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Class 12 Tertiary and Quaternary Activities: cheat sheet
CBSE Social Science. Services: trade, transport and communication, personal and professional services, tourism, and the knowledge-based quaternary and quinary activities, outsourcing and the digital divide.
Key ideas
- Tertiary activities are services that rely on skill and knowledge rather than machines: trade, transport, communication and services.
- Retail trade sells directly to consumers; wholesale trade deals in bulk through intermediaries; periodic markets meet on fixed days in rural areas.
- Low-order services (grocery, laundry) are common; high-order ones (consultants, specialists) are specialised and fewer.
- Tourism draws people by climate, landscape, history and art, and culture; medical tourism combines treatment with travel.
- Quaternary activities handle information and research; quinary activities are the highest decision making (gold-collar work).
- Outsourcing gives work to outside agencies (KPO is the highly skilled kind); moving work overseas is offshoring.
- The digital divide is the gap in ICT access between and within countries.
Remember
| Time distance | distance ÷ speed |
| Carriers needed | customers ÷ deliveries per carrier |
| Workers in a sector | per cent × total workers ÷ 100 |
| Saving by outsourcing | hours × (home rate − outsourced rate) |
| Collar colours | red: primary; blue: factory; white: office; gold: senior decision making |
| Isochrone | a line joining places equal in time to reach |
Watch out
- Calling software development tertiary instead of quaternary.
- Mixing up quaternary (knowledge work) and quinary (top decision making).
- Confusing an isochrone with an isotherm or isobar.
Worked example
Suppose a firm pays ₹4,700 an hour for data work at home and ₹3,300 an hour by outsourcing it overseas. How much does it save on 2,100 hours, and what is this kind of outsourcing called?
Working: 2,100 × (₹4,700 − ₹3,300)
Answer: ₹2,940,000; offshoring
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