Globalisation and Its Effects

Globalization has become a key word in today's world. And the world of today is very different from what it was ten years ago, even from what it was yesterday.
-Today, development happens overnight. One of the countries that has been focused on during the past decades is India. India,the diverse country with deep rooted traditions, a deep rooted culture and religion that lives alongside one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

-India is an ancient state but a modern civilisation. Interesting is the fact that this ancient state has "survived" during the process of globalisation. Especially India's diverse and deeply rooted culture which has always been and still is influenced by a lot of different religions, languages and traditions.

-Additionally, in connection with globalisation, the western values seem to have gained acceptance in India.If we look at one of the many definitions of globalisation which is free trade and free mobility of goods, it is evident that globalisation has changed India.

-India's market has changed from being a seller's market into being a consumer's market.Concerning the economic matters, undoubtedly,India has gone through a rapid change during the past decades this is a continuing process. These definitions of globalization do not consider the economy but also the issue of culture which is the focus point.

-"Globalization is a term that tries to capture the rapid social change that is occurring simultaneously across a number of dimensions,including the economy,politics,communications and culture.

-"Critics of globalization contend that, even if increased trade promotes material prosperity, it comes with a high spiritual and cultural cost,running roughshod over the world's distinctive cultures and threatening to turn the globe into one big, tawdry strip mall."

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Although we may not have yet reached "the end of history," globalisation has brought us closer to "the end of geography" as we have known it.

-The compression of time and space triggered by the Third Industrial Revolution -roughly, since 1980 - has changed our interactions with the international environment. For many, globalization - the intensified cross-border exchange of goods, services, capital, technology, ideas, information, legal systems, and people - is both desirable and irreversible, having underwritten a rising standard of living throughout the world.

-Others recoil from globalisation as they feel it is the soft underbelly of corporate imperialism that plunders and profiteers on the back of rampant consumerism. Globalisation is not uncontrolled. The movement of people remains tightly restricted.

-The flow of capital is highly asymmetrical. Over the last two decades, overseas development assistance from the rich to poor countries has totalled $50-80 billion per year. In the same period, every year, $500-800 billion of illegal funds have been sent from the poor to rich countries. That is, for every one dollar of aid money over the table, the West gets back $10 under the table and, for good measure, lectures the rest on corruption.

-The benefits and costs of linking and delinking are unequally distributed. Industrialised countries are mutually interdependent; developing countries are largely independent in economic relations with one another; and are highly dependent on industrialised countries. Brazil, China and India are starting to change this equation.

-There is a growing divergence in income levels between countries and peoples, with widening inequality among and within nations. Assets and incomes are more concentrated. Wage shares have fallen. Profit shares have risen. Capital mobility alongside labour immobility has reduced the bargaining power of organised labour.

-The deepening of poverty and inequality prosperity for a few countries and people, marginalisation and exclusion for the many - has implications for social and political stability among and within states.

-The rapid growth of global markets has not seen the parallel development of social and economic institutions to ensure balanced, inclusive and sustainable growth. Labour rights have been less sedulously protected than capital and property rights, and global rules on trade and finance are inequitable. This has asymmetric effects on rich and poor countries.

-Even before the global financial crisis (GFC), many developing countries were worried that globalisation would impinge adversely on economic sovereignty, cultural integrity and social stability. "Interdependence" among unequals translates into the dependence of some on international markets that function under the dominance of others.

-The GFC confirmed that absent effective regulatory institutions, markets, states and civil society can be overwhelmed by rampant transnational forces. Globalisation has also let loose the forces of "uncivil society" and accelerated the transnational flows of terrorism, human and drug trafficking, organised crime, piracy, and pandemic diseases.

-The growth of these transnational networks threatens state institutions and civil society in many countries. For developing countries, lowering all barriers to the tides of the global economy may end up drowning much of local production. Raising barriers that are too high may be counterproductive, if not futile. Countries that find the golden middle, like Chile and Singapore, tend to thrive, channelling the enormous opportunities offered by an expanding world economy for the benefit of their citizens. Those that do not, like many in Central and Western Africa, are marginalised and left behind.

-In Africa, home to 36 of the world's 50 least developed countries, state weakness often has opened the door to transnational crime and terrorism. Pathologies that are particularly prevalent across Africa: illegal exploitation of natural resources, terrorism, the drug trade, illegal migration and human trafficking, gun running, and money laundering.

-According to some, Guinea Bissau has already become the world's first narcostate. One response to global governance gaps that have made these illegal activities possible has been regional governance. The transfer of state functions to supranational forms of regional governance could enhance the capacity of individual states to combat uncivil society.

-The sharing of expertise, institutions, policy tools, personnel and other resources can go a long way in stemming the tide of unwanted activities. Human trafficking is among the darkest sides of globalisation, turning human beings into commodities bought and sold in the international marketplace. Women and children are among the most exposed to it.

-NGOs from all continents attempt to cope with this nefarious activity and report on those involved in it.

-Jihadists have excelled at using modern IT and telecom technology to promote their cause and foster their objectives, building on the link between the drug trade and terrorism pioneered by the CIA in Southeast Asia, Central America and Afghanistan.

-Jihadis have perfected into an art form the international transfer of funds in ways that are essentially untraceable, by relying on ancient mechanisms that replicate the old-fashioned way Osama bin Laden gets his information - through pieces of paper brought to him by hand by loyal messengers - which was one reason he remained at large.

-It remains to be seen whether the GFC has brought to an end globalisation as we have known it for three decades. But there is little doubt that the "dark side" of globalisation is here to stay. However the outright rejection of globalisation and a retreat into autarky is neither practical nor desirable: who wants to be the next Myanmar or North Korea? As one wag has put it, opposing globalisation is like opposing the sun coming up every morning, and about as fruitful.

-Equally, though, who wants to be the next Iceland, Greece or Ireland? The notion that endless liberalisation, deregulation and relaxation of capital and all border controls (except labour) will assure perpetual self-sustaining growth and prosperity has proven to be delusional. The three Baltic nations that embarked on this course (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) - to which, for good measure, they added the flat tax - all had double-digit negative growth in 2009.