Q.Classify the following activities into primary, secondary and tertiary:

Each activity listed can be classified once we identify whether it extracts a resource, transforms it into a good, or delivers an intangible service.

Growing paddy and mining coal draw output directly from nature, so both are primary activities. Weaving cotton into cloth and constructing a bridge both transform raw material into a finished physical product, so both are secondary activities. Running a bus service, operating a bank branch and teaching in a school all deliver an intangible service rather than a physical good, so all three are tertiary activities.

This kind of classification exercise is best solved activity by activity, using the basic test of what the activity actually does: does it draw a resource out of nature, does it change a raw material into a different physical good, or does it deliver an intangible service?

Notice that both mining and construction can be confused for services because neither directly involves growing a crop, but mining is primary (resource extraction) and construction is secondary (it results in a physical structure), while genuinely intangible outputs — transport, banking, teaching — are the ones that belong to the tertiary sector.

Apply the extraction / transformation / intangible-service test to each activity in turn rather than relying on a general impression of what 'feels' like a service.

A common error is classifying construction and mining as tertiary simply because they do not involve farming; both are correctly classified elsewhere — mining as primary (resource extraction) and construction as secondary (a physical good, the structure, is produced).