GLOBALIZATION

 

Standing in International forums

    

    In older times, a country’s standing in the world was determined by the area of its conquests and territories. Nowadays, a country’s standing is determined mainly by its economic power.

    As communications improve, the world has become one big marketplace. If you live in a big city, you can probably find apples from the U.S or kiwi fruit from New Zealand for sale at your local market. This flow of goods from the country of origin to markets in other countries is part of the phenomenon known as globalization.

 

Era of Globalization

 

    The “Era of globalization” is fast becoming the preferred term for describing the current times.  The visible changes one can see in our country are food  processing industries (Pepsi, Coca cola etc.) automobile industries (Ford, Hyundai etc) and many more M.N.C s being  developed with foreign capital investment.  As foreign investors enter our market, automatically a free flow of advanced technology also takes place International travel is more frequent or in other words, there is also more mobility or free flow of people for better prospects.

 

What is Globalization?

 

Today, people around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before.  Information and money flow more quickly than ever.  Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world. International communication is commonplace.  This phenomenon is titled Globalization. In theory, globalization means the unfettered flow of goods and services, capital, people and technology between all countries of the world.

 

What makes countries decide what to produce?

 

     It could be natural advantages, such as the geography or the climate or the availability of natural resources. It could also be that the country has a long  tradition of specialization in the production of that  particular good or service, such as wine in France.  An area in which a country has certain advantage or ability to produce is known as its core competency . So a country which could  produce cars cheaper and better than others would sell cars to others countries, which could not produce them that cheaply.  At the same time, if the car producing country could not produce computers that cheap, it would buy computers from another country which could produce them at lower cost.  This is also described as making the best of comparative advantages that a country possesses.

 

Is globalization good or bad?

 

    Globalization is much like fire. Fire is neither good nor bad.  Used properly it can cook food, sterilize equipments and heat our homes.  Used carelessly, fire can destroy lives, homes and forest in an instant.  Globalization has dangers and an ugly dark side .  But it can also bring tremendous opportunities.

 

 Pro-Globalization.

 

    When countries produce goods and compete with other countries to sell them worldwide, it leads to growth in international trade, investment and capital flows, and results in economic growth for those who are economically and technologically efficient.  Thus the idea behind globalization is that all nations will develop their core competencies and manufacture or do things which they are best at doing.  Such competition with other global players, would be useful to make the country efficient and strong. The most global nations are 1. Ireland         2. Singapore     3. Switzerland   4. Netherlands  5. Finland. Results show that the most global nations are also those in which the people live the longest, healthiest lives and where women enjoy the strongest  social, educational and economic progress.  Globalization has provided first time opportunities for many to develop.

 

Anti-Globalization

 

    Though living conditions have improved significantly in virtually all countries with the progress of globalization, significant gains have been made only by the advanced countries and by some of the developing countries.  That the income gap between high income and low income countries has grown wider is a matter of concern.  In practice, there are often barriers to the flow of goods and services. As every country is trying to sell to the same global marketplace, it is natural that  those with more influence will try to make things easier for themselves.  Some developed countries deny opportunities to other countries to reach a developed status.  Low income countries have not been able to integrate with the global economy as quickly as others.

 

    No country can remain isolated from the world economy.  The international community should endeavor to help out the low-income countries to develop with globalization.  Even when one prepares to cope with  a set of barriers introduced by the developed countries, a new set crops up. INDIA, a DEVELOPING NATION has to be prepared to face such actions by more powerful countries as it tries to march ahead to realize its vision of becoming a DEVELOPED NATION.