(a) Do you agree that there is a growing trend of opening new sugar mills in southern States of India? Discuss with justification. (b) Analyze the factors for the highly decentralized cotton textile industry in India.

(a) Southward trend in sugar milling

Yes. Though Uttar Pradesh remains a major producer, new milling capacity has increasingly come up in the peninsular belt of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, for sound locational reasons.

• Tropical, frost-free climate gives a longer crushing season (nearly 8 months against about 4 in the north), improving mill utilization.
• Higher cane yields and higher sucrose recovery: cooler, dry ripening conditions of the southern uplands raise recovery rates above the subtropical north.
• Fresher crushing: shorter farm-to-mill distances limit sucrose loss after harvest.
• Institutional support: the cooperative sugar factory model pioneered in Maharashtra mobilized farmer capital, while coastal location aids sugar exports and ethanol-blending logistics.
• Assured reservoir irrigation and expanding drip systems support cane in the peninsular interior, though rising water stress now qualifies this advantage.

(b) Why cotton textiles are highly decentralized

• Cotton is a pure, non-weight-losing raw material, so mills need not sit beside cotton fields — the industry is footloose.
• Grid electricity freed spinning and weaving from coal-based locations, allowing dispersal to small towns.
• Wide market and labour availability: demand for cloth is universal, and semi-skilled labour is cheaply available across states.
• Structural decentralization: the powerloom and hosiery segments dominate output from clusters such as Bhiwandi, Malegaon, Surat, Tiruppur and Ludhiana, encouraged historically by fiscal concessions to the decentralized sector against composite mills.

Thus agro-climatic advantage explains sugar's southward drift, while footloose inputs, power and policy explain cotton textiles' dispersal.