There are three main fields of economic activity

1. Primary Sector,

2. Secondary Sector and

3. Service Sector.

1. Primary Sector: 

The sector providing raw material for food commodities and industrially manufactured goods is known as ‘Primary Sector’. Forest, mining, animal husbandry, fisheries, etc. that provide raw material for food and industry are included in primary sector. Grains, fruits and vegetables as well as vegetation are examples of this. Wood, medicinal herbs, gum, resin, lac, etc. are obtained from forests.

Milk, meat, bones and leather are obtained from animals. Fish are obtained from water. Minerals are obtained from underground. This is how forest areas, mining areas, animal husbandry areas, fisheries, etc. provide raw material for food commodities and industrially manufactured goods.

2. Secondary Sector (Manufacturing Sector):

Certain primary products can be used only after they have been processed into a finished product. Such economic activity is called the activity of the ‘Secondary Sector’. The secondary sector (also known as the manufacturing sector) includes small and large scale industries, manufacturing machinery, units manufacturing electrical equipments, consumer goods, chemicals and dyes, clothes, defence equipment, etc. 

For e.g., making cloth from cotton, oil from cotton seeds, jaggery and sugar from sugarcane, bricks from soil, etc.

The secondary sector includes units producing machines, transport and communication facilities, electricity, final products, mineral industries, industries manufacturing arms and ammunition, dyes and chemicals, cloth factories, and units manufacturing handicrafts and all other goods.

3. Service Sector:

The Service Sector is also known as the Tertiary Sector. The Primary and the Secondary sectors cannot function without this sector. Means of transportation and communication, education, health, banking and insurance companies, travel and entertainment, cooking gas, electricity services, etc. are included in the ‘Service Sector’. In modern times, ATMs, call centres, software companies, etc. have also become important services.