Question

Kolkata is an important cotton manufacturing center even though West Bengal is not a leading producer of cotton. Give reasons.

Answer 1

Hint: For the production of cotton hot and humid climate is required. The cotton industry of India is regarded as the second most developed sector in the textile industry. India has the largest area of cultivation which accounts for 25 percent of the world.

Complete answer:
India is considered the second-largest producer of cotton textiles. In the last five years, India has witnessed phenomenal growth.
There are few factors that play an important role in the localization of the cotton textile industry such as raw cotton availability, market, transportation, availability of labor, etc.
India has a tropical to subtropical climate which acts as a favourable trait for the cultivation of cotton. Cotton mills are located in about 80 towns in India yet most of the concentration can be found in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh.
Kolkata is an important cotton manufacturing center even though West Bengal is not a leading producer of cotton :
Kolkata has a hot and humid climate which makes an increase in demand for cotton textiles. There is an abundance of inexpensive labor who play a key role in the production process, this event led to the development of spinning units. There is an excellent means of transportation such as road transport as well as a port facility which acts as inexpensive water transport. Power is available due to the abundance of coal mines such as the coalfield in Raniganj
The raw material is not available since West Bengal doesn’t grow cotton but it is not considered a problem since the raw material is easily available from the Deccan plateau region.
Therefore, even if it is not the leading producer of cotton this is not considered a problem.

Note: Various factors such as availability of labour, power, excellent transportation factor, an abundance of capital as well as climatic factors which have led to increasing demand for cotton. Though West Bengal is not considered as a leading producer, other favourable conditions have made it a leading producer of cotton.