trading in which things are sold directly to customers. Fixed businesses or stores, small shops, consumer cooperatives, large departmental stores, and chain stores are all used in this trade. chain stores buy in bulk and then pay qualified specialists to handle administrative responsibilities. Non-store retailing includes street selling, handcarts, trucks, door-to-door, mail order, telephone, and Internet.
(4) Wholesale Trading: Numerous intermediate retailers buy in bulk straight from manufacturer in this area. Retailers are given credit by merchants/wholesalers.
Transport
• People, resources, and manufactured goods are physically transported from one location to another in transportation, which is a tertiary activity. Distance, duration, & cost are all factors to consider while choosing a means of transportation. Distance is measured in kilometres, time is recorded in minutes, and cost of travelling on a route is measured in dollars or Rupee.
Factors Affecting Transport
• Demand and routes are two main factors that affect transport services.
• Demand is determined by population size and people’s standard of living. demand for transportation increases as population grows.
• Route refers to transportation network that is determined by location of cities, towns, villages, industrial centres, raw material availability, landscape, climate, & financial resources, among other factors.
Communication
• Words, messages, data, & ideas are all transmitted through communication services. As communications are done or propagated by means of hand, animals, boat, road, rail, & air, development of transportation improved communication. However, new technology, such as mobile phones, telephony, and satellites, has made communication independent of transportation. following are some of communication services:
(1) Telecommunications: development of modern technology has revolutionised communication, making it direct and instantaneous, as with telegraph, morse code, and telex in previous century, and now satellites, mobile phones, and telephony, among other things.
(2) Mass media communication: It refers to ways through which communications can be broadcasted to a large audiences around world, such as through radio, television, and newspapers. Internet has changed way people communicate around world.
Network
• A network is a well-developed transportation system with nodes and links. A node is a site where two or more routes intersect, while a link is a road that connects two nodes.
Services
• There are many levels of service provision and utilisation. Some are designed for industry, while others are designed for both industry and people, such as transportation. There are three sub-categories of services. They are as follows:
(1) Low-order: These services include grocery stores, laundries, and other commonplace services.
(2) Domestic Services: Housekeepers, chefs, & gardeners are among domestic service workers who travel from rural areas in pursuit of work.
(3) High Order Services: Accountants, consultants, and physicians are examples of high-order services, which are specialised and less widespread. Government oversees and/or regulates some services, such as construction and maintenance of roadways, bridges, fire departments, education, and healthcare.
• As a result, services are available in organised sector, which is either government-owned or controlled by large enterprises. Some can be found in unorganised sector, such as low-cost and domestic services. dabbawala service in Mumbai, India, is an example of an unorganised sector service.
• People Engaged in Tertiary Activities: Previously, more individuals were employed in primary and secondary industries since these sectors offered greater job opportunities. However, jobs are now being shifted to tertiary service sectors. When compared to less developed countries, developed countries employ a higher share of workers in service sector.
Some Selected Examples
• Some of selected examples that are related to people engaged in tertiary activities are as follows:
Medical Services for Overseas Patients in India
• When medical care is mixed with foreign tourism, this is called medical tourism. People from industrialised countries, such as United States, travel to India for medical tourism or other services. This benefits India as well as other nations where medical tourism is popular, such as Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
• Other medical-related operations are carried out in India, Australia, and Switzerland, including outsourcing of medical testing, data interpretation, reading radiology images, interpreting Magnetic Resonance Images [MRIs], and ultrasound tests.
Tourism
• Tourism is a subset of service sector that relates to leisure travel rather than business travel. People are employed in this industry as they provide lodging, meals, transportation, entertainment, infrastructure, retail trading, and crafts.
Tourist Regions
• Warmer places around Mediterranean coast, West coast of India during winters, mountains in summers, or winter destinations regions located primarily in mountainous areas are examples of tourism that can be seasonal or year-round.
• Historic towns, religious sites, and heritage sites all offer year-round tourism. Tourism-Related Factors
• tourism business is growing as a result of increased demand, which is impacted by rising living standards and more leisure time.
• Another factor is improvement in transportation that has made travel easier and destinations reachable.
Tourist Attractions
• Tourist attractions are unique aspects of a location that draw visitors in. following are some of them:
(1) Climate: During winter holidays, regions with bright sunny weather, such as beaches in Southern Europe, are chosen, thus attracting a larger number of tourists.
(2) Landscape: Mountains, lakes, stunning sea beaches, and landscapes that have not been fully affected by man are all popular tourist destinations.
(3) History and Art: Tourists are drawn to ancient or scenic towns, archaeological sites, and historically significant destinations with castles and palaces.
(4) Culture and Economy: People are drawn to areas with diverse cultures because they want to learn about ethnic and local customs. Cheap home stays in Goa, Madikeri, & Coorg in Karnataka are examples of places that provide economic benefits.
Quaternary Activities
• Quaternary activities are those that are knowledgeoriented and involve gathering, production, and transmission of information. They are focused on advancement of research and may require specialised knowledge and technological abilities.
• Quaternary activities include software developers, mutual fund managers, doctors, accountants, and brokerage businesses, to name a few. Even if they are not dependent on resources or affected by environment or markets, they can be outsourced. This sector has supplanted primary and secondary sectors in industrialised nations, and it now employs half of population. It encompasses actions that are highly specific and specialised. High-level decision-makers, administrators, government officials, research scientists, and others fall into this category. They’re sometimes referred to as gold collar jobs.
Outsourcing
• It entails contracting out or delegating work to a third party in order to increase efficiency and cut costs. When work is shifted to an overseas site, it is referred to as off shoring.
• Outsourcing creates jobs in emerging countries such as India, China, & Botswana. Outsourcing includes information technology, human resources, customer service, call centres, data processing, and other ITrelated activities.
Quinary Activities
• highest level of decision makers or policy makers perform quinary activities.
• Quinary activities are services that focus on creation, re-arrangement and interpretation of new and existing ideas; data interpretation and use and evaluation of new technologies.
KPO
• KPO stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing which involves skilled workers and it thus enables companies to create additional business opportunities, for example e-learning, business research.
BPO
• BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing, and it refers to customer service, call centres, and other similar procedures.
• These jobs are transferred to industrialised countries because overhead expenses are substantially lower, making job work profitable.
Digital Divide
• impact of information and communication technology is unevenly distributed over world. Some areas have thrived, while others have struggled. It is referred to as digital divide.
• This type of split is more prevalent in underdeveloped countries than in wealthy countries. Metropolitan areas are more developed than rural ones in this country.